MentorBox Podcast

When you believe your dreams to be unique, you won’t achieve them. That’s because you have the perfect excuse for inaction. How can you know how to accomplish a dream if nobody has ever done it before? But that’s where we go wrong. No matter the industry, profession, or success story, somebody has done what you’re dreaming up. And as the Chinese Proverb so clearly states, “If you want to know the way, ask somebody on the way back.”

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It used to be that authors wrote books to be authors. But today, any profession is welcome to try the medium. Whether you’re an entrepreneur telling the story of your business or a professional YouTuber writing a how-to-guide on viral video marketing, the book welcomes all those looking to turn to the page. It is, after all, just another medium on the list of platforms your brand must have a presence on.

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Success is achieved through deliberate practice. And at the heart of deliberate practice is the ability to focus. To become great at something requires being able to practice in a way where all of your attention is being channeled toward that something. This is not hitting the gym and going through the motions, or clocking into work and doing what’s required of you. The type of focus here is one that activates tunnel vision, while simultaneously being receptive to feedback.

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We’ve all had the thought that we’re going crazy. It is likely that at that same moment, we also felt immensely creative. This is the tricky, double-sided nature of creativity; it runs alongside the prickly fibers of anxiety, fear, and insanity. To be creative requires a type of unsafe thinking. However, there are ways to do that safely.

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In Silicon Valley, women only hold 25% of the jobs. And companies led by women receive only 2% of the funding. The magnitude of this inequality is severely underrecognized, as Silicon Valley is responsible for creating the technology that dominates our day-to-day lives. While software development involves “user research,” at some point during the design process, the team (mostly comprised of straight, white men) makes an executive decision on how the product will control user behavior.

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We only know the bad type of brainwashing. It’s the one on the History Channel; a cult leader spreading a doctrine to the followers in a way that has them turning their brains off. While this is irrefutably fascinating, it’s also tragic. But what if there was a positive type of brainwashing that we could use on ourselves to propel us to success?

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Public discourse pins video games as either promoting violence or shortening our attention spans. What it fails to mention are the pros of this industry. Video games connect users from opposite sides of the world to work together to achieve a common goal. Video games also expose their users to a uniquely brilliant nexus of art, design, and computer engineering.

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Change is a constant part of the human experience. From your career to your relationships, no matter where you look, something is always changing. Just when you think your life is settled, the next big wave of change hits. The ability to absorb, respond, and recover from this is what separates the good from the great, and the great from the elite.

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Self-awareness requires asking the difficult questions. Am I adding or subtracting? Are the people better or worse off because of my presence? Am I a battery for the rest? Or am I just draining their force? Looking yourself into the mirror with these questions isn’t supposed to be comfortable, but those who do are able to adapt their personality traits to become a more pleasant and energizing person to be around.

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In business, you can quickly lose sight of who you are. Whether it’s ambitious quarterly goals, complicated client relations, or tense contract negotiations, any touchpoint of the business journey can have you grappling with your identity. The stress of these moments, though hard to sift through, provides an opportunity for growth.

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