Big Start Small: How And Why Best Companies Achieve Success 163l4p

Guida o dopo o, per imparare cosa e le persone fanno per diventare ricche e mantenere la propria ricchezza

Big start small Roger Lee Copyright - 2021 Roger Lee "The future belongs to who believe in the beauty of their dreams"

Index

The Importance of Thinking Big 11 Importance of thoughts 12 What should you not think about? 13 Obstacles to positive thinking 15 Thinking Big 16 Why we should think big 19

The Secret of Big Leaders 23 Productive Relationships 27 Working with the Right People 31 Lead with ion 35 Disrespect the Status Quo 40 Give a Reason to Stay 46 Ready to take risks 59

Don’t blame failure 67 No such thing as failure 68 Detach yourself from the bandwagon 69 Empowerment comes from responsibility 72 The solution hub 72 The what, why, and how 76 The story of the Wright brothers 77

There is more to life Valid Questions 85

Start now, even with small step 91 The Law of Compounding 91 The Legend of Sissa Ibn Dahir 92 The Cost of Change 94

The 80/20 Rule of Time Management and Small Steps 97 Why Are Small Steps Important? 98 What hinders Small Steps? 102

Inspire trust 107 How to Build Trust in business 107

The Social Impact Making Positive Social Impacts 117 Startup and social impact 120 How Truepic realized its social impact potential 121 How Truepic’s focus on social impact benefited the business 122 Media recognition brings investors 123 How start-ups or other small businesses can make social impact part of their core business 124 Companies with powerful social impact initiative 125

Success will happened 135 The Secret of Success 136 The Four Keys to Success 136

Introduction The world within and around us today is filled with many uncertainties, worry, depression, and lack, but most importantly, it is also filled with certainty, faith, hope, strength, and wealth. Whatever we experience per time is what we choose. This book was written to show you how much positivity you can add to yourself. Within these pages are insights, ideas, stories, and strategies that will help shield you from every negative energy while projecting you to your place of wealth, abundance, and positivity. Pain is a signal; it calls your attention to the wrong that is going on within or around you. Therefore, if you are reading this book from the point of pain, I will be showing you how to use that pain to your benefit. I will reveal to you how you can become a succor for everyone around you. Leadership is service; if you must lead, then you must serve. However, the most important question here is, “How do you make yourself that leader that serves?” How do you make use of your wisdom of service to climb up your life and professional ladder? These and more are some of the questions this book you are holding poses to answer. Finally, I believe that you’d find answers to what you seek, but most importantly, I hope that you will take those answers and put them to use. After all, knowledge without use is a waste. Let’s dive in! How to reach a goal? Without haste and without stopping Chapter one

The Importance of Thinking Big

What are thoughts? Thoughts can simply be explained as “Something you think of or .” It is also “a person’s mind and all the ideas that they have in it when they are thinking.” Those were dictionary definitions of thoughts, and while we won’t use those expressly, we will pick out two notable : mind and ideas. What is the mind? This is “The part of a person that makes them able to be aware of things.” What are ideas? Ideas are “Plans, thoughts or suggestions, especially about what to do in a particular situation.” We have to note all these words because they would be necessary to understand how we articulate our thoughts. We are persuaded to think when we are aware of situations such as obstacles, goals, needs, challenges, problems, etc. When we have bills to pay, we become aware of that demand, and if there is no money to meet those bills, we begin to plan to meet them. Our mind begins to provide us with ideas, which may end up being the much-needed solutions. The thought process starts by first becoming aware of our situation; the “wheels” of our mind turn and usually churn out ideas. Take note, however, that the mind doesn’t only work to bring us to an awareness of our situations, lack, or challenges; it also brings awareness of the situations of others. When we begin to consider solutions to their problems, suggestions to their opinions, corrections to their actions, we are actually thinking. Importance of thoughts Thinking is important. Scientists and researchers have proven how important it is. Many philosophers have taught us that the mind is the controlling factor in all human endeavors. We have probably heard the aphorism, “Mind over Matter.”

Some people believe in telepathy, telekinesis, or psychokinetic. These are presumed psychic abilities which theoretically enable people to use their minds to manipulate the physical environment around them and even the minds of others. Assumptions aside, the reality is that our minds hold a significant factor in our everyday lives and even in physical existence as a whole. Thousands of books have been written about how a person’s state of mind affects their level of success or failure. Depression has led to suicides, low self-esteem has led to stagnancy in life, and irrational fear has led to missed opportunities. A simpler way to confront this philosophical term, “state of mind,” would be: “What are you thinking about?” This question: “what are you thinking about?” plays a major role in people’s physical or external expressions every moment of their lives. Let’s say I was always thinking about how I would never complete this book in the set time I gave myself, here’s what would happen. I’ll suddenly get exhausted whenever I put pen to paper or finger to screen or hands to buttons. A wave of weakness would descend on me, and I would procrastinate endlessly till I fail my deadlines. Then, I would convince myself that I never even had a chance to meet it in the first place. That’s what a negative state of mind can have on basically any task we set towards achieving. Hence, thoughts are gold. What should you not think about? There is a law called the law of inversion. No, this is not a mathematical law; it’s also not specifically a scientific rule. It’s a concept followed by certain contrarians like Charlie Munger - billionaire and vice-president of Berkshire Hathaway. It’s basically saying, “Tell me where I’m going to die, and I will never go there.” It talks about showing people how not to do certain things so that they can only focus on what they need to do. I think it is important that we know about the things we should not be thinking about because we start deleting them from our minds the moment we become aware of them. So what are these things you shouldn’t focus your mind on? › Failing. Why would you even think about failing? As unnatural as it may seem, most people think more about failing than succeeding. Whatever you focus your mind on immediately begins to turn into reality. Focus on failing, and you’ll fail. Keep your mind on success, and everything around you begins to fight to see that happen.

› Never think about the negative aspects of an endeavor or situation. Think positive is probably the second most used word in every motivational book you’ll find. Bad happenings and their memories are here to keep you bound, bitter, and negative. The more you keep living in the past, the harder it is for you to move out. There is nothing there that can help you move forward. The strength of your progress is right in front of you. If you had a rough past in your life, the past is where it belongs. If you decide to keep taking it along with you, it will look like you never left. › Hurdles. Never think about the hurdles. In a shorter, simpler language, do not be afraid. I should point out that only two are innate of all fears felt by humans; the rest are learned over time. These fears are the fear of falling and the fear of loud sounds. The difference between those who succeed and those who don’t is how they see challenges. Successful people see challenges as relevant mountains they need to climb to get to their next point in life, while failures see hurdles as something tied to bring their existence to naught. They keep running away, not knowing what quality of life awaits them at the other side of the mountain. Obstacles to positive thinking If there is one thing life has taught me, it is that whenever you want to do something good, there will always be hurdles mounting up to try and pull you down. You have two choices, either allow those mental thoughts or you damn them. The interesting thing is that most of these bumps are internal bumps manufactured by us, and hardly are ever real or relevant. In essence, one could say that we create bad thoughts to counter our good ones, and more often than not, those ominous imaginations tend to decide the state of our minds. Some of these obstacles include: •Public Opinion: In reality, the opinion of others has nothing to do with your plans, ideas, or thoughts. Opinions, at best, are what they are, opinions. Everyone has the right to one, but the moment you leave yours and begin to live on that of others, you gradually lose your sense of control, you lose your life as you begin to live in the shadows of others. •Irrational Fear: There is fear that is acceptable. It’s natural to be scared of falling. In fact, it is wired into our nervous systems. Also, loud sounds can naturally cause fear in us. Anything beyond these two is learned and can be said to be irrational. Like mageirocophobia, the fear of cooking, we usually

tend to fear failure and create illogical reasons why that fear should exist. What you are, you never conquer. If you must prevail in this world, courage is what you need. Courage is not the absence of fear but doing something despite that fear. •Low self-esteem: This entails a lack of confidence. People with low selfesteem tend to look down on their abilities even though the said abilities are commendable. Most times, they are the only ones who feel sub-par while others are impressed with them. This state oWf mind serves as a deterrent to positive thoughts. Thinking Big Another way of putting this is, having big thoughts. We could also say, not having small thoughts. What are small thoughts? • Thinking small is aiming to be an employee rather than an employer. • Thinking small is striving to make enough money to feed daily and not consider investments, long-term wealth, and emergencies such as health, disaster, etc. • Thinking small is making no plans to secure retirement packages for when you’re incapable of working. • Thinking small is a lack of savings and subsequent investments. All these inert failures arise as a result of small thinking. When we fail to think big enough or far enough, we create issues that come around to pose as monsters someday. Thinking big is planning ahead of time. It’s true we cannot see the future and predict 100% possible occurrences, but like the ant which saves for the rainy days, we can use history to determine happenings and plan to counter unforeseen misfortunes. This is the basis on which the concept of saving money is laid. When we save, we have planned ahead and inevitably checked any future emergencies. A higher level of this line is an investment that saved money in business or any other

venture which would generate returns or accumulate your wealth over time. A chief proponent of this method of thinking big is Warren Buffet, arguably the greatest investor ever. The nonagenarian maintains a principle of investing for the long-term and, since childhood, always upheld that a dollar today is worth five tomorrow if invested properly. That is a hallmark of thinking big, and it doesn’t end there. Thinking big would also mean growing and developing exceptional ideas. If we can break through the hurdles that keep us in our mental cages and let the ideas soar, our minds can sprout revolutionary thoughts. Andrew Carnegie once observed that while steel was more durable and efficient than iron, society relegated it to the background. Iron was used to create bridges, rail lines, and mechanical parts, virtually everything which required material strength. Carbon steel, on the other hand, was used in making kitchen and table utensils and small tools. Iron easily rusted, and many train accidents were a result of that abhorrent characteristic. Iron bridges occasionally fell and took lives and property with them. It was messy. Yet, while it was known that steel did not have this demerit, nobody made any move towards it. That was until Carnegie was given a task to build a bridge that would reduce the distance trains used to carry goods from one part of the United States to the other. Many iron bridges had failed to connect the two river banks, and the man was forced to think. He observed that a better material did exist and was largely neglected. He must have wondered why a material used to make spoons couldn’t be used to build bridges. He commenced the project using carbon steel instead of iron. The bridge was a success, and it stood where several iron bridges had fallen. Not long after, orders began arriving all over America to Carnegie Steel. Railway builders needed to change their iron rails to steel, and only one man could provide them with the amount of material they needed. Suffice to say, that 'one man' was simply the only one who thought big enough. Why we should think big Truthfully, we should already know this by now; there is a slew of reasons why thinking big is in our best interest. As humans, we have an innate desire to be great. The great philosopher, Sigmund Freud, said so. Greatness or at least exceptionalism cannot be achieved by being mediocre or striving to be secondrate. We can only be great by doing great things.

Who has done great things? Alexander the Great has done great things. Like how possibly great do you have to be to be given the name, “Great?” Well, you could start by conquering all of the known world problems. I’m guessing Alexander must have looked stupid making such declarations like, “I will march all the way to Persia and continue as far as the Indus Valley,” “I will rule the whole world,” and the usual “I will sur my father.” Now, when you have a father who had a title as weighty as “Hegemon of Greece” or “Strategos Autokratos”, you have a lot of suring to do. I’ll wager that the young king thought big and then put his thoughts to action. If there was no thinking, there would have been no acting. Before you giving up, think about why you have resisted so long. Chapter two

The Secret of Big Leaders This book, as earlier stated, serves as a guide to understanding the treacherously elusive but truly existent path that leads to making it big in life. Making it big could entail creating and successfully growing a business idea. It could also mean furthering a political ambition and winning precarious elections. Ultimately, this book won’t serve as a guidebook on corporate climbs alone, it will be all-encoming. Having achieved mental prowess in managing our ideas and making good plans, it would only be natural to consider how we should act. But first, who are we? Or more importantly, who do we want to be? After ideas have been spurned and plans made, there is usually an impossibility for the dreamer or pacesetter to achieve his/her goals alone. Most times, a team is needed; other times, an entire army of employees is required. Regardless of size, you would need people who understand your ideas and are ready to transform them into reality. For this to be, you need to be a good leader. There are certain secrets that leaders generally employ that ensure their followers

understand and their visions and ideas. You can learn from these and smoothen the next step in the stair climb to becoming big. Listen This secret may seem to be a painfully simple one; it is obviously one word. How difficult should it be to follow a one-word rule? It is actually difficult. In fact, listening is a trait that humans or people fail terribly at. This is so because of the way our minds are rigged; we always want to be right. Countless renowned psychologists have noted the difficulty of people accepting their wrongs. We tend to defend ourselves at every point, and the wall only grows thicker when we get criticized. People are bad at owning up to their mistakes or shortcomings. We naturally form a protective cocoon of excuses when we are faced with our wrongs. Psychologists would tell you that many, if not all criminals, truly believe they did nothing wrong. Some murderers even give justifications for killing people, and the fascinating thing about it is they sincerely believe it. People provide excuses for their inactions and wrong actions, laying blames on everyone else but themselves. People tend to push their blames on someone else or something else. At that moment, they believe there was nothing else they could do and the decision they made was the right one. In the same vein, we find it difficult to listen to advice. Since we believe we are never wrong, it is only natural to assume we are always right. Hence, many people take advice negatively and completely reject all forms of counsel once they’ve taken their decisions. This stems from an overwhelming desire to be in control of our lives, with no external interference. It is an innate self-confidence that lets patients argue with their physicians about their health and the right way to handle it. You also have people question the designs of architects and engineers, falsely believing they possess some degree of knowledge in architecture or engineering. The lack of acceptance of cluelessness, helplessness, or incapability runs deep and causes limitations to most people in several endeavors like stock trading. This causes a huge obstacle to people’s ability to actually listen to others. We can’t have a perfect idea. It’s just like in writing, no one gets a good book out on the first draft. You’d have to proofread and edit into the second, maybe third

possible drafts. It’s the same with the ideas we conceive, they are never really perfect on the first concept, and of course, we don’t realize this till we have shared them with others, like our friends. The critical ones among them could ask questions that we didn’t think about initially, and the rollercoaster of exhilaration you felt when your idea took root slows down. We don’t ask ourselves these critical questions because, as we’ve already noted, it is a personal sin to doubt ourselves. Since we are incapable of making errors, our ideas and plan should not have any glitches; there lies the problem. We fail to see the limitations of our ideas and consequently have no checks on unforeseen challenges which may occur. We don’t ask ourselves questions, so we equally have no answers to provide. The worst situation is that we make plans or develop ideas that only feed our egos, make us feel smart, and offer no solution to people’s problems. This is the result of solely depending on our judgment for validating our thoughts. So, when friends or associates point out flaws in our plans, we double back and get defensive. We believe they don’t understand the idea. After all, they obviously don’t see it the way we do. The natural thing we do is maintain that every endeavor must have a flaw, but it doesn’t mean much, as the ultimate result would trounce the initial hurdle. We also convince ourselves that “too many cooks spoil the broth,” and accuse them of pessimism. The outcome is, we present a half-baked idea or plan to the world, riddled with holes and doused with issues. These characteristics make the idea unfriendly to people, be it business, politics, or public governance. Great leaders don’t reject criticism or defend their cherished ideas; they open their minds to the opinions of others. It doesn’t mean their ideas are bad or the critics are more intelligent or visionary than them, but that, knowing their innate tendency to not doubt their plans and, consequently, blind themselves to shortfalls, they lend their ears to friends and associates. It can be safe to say, no great leader works effectively by ignoring the opinions of their cohorts. This is why ideas and plans drafted by great leaders turn out to be seemingly perfect. And more importantly, they tend to give rise to revolutionary inventions, memorable achievements, and eternal innovations. We fail to realize that the perfection detailed in these is because the conceivers understood what most of us fail to. When you have thought up an idea or conceived a plan, it is best and more productive to seek the opinions of others. This provides you a clear outlook into

the shortfalls of your idea. When you can see the questions glaring through your perceived plan, you can provide answers that will make your idea's future enactments smooth. Learn to listen to others; you can’t grow big without criticism. When that criticism comes, accept it and build on it. Reject every natural notion that you have answered all the questions because someone else will come around and answer them before you. Productive Relationships We tend to hear aphorisms such as, “birds of a feather flock together,” and “show me your friend, and I will show you who you are.” Who we call friends play a major role in the direction of our lives. We must realize that our ideas and thoughts, most times, are shaped by external situations. The crowd we follow will affect the way we view the world, and that view is everything. The view or outlook we take on the world determines the goals we make efforts to achieve. If your view can be described with a simple existence; a family, a comfortable inflow of money, and a good retirement plan, your goals will be encapsulated by getting a stable job with a comfortable salary. This would entail you study hard to be eligible for a well-paying job. A view involving a desire to change or add value to the society would create a much different set of goals. Here, the person would work towards solving societal problems or build influence big enough to make the expected changes. These are just some of the ways a person’s view on life would influence their goals. Others influence our lives, and there is no argument there. The faiths we profess are usually a result of our family’s influence. Our level of literacy has a lot to do with the level of formal education we have. So, a major contributor to the kinds of thoughts and ideas we have happens to be our family, friends, and close associates. Hence, different families, friends, and close associates, inevitably lead to differing ideas. These ideas lead to differing goals, and different levels of achievements are attained. The great leaders we wish to emulate built their ideologies from familial influences and encouraging backgrounds. Most of them had parents who encouraged them to put in extra effort and set extraordinary paces for them, but others found themselves lacking such paces and relied on friends or acquaintances who challenged them to put in the effort. Take the renowned

Robert Kiyosaki as an example. In his book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, he revealed a friend’s father inspired him to break out of the rat race. Now, we must note that most people are comfortable with running in that race, it doesn’t mean they are stupid, but just like a religion you were raised with, it seems to be, and actually may be the best situation for them. However, this book is not for those running the rat race; it is for those who want to grow big. Warren Buffet is one of the greatest investors ever. He is also one of the wealthiest men alive and has built a reputation of consistently beating the stock market's records. His extraordinary success comes in part from his high investing acumen and also from his personal antics. However, the origin of that insight and antic springs from his family background, education, and friends. His father ran a stockbroking firm when he was a kid. The little Warren got to see people investing in stocks everyday. His childhood memories were probably filled with the faces of people leaving happily after closing out in profit and the gloomy faces of those who had lost all their money. When interviewed, he said he always wondered what made the stock prices move, these were thoughts he was forced to have due to his family, which led him to buy his first stock at age ten. At that moment, you could tell this was a man destined for the markets. These are just a few examples of how the kind of families and friends we have can build us into what we wish to be. Yet, many of us may not have this privilege growing up, but it doesn’t mean all hope is lost. As we grow older, we begin making choices. We can choose our friends, we can choose those we spend much of our time with, that’s the breakthrough, and that’s where most people fail. When it comes to picking our friends, we tend to choose people just because they seem nice, which is a perfectly good reason to make friends. However, for us who want to grow big, it’s the beginning of stunted growth. The company you keep really does determine the extent of growth you achieve, these are the people you would share your ideas with and expect , and you would need their opinions and criticisms. These checks on your complex would ensure your thoughts are streamlined and aren’t self-serving. But, what if those who should give you suggestions have no suggestions to give? What if your friends can’t see the glaring questions in your ideas, let alone ask them? What if they can’t even develop ideas and have you ask the questions? You would obviously spawn weak ideas and eventually get

tired of making plans. At that point, no amount of talent or drive you have can save you. We all need that environment that forces us to yearn for greater things. Many people can independently break out of an average mentality, but we are not as perfect as we would like. We need an environment comprising likeminded people who would develop similar ideas with us. This would force us to better our thinking and we might still find ourselves falling short. This would force us to question things critically, and in the long run, it leads to productivity. We use the time we share with our friends for beneficial purposes. We could spend hours debating how to better ourselves. More importantly, the sharing of ideas naturally answers hidden but significant questions. It solves the problems we have with our plans and creates alternatives where there is need. There is no losing in life when our relationships are made with productive people. This is a way we can make up for not having been raised by stock trading parents or growing up with friends who had tycoons as parents. And true to form, there’s a group of people who towed this path. Steve Jobs bit The tech boys bit Working with the Right People As we have seen, choices seem crucial to our growth journey. We have chosen to listen to others, and we have seen how beneficial it is to choose who we listen to. There is also another choice that comes to mind, who do we work on our ideas with? In the previous secret, we treated the subject of an encouraging environment. We saw how surrounding yourself with friends and associates with critical mindsets can boost your views on the world. This boost can, in turn, push you to develop plans towards those views. They would also serve as critics who would point out the flaws in those plans. This is especially because, left alone, you won’t see these flaws. Your plans should be flawless, especially when they are supposed to be beneficial to the public. Now, when those ideas are put into practice, it is also necessary to note that you need a good team to work with. In the book, 48 Laws of Power, a law states, “Keep your friends for friendship, but work with the skilled.” Many people do the contrary; they prefer to work on their ideas with their friends. This is inherently a good thing, as a friend tends to be more patient than a mere

acquaintance. A friend would also willingly provide during hard times, but are they suitable for the job? Most of us avoid this question and think only of the familiarity we feel with our friends. After all, we know them well enough to trust them, and we equate that to a good working relationship. While it is true that feeling at ease with your team is priceless, it shouldn’t be a substitute for skill. If we want to fail at our endeavors, we should work with people based on the fact that we know them and like them; the lack of skill will shine brightly. There would be a lack of seriousness, missed deadlines, failed targets, and excuses at every turn. Since they are our friends, it would be more difficult to chastise them or push them away because they are our friends and we would want to avoid having problems with them. That is bad for growth. Who we need to work with isn’t friends, it’s the skilled. Our team should be built with people who love your vision and can contribute meaningfully to it, and it shouldn’t necessarily be made of people who love you. You really do not need them, but when they love your ideas, understand it, and turn them into reality, the working relationship deepens. In essence, your team should have ion for the plan, and with that ion comes massive contributions they would bring you. With a team built on skill and not friendship, we can leave the endeavor for a time and be rest assured things are intact. This trust comes about because we know that excuses would not be given. Friends would believe they can be forgiven if any form of laxity causes a drop in progress. The reverse is the case when it comes to a skilled-based team. They do not have the luxury of making such assumptive mistakes. They can be fired instantly or comfortably side-lined. Hence, you have a battle-ready team working to ensure your goals are achieved. Another importance of this team is that it can work on a schedule and get things done on time. This is a virtue every endeavor needs. A team based on skills would follow through on your goals and follow through on them in your set time. Once you’re assured of this, your plans will always come to fruition. Once this is assured, people would trust you, as you don’t err on your time. This is simply one of the many ways a good team, working mechanically, can grow your endeavor. We don’t trade a skill-based team for anything, except good ideas, of course.

Another way a skill-based team helps our goals is its lack of empathy towards us. In trying not to hurt your feelings, your friends may not give you the muchneeded criticism your ideas demand. This, in the short-term, may seem nice but really isn’t. There should always be questions asked to rectify our plans' realistic potential and assure their value to society. You need people numb to your feelings asking these questions. A team comprising who are there for their expertise would ask them; this is priceless. The team knows its existence is not based on your good graces or friendly ties to you. Instead, its purpose is to provide form to your, usually, overzealous thoughts. The only do their job when they cross-check your plans. More often than not, this sets up the base for a world-changing innovation or a revolutionary idea. Note, however, that friends can also make up a good team. If your friends have the required skill to do the job, you can work with them. While this can be rare, our friends could wield the talents we need to build our ideas and launch our plans. When this is so, we can work with them. It is a bonus when we work with our friends, in every team, a bond should always exist. This bond carries it through storms and shortcomings, which are sure to come on the voyage to success. The trick then lies in ensuring your friends understand that what you have is a working relationship and that laxity won’t be tolerated during work. As long as developing your goals is concerned, there won’t be any compromise. Anyone who fails to play their parts, or complete their quota, would be dropped, friend or not. Lead with ion Keeping a team together is a difficult job. Most leaders go about it in different ways. Some use force and, sometimes, threats. The thing with dictatorships is, though they ensure rules are strictly followed, they inspire regressive feelings from your team. We don’t need regressive feelings from our team. A team moved through fear never reached its full potential. Many teams have been made to work, driven by the wheels of threats; some of them have worked. Although, this does not justify the methods of the dictators. These dreadful leaders moved their teams with force, threats, and fear, but those who made it big had an extra ingredient that made their methods manageable. Your team should never be scared of voicing out their opinions for fear

of being fired. This derails all the points we’ve been learning. Your team should have the freedom to criticize the narcissistic parts of your plans, which wouldn’t bode well in the society. Once freedom is denied, your ideas would receive no necessary vetting and appear unrealistically optimistic and unachievable. In the end, you would take the fall mostly. This isn’t to suggest your employees have the right to insult you. It is simply a reminder that your team’s purpose is to give your thoughts perspective. Ultimately, their unbridled modifications of your ideas will lead to better concepts. That’s the purpose of the team, and it should never be compromised with tough leadership. Another set of leaders use incentives in the forms of enormous salaries and benefits; this is not wrong. People should get paid for their work, and it is encouraged to keep your team loyal with incentives, preferably monetary. But this should never be the reason the team should follow you. Money is important for business, politics, and every endeavor. It should, however, never be the incentive to work towards the goal. If the team is involved in developing the idea because of the pay, an issue would soon ensue when funding is slow in coming. There would be desertions and, worse, low morale. A leader who keeps his team motivated solely with money would find himself or herself given the least service possible. It is a known fact that most innovative ideas are usually difficult to promote. The sheer weight of defying the status quo is enough to exhaust anyone. The team you would work with may not be able to handle the stress of breaking barriers. You may believe the amount of money spent would motivate them to handle the stress, you are wrong. There could be much easier jobs available to them which wouldn’t require the extra-ordinary effort your goals would demand. It would wiser to go for those than play what usually turns out to be a gamble with you. Funding is never streamlined, especially when people are the financiers. Virtually every time, people are the financiers, so cash could be slow coming. During this period, there could be laxity in paying the of your team, and if all that kept them working was the pay, many would quit. This would cost you terribly because a project which had already begun would have to be stopped or a lag would occur. This causes an increase in cost, as new people

would be needed to replace those who left. Milestones would be drastically changed when set targets are stalled. Since these factors can’t be foreseen and prepared for accurately, it is pertinent to lead and motivate through a different path. That path is ion. Oxford defines ion as “a very strong feeling of love, hatred, anger, enthusiasm, etc.” It also goes on to note that it is “a very strong feeling of liking something; a hobby or an activity that you like very much.” ion, in this sense, pays homage to those three bold words. When you have a great liking for your idea, you tend to feel strongly about it. You can spend hours researching on it because time means nothing when you’re ionate. When you talk about it or share it with friends, joy emanates unashamedly from your face. This intense iration for your idea indeed blinds you to the inherent flaws within. But without that ion, you will not stand the criticism that would ensue afterward. When we are ionate about our idea, we block out every other thought and spin it in our heads all day. It occupies our every thought, and we nurture it in a bid to achieve perfection. In the movie, Blood and Oil, an oil tycoon aimed to raise a successor to his business. He told the young man that he needed to “eat, drink, and sleep in oil to achieve phenomenal success in the industry.” We know many great leaders had that level of ion for their arts, businesses, fields, etc. They ate their ideas, some going as far as to starve themselves to raise the needed funds to progress their plans. They would actually forget they had stomachs, all in pursuit of ensuring certain milestones were reached. Others would construe this as madness, but they were wrong. They slept their ideas, denying themselves actual sleep. You have Elon Musk, President of Tesla and Space X, saying: “Our great leaders forego the comfort that sleep brings to ensure the day never ends without a goal crossed off the list.” The aim is that a target must be brought closer. Now, this is not to say that the doctors are wrong. Humans do need sleep—a lot of it, but when we are ionate about an idea, sleep becomes an option. That option can be easily neglected because, as Bane, from the movie Dark Knight Rises, said, “Nothing matters, but the Plan.”

Great leaders also live their ideas. This portrayal of ion is more natural, yet unnatural. Every day, they dedicate their lives to working on their ideas. Apparently, there is no rest for them, as they research, think, and work on those thoughts. It’s really a stressful situation, but there is something baffling when these men and women do it; they enjoy it. Losing sleep becomes the norm in their lives. Jumping from one innovation to another becomes a chore. The mental and physical efforts expended on these activities of theirs become daily requirements of theirs. And then you have some of them say things like, that was Steve Jobs, when the idea of Apple was testing its first wheels on the tracks of reality. In a world of daily monotonous corporate work, Warren Buffet, in his seventies, failed to subscribe to the norm. According to him, going to work every day was the high point of his days. He advised people to work in places and in fields they could happily continue to do so for decades. He described it as “tap-dancing to work.” All these show how ion makes even the most difficult endeavors simple pleasures and how life is better enjoyed when one finds a ion and sticks to it. Therefore, when a team sees its leader broiling with unbridled ion, it will be driven to break through all barriers to match that ion in kind. This reasoning comes from the knowledge that charismatic people have always been god-like leaders. This charisma rises in part from the intense ion the character feels for the endeavor. This powerful love for that idea drives and pushes him or her far beyond acceptable boundaries. The resultant breakout depicts a person who has sured human potential, and the adoration which comes with it is enormous. That adoration leads his or her followers to work towards exceeding their limits. This method is how great leaders have motivated their teams and followers. When they feel the sheer ion rolling off the innovator, they are encouraged to keep going even when crossing difficult hurdles. This drive to achieve the impossible would inevitably rub off on them. When they see the leader come to work happily every day (tap-dancing to work), they will begin making it a habit. The humongous optimism of the leader would give them the sense of doing something truly great. In trying to develop an error-proof plan, he or she would encourage them to provide opinions and offer suggestions. And they would do it happily, knowing it would be well-received and appreciated.

There could be times when funding for the project or plan would stall. These are times when a team motivated by money alone would begin tendering resignations. A leader who consistently awes his team with his ion for the idea would keep his team in this case. They would understand that the dream itself hasn’t faltered, and the lack of funds isn’t a deterrent to further planning and the creation of alternatives. The infinite charisma and ion of Alexander the Great, to reach the Indus Valley, pushed his army to march from Greece to India. Steve Jobs was regarded as a dictator at work, but what kept his team was his ion for innovation. No amount of anger he dispelled could make his deep ion negligible. In fact, it came to be accepted that his drive was the cause of his tough treatment of his workers. Disrespect the Status Quo Great leaders defy the already established concepts, from Copernicus to Galileo, to Newton, to Einstein. In every field, even war. Commanders like Alexander the Great, Frederick William the Great (Old Fritz), and Napoleon Bonaparte used military tactics which challenged the existing ones. These overarching notions of theirs put them on a level their fellow commanders could not reach. It is a standard procedure that when men and women question the norm, two things ensue: they are either made pariahs and shunned or became worthy of the Great's title. Most times, it’s a thing of luck. For others, it depends on the situation at that time. Yet, one thing lies absolute—great leaders are known to disrespect the status quo. This arises because of the nature of man. We easily conform to conventional set-ups. A thing may take time to become normal or acceptable, but people accept it wholly when it does become a way of life. It soon becomes an oddity to try something different or even think about it. We easily settle into the accepted because it is easier to do so. The ease brings peace, or so we think. This lack of disturbance in the norm soon leads to a blandness that many fail to see. Change truly is constant but more often than not, change demands sacrifice. For the status quo to be challenged and ultimately overthrown, a war would be fought. It doesn’t have to be the gun blazing war, although sometimes it is. The

greatest obstacle to that change lies in the actual loss of the status quo. We get attached to it, and after decades of living a certain kind of way, it is a sin to change it. As creatures of habit, we defend the conventional because it is all we know. We believe it is the right, and perhaps the only way things should be done. Hence, when a random individual tries to change these ways we have become comfortable with, we fight back. This is also why during popular revolutions, a portion of the masses eagerly defend the status quo. Usually, the revolutions are launched to overthrow oppressive governments, and the pioneers or enactors garner the of the masses during their uprising. This eventually pits the people against the government, or so it seems. A portion of the masses fights on the government's side, rejecting the revolution and all the good things it promises. It is not that the condemnations of the government or promises of the revolutionaries are inherently false. It is just that the people have grown used to the existing situation and do not know what the future holds. This fear leads them to defend what they know, rejecting the unknown they are not sure of. Now, you would wonder what makes those revolutionaries different. They are people, after all. So why do they challenge the status quo? Certain people see beyond their false comfort. They understand that everything can really be much better than the present. They are not deceived by the ease and peace that come when no challenge is made; they resolve to change the situation and act on it. Note, however, that this is very difficult. The difficulty lies in the fact that the innovator would persistently reassure himself or herself that they are right. Of course, it won’t be easy. Moses had not yet seen the Promised Land he assured the Israelites, so it was obviously difficult striving for a future he wasn’t sure of. We can also the issues he had with his cohorts, who apparently preferred the status quo of slavery to an uncertain end. These innovators don’t desist in their plan. They sacrifice their present comfort for a future they believe can be better. This brings them into conflict with the others as they demand an uncertain future when no one was really complaining. The thing with people, though, is they never complain until they see something better. The innovators know this and endeavor to bring this better future, but they face resistance. In his book, "The Prince", Niccolo Machiavelli described this situation perfectly.

These problems, therefore, ensures that only a few people turn out to be innovators, and fewer are ever successful. Those successful ones who break the natural barriers to change end up being among the great leaders we aim to be like. We can see that the journey to greatness is incomplete without a deep disrespect for the status quo. There is always better coming, and once you fail to realize this, you have missed a chance at greatness. To be great means that you have achieved a level of awareness not privy to just anybody. “Just anybody” comprises the class of people who accept the status quo, with all its faults and shortcomings. They are comfortable sailing on a ship for months before reaching another continent. They have no qualms with exchanging messages in the form of letters, with a threeday time lag. They also see no reason for changing the age-old practice of using unsafe fires for light. They do not believe that a man can fly, and they have no intentions of changing the already decided notion. They view any form of communication, which cancels the distance barrier as magic. Thoughts involving the changing of these methods should no be had for any reason at all. Even today, most people reject the increasingly ubiquitous digital currencies, mostly because of the status quo. This complete refusal to abandon the fiat currencies, albeit with good reasons, is an example of our stubbornness. A great leader demands a change in what is and goes for it. The hallmark of such a leader is the rejection of certain norms. To achieve greatness, then, we should see beyond the comfort of the present. The various methods of doing business, running governments, living our lives, creating useful things for man and even those useful things themselves can be made better. Once we realize this, we should disrespect the status quo; if we don’t, someone else will, and they will challenge the norm and create a new one. Our biggest challenge would result from ourselves. We would always have the internal fear of the unknown that we march towards. When we develop a revolutionary idea, the doubts begin once we look at the ease the present offers, it is a trap. We have to get over the comforts of the status quo and stand by our ideas regardless of how revolutionary they are. The difficulty in this is the uncertainty we have of the future. How can you believe so strongly in something you haven’t yet seen? The belief will come when there is a resolve to be great. That resolve had kept many great men and women awake when the rest of the world

slept. It has also protected them onslaughts from their contemporaries when they challenge the universally accepted laws. Resolve keeps great leaders focused on the future they have seen. It numbs their mind to all the discouragement that will surely come. There will be severe criticism, as even their family and friends will declare them insane. This insanity is a result of the lack of understanding of the flaws of the status quo. Questions and doubts would be raised against the idea, and opposition would come from every side, but we know one thing. As Niccolo Machiavelli postulated, bringing in new methods and ideas is stressful. The stress, however, only exists at the initial stage when the actuation of the idea has begun. After the initial hassle has been crossed, it becomes easier. Eventually, people get to see the innovation for the better comfort it brings and a new status quo ensues. From that point on, the present becomes the old and the people conform, while the innovator bears the title, Great. When our ideas are disrespectful of the status quo, let’s not relent in its pursuit. The better thing to do would be to surround ourselves with those who share the same ion. That way, we are assured of encouragement when we seem to stumble. Give a Reason to Stay The foundation of your innovation is actually your team. You can’t do any work without your team , as it is already known that no man is an island, and a single tree does not make a forest. In essence, you must create a comfortable environment for your team or employees, and this becomes even more important when you find yourself in competition with others. Your competitors pull your best staff from you, leaving you at a disadvantage. The only way to tamp down on this is to give your team a reason to stay with you. This entails certain ways to make working with you a thrill. Your team must be made privy to the happenings in the endeavor. They must never be left out of any important proceedings. You should take them as people you share your dream with and act as such. You do this by telling them about your plans. This gives them a sense of importance because everyone loves feeling important.

Taking this into view, you should take pains in assuring them of your reliance on them. This is quite true, and we know this from our previous notes on how futile a one-person show can be. Giving them access to your plans involving the idea can be a boost to their loyalty. By making them important, you limit the potential of them leaving. You give them a strong reason to stay with you and work on your idea. This is because they would feel like a part of your idea, essentially, co-thinkers. If you do not do this, you inevitably downgrade their efforts. They would see little reason to stay working with you and, if they are good enough, you will lose them to the competition. The more devastating part of the loss is, they would take your ideas and other modifications they personally had on it to the other side. Others would steal your dreams and everything would come to naught. It would be best if you also gave your cohorts a chance to air their views and opinions. We’ve already talked about it, and I can’t mention it enough. Your people also have ideas of theirs, and giving them a chance to exercise their mind power and express their thoughts is a boost to their self-esteem. They feel smart when you listen to them. The listening ear you provide them will do you more good than handsome wages. The latter effort simply portrays them as mindless robots, paid or fueled to carry out a recurring pattern of monotonous jobs. This is truly discouraging for a budding innovator in your team, who would feel that he or she can’t grow with you. But giving them free room to express their ideas will show how much you appreciate their individuality, intelligence, and importance. They will believe they can thrive working with you. And the resultant boost in their self-esteem will knock away all antics of competitors trying to pull them away. For your own benefit, you would learn from their ideas, blending them in with yours. You would also understand how to properly use them to serve your purposes, as you would then know their creativity levels. Working together with them will be more productive, and the freedom to express their opinions will help check flaws and produce modifications to the plan where and when necessary. We talked about pay. I never aimed to demonize generous salaries and wages. Making them the focus of keeping a team can be counterproductive, as we’ve already seen. Nonetheless, workers must always be rewarded. The only thing

better than a reward is a fair reward. If you want your people to leave you, taking your idea and theirs to your competitors, fail to pay them well. Naturally, people would want to be paid for their work, and paid well. Many leaders pay their people lousy rewards compared to how much work they put in. It’s bad human management practice. Money is a huge influence on how much work a person puts into an endeavor. Making your people work for less kills their morale towards working for you. They would grow lax and hate the job. That is the worst state of mind for your team. At that point, nothing can go right. The lack of proper monetary or financial incentive could kill your enterprise instantly. It, after all, is made up of the people working on your ideas. It’s unfair and drains the motivation of your workers. You don’t need that, you need workers who tap-dance to work everyday. Nobody is tap-dancing when they receive a pittance for their time, ideas, effort, and loyalty. We have seen movies where a corporation pays an employee of another corporation, usually a competing one, to betray their firm. Indeed, the relationship an employee would have with his or her firm is not akin to that of a friend or relative. However, the work culture in some firms is so strong that employees tend to feel like a part of the business. So selling out important facts of a firm, Coca-Cola’s recipe, for example, can be caused by a myriad of strong negative emotions. One of them, I’m sure, is a need for extra cash. To avoid such catastrophic blows to your business, it’s advisable to pay your people well. It may seem cost-effective to underpay staff, but it really isn’t. Eventually, it will turn around to bite you. People always have bills to pay; that’s how life is. They are always in search of extra funds. When you employ them, ensure you pay them for their work's worth. Once they feel underpaid, they will grow disdainful of the job. There will be a lack of morale, which would lead to a poor output in the long term. It’s all a loss on you, and it will ultimately give you a bad reputation. You can’t solve the problem by dropping the unmotivated ones among your team. When you replace them, you will still continue the culture of underpayment since you don’t know what made the others leave. The bottom line is that paying your people well will ensure their loyalty to you.

In the first century BC, the Roman general, Julius Caesar, was in the middle of his Gallic campaigns. He faced strong opposition in Rome, and his absence from the Republic ensured he couldn’t defend himself properly. His political opponents had gotten jealous of his military successes. They brought up accusations against him, citing when he misused public funds as a governor before he went to Gaul. He was also found guilty of war crimes while in Gaul. The group of senators who resented him allied with a former confederate of his, Pompeii. They invited Caesar to Rome to stand trial. In Roman law then, it was forbidden for a Roman general to march his army from their foreign position into Rome. Caesar knew if he returned, he would lose the trial, and he will be sentenced. To avoid this, he marched with his army back home. On hearing the general was marching on Rome, his enemies fled the city. Eventually, war was declared, and the Roman Republic was thrown into a civil war. During the period, Caesar found himself running out of money to fund his war. More so, his legions were beginning to mutiny, as they had been owed for a while. When Caesar was away, the soldiers revolted at a crucial point of the war, and he was effectively losing. He rushed to pacify the angry troops and found them ready to leave him. His enemies had more numerous forces than he did, and more resources under their control. In a dramatic moment, he exhorted his soldiers and appreciated their previous efforts, which they did without pay. He managed to entreat them with promises of victory and assured them enormous riches if they won the war for him. Suffice to say that his army remained intact. The promise of wealth to come reinvigorated the men, and they marched with him. They fought each battle afterward with high morale and undying fervor. History has placed Julius Gaius Caesar as one of the most charismatic leaders and experienced military commanders ever. Yet, I believe that his military feats could not have persuaded his men to keep fighting on empty stomachs at that crucial point. The general later went on to win the war, took all the power for himself, and began the reconstruction of Rome. It is noted that one of the activities he spent the rest of his life doing was giving massive expanses of lands to the veterans who had fought for him. Considering the evidence of a man’s wealth then, land is a huge asset; Caesar’s retired soldiers ended their lives as wealthy men. The general went on to affect the changes that later transformed Rome from a

republic to an empire. The glory of Rome, which dominated the ancient world for the next six hundred years, was a result of his reforms. Those reforms would have never happened if he hadn’t gotten the power to impose them. The power would have never been gotten if he hadn’t won the war. He wouldn’t also have won the battle if his soldiers had not stayed fighting with him, more determined and motivated to win. And they wouldn’t have stayed if he had starved them. Another way to make your people stay with you is to create a culture of meritocracy. Meritocracy is a system in which people get power or money based on their ability. In a meritocratic system, people who are talented or have the skills required get to be promoted on a faster scale than those who aren’t. Opportunities are available to them because of what they can do or offer to the system. It could be a government, a firm, or any other social system. It encourages people to work hard because they know their influence; pay and opportunities will increase once they can prove their abilities. Systems operating a meritocracy turn out to be the best. There is fairness, as what you sow is exactly what you reap. More importantly, competition is encouraged since the only way up is to be good at what you do. The competition would inadvertently improve the people's skills, which would inevitably contribute to the system's growth. Also, it is attractive to newcomers who are assured of a quick climb up the ladder, provided they are good enough. The fairness in the system pulls in people ready to work, and the opportunities involved dictate that they put in their all to prove themselves. This all they put in bodes well for the system, producing flawless output at all times. If you want to keep your people, you have to run a meritocracy. It cannot be said enough. In the long chain of appreciation that goes a long way in ensuring loyalty, meritocracy sums up the process. In a meritocratic system, your people will be promoted based on their skills. We talked about skills a while ago, where we mandated the selection of a team based on skill set rather than friendship or familiarity. Without skilled individuals working on our ideas, they won’t come to any fruition. Skill is a basic requirement in our endeavors, and when we pick for our team, we should strive to choose the most skilled ones. Nepotism has no place in our growth process. We should always make it a point to search for talented people

and encourage them to use their talents for us. This encouragement can only be effective when there are certain rewards for their efforts. We’ve talked about rewards in earlier points. We cited giving our people room to express their ideas and therefore encourage loyalty. We also treated the use of monetary incentives to motivate them. These are important, but they are not active methods of keeping your people with you. The ive method is to create a meritocratic system that automatically does the above. The system will ensure people get more freedom to express their ideas and even influence projects only when they have proved that they can handle them. When a worker increases the level of input he provides to the system, he or she gets a pay increment. That way, your enterprise constantly forces your people to put in more effort, understanding that their reward is assured. You get to keep your people because they work, aiming to attain the highest level possible in your enterprise. This can be achieved because you have already created a system that assures promotions if one works hard enough. Performance is rated by output, and the tussle to get increments in power and money results in a massive influx of input into your enterprise. Quality ideas are generated by those striving to make a name for themselves. Goals and milestones are hit easily and faster than planned. Competition is fierce, and you get a constantly running machine that develops ideas. Also, you can attract new people with your meritocracy. When outsiders see the possibility of thriving and even soaring by working for you, they will flood your gates. Many of them could even turn out to be from your competitors. Your system would be a better bet for them, as they see themselves growing to previously unimaginable heights. All they simply need to do is to be capable of doing the job. And the more ability they show, the more output would ensue from your enterprise. If we get to talk about losing people, the best point is to criticize them constantly. I’ve noticed that people are easily prone to criticism. This ease comes from a natural lack of appreciation we seem to have. The lack of appreciation, in turn, proceeds from our innate march towards perfectionism. We can never be perfect. It’s a sad but factual reality. Yet, we make plans, set goals, and dream occurrences without considering certain flaws. When our plans don’t go accordingly, we feel dejected. As we’ve already learned, we tend to believe we

are always right, so we find it hard to accept our wrongs. We also transfer these expectations to others. We expect people to be perfect in the things they do for us. We are quick to complain. We find faults with everything, usually because things don’t go exactly how we want them to. When someone makes a slight error, we easily forget the majority done well and complain about the little mistake. We all do it, and we can’t help it. Another problem many of us have is that we find it difficult to criticize constructively. When a subject is placed before us, we see only the faults and voice out our dissatisfaction with it. Faults always exist as nothing is yet perfect. We can express our distaste in less condescending ways when we see them, but we don’t. We spew the first things that come to mind and congratulate ourselves on making our opinions known. We easily condemn others. We judge quickly and fail to place ourselves in the shoes of others. We make conclusions, especially when we haven’t experienced something, and assume we won’t make similar mistakes. Like most of the points we’ve treated in this book, these things are natural to people, and we subconsciously exhibit these characters. But this book is also a guide to becoming great, and to become great, we must do what great people do. Great leaders don’t fall victim to the traps of complaining, criticizing, and condemning at every opportunity. They understand that when it comes to people, there is always a clash of self-importance. I’ll explain. When a person does a job for you, in his or her mind, they have done it perfectly. There is no reason for the person to believe they made a mistake. Say a work of art, like a portrait or a sculpture, the artist deems himself or herself a genius, on par with even Da Vinci. This is normal; we already know we believe ourselves to be flawless. Now, you, the client, will probably come around. You see that nose of the sculpture—maybe your image—is not proportional. What is the first thing you do? You scream. You swear. You condemn the entire work because the minute mishap has rendered it unpresentable. Obviously, your nose doesn’t look like that, so why should you even appreciate the sculpture? You begin criticizing every inch of the work. Suddenly, the eyes begin to look funny. The right ear is much smaller than the left one, you can’t even telling the sculptor to make a bust that big, what are you supposed to do with a bust that big?

However, you fail to wonder what the sculptor is thinking. He or she is not saying, “Woah! You’re right. I should have made the mouth smaller.” On the contrary, they’ll be astonished at your cluelessness. The bust, as far as they’re concerned, is perfect with a capital P, you just lack appreciation for art. In fact, they’ll be offended by your assertions because you can’t teach them their jobs. Like, they’ve spent years honing their skills, what experience do you even have in art? Can’t you understand that human physiology is imperfect? The flaws in the figure are what make it realistic. You both believe you’re right and the other person is wrong. That’s what happens when you complain or condemn. You simply make the other person defensive, and nothing you say can convince them they are wrong. The tug of opinions mixed with blames can go on forever. It’s time-consuming and counterproductive. You’ll never get any apologies, ittances, or concessions from the person. Even if you do, they won’t be genuine. Many people do not know this, but great people do. Great leaders know it is futile to complain about or criticize their people. When you do that, they never see your point because the same way you feel you’re right, they also feel they are too. So, the best thing to do is not to criticize, do not complain. It may seem natural, but you’ve realized it doesn’t get what you want done. So what’s the point? When any of your people make a mistake, resist the urge to complain. When you don’t resist, you gradually spread negativity, and the air in the workplace can be sullen. Criticisms make us feel bad and can cost us our self-esteem. When we are always being criticized, we start feeling like failures. It’s bad enough that we would have appreciated some approval from our boss, but we get the total reverse. \This dulls our work spirit and enthusiasm, causing us to dread making efforts. This is what complaining stirs in our team. Eventually, we push them away, and they start hating the job, and we know what comes next. Also, our people can come up with significant ideas, but they may be poorly presented. The natural urge to criticize flows out, and we kill the adventurous spirit of the person. When we can’t bridle our condemnations, we make our people feel bad. They fear expressing their thoughts as you create a discouraging presence. Since their purpose is to contribute to your endeavors, how then do they do their job when you make it difficult for them? In essence, don’t criticize, complain or condemn. Even if you must, ask yourself, “Before I condemn, how

many times have I appreciated?” We hardly appreciate others. Compared to the times we criticize, of course. There’s a saying: “Twice I did good, that I heard never; once I did bad, but that I heard ever.” A person can do all the good in the world, yet people won’t flinch. Probably, they assume what they did is normal. But when that person makes a mistake, the world condemns him or her. Suddenly, the person gets the attention that he or she failed to achieve scores of flawless acts; it happens every time and everywhere. It becomes easier to forget good things. Psychologically, it is a fact. When dealing with our people, we should learn to appreciate far more than we criticize. It may be difficult to do this, but before we complain about a person’s fault, we should try to if we have ever praised their previous efforts. Praise is gold when dealing with people, especially those working with and for us. The great people manager, Charles Schwab, had this to say, “Our people deserve praise for everything. The encouragement we give them goes a long way in oiling their self-esteem.” "If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person." -Fred Rogers When they are praised for their notable acts, it becomes easier for them to understand your complaints and appreciate your criticisms. When a member of our team gets a balanced dose of approvals and criticisms, he or she can work better with you. There will be no hard feelings and you will receive more productivity from them. Ready to take risks Great leaders are always risk-takers. From business executives to military commanders to political leaders, our mentors have always been known to battle uncertainties.

We once discussed uncertainties when it comes to expressing our ideas. Innovative ideas haven’t been tested, and there’s usually no proof they will be successful. When it comes to challenging the status quo, there is always a risk attached. This risk comes in a variety of ways. First, being the risk of your dream being unrealistic. During the French Revolutionary Wars, when Napoleon Bonaparte had just taken power from the Directory in a grand coup, the monarchical European powers attacked once again. The Austrians, for one, had amassed on the western frontier in northern Italy and had caged a French force. The said force was outnumbered and had lost morale due to political misgivings back home. Napoleon wrote to the European powers persuading them to retreat, explaining that he didn’t want a war with them. He also offered some concessions to alleviate the tension, but he was faced with no equal reaction. So, he secretly hatched a plan to disrupt the allied attack from the west. The plan was a re-enactment of Hannibal’s March across the Alps two thousand years before. The Alps was a mountainous terrain that stretched across the South of , present-day Switzerland and northern Italy; it was historic as it was treacherous. There was a route to cross the terrain, but the feat of crossing it was similar to the feat of reaching the summit of Mount Everest. Napoleon planned to march an army across it. The genius of the idea was that if he could cross his army over the Alps, he would appear behind the Austrian position and trap them against the defending French forces. Another stint of glorious strategy was that nobody, not a single soul, would expect an army to plop down from the mountains. So, the general began making plans. He sent messengers ahead to set up food provisions for his men at certain points. He also organized the way the heavy machinery would be transported over the mountains. Then he watched every single man march up the heights before he followed. The terrain was harsh, the weather was worse, and several men and animals were lost to the cold and chasms. Eventually, after many discouraging moments and reversals, the French army marched, rode, and rolled down into Italy. The Austrians, of course, were astonished to find an army behind them. In fact, the news of the time was that Napoleon was preparing to come to Italy then. Many Frenchmen didn’t know their beloved leader wasn’t even in the country. Crossing the Alps was an impossibility, or so they thought. Yet, the risk had been

taken, and won a great victory that day. The absurdity of the plan would have derailed many commanders, but Napoleon, one of the great leaders, wasn’t discouraged. One of the qualities of a great leader is the capability to take risks. As humans, we tend to have certain reservations about uncertainty. We fear failure. We fear losing what we have already in search of what hasn’t been seen. Our thoughts may border on those uncertainties, and there would be a natural drive to push back the unknown notions. Great leaders don’t give in to those fears. They embrace it. That is what makes them stand out. There is a story of a certain general who Napoleon had given the task of marching the army across the Alps. The man refused to believe that the endeavor is unattainable. When the glory of the war fell on Napoleon’s shoulders, he felt deceived. It was not his leader’s fault; he simply failed to forego the risk and make an effort. Although we won’t blame him, the plan itself was fantastical. It was like a strategy plucked from a child’s mind—simplistic and unrealistic, but in the end, it worked. To climb the ladder of greatness, we should smolder that innate part of us that would look at the plan and scoff. Then say things like, “How can an army of forty thousand men simply cross the mountains?” or “I don’t think it’s possible the Austrians won’t be aware of our approach.” We must learn to give in to unconventional thoughts and ideas. Once we lock ourselves up in the conventional box of ideas, we fail to become great. You lose 100% of the time that you don’t try. Chapter three

Don’t blame failure Quite often, whenever you experience people who do not make any headway in life and can’t get anything productive to come out of their business, relationship, friendship, you often find them blaming one person or the other. They point fingers at everything they can find; politicians, government, road, power, media,

their partner, etc. While some of these may be a factor to some limits, they are not supposed to be a major determinant to whether you are going to be successful or not. While you may not have control over the things going on around you and the emotions revolving around your relationships, you have control over the things going on within you. If you can take charge of your inner tools and your core emotions, then things going on around you have no hold on you. But, the moment you start blaming external factors for the issues you face, you lose your peace because you have given it to them to take control. For instance, say you were to drive from your home to somewhere around your state but unfortunately, you got to a point and the traffic was really terrible, in this case, you have two choices, either whine and cry about everything wrong or you start looking for another route and short cuts to get to your destination. We both know the second is what’s guaranteed to get you results. This is the same way people who blame external factors for their problems never make it to their destination. If there is inflation, you don’t have control over it, but you can raise your income to meet the high cost of living. If government policies don’t work in your favor, you either give up or work around it. When people give you stress in your relationship, you can either cry about how stupid, crazy and depressing they are or you can draw a line and quietly separate yourself from them. It’s all about you and your power to choose. No such thing as failure There was a time DVD players use to be the norm of the day. It was the reigning tech. People who had DVD players had access to movies made from CDs. And I the more frequently you play a particular CD (maybe your favorite movie), the more the surface gets cracked. And as the surface gets cracked, you begin to experience occasional pauses in the flow of that movie. In our case, we would take out the CD, try to clean the surface, and put it back. Other times, we try to fast forward that particular scene until the movie starts playing smoothly. Now, this doesn’t mean that the DVD player is bad or a failure; the occasional pause only tries to communicate that the CD is getting bad and needs attention. That occasional pause is the . Whenever you write an exam and get a score less than what you expected or

read for, that doesn’t mean you have failed. It means the score is letting you know that something is wrong. You either didn’t read as you ought to, or you were too slow, or you gave the right answer to the wrong question. There are no failures; everything is . According to Isaac Newton’s third law of motion: it states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means that if I put a punch through a wall with my fist, the pain I am going to feel is equal to the intensity of punch I gave to that wall. The experience you will have in life will always be equivalent to the level of effort you put not it. If you see not getting what you want at the intensity and level you want it, you might want to change your approach. Detach yourself from the bandwagon According to scientific studies, there is a phenomenon known as the bystander effect. This phenomenon is often experienced when people are in spaces where other people are involved in something, so they automatically catch the flu. Late one night on a street in Copenhagen, a man approaches another. He punches him to the face, knocking him to the ground. The victim falls, cracks his head on the pavement, and is unconscious. The attacker doesn’t stop. He kicks the prone man 47 times to his body and stamps on his skull. They catch the incident on CCTV cameras. There are many ers-by. It might be late, but the street is busy, it might be dark, but there is sufficient street lighting to see. Despite the brutal assault lasting a few minutes, nobody makes any attempt to stop the man. It has psychologists puzzled. Why did no one intervene? This CCTV footage was one of 81 incidents being examined by researchers conducting an observational study into the ‘bystander effect.’ From viewing the footage, they pick out 764 bystanders who saw and heard a fellow human being assaulted, but they stood back and did nothing. Not one of those people came to any of the victims’ aid. Why? ‘Diffusion of responsibility.’ The bystander first notices the situation, correctly labels this is an emergency, assumes responsibility for helping, decides how to help and implements the decision to help - at least, that is how most people would react on their own, but this is different, there are other people present. Being in a crowd interferes with this process.

When alone, defining a situation is straightforward because we use our own judgment. In contrast, in a group of strangers, a process known as ‘social comparison’ takes place where everyone looks to other’s reactions to define the situation. If others lack worry or do nothing, the likelihood of the victim being helped is significantly reduced. We assume others will take responsibility. The burden of responsibility is diluted among the number of bystanders present at the scene, ‘Someone else will phone the police.’ ‘Someone else will be more qualified to help than me.’ ‘No one else is doing anything; it can’t be that serious.’ The more people there are, the less likely you are to get involved, but now you know about the bystander effect. The next time you come across someone who collapsed in the street, be the one to phone for an ambulance. If you see a pick-pocket steal a wallet, shout, ‘Stop thief.’ If someone’s life is in danger, tap the nearest person to you and say, ‘We need to help that guy.’ The touch is enough to snap people out of inaction. Enlist the help of other bystanders, tell them what to do - it is in our nature to respond to direct requests. Ensure they understand what you are asking, even if it is a simple request. Getting a ‘yes’ reinforces the request and makes people more likely to stick to the plan. Ask others to keep an eye out for trouble/police/ambulance. People need a purpose, even if it is doing nothing. Let this idea of staying out of the crowd guide you if you really want to become someone of value. There is no honor in ing the bandwagon. You automatically do what others are doing; therefore, you begin to get their results. Putting yourself out there means putting yourself out of the crowd. When people complain about the wood on the road preventing cars from moving, be that guy who comes out to remove the log. Once you start living by this principle, you blame less and do more. Empowerment comes from responsibility There is never anything good that comes from pointing fingers at other people. The best way to take control is to take responsibility. There’s a popular saying that goes, “The reward for hard work is more work.” The wealth, riches, happiness, and the freedom to travel wherever we want to go will be based on how much responsibility we take on in the world. Whoever is solving more problems is who the world automatically gives more of its resources. Therefore, if for any reason you feel something isn’t going as it ought to, rather than

screaming and walking all about whining and complaining, you might want to find out why they are that way. Who knows, in your bid to find out why things are not going the way they ought to, you’d discover a unique and innovative solution. People who face the same challenges with you automatically accept your solution, and the reward is your wealth. One who is busy complaining can’t see solutions. He greets it with a lot of disdain yet has no real solution. One who greets situations with questions will always find innovative answers. The solution hub Everything started in 2003, when Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO, and Founder of the social media company, Facebook, initiated a system he named “Facemash.” This program permitted its s to objectify fellow students by placing one picture comparatively to another, and the public now had to choose which they felt was hotter between both. According to the independent network, while Zuckerberg faced punishment from the Harvard istration and narrowly escaped expulsion from the college altogether for his actions, “Facemash” provided the framework for what was to become Facebook. Online “Facebook” already existed at Harvard at the time. These were online directories that featured photos of students alongside some information about them. There wasn’t a single “Facebook” for the whole student body of Harvard University, which is why Zuckerberg came up with the idea to create one. On February 4 2004, the first iteration of Facebook was born, then known as thefacebook.com, and made available exclusively to Harvard students. Thefacebook.com was an instant hit, and interest grew and grew and grew. By the end of 2004, hip was open to nearly all universities in the US and Canada and people were clamoring to sign up. June of that year also saw Zuckerberg move the company’s operations to Palo Alto, California, and secured some important investment. Co-founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel, ed the board and brought with him $500,000. In May 2005, TheFacebook.com received more money. This time investments of $12.7m from Accel and $1m from the personal fortune of venture capitalist Jim Breyer. People were really paying attention now. In August, the ‘the’ was dropped, and the company officially became Facebook (the facebook.com domain cost $200,000). The following month, high school

students were itted, along with employees of Microsoft and Apple. The company was now ready to move beyond its student base. Then in November, Zuckerberg made an important decision about his own life. Having taken the semester off from Harvard, he announced he was leaving entirely, returning briefly to hire some new employees. After significant investment and growing hip, Zuckerberg was ready to fully dedicate himself to running his company as a CEO rather than a programmer. With Zuckerberg at the helm full-time, Facebook continued its expansion plans. In December, Australian and New Zealand universities were included, along with high schools from Mexico, the UK, and Ireland. That meant there were now 2,500 colleges and 25,000 high schools with access to Facebook. It wasn’t until September 2006 when the platform became open for everyone (well, anyone over 13 with a valid email address). Facebook had now gone fully global. The world also started to see the rate of hip growth: - December 2006: 12m - April 2007: 20m - July 2007: 30m - October 2007: 50m In May 2007, Facebook opened its Marketplace, which lets s to sell products and services. It also saw the launch of the Facebook Application Developer platform, opening the gates for developers to create their own applications and games that integrated with Facebook. The platform was also looking beyond personal profiles to how businesses could use the site. By the end of 2007, over 100,000 companies had signed up, with Facebook launching Pages for Businesses to this. They’re already making plans to build on existing ad revenue to make advertising on the platform accessible to even the smallest businesses. Then in 2008, we see a huge release from Facebook. April 2008 saw Facebook Chat roll out, allowing us to annoy our friends and family more instantly. Essentially, the concept is no different from ZuckNet. We also see the People You May Know, Facebook Wall, and Facebook Connect was released in the same year. Meanwhile, the count continues to grow: - August 2008: 100m

- January 2009: 150m - February 2009: 175m - April 2009: 200m - July. 2009: 250m - September 2009: 300m We also saw one of the big Facebook games appear. Farmville was released in June 2009, and despite being a rip-off of a game called Farm Town, it became a huge success. By August, it had 10m daily active s, so much virtual corn. Today, Facebook is the biggest social media platform in the world, with the highest number of s. They acquired Instagram then went on to buy WhatsApp. They integrated several services such as the Facebook chat, then opened up pages for companies to come onboard and their services. And as the base of Facebook grew larger, more investors began trooping in. Today, Facebook is worth several hundred billions and has become a platform that has generated the same for several businesses worldwide. All this started with one young boy who desired to take responsibility for a small sophomore problem. As he got his hands into it, other possibilities began to show themselves. As he began to improve and iterate, he realized that what was initially meant for the schools could actually connect the whole world. When the world saw this, he was appreciated, and currently, Mark Zuckerberg is the fourth richest man in the world, following Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos. The what, why, and how If solutions must be developed and we must overcome failures, we need to adopt an inquiring mindset, which seeks to find answers that will never be left in obscurity. When you see people who keep failing and never making headway, they don’t ask questions. They don’t seek to know the truth, and in the bid not to take responsibility, they blame everything apart from themselves. I will be sharing with you the three most important questions you can ask to empower yourself to make a difference. These questions are What, Why, and How.

The story of the Wright brothers The year 1903 marked a remarkable moment in history, a moment that was going to change the way the world operated, loved, and experienced life generally. Two men had just invented something that would become a whole new industry somewhere in the United States and later extended to the rest of the world. All these happened because they asked the question of what, why, and how. Wilbur and Orville were brothers and children of a preacher and his wife, Milton and Catherine Wright. Whenever their father came back from his missionary journeys, he used to buy them toys of different calibers. However, on this particular day in 1878, he came back with this particular toy that made the boys so curious, and that curiosity was going to change the history of the world. It was a medieval model of a helicopter created by a man named Alphonse Penaud, who was known to be the father of Aeronautics. These boys would later drop out of school to chase this dream of creating something that would fly like birds in the sky. They started this journey by trying to discover first why birds flew, why certain birds fly in certain ways and how they can adopt the same strategies for their model. Wilbur was known to be very bright and inquisitive. He spent most of his time studying and trying to get the best out of life by reading several books. His brother Orville was more of a business-minded person who knew how to make great business decisions. They would spend days repairing and deg their own brands of bicycles for sale while spending the evening working on their newfound hobby, a plane. They achieved their first feat in 1903 after flying the first airborne plane, a free controlled flight. But due to the general ideas and the crudeness of technology that was predominant then, people still didn’t believe, so the appreciation wasn’t coming forth. These brothers knew they had to do something. Once again, they were faced with why people couldn’t see the benefit and value of the future they were trying to birth. After discovering why (a lack of belief), they moved to find out how they could get things done. They moved to Europe in 1978 and found that their theory and works were more appreciated there, so they stayed. In 1809, fame came; they got the recognition

they deserve, started a plane manufacturing company, and became very rich. But beyond riches, these brothers are the reason we have an aviation industry today. Don’t limit to your dreams by adapting them at the person that you are now. Rather, improve yourself to become strong enough to reach you really dreams. Chapter four

There is more to life Troutt was born in 1948 in Mount Vernon, Illinois, United States. His father worked as a bartender. He was the eldest of his three siblings. Troutt did his schooling at the Mt. Vernon Township High School and later graduated from the Southern Illinois University in 1971. Belonging to a low-income family, he always intended to overcome his family’s financial situation and become rich. Due to the shortage of money, he started working at a very young age to his family and earn extra money. He even sold insurance to subsidize his studies while he was in college. As a kid, he went through a financial struggle and worked hard to get to the position where he stands right now. When his teacher questioned him about what he wanted to become in the future, he did not know what career he would choose, but he surely knew that he wanted to become rich. After completing his graduation, with continuous hard work, he co-founded Excel, a long-distance phone service, along with his business partner Steve Smith, in 1988. Smith’s interest in the network marketing business helped the two start the company as he had found much more scope. Just in nine years, the company had earned revenue in billion dollars. Excel became the fastestgrowing company in the U.S., even faster than Microsoft. In 1996, it went public in the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ECI, becoming the youngest company ever to the NYSE. In June the very next year, Excel acquired the Telco Communications Group, followed by a merger with Teleglobe, in November 1998. The merger between the two companies brought lots of fortune to the two co-founders of Excel. Troutt and Smith became billionaires overnight.

Troutt retired as CEO on September 20, 1999, and was replaced by Christina Gold. Currently, Troutt serves as the chairman of Mt. Vernon Investments. Troutt is married to Lisa E. Copeland and has three children with her. The family lives in their 13000 square foot grand estate in Dallas, Texas. He owns a 2,400-acre thoroughbred horse breeding and racing farm in Versailles, Kentucky, named WinStar Farm. In 2014, his net worth was estimated to be approx. $1.5 billion. There are quite a lot of people in the world today who just want to live an average life, eat, get a job, get married, and probably die peacefully. While that seems like a good way to live, it is totally unacceptable for people like Troutt, me, and you. If you have eyes that can see, then you must understand the significance of living your life to the fullest. There’s a lot this world has to offer you, just as you have to offer the world. Stop living small and take the bull by the horn.

Valid Questions How would you feel that you went into your bank or your workplace one day only to find some regional heads in the building? Their faces glued to you as you walk towards them, you could read a blend of worry, pity, and concern as they looked at you. In the bid to unravel what’s really going on, you asked what was wrong. At first, the group head hesitated but after many queries, he finally mumbled till you heard a competing statement saying, “Your departmental head has been sacked.” Oh well, even though you feel bad at the moment, you still don’t see enough reason why regional heads should come around just because your departmental head was sacked, so you push further. “Actually, every single one of you who has been working in this department has been earning less than is stipulated by the company,” he paused to search your eyes for shock before continuing, “your departmental head has been shortchanging your salaries by 30% making you earn less than what you deserve. We found this out recently after we did some internal auditing and investigation. Today, we have to come here to relieve him of his duty and hand him over to the police for investigation. Now you are really shocked.

“What?!” you responded in disbelief. This is the same way we get to discover many hidden things when we ask valid questions. You will realize that there are a lot of things you might have come to believe that are actually not true, things about people, relationships, your life, friends, religion, etc. And because you have been living with those truths, just like your head of department, they have been giving you a life less than the one you truly deserve. You need to learn to question your beliefs. You have got to constantly ask yourself, “Why do I believe the things I believe?” this question will open you up to a new level of learning. You will be glad to see other people's view of the world. And maybe, just maybe, you’d realize that they have been getting the best out of life compared to you. Develop a vision. If you don’t have a clear vision, you will wander into nothingness, ending up getting nowhere Chapter five

Start now, even with small step Two major laws play out when it comes to starting with small steps; they are the Law of Inertia and the Law of Compounding. We will be talking extensively about them later. Compounding gives momentum and works moving forward or backward. Evergrowing percentages of money attract ever-increasing amounts of money, “The rich become richer while the poor get poorer.” In fact, the rich have a problem with too much money: they cannot reinvest it fast enough because compounding is compounding on compounding, and because they reinvest it, more money comes in. Yes, the rich do get richer. The Law of Compounding Albert Einstein called the Law of Compounding the 8th wonder of the world. He believed it was a universal principle that can be applied in almost everything we touch. The law of compounding can be explained with the Legend of Sissa ibn

Dahir. This is an ancient Indian tale that tells the story of the wheat and the chessboard problem. The Legend of Sissa Ibn Dahir This is the tale of Sissa ibn Dahir — a man who cared about humanity. He was also said to be the inventor of chess. A long time ago in the Indus Valley, chess was seen as the game of kings and then reigned King Shihram. It was in the reign of Shihram that Dahir lived. Shihram was a brutal Indian ruler, a despot who tyrannized his subjects and overthrew his country in need and misery while living in luxury and the pleasures of games. Dahir’s son, the wise Brahmin Sissa, saw the misery of the farmers, soldiers, craftspeople, and everybody else. To draw the king’s attention to his mistakes without igniting his anger, Sissa ibn Dahir created a game for the ever-pleasureseeking emperor. Brahmin Sissa wanted to show the king how important everybody who lives in his kingdom is, even the smallest among them. He created what we know today as chess, the strategic game in which the king, as the most important figure, cannot do anything without the help of other figures, not even the peasants. The lessons in chess made such a strong impression on Shihram that in his enlightenment, he saw the strategic power of the game and spread the game of chess to all his royal household, ministers, and generals that everyone could take note of it. Nothing changed, but everybody now had to play against the king and the king was seeking to find the best players in his kingdom to make them generals and irals. Sissa ibn Dahir was disappointed, mostly in himself that he could not make the emperor see the importance of all the figures and peasants and pushed the generals and irals to teach Shihram the lesson by not letting him win the game all the time, but by employing the true winning strategy of the game as intended. In order to thank the Brahmins for the joy of the new game, Shihram wanted to reward him. He invited him to his treasure chambers. But Sissa ibn Dahir did not want to be rewarded in gold, gems, silk, or spices. He wanted one grain of rice for the first field of the chessboard, two for the second field, on the third field twice the quantity, four, and so on. He repeated it for all the 64 fields. The king laughed and at the same time was angry at the Brahmin’s modesty, but he granted him his wish anyways.

When Shihram asked his reeve, who had the oversight of the king’s larder a few days later, whether Sissa had received his reward, he heard that his mathematicians had not yet calculated the amount of rice to be received by Sissa. The head of the granary announced after several days of uninterrupted work that he could not find this amount of rice throughout the empire. On all fields of a chessboard together, it would be 18 Quintillion, 446 Quadrillion, 744 Trillion, 730 Billion, 709 Million, 551 Thousand, 615 grains of rice. Now he asked himself how the promise could be kept. The mathematician helped the ruler out of the embarrassment by recommending that he simply let Sissa ibn Dahir count his reward grain by grain. Sissa started counting immediately and gave every grain away to the peasants. He grew very old and kept counting and giving away all the rice until he died at over a hundred years. In all that time, the Indus Valley was blessed with food and peace. The problem may be solved using simple addition. With 64 squares on a chessboard, if the number of grains doubles on successive squares, then the sum of grains on all 64 squares is: 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 +... and so forth for the 64 squares. The total number of grains equals 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 (eighteen quintillion four hundred forty-six quadrillion, seven hundred and forty-four trillion, seventy-three billion, seven hundred and nine million, five hundred and fifty-one thousand, six hundred and fifteen; over 1.4 trillion metric tons.) About 2,000 times annual world production—much more than most expect. This legend explains the law of compounding, and this law can be applied to both wealth, business, career, and so on. The power of compounding was seen when one grain of rice compounded to a number thousands of times more than the earth’s population. The Cost of Change The cost of change is the cost of resetting compounding to zero again. There are a lot of stories in different facets of life about people who would have gone on to greatness but stopped just before they allowed compounding to start manifesting its law. Let’s look at Tiger Woods. Imagine he gave up Golf at 18 years old because he had not won a major yet. That would have reset 16 years of time invested, getting him more than 80% of the way towards multiple major wins and entry into Golf’s hall of fame. Or is it Edison, whose experiments for the light bulb worked on his 9000th or 9,998th attempt?

This works with money, time, energy, effort, trees and plants, workflow, exercises at the gym, and your reputation. It is hard to think about where the law of compounding does not work. This is not in any way saying you have to work really hard for a long time. It is saying the longer you are in it, the easier you actually have to work for the compounded benefit. It is the same with building a brand and reputation. No one knows you when you start a brand, so no one knows what you can offer. Thanks to social media, you take advantage of the online space; you are slowly moving forward, one post at a time. You are new, so you do not have so many followers. You are doing your best, but it doesn’t seem good enough. You do not know how to deal with what lies ahead because you have never been there, so you have to learn all the mistakes the hard way, you lose followers. With time, you get all that out of the way before your first customer will refer you to someone else, just one person, and then it takes more time to build your referral network for the word to spread positively about what you do. Imagine going through all these processes just to start again. Starting again will reset it all to ZERO. We live in a world of instant gratification. We see Tik Tok videos with millions of views and get blown away by what seems like overnight successes, and we get tempted to try out shortcuts. This is an unrealistic fantasy, one whose longterm reality is poverty, lack of self-worth, and fulfillment. When you lack a clear vision and chose to be distracted by what seems like overnight successes, you need to start something else all over again. Each time you start again, having invested time into growing the roots but seeing no shoots, you have to go through the entire seeding, planting and fertilizing process all over again. The more this happens, the more you lose your confidence in your ability to create compounded success, and you look for other shortcuts to save you because you doubt your own ability. And so the cycle continues. With consistency and focus, the roots get deeper, and the higher the tree grows towards the sun, the wider and more radiant its leaves spread, and the more seeds it produces for future forests (generations). Those ‘overnight successes’ invested time growing their roots to position themselves for maximum compounding and reach. You always hear people pointing out how the rich get richer and the poor get

poorer? This is generally the case of compounding, as they are attracting more of what they already have. For the rich, it is that wealth and abundance, and for the poor, it is the bills and scarcity. Note this: you will not attract more wealth until you learn to manage what you already have. The 80/20 Rule of Time Management and Small Steps Life can benefit from introducing a little imbalance into your day. It is referred to as the 80/20 rule of time management, which is rooted in what is known as the Pareto Principle. Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, “discovered” this principle in 1897 when he observed that 80 percent of the land in England (and every country he subsequently studied) was owned by 20 percent of the population. Pareto's theory of predictable imbalance has since been applied to almost every aspect of modern life. Given a chance, it can make a difference in yours. If more people knew about 80/20 and the law of compounding, they would think much more carefully about giving up or changing all the time. They would seriously weigh up continuing what they are doing slow-and-steady against looking at the greener grass where it all looks faster, easier, and better. Most people, and especially those who do not succeed, do not give compounding a chance. Most people stop, give up, and change course just before compounding kicks in and starts to pay them back. You would not plant a seed, come back the next day, and shout, “Where’s the tree?” Of course, you know that in order to see the fruits, the tree will have to grow roots. Imagine that you had a visual mechanism that showed a power bar or battery life gauge of your intangible, ethereal progress. Imagine that you could see the bar go up and down according to the future compounded results and consequences of your actions. Imagine the bar almost full at the point where it looks like there are little physical results; you would NEVER give up. You would see the cost of change. Why Are Small Steps Important? As explained by the law of compounding, small steps can result in big effects.

They get us started. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” - Mark Twain Small steps are like SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals, which get us started aiming for a bigger picture. Because they are small, they tend to be very specific, and they focus on one thing at a time. When a small step is taking towards a big goal, they appear attainable, and successes can be measurable over a short period (time-bound). There is the release of dopamine when we achieve a task, this hormone causes excitement, and we, in turn, want to do more. Then, inertia takes over. So once we are in motion, it is easier to continue. A common approach is seen among athletes facing grueling early-morning workouts. They focus on their immediate next step, such as putting on their running shoes and getting in their car. Eventually, they get to their tough workout, but they do not give themselves a chance to opt-out beforehand. ‣ Inertia The law of inertia states that when an object is at rest, it remains at rest and when it is in motion, it continues to be in motion. Small steps create that critical early momentum. And this momentum is crucial if you want your team to thrive. One of the most prevalent features of high-performance teams is the ability to make meaningful progress on important goals. Teresa Amabile, author of The Progress Principle, found out that progress creates the best work experience. That is to say, forward momentum in meaningful work creates the best inner work life. This, in return, will develop into higher creativity and productivity. ‣ They always add up to big results The keyword here is consistency. Whatever the preparation is about, whether a big pitch at the office, building a house or lifestyle changes, small, consistent steps always add up, and the results are often big. Let us look at facts now. In a study published in Medicine and Science in Sports

and Exercise, it was discovered that the group who exercised for 13 minutes per session, three times a week for two months showed similar strength improvements as those who exercised for 70 minutes per session, the only difference was that each session was done at maximum effort. In other words, their muscles were exhausted at the end of the set. Small Steps Leads to Success and Success breeds success “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” - Chinese Proverb Just like the law of inertia, once we start and realize some early success, it is easier to continue. According to Leonard A. Schlesinger, in his book “Just Start,” it explains how small steps help to minimize your risk (while at the same time it increases your odds of success). With each succeeding step, opportunities are being provided to learn and adjust while feeling assured that no one step will bankrupt you or destroy the goodwill you have built. Pat Robertson said, “Despise not the days of little begins because you can make all your mistakes anonymously.” The Consistency with small steps makes work easier and helps with Forming Habit. “If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.” - Olin Miller Small steps help us create valuable habits, which help us achieve big goals. Small steps help us avoid decision fatigue because they are attainable and are specifically designed not to feel overwhelming. They are also easier to fit into hectic, over-scheduled days, which most people face regularly. Small steps also allow us to manage our cognitive load better, meaning we have more headspace to deal with all our other thoughts and plans. And finally, small steps help us to manage distraction better. The less we have to resist the destructive habit of multi-tasking, the more success we will have with each small step.

Small steps help us to avoid procrastination. This is true because they make tasks Attainable (with small steps), boost your Confidence and agree upon a Timeline. As a bonus, small, incremental changes are the kind of changes that actually stick. What hinders Small Steps? Perfectionism Perfectionism can be a deterrent to many things. Always wanting things to take a particular shape (be perfect) before you commence with other things is what is holding people back from starting a business, writing a book, or building a house. Most persons are scared of launching a personal project, and one of those fears stream from criticism or getting turned down or even mocked. This keeps people from sharing their ideas, thereby doing the projects privately. They forget that in so doing, they are preventing the necessary that would make the work better. Big Goals Another deterrent is a big goal. The task required to start big goals can be very daunting. It requires dedication, consistency, sleepless night, mistakes and errors, and rejections, which might deter us from even trying to start. For example, in insurance, whether it is life, health, car, business, or your house, a little percentage of your money goes into these company, and they help to cushion payments when something goes wrong. When this happens, you will appreciate how hard it is to start making the extra repayments (especially when money is tight), which is why so many people try to get insured. Also, when things do look unachievable, it is also easy to look for a shortcut or quick fix that will solve the problem for us in a short time. Don’t try to explain your philosophy. Incarnate it and make others observe it in you Chapter six

Inspire trust

Trust is an essential concept in a lot of things that involve the human relationship. It is essential in marriage, relationships with family and friends, and also in business. In the business world, whether be it a startup or a big corporate, you will need to leverage trust. It is even more when it is a startup because you are dealing with a new product or service, new client needs (to ensure you meet and even exceed their needs), and most often, a new industry. This makes trust a priority, and inspiring this will pay off even though not immediately, but in the nearest future. How to Build Trust in business With the advent of social media and the internet, it is very easy to read up about a company’s history, trends, and track records (for people interested in buying shares and stocks). For those that offer products and services, you can check out their reviews and look up testimonials. All these are strategies customers use to ascertain whether a brand or company is trustworthy or not. It goes a long way to show how vital trust is in a business, particularly when you want to establish relationships and increase output. It takes time to build a lasting relationship, especially if you are a new company. It is even more if your company renders services. That is why inspiring trust should be at the forefront of any business. Here are some ways you can build trust in a business. 1.Be marketable One might say I sell good products; I render high-quality services. The truth is that you can be doing all this and you are still not marketable. In being marketable, you have to put yourself out there, be engaging with contents, and I mean personal contents. Let me explain this. People love a good story, especially when it is non-fictional. So tell your stories. How did you come up with the business idea? People would be interested in hearing how the co-founders met, how they thought up the name, why they decided to go with this particular product or render certain services or a plethora of them. People love good testimonials; they love hearing how this product changed someone’s life and the growth/movement (if it is an already existing company) in different parts of the country and the world.

One other way to be marketable is to put images and photos of people on your website or social media platforms. Images are catchy and tend to draw a lot of attention. Going further, you can put a face to the brand; you have heard of brand ambassadors. A ton of studies show that putting a human face on your landing page increases traffic and acceptance. To help consumers or potential clients get over their skepticism and give them a reason to trust you, you need to be real and open yourself to them. Yes, you want to sell them products, but you also want to be telling them why you want them to get this particular product (I mean, there are a lot of brands, why is yours different?) and why it is so important to you that they purchase or seek your services. Explain the struggles you went through and how you got to where you are today. When consumers get to know and see the real you, they see you as a trustworthy person who genuinely cares and not one who is hungry for sales or profit. This is where startups have a huge competitive edge. As your audience read your stories over time, they become more familiar with your brand and trust your insight. A whole lot of options can be explored in marketing, and they include; blogging, videos, and podcasts; events are also very useful. Producing content requires a whole lot of effort (which is why outsourcing is a good idea), but that is one reason customers value it. Statistics from the Content Marketing Institute show that content marketing gets 3-5 times more leads than paid search advertising. Small businesses with a blog see 126% more lead growth than those who do not. Businesses that actively blog have 434% more indexed pages on Google, 55% more visitors, and 97% more inbound links (HubSpot). 80% of business decision-makers prefer to get company information from a series of articles versus an ment (B2B PR Sense). There are tons of ways to make content, but all valuable content has one thing in common: it is useful to your audience. This means, don’t just create content for likes or page views; instead create a content that your audience cares about, the one that would impact on them. 2. Provide value Value goes beyond just providing a good quality product and exceptional

services. While those are vital in business, what is of utmost importance is your client's value from that product or service. For example, if you walk into a salon to get your hair done and the hairstylist just asks for the style and does it very well, that’s a good service. Now, if the hairstylist goes further to provide you with options or explain how your face's shape would enhance the styles you pick and give you tips of how to manage the hairstyles effectively so that it looks new always, that is value for the money. Providing value, in simple , means educating your customer about the services or products you provide. This means offering tutorials, guides, hacks, and tips. Not only will your company then be seen as a leading expert in that industry, but you also get to encourage interaction and solve the problems of your targeted audience. That is why the comment section of your social media platform is gold; this is because you get to talk directly with them and create a more personal relationship. 3. Utilize Testimonials Like I stated in the introduction, testimonials are important, and there are chances clients would read reviews before buying an item. Customer success stories are gold. First, you are selling a story that builds their trust. Then it allows you to show your social visibility, which is another key part of building trust with your client. When a consumer is contemplating whether or not to get something, they look up your social proof (numbers of followers, likes, comments, reviews, testimonial, and success stories) to see if others agree. 90% of buyers who read positive customer success content claim that it influenced their purchasing decision. That is why you want your customer success stories right out there in the spotlight. If you are a startup, you may not have thousands of amazing reviews, but even one or two amazing customer success stories that are written as a story can be extremely beneficial. 4. Explore Technology

If you are a startup in the technology world, you know how important it is to have the latest tech. In fintech’s case, the ‘tech’ part is one of the largest reasons this industry is growing at a neck-breaking speed. Big banks are lagging behind because of their enormous infrastructures from the 1980s, and so they cannot adapt and deliver what customers need in 2021. Fintechs have a huge advantage since they can deliver on the largest consumer trend of the decade. Their watchword is convenience. People want to manage their money, buy their insurance, and have medical appointments with the same ease they receive food at their doorstep, navigate GPS, and see what all their friends are doing on Instagram. However, the financial, insurance, and health industry are lagging behind because of the lack of up-to-date tech, and that is where startups jump in. Having the latest tech builds trust because it shows that the company is aware of the importance of convenience and that it is listening to what customers want and delivering the needs of the decade. What is the latest tech? It varies from industry to industry, but the main things would be: live online chats instead of waiting on hold for hours, a constantly updated website, a very easy-to-use system. 5. Be transparent I recently got on this website (name withheld) to purchase a course. Apparently, I subscribed to their newsletter, and they flooded me with daily emails, but the good thing is, they succeeded in getting me to sign up for a course. I bought the course and started using it. Five days into it, I was automatically charged twice the amount I already purchased the course. I sent them an email explaining my dismay at their actions. Transparency should be something a business should keep at the forefront of its interaction with clients. This could be as simple as summarizing the and conditions in few bullet points and simple English. Sending me an email like, ‘This is to inform you that you will be subsequently charged for this service after a certain period.’ Or even, ‘We are sorry we made this mistake, we are still working on getting it fixed.’ So, I was charged a hip fee. That was what the deduction was for. I reverted to them because I was able to go through the and conditions. I

told them that I had a free 14 days hip, and it was not stated anywhere that I have to be a member to access the courses I paid for. Now, imagine the level of transparency here, none. I unsubscribed from that website, and I will personally not recommend them to anyone else. I am much more likely to trust a transparent company that offers average services than one that provides exceptional services with no transparency. They can just creep up on you one day, and all that good services would be ruined. This is where posting content comes in extremely handy. You get to educate your customers on yourself; you get to be transparent with how you make money, with your and services, and with your product. This racks up bonus points in normal human interactions, so it most definitely does with companies too. If you don’t fight for what you want, don’t cry for what you haven’t. Chapter seven

The Social Impact Social impact is often thought of as having this grand idea that must eradicate a major issue in the world or else it is useless. Having a major mission and vision is amazing, but it also often derails many people who really want to get started in social entrepreneurship, social enterprise, or even beginning their footprint in making a positive social impact. Making a difference towards long-term societal issues does not happen overnight. However, taking small steps every single day ends up making a major impact in the long run. Making Positive Social Impacts Social Impact can be seen in the aspect of developing attitudes or ideas towards societal issues. The United Nations in 2015 developed 17 Sustainable Development Goals aimed at a more sustainable future. Social impact can be

perceived when one's behavior aligns with these goals. Below are a few lists of ways one can make positive social impacts: ‣ Define What Sustainability Means to You Sustainability at its core is maintaining change in a balanced fashion. How it is implemented depends on you. Our ever-increasing digital world should be embraced. This is not only affecting us in a professional aspect but on a personal one as well. Defining this at home will create a positive social impact. For instance, eliminating paper waste could be the overall theme. This means ensuring every bill is paperless and having access to them online while eliminating print. ‣ Broadcasting on Social Media In today’s world, we are all social activists leveraging the tools of social media. When a post is seen that is not right or calls for clarification, Share it with local authorities or decision-makers in your local community to provide a solution. It transcends beyond digital likes. More must be done, and it could be done in as little as five minutes with mobile technology. ‣ Reporting Harmful Content Children today are facing higher rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide. Kids are not being kids anymore. This is one of the cons of our digital era, as harmful, disparaging content could be utilized at a moment’s notice. Girls are especially the focus of this throughout their grade school years and on online platforms. If a comment is seen as abusive on digital platforms, it should be reported to corporate and followed up to ensure it is taken down. ‣ Making Smart Shopping Decisions Sustainable investing has increased 135% from 2012–2016, according to the US SIF Foundation. What does this mean? Shopping local & smart is a higher priority among consumers, but there is way more work that needs to be done. For instance, Americans are notorious for food waste, where as much as 150,000 tons of foods are tossed out every day! (I.e., never consumed). Do not be fooled by marketing tactics. Run the numbers and do not buy more food than you need. Be conscious. Wasted food is wasted money, and wasted food is harmful,

especially when 1 Billion people are suffering from famine. This can help in making positive impacts ‣ Taking Charge at Work Organizations, especially the younger ones, now care about team-building activities. Organizing a day or two (maybe even a week) once in a while in volunteering can help to propel social Initiatives. Younger management professionals now welcome this in having a week of shortened hours to go out and do good work in their respective communities. This could involve roadside/beach cleanups, building homes in under-served communities, volunteering at a local food bank, offering to speak with local high school students about career paths, or sharing a personal story that could relate to an unguided individual. Your experience and wisdom alone could make a great difference. Taking charge of organizing those initiatives for your company will improve you, the team, the organization, and the surrounding community. This is what a positive impact is about. Startup and social impact Businesses cannot afford to ignore the social impact of their business or the interests of their wider stakeholders, as the Business Roundtable explained in the updated Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation. Today, the “business as usual” approach to social and environmental concerns is simply insufficient given the rapid pace of change and disruption of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. To achieve the ambitious 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), governments and businesses alike will need to take action. And as employees, consumers, and wider stakeholders increasingly demand companies step up and lead the way on sustainable development, businesses, in particular, must make social impact part of their core business model. Consciously trying to implement measures that will increase social impact can actually help companies succeed. Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan provides a clear example of what is possible when business leaders decide to prioritize

social impact. One might argue that larger companies are better positioned to invest the necessary funds to redesign their businesses, while smaller businesses and startups struggle to make social impact part of their business proposition because of the initial costs and concerns that the return on investment will not significantly contribute revenue. Yet, in the experience of one of the 2019 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers, making social impact a core business focus has actually been beneficial to a startup’s growth. How Truepic realized its social impact potential Truepic’s CEO, Jeff McGregor and Co-founder Craig Stack set out to develop a tool to counter highly edited and curated online content and fight fraud. The tool was an image verification tool leveraging Blockchain, machine learning, and computer vision technology. The business applications of this type of authentication technology – from insurance to peer-to-peer commerce – were obvious. But shortly after raising seed funding in 2017, Jeff received a message from a US diplomat, Mounir Ibrahim, who suggested Truepic’s technology could have a far greater social impact. Image verification, Ibrahim suggested, could empower citizen journalists documenting alleged war crimes and other atrocities worldwide to help protect them against accusations of fraudulent claims, a significant problem on the world’s biggest geopolitical stages. Ibrahim also saw immense utility for oversight and monitoring of international development, particularly in hard-to-reach or non-permissive locations. McGregor and Stack were quickly convinced. They agreed it is good for business because countering fraud and improving transparency can have immense benefits within an enterprise, but it is also impactful globally. So, it has been very natural to have a social impact mission as a core value. Recognizing the value and power of the image verification technology, Truepic’s leadership decided to redesign the company’s business practices and make partnering with social impact organizations a central part of its business. This key leadership decision early on Truepic’s trajectory has had an overwhelmingly positive impact on the company's growth.

How Truepic’s focus on social impact benefited the business › Recruiting and retaining top talent Perhaps the most immediate benefit of aligning its business with a broader social impact mission was Truepic’s ability to attract and retain top talent. One of such talents was Sherif Hanna, Truepic’s Vice President of Ecosystem Development. She was formerly a director at Qualcomm. In addition to Hanna, Truepic’s expanded mission also attracted top-tier talent from Dropbox, SpaceX, and board of the likes of Dr. Hany Farid, one of the world’s preeminent scholars on image veracity. › Beta-testing As anyone in the tech world will tell you, developing useful, secure, and evolving technology is an expensive undertaking. So, it might seem counterintuitive for a company to provide access to a product or capability for free, let alone use early-stage resources to set up an entire division within the company for social impact. Yet for nascent technologies, especially ones addressing fast-evolving or looming problems (e.g., the proliferation of deep fakes), it is critical to test the technology with a wide range of s in order to build a deeper understanding of interaction and deployments of the technology. This helps companies constantly iterate, improve and evolve their product. In Truepic’s experience, partnerships with social impact organizations expanded the company’s horizons in of s and use cases. Truepic has several partners who use the technology to monitor and evaluate the progress of development projects. One such partner has taken tens of thousands of images from over 200 sources to track the progress of development projects in some of the most remote areas of Syria. This can be applied to a range of other business compliance needs, whether it is remotely assessing the progress of a construction project or tracking supply-chain integrity. Media recognition brings investors In addition to being selected as one of the World Economic Forum’s 2019 Technology Pioneers, Truepic has gained recognition by FastCompany as one of

the 50 most innovative companies, ranked 1 for Social Good. The State Department, TedX and many other organizations have picked up on Truepic’s social impact work and featured their leadership at major conferences, which has led to new and innovative partnerships with business, government, and nongovernmental organizations. Rather than using limited early-stage capital for a marketing team and public affairs strategy, Truepic’s investment in the work drives the media attention. The positive recognition for Truepic's efforts in this space has had a cascading effect, drawing additional media and partnership attention, as well as investors. How start-ups or other small businesses can make social impact part of their core business Truepic’s experience shows that having the courage to embrace social impact as a core business value can benefit profit and growth. The Blueprint for Business Leadership on the Sustainable Development Goals is a good starting point for business leaders looking for guidance on how to take action towards ing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As Truepic’s experience shows, when leaders prioritize social impact goals, act on those goals and learn from the impact to improve their business model, they create a virtuous cycle with dramatically positive effects on a business's bottomline. Truepic recognizes their work is far from done. As a startup, the company is rapidly expanding, and Truepic’s leadership must remain mindful and committed to ensuring for social impact. As Tara Vassefi, Truepic’s Washington Director of Strategic Initiatives, notes, “There is no clear roap for smaller businesses looking to embed SDGs at the core of their business.” Given Truepic’s positive experience, this should encourage startups and small businesses to chart the path and build a roap that will help them put the SDGs at the core of their business. Companies with powerful social impact initiative Studies have shown that today's college students – Generation Z – are a socially conscious generation, with their commitment to social good influencing

everything from their purchasing decisions to their career paths. One study by Cone Communications found that 94% of the Generation Z individuals surveyed believe that companies should help address critical social issues, while a survey by Do Something Strategic found that 76% of Gen Z respondents said they have purchased or would consider purchasing from a brand to show for the issues that the company ed. When it comes to their professional lives, data from Ripple Match reveals that Generation Z candidates place the same importance on a company’s social impact initiative as they do on compensation, and 60% of candidates cite a company’s mission and values as a prominent reason for interviewing with a company. However, not every student who values a company's commitment to social impact aspires to work for a non-profit. It may feel like there is no middle ground between a profit-driven company and a non-profit organization for some young job seekers, but that is simply not the case. While going the non-profit route can be a great career move, there are plenty of for-profit companies with powerful initiatives to drive social change. People are looking for a company committed to making a difference alongside their business goals; below is a list of companies with effective corporate social responsibility initiatives. Adidas The famous producer of the ‘three stripes’ athletic wear prides itself on a corporate responsibility structure built on three complementary pillars: community involvement, employee engagement, and corporate giving. An example of community involvement is the BOK by Reebok, an Adidas company, before school program designed to bring access to fitness to children between the ages of 5 and 12. The impact of BOK has been measured by an independent evaluator called NOIST, which found that the students in the program have improved their memory and executive function and shaved an average of 16 seconds off their 400-meter run times. Adidas has launched various programs and initiatives like these around the world; such as their Parkinson Women Empowerment Program, which helps improve the skills of female workers and helps them find strong opportunities in the workplace and their SOS Children’s Village, which has grown into one of the largest non-governmental organizations dedicated to ing children without families in the world. These amazing programs are a few examples of how Adidas makes a large positive social impact beyond great active wear.

Disney The Walt Disney Company believes that education is the key to opportunity and proudly s its workforce by sponsoring the country's most comprehensive employer education program. Launched in 2018, Disney’s Aspire initiative covers 100 percent of tuition costs and provides services to employees as they complete their coursework, including onsite “study hall” spaces and private career coaching. Disney Aspire was launched to expand access to education for its cast , and The Walt Disney Company has pledged $150 million towards high school equivalency, English-language learning, vocational training, college and master’s degrees, and more. The resource allows access to eleven universities and technical schools, including online programs by the University of Arizona and the University of Central Florida. It pays the tuition directly to the campus along with textbooks, materials, and other fees. More than half of Disney’s 90,000 full and part-time hourly employees have taken the initial step to enroll. The Walt Disney Company views this effort as a commitment to build futures and uplift communities through workforce development and does not require that employees pursue an education that relates to the titles they hold with the company. Google Not only has Google pledged to donate $1 billion to nonprofits in just five years, but they also committed to 1 million hours of employee volunteering. In order to achieve this goal, they offer paid time off for volunteer work, especially in roles where they can use their tech expertise to help a good cause. Google also has strong environmental and ethical initiatives, like how they’re committed to sourcing conflict-free minerals in 2012. They also impressively achieved 100% renewable energy in 2017 as the largest corporate buyer of renewable power. IKEA IKEA focuses on bettering the lives of children through their social initiatives. In the 1990s, they began fighting child labor practices and have continued to healthy living conditions for children since then. Since 2001, IKEA has donated over $200 million to UNICEF to help supply a healthy environment, like access to clean drinking water for children worldwide. In 2016, the home brand also launched their “Let’s Play for Change” initiative that focuses on providing children a nurturing space to grow and develop in areas where they

often lack a safe space to play. LinkedIn LinkedIn achieves its social initiatives through a range of nonprofit partnerships and a commitment to sustainable practices in their offices. They have ambitious eco-friendly goals, including being on the path to being “zero-waste” by improving their recycling and composting efforts. Their offices also use 80% renewable energy from wind and solar sources instead of harmful greenhouse gases. Employees get involved by commuting to work, with 70% of their global workforce using more eco-friendly forms of transport like biking, walking, and carpooling. The New York Times For over 100 years, The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund has distributed generous donations from readers to organizations across the globe that provide direct assistance to those in need. Currently, The Fund s ten nonprofit organizations through GoFundMe campaigns and special grants from The Fund’s endowment. So far, The Fund has raised $300 million for disaster relief, medical care, food banks, and countless other efforts. Read more about The Fund and read profiles of beneficiaries here! Panasonic This famous electronics brand has always known that at the core of every successful institution was a giving heart. Panasonic’s Office Of Social Impact is dedicated to driving positive change through technology, specifically addressing the widening gap between future tech jobs and education in STEAM in underserved communities. The Panasonic Foundation invested $100,000 in Camp Skyhook. This immersive outdoor learning experience in the Angeles Forest aims to encourage 4th and 5th-grade students’ interest in STEM and has a curriculum developed by UCLA and NASA. Panasonic is also dedicated to ing students’ rights in their city headquarters of Newark, New Jersey, by partnering with nonprofits to open the Students 2 Science Newark Technology Center. This center works directly with public schools to provide students with the resources to study real-world investigations such as global overpopulation’s strains on food sources, water pollution, pandemics, and more. The center also provides professional development and technical assistance for local students.

Panasonic’s awesome dedication to enabling underserved students to fill representation gaps in STEM is making a tangible difference in thousands of lives. Take risks. If you win you will be happy. If You lose, you will be wiser Chapter eight

Success will happened MONEY FOLLOWS THE PEOPLE, PEOPLE FOLLOW THE DREAMS, DREAMS FOLLOW THE EXECUTION, AND SUCCESS WILL HAPPEN These are the words of Jack Ma. Some people spend their entire lives wondering how to succeed in life, but never figure it out. Success can translate to having enough money, but that is not all that there is to success. Realizing the trends will not only make you successful, but will help in developing the right mindset. Now, let us take a critical look at the words of Jack Ma above; money follows people: most people are of the notion that you have to chase money, but that is a wrong mindset. Success starts with knowing and accepting this truth. People follow dream: now this is what you should be chasing after – a dream. Another truth is, it does not matter how big your dream is; the world is enough to handle it. Dreams follow the execution: Big dreams could be overwhelming at times, but the trick is breaking them into specific, measurable, and attainable chunks of small goals. The aim is execution. Start the process of achieving that big dream and success will happen. The Secret of Success Everyone wants personal success and to learn the keys to success. Everyone wants to have a happy, healthy life, do meaningful work, enjoy a career, and

achieve financial independence. Everyone wants to make a difference in the world, be significant, and have a positive impact on those around him or her. Everyone wants to do something wonderful with his or her life. You see, personal success is achievable for anyone and everyone. The keys to success are in a single piece of information, a single idea at the right time that can change your life in the right situation. We All Have One Common Goal. The keys to success in life are our ability to get the very best out of ourselves under almost all conditions and circumstances. It is our ability to adapt and change our lives. We have within us, right now, deep reserves of potential and ability that will enable us to accomplish extraordinary things with our life if properly harnessed and channeled. The Four Keys to Success ‣ Take action on your plan Do something every day to move toward your goal. The great keys to success to change your life have always been the same. Decide exactly what you want and where you want to go. Set a deadline and make a plan to get there. (, a goal is just a dream with a deadline). Resolve in advance that you will persist until you succeed, that you will never give up. This formula is your key to success and has worked for almost everyone who has ever tried it. It will require the very most you can give and the best qualities you can develop. In developing and following these keys to personal success, you will evolve and grow to become an extraordinary person. ‣ Learn How to Be Successful From The Experts to Change Your Life Ben Franklin said, “Men can either buy their wisdom or they can borrow it from others. The great tragedy is that most men prefer to buy it, to pay full price in of time and treasure.” You will not live long enough to figure it all out for yourself. And what a waste it would be to try when you can learn from others who have gone before. Your greatest goal in life and personal success should be to acquire as many of them as possible and then use them to help. You do the things you want to do and become the person you want to become.

For example: If you want to learn how to write a book, you can follow a step-by-step process created by a bestselling author. Learn from their mistakes and benefit from their systems by following their guide to writing a book. It will save you time in the end! ‣ Program Yourself For Personal Success the five (5) P; Proper, Preparation, Prevents, Poor, and Performance. You will change your life by achieving just one important goal; create a pattern, a template for personal success in your subconscious mind. You will change your life and be automatically directed and driven toward repeating that success in other things that you attempt. This is the best way to get your life back in order. By overcoming adversity and achieving one great goal in any area, you will program yourself for success in other areas as well. In other words, you learn to succeed by succeeding. The more you achieve, the more you can achieve (the law of inertia). Each of the keys to success, especially the first one, builds your confidence and belief that you will be successful next time and achieve ultimate personal success. Try to leverage your momentum from an achievement in your personal success to reach a goal in your career or at school. Eventually, you will create a synergistic effect and find that success comes easier on all fronts. ‣Unlimited Potential The only real limits on what you can do, have, or be are self-imposed. Once you make a clear, unequivocal decision to change your life by casting off all your mental limitations and throwing your whole heart into accomplishing some great goal, your ultimate personal success is virtually guaranteed, as long as you do not stop. The Psychology of Success As Told By These 5 Entrepreneurs When you ask most people what it takes to become successful, they will tell you that success comes from hard work. The psychology of success is often overlooked entirely. While yes, hard work is part of the equation, they are

missing a large part. You can never become successful if you do not have the right mindset. The right mindset answers everything. Your mindset will determine if you will be successful or if you are going to be unsuccessful. Your mindset will tell you that you are a failure and you should just give up or that you are on the right track to success. Becoming an entrepreneur, like with any other career yo u have chosen, will be the hardest challenge of your life because you are becoming a different person than everyone else. When that happens, you will question yourself. Are you on the right path? If you continue to ask yourself these questions, you will lose not because of anything but because of self-doubt. When you have the right mindset, you will come out the other side no matter what you face. There are five entrepreneurs who developed the right mindset that has allowed them to succeed in their respective fields. David Goggins – Psychology of Success “Do what you do not want to do on a daily basis.” -David Goggins – Psychology of Success David Goggins’ psychology of success is certain about taking actions and avoiding procrastination. Your mindset could be the one thing holding you back from becoming a successful entrepreneur. David Goggins is a retired Navy Seal and an ultra-endurance athlete who has run some of the world's toughest races. For Goggins, it is simple; you do what you do not want to do and keep doing it. What can you do to make yourself mentally tougher? Are you taking the easy way or actually putting in the work? When you take the easy way, you will never get tough mentally. You become mentally tougher over time with each difficult task you accomplish. Follow the advice Goggins gives and do what you don’t want to do on a daily basis. There were numerous low points in his life, yet he didn’t let that stop him from becoming successful. He thrived on overcoming challenges and adversities.

Goggins knew with each challenge he was able to overcome; it would make him mentally tougher. Do not keep telling yourself you will become mentally tougher or do the hard tasks later because eventually, there will not be another day for you to do those hard tasks. You should focus on what you can control today. Take time to self-reflect and ask yourself this question, “What is something I have been putting off?” Why have you been putting it off, and what are you going to do to change that? It is up to you to create a better life for yourself because no one will help you! And that starts with cultivating the right mindset of getting things done when they should be. No procrastination. Alan Burak – Psychology of Success Alan realized that success does not start with everything going on around you; it starts with what is already inside you. You already have the mindset inside yourself of what you need to become successful, and it is up to you to cultivate that mindset. Alan Burak is the founder of a renowned investment firm, Never Alone Capital. He has gone broke twice and has come back both times. From an early age, he learned the art of willpower. He did not give up on his dreams of starting a business despite the setbacks he faced multiple times. When he was not feeling fulfilled in his life, he turned to self-development, but more importantly, he utilized psychology to get him out of the current state he had felt trapped in. He understood that if he wanted something, it had to be a must. He could not just maybe want it. Too many people feel relaxed about the things they want. Do you notice that most people are not where they want to be in life? If you are not ready to go all in and give your idea or dream 100%, you will never succeed because the second you doubt yourself, you will fail. Put in the work every day, whether you feel like it or not, and do not leave any free time to doubt yourself. The change started in Alan’s mindset when he came across the saying, “Life happens for us, not to us.” Everything that happens in your life is an opportunity to grow. Grant Cardone – Psychology of Success When you are training your mindset for success, what can you put all your focus into that will allow you to achieve success?

Grant Cardone is a New York Times Best-Selling Author, creator of Grant Cardone TV, CEO of four businesses, and currently has over $400 million worth of real estate holdings. His story was about him working a job he hated and, instead of feeling sad day in and day out, the job became the driving force behind him shifting his mindset. He became good at the job he hated. He continued to focus on self-improvement, and because of this, he was able to raise his monthly income through the sales commission job he was working. Grant understood that if he wanted to change his mindset about making money, all he needed to do was figure out ways to produce more money. By figuring out more ways to produce, he was able to change his mindset because he focused solely on growing his income. For Grant, it was into producing income. For you, it could be getting more clients. It is easy to stretch yourself thin and focus on too many ideas instead of one big idea. It is a lot easier to become successful at one thing than it will ever be to succeed at multiple things. What can you focus on today that will help achieve your bottom line tomorrow? Ryan Holiday – Psychology of Success Ryan’s Psychology of success is based on casting ego aside. When Ryan was trying to cultivate the mindset that would lead him to success, he knew that he had to cast his ego to the side. You can get an inflated ego when you start a business because you accumulate a little success and think that is the way it will always go. This mindset sets a trap for you because there will come a day when you encounter failure and you will not know how to deal with it. No matter how much success you achieve, keep pushing forward because you never know when you might deal with hardship. Ryan Holiday is the best-selling author of multiple books including, “Ego Is the Enemy” and “The Obstacle Is the Way,” and he is the former marketing director at American Apparel. While not having an ego can lead you to the right mindset, you need to focus on building confidence for yourself. Confidence comes from taking action every day. You will not have any confidence by staying at home and doing nothing every day, and why should you if you do that? You know how much work you

are actually putting in. Confidence is something you earn. On Ryan’s conquest to self-motivation, he focuses on a practice called bulletproofing himself. What that entails is asking you if you can handle the worst possible outcome if it occurs. If your answer is yes, you can continue carrying on and keep doing the work you have previously been doing. Melyssa Griffin – Psychology of Success For Melyssa Griffin, her mindset changed when she realized that it only takes a matter of time and she can do whatever she puts her mind to. She knew that if she wanted to get to the next level in her life, even if she did not know how to do something, she would figure it out no matter how long it would take her. So, Melyssa Griffin is the founder of melyssagriffin.com where she gives her clients advice on how to start a successful online business. She is also the host of the pursuit with purpose podcast. There are so many ways you can learn something in today’s day and age that telling yourself you cannot do something is ludicrous. If you want to make six figures, do your research on how others made six figures. What habits are they making differently from the ones you have? How do they plan their day? What type of work are they doing? The answer to every question is there if you are willing to do the research. Just because you do not know how to do something should not hold you back from achieving whatever you set your mind to. Being an entrepreneur, Melyssa realized there are tons of negative events that can take place. To counteract the negative events, Melyssa would take to a gratitude journal, writing the positive events in her life. What you are essentially doing is creating a positive perspective view of the world for yourself. Act now Knowledge is never meant for knowledge's sake. Knowledge is meant to be used. Whenever you experience new knowledge, it is meant to do two things to you: it is either meant to get you to start something or make you stop something.

Any Knowledge that doesn’t do either of these two things is not useful. Here is why you need to ask yourself this, “Of all the knowledge this book has revealed to me, which will I adopt? What exactly am I going to stop doing, and what am I going to start doing?” These questions are crucial because they cause you to take actions. Imagine you are experiencing a bad headache and after consultations with a health practitioner, you were given a tablet with an instruction to take one dose in the morning and at night. You read the instructions but refused to take the tablet. Do you think the headache will leave you just because you read the instruction? This is what a lot of people do whenever they are given knowledge when they read a book or take a course. They are so consumed by the knowledge but refuse to take action, and where does that leave them? He who knows but doesn’t act on what he knows is no different from he who doesn’t know. Conclusion Just as I promised at the beginning of this book that you would find ideas and tools that will help you live the life that you truly deserve, I believe you have found one, two, or more and are definitely going to put them to practice.