Courage is overrated.
At least, overestimated.

You don’t have to live courageously.

In fact, you can be a coward 99.9305556% of the time (to be exact).

You only need to be courageous for 20 seconds at a time.

Those 20 seconds when…

…you pick up the phone to call that “big kahuna” prospect.

…you see your dream client enter the networking meeting.

…you walk up to a circle of strangers and introduce yourself.

…you volunteer to come up on stage.

…you contemplate jumping read more »

I was working with a CEO recently and he said, “I want my marketing message to speak what is in my heart.”

I responded, “No you don’t.”

Have you ever been subject to someone’s passionate (probably long winded) pitch about something they are all fired up about but you couldn’t care less about?

Yeah, me too, it’s painful.

Then he said, “I see a great need for this in the market.”

I said, “Then that makes one of you.”

It is not a need you see, it is a PERCEIVED need of others you are looking for. If someone doesn’t think they need a new car (even though you see they are driving a clunker), then THEY don’t need one.

These assumptions are why we see so much chest-beating, egocentric marketing messaging out there.

It’s obnoxious and what’s worse, it’s ineffective.

Let me give you a HUGE tip in crafting effective marketing messaging that connects with people on a gut level, grabs their hearts and moves them into action.

First, I ask you this… read more »

CEOs featured LtoR: Christian Dodge, Greg Hammond, Darren Hardy, Brad Petersen at The GRAND Del Mar

Last week I played golf with three CEOs who were attending my private HP FORUM. They flew in early so we could play a round of golf on the spectacular course where I hosted the event.

It was the second time I have played golf in three years.

After the first tee shot I found myself having to explain (justify) why high-achieving entrepreneurs suck at golf. (Excuse? Yep, but true!)

Here is a little secret (or stark reality) about the uber-achievers you see on the cover of SUCCESS magazine… or on the gold medal platform at the Olympics … or holding

up the Vince Lombardi trophy … or collecting the Nobel Prize … or becoming a world-renown surgeon, artist, writer, musician, or one who “dents the universe”:
They are world-class at (only) a few things rather than trying to be good at many things.

The key here is this: What are you willing to give up to get what you REALLY want?

For instance, in my obsessive pursuit to be extraordinary at my Vital Few things, I have given up:

• Television – what new shows are hot and popular
• News – the latest breaking news from “The Situation Room”
• Sports – knowing who has been traded where
• Music – knowing what new artist is hot and filling up my iTunes library
• Body building – I used to be 220 lbs. with 6% body fat; that extra 20 lbs. of muscle takes a lot more time
• Surfing – I live on the ocean in San Diego, but don’t surf
• Mechanics – besides a pen and a fork in my hand, I’m dangerous
• Being “in the know” – latest apps, tech gizmos, cars, this season’s fashion, politics, celebrity
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  gossip, sports scores, etc.

And I am rather mediocre at tennis, fishing, hiking, biking, photography, cooking, skiing, swimming, running, singing, dancing, golf… and so much more.

Not that there is anything wrong with the above activities. These are just the choices I have made—to give up or sacrifice to mediocrity in order for me to focus on the Vital Few I want to be world-class at, which is read more »

Why do we do what we do here at SUCCESS?

This is why…

Some time ago a man named David, from Buckley, Wash., sent me a letter sharing his first experience with SUCCESS. He had been at a party and took a friend’s car to make a beer run. When he started the engine, the June 2008 SUCCESS CD was playing.

David listened as I asked Paul J. Meyer how he had maintained the magic of his marriage for decades. Paul explained how he purposefully courted his wife. Each morning Paul concocted a plan to make her feel beautiful, respected and loved that day. Paul sent flowers to his wife every week for 37 years straight.