I was reminded of that this weekend when reading “The little book of inspiration” Steve Blackley and Roger Black of Olympian fame and Humphrey Walters CEO of Global Management consultants of the same name.
I was lucky enough 6 years ago to be on a training course with all 3 of those notable characters and Spent a day learning what makes the difference between Olympic medals and the also ran. These days I spend my time helping senior leaders and Business Owners achieve their own goals and I wanted to share with you the similarities between successful business owners and the also ran.
Let me try to explain it both sport and in business as well as life, it’s not raw talent, you simply don’t become an Olympic Athlete without it and you wouldn’t have the Role or Business you do if you didn’t have some raw talent.
It’s not ambition, anyone who gets to Olympics is ambitious and in business you can be hugely ambitious and spend your life working hard chasing goals that you never quite reach.
It’s not hard work, All Olympians train hard and I have yet to meet a successful person who hasn’t had to work hard to get there.
It’s not luck every gold medallist has had their fair share of injury and misfortune and I know most of you reading this have had their fair share too.
So, if it’s not ambition or raw talent and its not hard work and its not luck what is it? And importantly how do you get it?
It would be easy for me to say it’s simply a state of mind, it is and yet that doesn’t really help you understand or make use of it.
I think it starts with curiosity, how curious are you to how you could be better at what you do, Bill Gates still reads 50 books a year, Brad Sugars founder of ActionCOACH has read a book a week since he was 16, how many do you read, how many Mentors do you have, how many peoples advice and knowledge do you seek, if over 80% of the top Fortune 500 companies currently hire in coaches to work with their management teams why wouldn’t you?
Curiosity its self is not enough though, you can read all the books you can get your hands on, attend all the seminars you can find and hire all the coaches you meet and still not deliver your dreams.
The curiosity to find ways to improve must be coupled with the desire and importantly the commitment to doing things differently and still this isn’t enough.
If you take the curiosity coupled with the commitment to change and then accept that it is up to you then it becomes clear when is now.
The who is you and the when is now take action and get in touch today.
