Whether you love or hate Colin Powell, you need to check out his presentation on leadership. In this and the upcoming blog posts, I will tear his presentation apart, throw out the junks, and share all the good stuffs with you. Be ready!

Powell mentioned this sentence in his presentation:

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

According to him, it is the slogan of a person who is either complacent, arrogant, or scared.

Why?

To me, it all begins with complacency. A person gets too comfortable with everything around him that he will not do anything to improve himself.

Next, he thinks, “Things are already the best that they can be.” That’s arrogance.

Then, deep down inside there’s this fear in the person, a fear that says, “Why bother trying to change things? You might fail, and everybody will laugh at you!”

And that’s being scared.

Get Out of Your Own Illusion

It’s an illusion that today will continue to be the same tomorrow. Often enough, many people get caught off guard because things don’t turn out the way it’s supposed to (or hoped to). The economic crises have consistently proven this fact, yet no action is taken until someone gets hit right in the face.

And it’ll be too late.

No matter how good things are going, there’s always a better way to do something. And if that is true, why not do something better?

It’s time to wake up and go out to win your game!

You’re Must Be Prepared to Fail

Yes, you will fail and some people will laugh at you and say, “I told you so!”

Yet, those are the people who don’t dare to challenge themselves, so they are the cowards. Do you want them to stand between you and success? I guess the answer is a big NO.

What Can You Do?

1) Stop complaining and start doing something that helps you to be a better person every day. Don’t stay busy watching the TV when you should be building your business or learning how to market your products.

2) You can start helping your friends to do the same, by sharing your ideas with them. They are most likely struggling emotionally and financially too. Find strength in one another.

What You’re Thinking Right Now Is Right

Yes, the slogan is the culture of humanity, and it’s here to stay no matter how much we talk about it. As much as we hate to admit it, we are not born ambitious, humble, or courageous.

But you can be different, if you want to.

You can learn. You can grow. You can change.

And if that happens, your life will be different, I promise.

1) What keeps you going in life?

2) What drives you to stand back up after falling?

3) What makes you successful?

Answers:

1) Persistence.

2) Persistence.

3) Persistence.

Yes. You have to be persistent to succeed. You know, Thomas Edison failed more than 10,000 times before he created the light bulb. He persistently ran his experiments after every single “failure” until he succeeded at last! They should not even be considered failures, as he said, “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Powerful, yet simple. Every single experiment brought Edison one step closer to success. After all, he only had to succeed ONCE. Just once. In fact, nobody even cares about how many failures he experienced, we only care about the fact that he invented the light bulb! And we still benefit tremendously from his invention until this very day.

So, the same goes for us. Once we set our mind on achieving something, we should just keep going even though we fail along the way. Every failure is a lesson that would bring us one step closer to success. Lack of persistence is a weakness among people who do not have a definite goal or desire. How can you win if you’re not that into winning?

I think this topic relates personally to my writing this blog. I have to be persistent in updating the blog and finding ways to drive more traffic so that I could reach out to more people about what I’ve learnt. It’s not easy, but I enjoy the learning process. I’ve learnt so much about the technology and marketing behind blogging through this. More importantly, I’ve learnt so much more about the values that are really important to be shared among all the readers who take their time to read this blog and have the desire to improve themselves.

So how can we be persistent? Napoleon Hill said in his book, “Think and Grow Rich”, there are 4 steps (I’ve rephrased them):

1) Have a definite purpose backed by burning desire for success

2) Have a definite plan

3) Have a mind closed against all negative influences, including those of family, friends, and acquaintances

4) Have a friendly alliance with others who will encourage one another

I believe No. 3 is worth discussing. It’s true that we share our heart with our loved ones, and so naturally we would listen faithfully to what they tell us. And we really should. But sometimes, they might not be encouraging us to do what we really want to do, because they’re afraid that we would fall and hurt ourselves – all good intentions. And we love them with all our hearts.

However, we know better that no man will ever succeed without falling and learning all the painful lessons. As Delatorro McNeal said, “Life is gonna hand you pain…and pain’s gonna do 1 or 2 things for you, it’s either gonna make you bitter,or it’s gonna make you better!” (You should go watch his short video here.) So, if we truly know that’s what we want, just close our mind against all negative influences and follow our heart, and live it with the burning desire and passion.

Summary:

1) Be persistent until you succeed, remember Edison’s brilliant words!

2) Practice the 4 steps by Napoleon Hill in everything you do. And live with your desire for success!

Stay tuned for the next post. You can subscribe through email or RSS to keep yourself updated! Well, have a fun and safe long weekend people!