Getting from one level to the next in your business career is challenging. The only way to get where you’re going is through diligent learning. And not the school-type of learning either — I don’t believe school holds much benefit outside professions known for requiring a genius level of intelligence in order to be successful (i.e., doctors, lawyers, physicists, astronauts — perhaps dentists — etc.)
For most of us, this requires an apprenticeship of some sort. For others, you’ll learn the ropes by going out there, choosing a mission, and pushing forward — trying, failing, getting back up (all hail Rocky!) and going after it again and again until you finally achieve whatever empassions you. This is called the “School of Hard Knocks). Where most of the real success stories in this world have come from.
Getting all A’s on your mid-terms isn’t likely to get you where you’re going. They won’t make you the next Damon Johns or Donald Trump. Those guys got there on ambition and savvy.
Here’s a few other things you can do to get to the next level in life:
1. Put out more
You really have to increase your output in all areas. Emotion, thought, career, networking — even your physical output needs to grow if you plan to be healthy once you’ve reached the top of your own proverbial totem pole.
A business person needs to work harder, reach more customers, create even more contacts, in order to climb the ladder. An actor has to go to more auditions, make more movies, post more interesting posts on social media. There’s no way around the work.
2. Improve the quality of your work
The quality of what you offer mankind will determine your eventual rank and income. If you ain’t got anything worth buying (this includes people buying your time by giving you a paycheck), watching, or listening to, then you don’t have a prayer. It’s society that’s going to elevate you once you’ve put in the time and made something that’s worth a buck to humanity.
Always keep that heavy in your head. We aren’t on this journey alone, and it’s not just your friends, family and coworkers that are helping you. Society, the global one, is what will eventually decide whether you’re worth a lick of salt to the world.
3. Recognize your weaknesses, then ignore them!
In order to grow and realize your true potential, you’re going to have to expose yourself and your weaknesses to the elements. There’s no safe way. There’s no “sugar free” option. There’s just no way around this, if you stay in whatever bubble you’re living in currently, you’ll never fix what needs improving.
Most likely, those weaknesses are all that separates you from the life you desperately want to live.
Are you up for the challenge?
Getting started with anything can be a struggle, but once you reach a certain level of success, it can be hard to figure out how to make whatever it is you do truly remarkable. The things we do have a way of developing their own inertia, and if we’re not careful, we get carried along in the routine without ever realizing the full potential of what we and our lives can be
There are tons of things that could be added to this list. However, the 3 listed above are what hold people back the most in life and their career. You have to be willing to work as hard as possible, offer the highest quality service or product you can, and not be afraid to identify your weaknesses and get up every day willing to overcome them however possible.
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