Entering the ZONE!!

...excerpt from a message sent earlier to my team

"I have concluded wealth is a state of mind, and that anyone can acquire a wealthy state of mind by thinking rich thoughts." - Andrew Young  

Team, the single greatest power in the world, isn't wind, fire, or water, it is the power of your brain. The five inches between your ears as Ken Clouber would say can be your best friend or your worst enemy. The power that each of us has and few will ever truly push to their fullest potential. I believe each of us has a super power, identify that power, harness that ability and you will live your best possible life. Again, note that just like building muscle, developing your mind takes discipline, hard work, and repetition.

Your state of mind will determine your outcome before you even begin. Reflect on this for a moment, think of a time that you "knew" you were going to achieve something, and think about your state of mind prior to pushing in to achieve. Whether it was when you interviewed at Potrero, closed a big deal, or something else that immediately pops in your head. Have you ever been "in the zone", that magical place that athletes describe? Where nothing went wrong, everything figuratively went into in the hoop, the arms of a receiver, or into the stands beyond the outfield? Have you ever experienced that wonder, where you feel that nothing can stop you? Once you experience it and know it exists, your mind craves it. The zone is a state of mind and does not happen by chance. It comes from hours of hard work and repetition as stated above. The zone requires the dedication and commitment to improve and then it "just appears" out of nowhere. Think about where we are now, the hard work, the trial and error, the frustration. Here's the secret - those are all required for you to succeed. They are building blocks that provide context for when you win. Resilience is standing back up when getting knocked down, over and over and over. No quitting! What may seem like a failure in the moment could be the greatest gift you have ever received. Have you ever thought that one "failure" may the one experience you needed to have to experience TRUE greatness? Your invisible battle scars of perceived failure are what allows the zone to be actually realized. It is the context of experience - good and bad and everything in between. Don't forget that. 

If you watched the Michael Jordan ESPN special "The Last Dance", Jordan went into the zone on so many occasions. In one scene, he hits a basket turns to run back, shrugs his shoulders and shook his head in disbelief. He was in the zone and couldn't miss. I think of John Elway (as a life long Bronco fan) who seemed to always be able to place his mind and body into the zone in the last 2 minutes of game when everything was on the line.   

We all have this power. It is a matter of harnessing it through repetition, practice, visualization, and hard work. The flow of energy, when you just "feel" that you are operating on a higher level. When fundraising for the company, you may remember us saying, "our round is catching fire". It is when your message hits on all notes. When your words, actions, and body language reflect a hidden confidence that all of sudden out of nowhere, just appears. Do you know how many times we had to pitch before we "hit the zone"? Before our financing round caught fire? I would say it was greater than 100 pitches with 100 no's to get to the yes's. It was hours, and I mean hours every day (literally) for months and months that were built on months and months of preparation - all to get to a yes.

We are all on the verge of collectively entering the zone. It will happen all at once and will flow for months and possibly years. It will seem like a blur, happening so fast. It will be important to know there will be stress, but it will be a different type of stress. Good stress. It will be up to us to prepare for that moment now so we can ride that wave all the way in.

 So back to the first line - the single greatest power on this planet - brain power. Through ingenuity, humans have captured and contained fire, studied the principles of wind to fly, and channeled water to exactly where we want. We have used all of the elements to our advantage and escaped the bonds of earth to float in space. We have overcame the greatest pressures and explored the deepest sections of the ocean. And when people work together like we are at Potrero, and push each other to our best ability, and encourage each other to beat adversity - when you multiply the brain power exponentially like this wonderful things happen. Channel your brain power, discover your super power and push out your limits today!! You can more than you think you can!! Have a wealthy state of mind today.

Joe

This is a series of articles based on the daily letters that I write to my company (slightly modified - company specifics removed). My hope is to share some positive thoughts that gently push the world toward positive thinking and encourage many to achieve their fullest God-given potential