Last night I picked up a friend who is here to do some work for me this week.
He was asking me questions about why I think some people succeed while others don’t.
I started to give him some examples in story format. The first had to do with me as a young college freshman.
I was sitting in the locker room in Iowa City, and my coach, Dan Gable, was sitting next to me reading the living section of the paper.
I grabbed the sports section and began reading.
Next thing you know I’m spouting off, talking about some of the highly-regarded football players featured on the front page, three of whom I had beaten in wrestling matches.
I started talking out loud about whom I’d beaten and how. When I first began talking about my first ‘victim,’ Gable looked over at me for a second with an ‘Ask me how little I care?’ glance.
I didn’t get the hint and started on the next guy.
He moved the paper away from his face once again, gave me another look – this one saying, ‘Shut the hell up. That was high school. This is college.’
I got the message and started busting my hump to get his attention, not through talk, but through action.
Today I coach a number of people with their businesses, and it is always amazing to watch how quickly some come to know everything about anything. When they should be listening – they’re yapping.
One of the biggest mistakes I see people making is the so-called ‘announcing of one’s goals’ to the world – or
to anyone other than a coach or others who want to help you.
This is a big mistake, for many reasons, one of which is that you are announcing your goals mostly due to personal
vanities; not because what you are saying is going to happen.
I learned this mistake, again, from personal experience. Not only from Gable – but from an old negative girl friend I had
back in Santa Cruz, California.
She didn’t teach it to me, however. I had to learn the lesson from observing my results.
Here’s what I mean: I would set a goal I wanted to accomplish, usually a ‘new client’ goal. I’d put the goal in writing, begin to
visualize it, and before long the phone was ringing with prospects who wanted to be clients. I’d have a couple on the hook who would swear they’d be dropping by later in the day to formally enroll.
This was awesome, I thought. I’d immediately call the girl friend, start bragging about the power of my new creative visualization – and she’d say, ‘Wow, that’s grrrrreaatt. That’s incredible,’ and so on.
Then I waited for the ‘new’ sure-thing clients who NEVER showed.
This scenario repeated itself over and over and over – until, finally, I learned to shut my mouth.
Hence, the Fureyism I coined last night: ‘If people would just learn to shut up – they would be successful.’
Naturally, this is NOT to be taken to ridiculous extremes. When a person has achieved something worthy of mention (not the beginnings of something worthy of mention – big difference), it is good to let those who have helped you know what you’ve done. But these are instances of gratitude and appreciation – not braggadocio.
On the other hand, if you’re in business for yourself, you also need to let out a roar and let people know you exist. Thing is, you’re doing this for business reasons, not to feed your vanity.
Had a couple people write over the last week to tell me how much they like my new ‘Fusion-Orange’ HUMMER. At the same time they told me that the picture of me wearing the orange silk chi kung outfit resembles something far less admirable.
My reaction: Could care less. The photo is where it is for reasons other than my personal vanity. By the way, if you’d like to take a gander at this photo – go to the Psycho-Cybernetics – Zero Resistance Living page and make sure you read the entire letter from me. It truly represents a ‘baring’ – or it is ‘bearing’ – (again, I really don’t care as I agree with the Mark Twain line that you should never respect a man who only has one spelling for a werd).
Well, my friend, that’s all for today. Gotta go do some Hindu squats, Hindu pushups and bridging – the 3 exercises that have slain dragons, launched rockets and turned your average and ordinary couch potatoes into Super-Hero fitness machines. Check it out, if you haven’t already, by going to the Combat Conditioning page.
Better yet – get Combat Conditioning and six other gifts ‘gratis’ by becoming a member of the Matt Furey Inner Circle.
Kick butt – take names!