Daily Mentoring for Success: "Mind Your Own Business”

Good morning!

Have you been comparing yourself to other people’s results?

After spending 25+ years studying, meeting, and interviewing the most successful people on the planet, I caught myself making this very same critical mistake.

That is, until I sat down with one of my all-time favorite entrepreneurs to learn THIS invaluable lesson…

 A while back I learned a really valuable lesson - how to mind my own business. This morning I want to help you do the same. Back in 1999 I had built business that had grown to 50 million dollars in revenue and I sold it. I decided that I was going to take a year or more off. So I moved to Miami South Beach and this idea of taking a year off lasted about 30 days. In 90 days, I was absolutely stir-crazy. This was during the Internet boom, if you remember, and I was observing all these young guys and gals making a fortune and it was driving me nuts. I flew all over the country looking for a business to buy or start. Eventually I started an Internet company with a partner called Retired.com. We were going to bring the age 50 plus online. This is the business that I talk about in The Compound Effect where I personally lost 300,000 dollars in cash. It was a bust. Several ventures later, more successful thankfully, I then started publishing Success magazine. Here I'm interviewing guys and gals who are billionaires and/or have built world-class companies. Being candid with you, after spending time with many of them, my walk away conclusion was this: heck if they could do this, no doubt I can, and I should, and I mad at myself for having not yet.

One key success principle is this - find a model of what you want and then do what they have done. Well, I decided that my model was going to be Richard Branson. I mean that dude just oozes fun and cool right? He's a billionaire, that's pretty good, and he has his own private island, that's pretty sweet, so Richard was my guy until I got to know a lot more about him. I mean don't get me wrong, I love the guy and he is cool. But after meeting and studying him, I realized how very different we are. I mean this guy thrives on complexity - he loves having 400 plates spinning, as in 400 companies spinning, and he doesn't mind a few fall. He and Virgin have about 125 lawsuits pending at any one time. It's just part of the game, the one that he's in, and he doesn't mind it at all. He is still cool as a cat. 125 lawsuits would send me to the loony bin. I realized right then how much I did not want to be Richard Branson. That setup works for him, really well obviously, but not for me. I realized how much I thrive on simplicity. I like uncomplicated. I like staying out of the courtroom and out of the press. I thrive on doing a few things really, really well. I thrive on delivering excellence in everything I do which means it's better to do fewer things. Fewer things done excellent is happiness for me.

However, and this is the key lesson here, Richard is still an incredible resource of inspiration for me. Not because I want his results, or his life, or his lifestyle, but because of the many brilliant methods that he uses for creating those results. For instance, I want his steadfast and unshakable focus. I like how he makes his employees the highest priority, even over customers and shareholders. I admire his willingness to try anything and laugh at failure if it doesn't work out. I respect his willingness to take big risks yet always protect the downside. I like how he always makes, “will this be fun?” a criteria for whether he does a business deal or not. I think it's awesome how he is always positioning his endeavors as the underdog, fighting and injustice, for the little guy against Goliath

<over>

Here's the great lesson that I've learned. Don't compare yourself to other people’s results, but find inspiration in their methods of success. This is a big tip. I hope that you captured that. When you see really successful people don't say to yourself, “hey I want their results, their life.” Rather ask, “what do I have to learn from their methods, or their philosophies, or their mindset, or their behaviors? Which of those attributes might help me accomplish whatever I want no matter how complicated or how simple I want my business or my life to be?”

So mind your own business, don't wish for someone else's results. Instead work on getting the mindset, philosophy, behavior, habits, and attributes they possess to create those kinds of results for you

ACTION PLAN:

Write down one person you admire.

Now instead of writing down the results they have that you want, write down their attributes.

What mindset, philosophy, behavior and habits do they possess to create those kinds of results?

Push yourself to come up with 10:

1) _________________

2) _________________

3) _________________

4) _________________

5) _________________

6) _________________

7) _________________

8) _________________

9) _________________

10) _________________

Then narrow it down to the top 3 you admire the most:

1) _________________

2) _________________

3) _________________

Today, BE those, all day.

Heck! Declare them to your fellow DarrenDaily friends in the comments below to hold you accountable!

If you like how this feels today, give it a go again tomorrow!

Then continue it for maybe a whole week, then a month… who knows, you just might become the person you always knew you could be, through the inspiration of someone else’s example!

Your Daily Mentor,

-Darren Hardy