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Getting Past Excuses
Jan 13, 2013
If I started over, knowing what I know today, I would …
Aim higher and start sooner.
Mark HopkinsExcuses:
Mark went on to say, “Life’s curveballs and my conservative nature providedaily excuses for not doing what I am capable of. But my experience has shown me that anyone can hit what they aim for, or very close to it.”
Mark’s comment reminded me of a quote attributed to Michelangelo, “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”
Defeat excuses:
- Develop deep experience. Experience provides perspective for aiming high. Mark said, “I’d get my Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours and go make a dream come true.” Gladwell says the key to success is practicing something for 10,000 hours.
- Follow your drive. “In order to bring my ‘A’ game I need to be working on something I am passionate about.”
- Build the team. “I would need an amazing team that was built on the kind of trust that only comes from knowing that we care about each other.”
- Connect with mentors. “I would need a mentor who can take the pie-in-the-sky vision that I am hesitant to even say out loud and, through experience and personal example, lead me to the point where I can see my team making it happen.”
Failures:
- Don’t stick with one thing long enough.
- Follow expediency rather than passion.
- Focus exclusively on themselves.
- Think they know more than others.
Get real:
In my opinion, building the team and find mentors are the most neglected components of the road to success.
Why do people fall below their potential?
What makes aiming high more than pie-in-the-sky?
I haven’t read Mark’s book, Shortcut to Prosperity, but the table of contents goes well beyond pie-in-the-sky thinking.
(Source: Leadership Freak, Dan Rockwell, January 10, 2013)
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