By R!k Schnabel
To be a success in business is to do the abnormal or trying to be found is akin to a needle in haystack. When people think you are a weirdo or plain crazy – celebrate! Because crazy is what you need to be to be a success in business – let me prove it to you.
Back in 2000 I had this crazy idea. Build an online university! Most of my peers said I was crazy, yet their jaws dropped in disbelief when they saw our US$998 million EBIT! That’s success in business in my book.
Crazy is good. Crazy is the kind of thinking that launched companies like Apple, Amazon and Uber.
Aiming to be a success in business, in our careers, in our relationships is natural. We all want success. I do. You do. Your desire to grow is natural. It is normal. But climbing that metaphorical ladder to God knows where is far from normal. Think about it. Normal thought patterns give you normal behaviour. Businesses that succeed are anything but normal. Besides, normal thinking gets you the business or career that you currently have. That’s normal. But it is not growth and it is likely not what you want – right?
Can you remember the last time you started a new business or jumped into a new job? Now cast your mind back and begin to recall the contorted faces of your friends and family. Did they think you were crazy? Nuts? They even thought there was something wrong with you. That is how crazy success is to normal folk. They don’t get it.
Taking your business or career to the next level needs you to act as though you’re mad! And if you don’t believe me, congratulations you’re normal. But success is anything but fitting in.
To be a success in business, you need to learn to become comfortable with discomfort.
Walt Disney used to say that if everyone liked his idea, it wasn’t dangerous enough to succeed. He would change it. Acceptance and normal are not your friends in business. I learned that what we did yesterday, no longer works today. Old ideas are not your friends either. Crazy ideas are what most people will criticise you for, but they get attention. You must learn to become comfortable with discomfort and change.
Steve Jobs said, “For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” It was this level of change that made him fiercely unpopular with his Apple board. But it was Jobs’ desire for constant change, his madness is what made Apple who they are today.
The real success in business will at first sound crazy.
Success is crazy and illogical. In 2004, my mentor showed me how to create in a weekend, what most call ‘an annual income!’ The whole idea seemed crazy to me. He gave me a crazy golden formula. I remember, I used to go numb after hearing an idea that was bigger than me. It’s normal to feel fear.
My mentor had proven his system time and time again. His crazy idea worked! To be frank, it scared me senseless. Because I could not see myself in my mentor’s shoes. Though a bolt of lightning that ran through me when I realised my problem wasn’t trying to be normal. My problem was my inability to be crazy.
What I needed was coaching. But not your ordinary run of the mill coaching. I needed a neurological and behaviour specialist. Someone who could gain access to my neural pathways and clean out those thoughts to conform. I needed to change my software. Because who I had to become to get those same results that my mentor shared, wasn’t me. I knew, that until I became that person who followed my mentor’s advice… The success I wanted would elude me. The proof was in the pudding, the pudding was my brain. Success had eluded me for most of life already.
I got that coach. I changed how I thought and the price I paid came back to me a thousand-fold. Today, I value anyone who can untrain a brain to think like a winner – and win.
Do you want success, real success? Then stop aiming to be your normal self. Stop showing up as you and start showing up as the successful future you. But don’t think that you can get there on your own – because you won’t.
You’ll need a coach that challenges your current, normal thinking. I promise you, success starts when you start to realise where it begins – in your thinking.
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R!k Schnabel, is Australia’s #1 Brain Untrainer with www.LifeBeyondLimits.com.au. Life Beyond Limits is a transformational training company. Located on the Sapphire Coast of New South Wales Australia, the company enjoys a global audience.