I Can't Fail - Not: I will try to Succeed - Big Difference

On my way to the book store this weekend I saw a huge Garage Sale. Hardcover books for $.50 Cents. Why Not? I went and took a look, and found a book called Power Thinking. It basically gives insight to how the mind, and our thought processes set us up to fail before we even start playing the game.

One of the stories that really stuck with me was that of George Dantzig. From some internet snooping, I discovered this cat was a pioneer mathematician that did his thing. There are reports that some of Good Will Hunting was based off his life. George passed away last year; he was known as the inventor of the simplex algorithm and is considered the father of linear programming.

All that's nice, but the best story comes from his college days. Georgie boy was a student at Berkeley, right at the peak of the Great Depression. Soup lines and hard times for everyone. He was poised to graduate with a mathematics degree. George knew that it would be impossible for a mathematician to find gainful employment. He learned that the person who scored the highest in his mathematics class would get a job as an assistant teacher. Now this was motivation for "Dat Ass". All he had to do was kill this course and he would have an instant job.

Now Georgie boy knew he wasn't the brightest kid in the class but he had what we all have. The "Grind" factor. He was going to grind out the best grade possible. He grinded every night until he felt comfortable for the exam. In fact, he put in so much work that he lost track of time and ran late for the test. He ran to his desk and looked at the test. It had eight problems. "That's What's Up" he thought to himself ( or "Golly Gee Willikers, 8 Questions" I forgot he was a nerd). He knocked all eight questions out the box. Then he noticed that there were two additional questions on the blackboard.

He wrote them down and started working them. After trying to solve the first one he was at an impasse so he started working the second equation. No luck and time was running out. When the bell rang, he went to the professor and asked if he could have a little more time. "Sure G, You have until four o'clock on Friday, but your paper must be in by then."

George knew that there were crazy smart people in his class and that he had to solve these two problems in order to stand a chance at the teaching gig. He took the paper home and started grinding. He knew that he had know choice if he didn't want to be in the unemployment line. Tuesday & Wednesday he had no luck. Thursday afternoon, BOOOOYAH, he solved the first one. This gave him crazy confidence, and by Friday morning he nailed the second. He turned his paper in on time and went home wondering if he was going to have a job.

Early Sunday morning, George heard a knock on the door. "What the fu...", "Who Dat?" He opened the door and it was his Professor. 'What up Doc? " . The Professor said, George! George! You made mathematics history". George said, "What you talkin' bout Willis". The Professor said, "George, I was thinking as I came over here. You came to class late for the test, didn't you?" He continued, "Eight problems were on the test paper that you picked up off my desk. You solved them all correctly. The two problems I had written on the board were not a part of the test! I told everyone that if they had a love for mathematics to keep playing with these two famous unsolved problems for a lifetime of fun. Then I put those two problems on the blackboard. Even Einstein, to his death, played with those problems and couldn't solve them. You solved them, you solved them both. Not only have you made history, you also have the job". George gave a fist pump and started thinking about his future dough stacks.

That story shows you how we mentally beat ourselves. If George would have heard the statements made in the beginning of the exam, not only would he have not solved the problems, he probably wouldn't even have attempted. That's huge. I'm sure you can apply this to something in you past or present. Believe in yourself. You can achieve much more then you think. It's OK to fail but try again. It's Ok to be disappointed but don't be discouraged by it. Use it as motivation. If you have never been disappointed you were probably aiming too low or moving too slow.

-MJL

An FTB Bloggers Blog

EINSTEIN WAS A PIMP

ARE THOSE 22 INCH SPINNERS?

IS THAT THE NEW ROCAWEAR BUTTON UP?

ALBERT, HOLLA AT YOUR BOY!

Feed the Need to Suceed

Some days I go from wanting to give up to wanting to work harder and push myself further. I’ not sure what accounts for the severe swings but they do happen. The important thing is my desire to succeed easily outweighs the desire to give up. It’s important to take account of how you are feeling and monitor it closely. What just happened to make you feel a certain way? If it resulted in a bad feeling, how do you counter that to make those negative feelings stay as short as possible? I want to make sure that I starve the negative and feed the Need to Succeed.

In my world things need to be extreme, if you are not extreme then you are just like everybody else, and your results will be just like everybody else’s. If you are extreme; you will achieve extreme results.

STARVING THE QUITTER

1. I tell myself “You haven’t lost or failed until you Quit”. Did you know that ants can’t quit?
Have you ever read the famous of Tammerlane, a famous Asian conqueror who once was going to quit. He was hiding out contemplating surrendering when he saw an ant. The ant was trying to get a piece of corn up over a wall. The kernel of corn was much larger than the ant and try as he may the ant could not get the kernel over the wall. So Tamerlane began to count the futile efforts of this ant, to see how many times he would try until he gave up. He counted 10, 20, 40, 60, 69, but on the 70th attempt the ant succeeded. Sixty-nine times the ant tried to carry it up over the wall, and sixty-nine times he failed. But on seventieth try he succeeded and pushed the grain of corn over the top. If an ant has 70 times in him, then I at least have a 100 in me.
2. If I quit, I will always have regrets – I hate regrets!
3. If I quit, then I am no longer worthy of the 272 posts that I have listed in this blog

FEED THE NEED TO SUCCEED
1. I actually look at people who are the opposite of what I want to be in life. I look at fat, lazy, unmotivated, people and critique them to myself. This might sound harsh, it might sound extreme, but you are in this by yourself, fighting for your goals everyday. You have one life to live so you must give it your all. If you feed your mind and body right it will take you where you need to go. Looking at people that you DON’T want to be like is a reality check. It helps you remember where you came from spiritually, mentally and monetarily on a daily basis, and being thankful where you are now. It helps you stay hungry.

2. Healthy living, Eating well, Working out
Subconsciously you see sexy people on TV and we relate the perfect body with success. If you are working out and getting yourself in shape and eating right you will subconsciously relate yourself with successful people. This might not be healthy mentally, but...

Entrepreneurs, Don’t suffer from B.H.S. - Battered Housewife Syndrome

Battered Housewife Syndrome

I used to work with this older guy who had seen it all and done it all…..twice in fact. He used to say "at the end of the day, all this is, is a bunch of guys playing factory. "

That is a true statement. Part of what holds people in their current surroundings is the fact that they get caught up in all of the hype. They build their 9 to 5 jobs into something that absorbs all of their time and energy. It becomes this enigma that is used to impress your family and friends. At my job people walk around like they are ER Doctors! Their families think they are out saving the world. We make Sun Tan lotion for crying out loud. People are wheeling in bags filled with binders and laptops, we have teleconferences, nightly conference calls and enough meetings to design the next I-PAD.

Part of me understands the hype. I mean really, who wants to come home at the end of the day and tell their wives that they spent the day filling out paperwork, doing expense reports, typing emails and copying and pasting regurgitated crap into Power Point presentations. Ha ha…..I just summed up 85% of my job right there

A real man wants to say, "Honey, I rolled out my new Corporate restructuring program and the board loved it. I just got the corner office with the bathroom and a 10% increase”

Our job as future millionaires is not to get caught up in our jobs. This doesn't mean don’t kill it. You still have to be the best (don’t be a scape g.o.a.t), but don't waste unnecessary time obsessing over it or expelling extra emotional energy that can be used to achieve your dreams.

During a recent interview with Puff Daddy. He explained how he used to clean bathrooms during his unpaid internship. At the end of that statement, he said that he was "the best" at it. That's the mind frame that we have to keep. That's the perfect analogy. He knew he would move on to bigger and better things but he still had to be the best at what he did. I'm sure at the end of the day, he didn't call himself a Sanitation Engineer, or a commercial disinfectionist. He wanted to diminish the effect that this job had on his life. He was about to start Bad Boy records, Sean Jean clothing line and produce a slew of number 1 albums and TV shows and be one of the most famous people in Entertainment. Do you think he let that job be any bigger in his mind then it needed to be. Yeah, the bathrooms stunk, it was a filthy, $hitty job (Pun intended) and he hated it, but all the complaining, and getting angry would be a waste. He was a kid cleaning bathrooms and gave it the energy it deserved, not a ounce more. His energy was spent on bigger and better things.

THE BATTERED WIFE

Honestly I find myself taking crap from the job I have every day.  Although I make a decent living, it's far below my capabilities but I gave up caring to the point where I let it affect me one ounce more then it needed to. I gave my last job everything I had and what did it get me…..a pink slip. A foot in the ass out the door. A one way trip to the parking lot, without so much as a severance check. All the extra hours, the skipped vacations and the thinking about the well being of everyone in that place just to get laid off. 

If I let that happen again, I would be just like a battered wife. (I realize I'm a man, but stay with me for the analogy).  Just because I’m getting a check now, I’m supposed to be romanced back into thinking that I need this man named job….thinking that I love this (man)job, thinking that I’m nothing without this (man)job. Then the moment that I think everything is...