No (Successful) Man is an Island

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Ruben Gonzales is a living, breathing success story. At 21 years old the Argentine immigrant kid moved from Houston to Lake Placid and took up the sport of Luge so that he could compete in the Olympics. Since then he’s competed in four different Olympic games in a sport where 14 out of 15 people quit before the end of their first year.

Yesterday in his blog, Olympic Motivation, (which is a must read for anyone who wants to learn to become successful) he shared how Success is Like Learning to Ride a Bike. Ruben spent some time over the last week or so helping his daughter, Gabriela, learn how to ride a bike for the first time. And he points out some universal lessons that we all can take away from their experience.

The brilliance is that most all of us have learned to ride a bike at one point or another in our lives, most of us as kids. We can all remember back to that experience. OK, some of you may have to work at remembering a bit harder than the rest of us. But if you think back to that experience you can take ownership of the lessons on success that you already learned in one area of your life. Then you can apply those same lessons in other areas to become more successful.

The Lessons

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Relationship Lesson From A Call Center Experience

I woke up in a bit of a grump this morning.

But my problem started after dinner last night. I had been working on some things on line last night when my Gorgeous Wife came into my study to let me know dinner was ready. Food is always a good motivator to get me to stop working so I took a break to have some quality time with Gorgeous before my phone meeting at 7 PM.

When I came back into the study at about quarter of to finish a couple things before my meeting my computer couldn’t find the internet. No web browser. No email. No IM. Nothing.

That made for an abbreviated meeting. And when I was finished I called BellSouth to see about getting my DSL service back up and running.
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Success Principle #8 - Pride Can Destroy Your Success

Pride is the single greatest hindrance to our success.

That is quite a strong statement. And it is completely true.

It gets us from both ends. Sometimes we are too proud to make the changes that are necessary to become more successful. And then there is the danger that we will become excessively proud of our accomplishments which invariably will cause us to screw up and bring our very success down around our ears.

Healthy Pride

Now before I get started let me say that there most definitely is a healthy pride. Without a healthy level of pride we are reduced to a sniveling Eeyore of a doormat that says, “I’m worthless and not capable of anything.” So here is how I’d describe what I’d call “healthy pride.”

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The Number 1 Universal Law of Success - Even If You Don’t Believe It

There is a lot of information out there about success. Much of it is inane blather that won’t help you and might even leave you worse than were. Of course there is also a ton of good information that will really help you become more successful.

The hard part is telling one from the other.

It is a challenge, to be sure. And my primary goal here is to consistently share things that will add value and can actually help all of us become more successful. So in keeping with that goal let me share the number one universal law of success.

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7 Things to Think About For More Success

One thing that completely separates successful people and sets them apart from the masses of mediocrity is the way they think. Successful people react differently to their environment than most folks in a way that gives them a distinct advantage. And the reason they react differently is because they think different thoughts.

And I’m not simply talking here about the “power of positive thinking” or some such. Though much has been said on that subject, to describe successful thought patterns as “positive” is overly simplistic and fails to capture the real difference that gives successful folks such a complete advantage.

Unfortunately for many, the idea of positive thinking is simple and appears to make sense. “If you think only positive thoughts,” this line of success coaching goes, “and push out all thoughts of negative possibilities, then you will achieve success.” And it is a good system for the folks who push this line of reasoning. Because whenever someone doesn’t actually achieve the success they anticipated with their positive thinking the coaches can always say they must have let some negative thought enter their minds. Then they can point at that as “proof” positive thinking works.

The trouble is the ways our brains work is still very much a mystery and has to date failed to be unlocked by even the most expensive technology science has yet been able to bring to bear on the challenge. The reality is our minds are much more complicated and resist being controlled by some simplistic positive thinking formula.

And that is not to say that positive thinking is at all bad. That’s not my point at all. Please don’t consider me a “positive thinking basher” or some such. All I am saying is that most of what is out there on the subject of success as it relates to positive thinking is overly simplistic and incomplete.

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7 Ways to Start Leading Yourself

A while back I pointed out that successful people are leaders. But what if you don’t see yourself as a leader? How can you start to become one?

The military is one organization that excels at creating leadership. They have to be. For them creating top notch leadership is critical to their success as an organization. For them leadership is literally a life and death issue. Their approach is to break people down first and then build them back up. They accomplish this through an intensive indoctrination period that involves high stress, intense physical activity, and harsh psychological pressure to break down the ego.

What if joining the military is not your cup of tea? Can you still learn to be a leader?

Fortunately the answer is yes. But you have to start at the beginning.
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Today We Remember

Today being September 11, five years after the horrific events of 9/11 is a day we should not Forget to Remember. Please take a moment and think about some of the lessons that were taught to us in the midsts of that emotional time.

Let’s prove George Bernard Shaw wrong. If you’ll remember he’s the one who said

We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.

Success Principle #7 - Successful People Find Successful Organizations

If you spend any amount of time looking at the lives of successful people, one of the common threads you will find is that they tend to be members of successful organizations.

Now sometimes folks find themselves joining an organization that had just the right environment and they become successful. Other times people who already are leaders create an organization that propels them to further success. It doesn’t matter whether you are an athlete with the desire to successfully compete on the Olympic level, or you are looking to become more successful in business. Partnering with the right organization can make the difference between bringing out your best and leaving you in the middle of the masses of mediocrity.

If this is true, it begs a question.

What should you look for in an organization to see if it is one that could help you on your journey toward success?
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I’m an S.O.B. - And I Like It!

Liz Strauss called me out as an S.O.B. this week.

Usually I wouldn’t get too excited were someone to call me that. But in this case it is quite an honor. Liz uses the acronym to mean something a little different than our usual understanding. In her case, S.O.B. stands for “Successful and Outstanding Bloggers”. Here is what Liz has to say about the folks she calls SOB’s”

They build relationships and take the conversation to their readers, contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank every one of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on. Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

And Liz knows what she is talking about.

Over at Successful-Blog Liz has built a thriving community by excelling each of the areas she highlights with her SOB award. For example each Tuesday evening at 7 PM Chicago time Liz hosts Open Comment Night. It’s a time when folks from all over the world come together and chat via comments on one post about everything and anything. It is kind of like instant messaging, only slower. The discussion can be serious and silly - often at the same time. Here is how she describes it:

Here’s how it works.

It’s like any rambling conversation. Don’t try to read it all. Jump in whenever you get here. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME

The rules are simple — be nice.

There are always first timers and new things to talk about.

It is not unusual for the OCN post to have 400+ comments before the evening is over.

Another feature of Successful-Blog is the SOB Cafe each Friday. Here Liz highlights good posts from various articles she’s found while exploring blogs of folks she’s called out as SOB’s. Again from in her words:

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the title shots to enjoy each selection.

Liz is a leading champion of the Net Neutrality fight. She posts information and links to articles that keep abreast of the issue daily.

Oh, and she also writes tons of articles about writing, business, customer service, thinking, blogging, strategies, you name it. Whether you are a lurker or like to speak your piece Successful-Blog is a stimulating place to spend some time.

And did I mention I nearly had the privilege of meeting Liz in person? I was this close (he said holding his thumb and forefinger barely apart) when I was up in Chicago on business. Unfortunately for me my company changed my itinerary and sent me home early. Ah, well.

Anyway I am definitely a fan of Liz and of Successful-Blog. I’ll wear the SOB Badge with honor. Thanks Liz!

Reddit Takes a Step Away From Web 2.0?

Something has changed with Reddit in the last few days.

The popular bookmark filtering site seems to have taken a small step away from the very brutally fair democratic system that has made them so popular of late.

Brian Kim talks about how wonderful Reddit is for generating blog traffic in his recent post How to Get 105,934 Unique Visitors to Your New Blog Along With 2 Million Page Views in 45 Days.

I’ve seen some far more modest traffic from Reddit on my blogs for several months. Of course I generally don’t post about things that are particularlly popular with the core Reddit audience: religion bashing, Bush bashing, Google bashing, Israel bashing, Celebrity gossip (and bashing), or cutsie photos.

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