I just asked him to do one simple thing consistently without fail.
At least three times per day at scheduled times, he had to ask himself the following question: Am I being productive or just active? Charney captured the essence of this with less-abstract wording: Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important? Learn to ask, “If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?” Compile your to-do list for tomorrow no later than this evening. I don’t recommend using Outlook or computerized to-do lists, because it is possible to add an infinite number of items. I use a standard piece of paper folded in half three times, which fits perfectly in the pocket and limits you to noting only a few items. There should never be more than two mission-critical items to complete each day. Never. It just isn’t necessary if they’re actually high-impact. If you are stuck trying to decide between multiple items that all seem crucial, as happens to all of us, look at each in turn and ask yourself, If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day? The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content. by Timothy Ferriss If your circumstances limit your contacts, books can serve as temporary mentors, as The Improvement of the Mind did for Faraday. In such a case you will want to convert such books and writers into living mentors as much as possible. You personalize their voice, interact with the material, taking notes or writing in the margins. You analyze what they write and try to make it come alive—the spirit and not just the letter of their work.
In a looser sense, a figure from the past or present can serve as an ideal, someone to model yourself after. Through much research and some imagination on your part, you turn them into a living presence. You ask yourself—what would they do in this situation or that? Countless generals have used Napoleon Bonaparte for just such a purpose. In Spanish they say al maestro cuchillada—to the Master goes the knife. It is a fencing expression, referring to the moment when the young and agile pupil becomes skillful enough to cut his Master. But this also refers to the fate of most mentors who inevitably experience the rebellion of their protégés, like the cut from a sword. One repays a teacher badly if one remains only a pupil. —FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE Mastery by Robert Greene The best mentors are often those who have wide knowledge and experience, and are not overly specialized in their field—they can train you to think on a higher level, and to make connections between different forms of knowledge.
The paradigm for this is the Aristotle–Alexander the Great relationship. Philip II, Alexander’s father and king of Macedonia, chose Aristotle to mentor his thirteen-year-old son because the philosopher had learned and mastered so many different fields. He could thus impart to Alexander an overall love of learning, and teach him how to think and reason in any kind of situation—the greatest skill of all. This ended up working to perfection. Alexander was able to effectively apply the reasoning skills he had gained from Aristotle to politics and warfare. To the end of his life he maintained an intense curiosity for any field of knowledge, and would always gather about him experts he could learn from. Aristotle had imparted a form of wisdom that played a key role in Alexander’s success. Mastery by Robert Greene The one thing that is utterly and completely under your control is your own physical condition—you can get in shape.
And there is another reason to stay fit: The physical is inextricably linked to the mental. The greater the fitness level, the higher the cognitive resilience to stress. In-shape athletes handle stress hormones better than out-of-shape people. The adrenaline dumps don’t affect their minds as badly. If you’re in shape, you get to hang on to those fine motor skills a little longer. The Disaster Diaries: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Apocalypse by Sam Sheridan Want to know more? Check out Indestructible Muscle here You don’t want to wait for a major catastrophic event to change your business for the negative. So you must invent and constantly be reinventing your own better future. That means becoming ethically opportunistic, looking at everything around you (in and outside your business or industry) with an opportunity-based focus and asking yourself continuously, “Where’s the big overlooked opportunity here?” It’s also adopting a possibility-based mind-set that looks for new, different, and better ways to attain a goal or solution or address a situation. It’s starting to see opportunities where everyone else sees problems, obstacles, limitations, or boundaries. It’s recognizing how much more you can achieve by leveraging the impact of whatever is going on all around you. The most exciting breakthroughs occur when you reach beyond the traditional way of looking at or doing something and become open and receptive to new possibilities.
Major breakthroughs are merely fresh new ways to do something. And new means new to your industry, market, competitor, or clients; not necessarily new to the world. Applying old things in new ways is a breakthrough. Applying new things in new ways is a breakthrough. Applying old things in new combinations is a breakthrough. Applying new things to new markets, or old things to old markets can be a breakthrough, too. Look at Domino’s Pizza. When Domino’s started, home deliveries had become almost obsolete because the service was undependable. But they figured out a workable system and reintroduced an updated version, and a billion-dollar breakthrough was reborn. Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition by Jay Abraham When you can take a profit, take it.
The Mental Aspect In the penny world you have to be prepared for anything. You cannot get upset about your losses or let your gains make you seem unstoppable. If you take a big loss, count your losses and walk away with no regrets. If your loss was due to a mistake, take that as a gain on experience. Do not go out and try to make your money back by picking a stock you have only heard will go up. Carry on your trading normally and always do your own due diligence. If you manage to lock in a huge gain, congratulations, but make sure you put some of that money away in your bank account, and of course keep some of it for investing more. Again, always carry out your normal routine. Do not let big gains or losses change it. The biggest aspect you have to have in trading penny stocks is DISCIPLINE. From this book I have made a set of rules that you should follow and always have in your head. I have my rules as my background over the top of the next big item I would like to purchase. 1. Always have discipline, keep to your rules and routine 2. No Pump and Dumps 3. Always do your own due diligence 4. Take losses with no regrets 5. Always sell half your shares at around a 100% gain 6. Only invest what you are willing to lose 7. Make money! The Penny Book by Jordan D. Shaw All that should concern you in the early stages of your career is acquiring practical knowledge in the most efficient manner possible.
The reason you require a mentor is simple: Life is short; you have only so much time and so much energy to expend. Your most creative years are generally in your late twenties and on into your forties. You can learn what you need through books, your own practice, and occasional advice from others, but the process is hit-and-miss. The information in books is not tailored to your circumstances and individuality; it tends to be somewhat abstract. When you are young and have less experience of the world, this abstract knowledge is hard to put into practice. You can learn from your experiences, but it can often take years to fully understand the meaning of what has happened. It is always possible to practice on your own, but you will not receive enough focused feedback. You can often gain a self-directed apprenticeship in many fields, but this could take ten years, maybe more. Mastery by Robert Greene The model goes like this:
You want to learn as many skills as possible, following the direction that circumstances lead you to, but only if they are related to your deepest interests. Like a hacker, you value the process of self-discovery and making things that are of the highest quality. You avoid the trap of following one set career path. You are not sure where this will all lead, but you are taking full advantage of the openness of information, all of the knowledge about skills now at our disposal. You see what kind of work suits you and what you want to avoid at all cost. You move by trial and error. This is how you pass your twenties. You are the programmer of this wide-ranging apprenticeship, within the loose constraints of your personal interests. You are not wandering about because you are afraid of commitment, but because you are expanding your skill base and your possibilities. At a certain point, when you are ready to settle on something, ideas and opportunities will inevitably present themselves to you. When that happens, all of the skills you have accumulated will prove invaluable. You will be the Master at combining them in ways that are unique and suited to your individuality. You may settle on this one place or idea for several years, accumulating in the process even more skills, then move in a slightly different direction when the time is appropriate. In this new age, those who follow a rigid, singular path in their youth often find themselves in a career dead end in their forties, or overwhelmed with boredom. The wide-ranging apprenticeship of your twenties will yield the opposite—expanding possibilities as you get older. Mastery by Robert Greene “A salamander can be only a salamander, an elk an elk, and a bush a bush. True, a bush is complete in its bushness, yet its limits, while not nearly so severe as some foolish men would believe, are fairly obvious. The peasants of Aelfric are like bushes, like salamanders. They were born one thing and will die one thing.
But you . . . you have already been a warrior, a king, and a serf, and from the looks of it, you aren’t through yet. Thus, you have learned the secret of the new direction. That is: A man can be many things. Maybe anything." Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins When a machine malfunctions you do not take it personally or grow despondent. It is in fact a blessing in disguise. Such malfunctions generally show you inherent flaws and means of improvement. You simply keep tinkering until you get it right. The same should apply to an entrepreneurial venture. Mistakes and failures are precisely your means of education. They tell you about your own inadequacies. It is hard to find out such things from people, as they are often political with their praise and criticisms. Your failures also permit you to see the flaws of your ideas, which are only revealed in the execution of them. You learn what your audience really wants, the discrepancy between your ideas and how they affect the public. Pay close attention to the structure of your group—how your team is organized, the degree of independence you have from the source of capital. These are design elements as well, and such management issues are often hidden sources of problems.
Mastery by Robert Greene |
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