At the Edge of Explosion!

Success Starts With You Being Different

Dan Waldschmidt — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:10:23 +0000

You can’t stand out when you look like everyone else.

You can’t inspire and challenge others when you are just as fearful as them to stand out and be noticed. To put yourself in a position where people disagree with you. To be criticized, abused, and disbelieved.

To make a difference, you first must be different…

Last Friday I spent the day being inspired at TEDx Greenville. If you have never had the chance to go to a TED event, then you are truly missing out on an amazing opportunity to be wowed.

In the space of eights hours, there was Vaguen talking about the “Power of Ignorance”, a trumpet choir, a banjo performance, a concert pianist, Marshall Chapman singing rock ‘n roll, and Loretta Holloway singing cabaret. There was a rocket scientist talking about social media and 21 year old student telling the story of traveling across country performing random acts of kindness. Ellen McGirt, from Fast Company, talked about “Showing Up” and Paul Anderegg demonstrated old-time clogging called “flatfooting”. Five dudes with Ph.D.’s talked about everything from hydrogen to climate change to the morality of capitalism. It was diverse and powerful.

And then there was Tradd Cotter, the wonderkind mushroom mountain scientist, and Tim March, the blue-haired performer whose act on broken glass was only bested by his inspiring words about us feeling like we “needed permission” to go do amazing things. To me, these two were the most inspiring of all the amazing presenters.

Curiously, they were also the most different, which got my thinking…

It’s being different that we look to as a success. Why?

Most of us have a hard time being different…

Standing tall on the trophy stage is pretty easy. But standing up in the rest of the world requires a lot of effort. You really have to be a mental ninja.

That probably explains why we all aren’t more successful.

And here’s an observation for you: It’s not entirely our fault for having this fear. Everything we were ever taught since the beginning of baby-dom was about “fitting in”.

As we entered school, we we told to “get along with everyone” — even when we saw that bad people were taking advantage of those around us. As long as they didn’t mess with us, we were “cool”.
When we went into public, we were told that is was embarrassing to “make a scene” — even though for us is seemed like we were standing up for something. We were expressing ourselves.
At our first job interview, the HR team kept asking us if we were a “team player” — and then went on to explain our compensation that was based on individual achievement.

All these “fitting in” qualities produce high-quality mediocrity. A “Grade A”, absolutely-guaranteed batch of status quo.

But they don’t produce success — the deeply inspiring breakthroughs that we dream about.

Success is the opposite of being like everyone else.

The reality is that most of us don’t like ourselves in our current state. We wish we were less fearful, selfish, and more kind. We know it about ourselves and hope you don’t find out soon enough. So why would we like you who is trying so hard to be like me. We were hoping that you would be different — and inspire us.

It may be hard to dye your hair blue and jump around on glass. It may be hard to get laughed at all through school as you grow bucket after bucket of mushrooms in your parent’s garage.

But didn’t we know that success was hard in the first place?

Whether it’s changing your title on your business card from Receptionist to “Diva of First Impressions” or preparing a proposal to your client that is the exact opposite of what all your competitors have put together — you’ll find yourself conquering more when you put in the emotional investment to be different…

And several things to think about in your Success Quest:

Being different won’t kill you…
Being different will get you noticed…
Being different won’t have people outwardly lauding you… (at first)
Being different secretly makes people respect you…
Being different probably won’t get you the incremental job promotions…
Being different positions you best to be able to change the world…

It’s our obsessive compulsions that yield greatness, not our penchant for compromise.

It’s Thomas Edison trying one more time after the 983rd failed attempt to build a working light bulb. It’s Harland Sanders trying the 1,009th time to convince a restaurant to buy his famous chicken recipe. It’s Oprah Winfrey sharing hope for the sexually abused in spite of her own scars.

It’s about you deciding that being your same self or like anyone you know is no longer acceptable.

It’s about being different.

And us starting that today.

The will to win: C’est pour toi, Maman

Dan Waldschmidt — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:11:59 +0000

What is it that you really want? Not what you tell everyone else you want, but what do you really want? Is it huge success, more recognition — to just be happy. What is it you really want?

Now here’s the real question: What are you willing to do to get it?

For 24 years, Joannie had trained to be in this position. She entered the Olympics, with 12 gold medals in the last 12 consecutive Canadian National Championships. Along the way she had picked up international medals in China, the Grand Prix, and Russia — competing in 39 different competitions. She practiced until she turned her 17th place showing at the World Championships into 2nd place just five years later– officially becoming the vice-World Champion. And now the Olympics.

The stage was set. Expectations ran high. Her practices were flawless.

Two days before she was scheduled to perform, just as she was waking up to begin her final practice, she was startled by a surprise visit from her father, Norman. Her mother, Therese, had just died from a massive heart attack. The news was shocking and devastating. Everything she had ever worked for — the practice, the pain, the passion — it all seems to leave her soul as the tears flowed from her eyes. What deep sorrow. How could she continue?

Fast forward to Tuesday. As Joannie takes the ice, the crowd is quiet. This is their home town girl. Not sure whether to cry with her or cheer her on to victory, they wait. And Joannie puts on the performance of a lifetime.

As the opening notes of La Cumparsita dance from the orchestra, Joannie moves to the emotion of the moment. Every triple Lutz crisp. Her combinations passionate — as if she were willing herself to win.

When the music is over, Joannie bows, tears streaming uncontrollably down her face. The crowd stands, wildly applauding. They seem to know that they were part of a special moment — a perfect three minutes of passion and purpose.

And Joannie, who had inspired so many, had but one thing to say: “C’est pour toi, Maman” (For you, mom…).

Such simple courage. Such a will to win. Such a wanting for more.

It’s what separates us from our wishes.

It makes me realize that “We just don’t want it bad enough.”

We say we do. We talk like we have the guts to change the universe. But we somehow lose the will to win when we need it most.

That deep wanting is the difference between winning and losing. It’s a deeply personal calling. It’s something no one can take away from you. So want more:

Take time each day to think about about you want for you – You know that “live in the moment BS” your therapist keeps telling you? Well, he is almost right. You need to bring your dream into the moment. A lot of our moments really suck — we’re tired, sick, and broke. And if you live in that moment, life can really seem pretty hopeless. It’s when you pause in a moment of fatigue and remember that your purpose in that moment is preparation for your destiny, that you awaken the passion within to overcome anything. And that passion is what keeps you wanting more.
Tell your dream to as many people as possible — There is something about stating your dream out loud that breaks the spell of “so impossible I’ll keep it to myself”. Your dream becomes a maybe. And then that maybe becomes a possibility. And somewhere about the 67th time you’ve told someone how you are going to change the world, you start to believe that you might just do it. And once you believe you can do it, no one can stop you. You want it enough to really have it!

Whether you’re negotiating the biggest sale of your life, trying to land that illusive promotion, or just struggling to find happiness, invest in your ability to want more. You might find yourself in a position like Joannie where the bottom falls out and all that you have left is your will to win.

Last week, Joannie Rochette won the Bronze medal for figure skating for Canada at the 2010 Winter Olympics, adding Olympic champion to a long list of awards.

More importantly, she won the Terry Fox Award as the athlete who most inspired courage and determination at the Olympics. Terry Fox was a marathon runner who ran more than 3,312 miles across Canada after he lost a leg to cancer to raise money for medical research. He had to stop running when he weakened as cancer spread to his lungs.

You may not want more to give back to a great mom who was there for the last 24 years of skating practices. You may want more for different reasons.

Why ever you want more — whatever you dream about — never lose that passion for a bigger you. It’s what keeps your dream alive. And that makes you unstoppable.

The Edge of Possibility: Where are you Standing?

Dan Waldschmidt — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:39:36 +0000

Have you ever felt like you were on the very edge of outrageous opportunity? Like you were so very close to making everything you ever wanted a reality?

Being on the edge of breakthrough is a powerful feeling. You feel so close to your dreams that you somehow summon the extra will to win. You push through the obstacles and reach deep to cross the finish line.

Being on the edge is where you want to be. It’s where you see the most success.

Next week, we are going to explore a key part of this mindset — edgy conversations!

Join me for this inspiring event!

It’s a one hour workshop where we will talk about some real world tactics to enable you to cut through the noise and have powerful conversations.

It’s completely FREE so I am NOT pitching you anything other than the opportunity to open up your mind.

What if you could reach the right person with the right message? How much more powerful would you be? Would you find yourself on the edge of outrageous opportunity?

Don’t take my word for it. Here is what other people have to say after finding the edge for their organization.

I hope you can join me on the call.

Click here to go register:

Don’t come empty handed. It will be an “open mike” for half the time. So come ready with a problem that we can help you handle….
I have asked two surprise guests to join me to share their stories about being on the edge of outrageous opportunity…

To recap: I am hosting another live teleseminar to handle your questions, issues, and specific questions about how you can use edgy conversations to get more business done faster with your prospects. It’s a live workshop you don’t want to miss….

4 Reasons You Can’t Shortcut Your Way to Success

Dan Waldschmidt — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:05:15 +0000

There is no shortcut to success.

Unlike every episode with Indiana Jones, there is no Holy Grail of aspirational whymsy whereby you plot a few strategic moves and end up with all the pieces on the board.

Success is a mindset. Not a point in time…

Everything we ever been told about success usually revolves around a single point in time.

When we set a record, crash through the ribbon at the finish line, win the trophy, land the biggest customer in the history of our business… It’s all about our “spot emotional index”.

Around key dates like graduation, end of the quarter, and bonus time, we feel successful IF there is a physical memento to indicate that we were successful. Without the trophy it can be hard for us to gauge “success”…

That’s why I go back to the idea that success is less a date on the calendar and more of a philosophy.

It’s important that you adopt a successful mindset rather than aim for public indicators of success.

Flashy public indicators of success attached to a pile of debt leave you unable to to do the hard things that are required to realize your dreams. You can either look like “the man” or turn your dreams into reality. You can’t really have both…

Turning ideas into dreams and dreams into success is hard enough. It’s a gut-wrenching, bloody nose battle. It requires an absurdly special kind of toughness.

And when you are fighting for your dreams and the world is beating the life out of you you might be tempting to try to take a shortcut.

You find yourself asking, “Isn’t there an easier way?”

And why not? Shortcuts look great on TV when Bo and Luke Duke take the dirt ramp up and over the washed out wooden bridge and beat the bad guys who want to shut down their moonshine business.

Real life though is a little different. Shortcuts hurt you — not help you.

Here are a few key things to consider:

Taking shortcuts is you admitting failure up front.

It’s pretty mentally damaging. If you really thought you could realize your dreams, you wouldn’t be tempted by the thought of taking shortcuts. Admit it. You’ve had the same doubts that I have had. Can I do this? Can I make this happen? Do I have the guts to try one more time?

When your answer to these questions is a shortcut rather than focused intensity, you are admitting to yourself (and soon to others) that you are a failure. You may throw out your chest and claim to be on top of your game. But you know, deep down, that you have given up before you even started.

If you want to get your head back-on-straight look doubt in the eye and fight for your destiny.

Get up two hours earlier.
Call three more people and ask for help.
Quit working on things that distract your focus.

Be intense!

Taking shortcuts is the wrong reaction to fear.

When faced with the audacious challenge of being successful, we find ourselves at the crossroads of fight or flight. As soon as you decide you want to be something, you face resistance from the world. That resistance turns into oppression — people actively fighting against your success.

It’s OK to be afraid. But taking shortcuts is a flight reaction; not you fighting for your own success. If you are running away from own success, it’s impossible to believe that you are taking steps to actually move you closer to your dreams.

Use fear to help drive effort and focus toward your mission. Use fear to build mental muscle around your purpose in life. Relish fear! It is your nitrous on the raceway of life…

Taking shortcuts conflicts with the outrageous effort needed to be successful.

The inherent idea that you can realize your wildest dreams without a passionate investment of mind, body, and soul is just nutty. You can’t get more from your life by doing less.

When you slow down and cheat yourself out of the self-investment necessary to build a brilliant destiny, you just won’t ever find yourself where you want to be. To be successful, you have to work so hard your eyes have blisters. Against all odds you have keep trying — when you’re sick, when you’re broke, when you have no fans. It’s raw sweat equity.

Taking shortcuts conflicts with everything that outrageous effort leads to. You do nothing that means anything and still get everything.

Taking shortcuts doesn’t mean you end up where you wanted to be.

Since there is rarely a certain, unchanging “end point” for success, you can’t take a shortcut to a destination that doesn’t exist.

Ever thought you really wanted something, only to change your mind once you see what you got? You thought that you would be happy — and you weren’t. Why?

Success is process — a mindset. And while success includes milestones, the emphasis is on the journey not on the original destiny. Most of us dream too small. We take our destiny and shrink it down into a small container that the critics can’t get to.

Life has an amazing way of helping you realize your dreams in ways far from what you could have ever imagined at the beginning of your dream. It’s bigger. It’s better. There’s no way to get there with a shortcut

So dream bigger than ever!

And don’t steal your chance at an amazing destiny by taking a shortcut. It’s not fair to you…

———

By the way, if don’t already have your complimentary ticket to the Edgy Conversations Workshop, March 2nd, go get one! Not taking shortcuts doesn’t mean you can’t work smart. Space is limited. I hope to see you on the call!

8 paths to domination and 1 big way to fail

Dan Waldschmidt — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:51:09 +0000

Here’s a harsh reality: We‘re just not tough enough…

On my wall framed hangs the famous inspiration quotation from Vince Lombardi about football and winning and what it takes to be number one. It’s been on the wall of my office for the past decade. It’s my own mezuzah to excellence and always pushing the limits of what I think is possible.

Last week as I was working – somewhat puzzled over some frustrating issues – my eye flickered over the glass encased picture. At the top of the picture underneath the title, in font that was bigger than the rest of the speech by Limbardi, the following words jumped out at me:

You’ve got to pay the price…

Simple words. A big challenge.

All of a sudden it hit me. I needed to toughen up a little. I needed a little more mental discipline. I was letting my fears destroy my vision. It reminded me a of story I had been told about a soldier in World War II.

Apparently:

A team of soldiers were fighting inch by inch for a painfully embattled strip of island. Day after day they fought — losing men and gaining little headway. Each day their supplies ran lower and several of the men started getting sick. The classic symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting would be bad enough if enemy snipers and cleverly booby-trapped minefields weren’t even more dangerous.

Each night, a few brave soldiers would swim back to the battleship anchored two miles off shore to get more supplies and ammunition. Many never made it back.

In the middle of this sad, miserable jungle, George fought side by side with his band of brothers. While others became feverishly sick with dysentery, he raised morale with his wit and charisma. Things seemed to be getting better. The enemy was being pushed back and the team was alive. And then things got tough for George.

He became ill. Very ill. George got so sick that he could barely move. As the rockets and mortars crashing overhead as he lay in his foxhole, it seemed like a matter of time until one landed too close. And then it happened.

George said that you could always tell by the sound of a mortar overhead how close away the round might be. Your senses perked up when the difference between death and inches is just a few seconds and quick movement. And in a weakened state, lying pathetically at the edge of a foxhole, George and his partner had little time to move. The round crashed into the back of the foxhole where George’s partner sat huddled. The shrapnel completely obliterated George’s partner and gouged deep flesh out of George’s back and buttocks and legs.

Blood soon mixed with diarrhea and infection set in. George had to get back to the boat or die. There was no other option. No one was able to carry him back. To live, he had to go it alone.

And so when darkness fell, he crawled from his foxhole to the beach and into the saltwater — salt ripping deep into open and raw wounds. And the unbelievable happened.

George swam the 2 miles back to the boat and lived. In spite of the odds, in spite of his weakened state, George made it.

And I’m glad he did. George Waldschmidt was my grandfather.

What kept George alive is the same thing that will help you dominate — mental toughness.

There wasn’t a cheering section waving flags and rooting my grandpa on the last 200 yards. There wasn’t a friend putting SuperPoke “You can do it” messages on his Facebook page. And forget about any Tweets with the words “crush it”, “good job” or “best of luck”.

It was icy water, diarrhea and deep wounds, infectious fever, and a ravenous determination to live.

Mental toughness is a process of muscle growth like physical exercise. There is NO magic potion. You have to intensely focus on a few key repeatable exercises. Here are a few of them:

Avoid the need to blame others for anything. — Mean, small-minded people know that they suck. That’s why they are so cranky and eager to point out your mistakes. They hope that by causing you to feel inadequate, everyone will forget about how woefully off-the-mark their own performance is. Stop the habit of blaming anyone for any reason ever. It’s a bad habit.
Stop working on things that just don’t matter. — Not everything needs to be done in place of sleep. If you work for a boss, then you owe them solid time. You can’t cut that out. You can however cut out the television time, board meetings, and anything else that gets in the way of you staying focused on your destiny. Replace entertainment with activity toward your goal.
Find the positive side of any circumstance. It’s there. — Find a negative person and you’ve found a mentally weak person. It takes no mental courage to say that something “won’t work.” Frankly, that’s the easy route. What does take mental effort (lots of it sometimes…) is to believe in something when you are the only one in your cheering section. Make it a personal challenge to find the best in every situation. And tell someone when you find it.
Refuse to let yourself wallow in self-doubt. You’re alive to succeed. – Stop comparing your problems to your last 18 failures. They are not the same. You are not the same. Here’s something to remember: Your entire life has been a training ground for you capturing your destiny right now. Why would you doubt that? Go conquer. Stop whining.
Ask yourself “what can I do better next time?” and then do it next time. — Guess what? Spend a decade or two earnestly trying to “be better”, and that’s exactly what will happen. The next best thing to doing something amazing is not doing something that’s stupid. So learn from your mistakes and use the lessons to dominate.
Actively take time to do things that fuel your passion. (e.g. exercise…) – Living in the moment requires you to live at peak performance. A huge part of mental fitness is physical fitness. So go fight someone. Or go running. Mental motivation gets accelerated by physical activity.
Say thank-you for something that you have taken for granted in the past. — The exercise of gratitude is a powerful ignitor of creativity. Selfishness limits our ability to work at peak performance. When you think only of yourself, you miss out on the real key to world domination — help other people.
Apologize to yourself and those around you for having a bad attitude. — Do this once or twice and you’ll snap out of your funk pretty fast. When you start having to genuinely apologize for being a bad influence on those around you, you learn to stop whining and start winning.

The quickest way to fail is to let your fears and doubts get in the way of your passion. It’s what happens naturally. If you want to dominate, control your thought, young Jedi. You’ll find yourself conquering more.

———

Another way to conquer more is to join me on my Edgy Conversations Workshop, March 2nd. I even have two surprise guests with me on the phone. No need for a computer or Powerpoints, we are going to dominate over the phone. Hundreds of you attended the last event and emailed me asking for more. So that’s exactly what this is.

You bring your issue and we’ll find an edgy solution live.

Seth Godin Inspires Indispensable Edginess.

Dan Waldschmidt — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:10:37 +0000

Is what you doing right now something the world can’t live without? Are you the difference between success and failure? Are you truly indispensable?

“So, Seth, do you consider yourself indispensable?”

That’s what I wanted to say. But I ran out of time.

The reality is that the thinking of a guy like Seth is quite indispensable. You can’t really live without it. You may survive. You might be the last of your friends around at 87. But what you did probably won’t have really mattered…

After a string of emails and the kindness of Seth (and Ishita) to take a few questions from me last week on Seth’s new manifesto, Linchpin, I started to round out the edges of my thinking around edginess…

Part 1: Is life like art?

Seth Godin is a legend in any discussion of “changing the world”. After more a decade of writing with a distinct perspective about community and marketing and the art of being the dude that doesn’t let the wheels fly off the operation, Seth really makes it personal with the idea of fear. He makes the case that:

“fear is the dominant emotion of our lives –Seth Godin”

What stops us from being amazingly successful is our fear of failure, our fear of being different, our fear of not doing what we are told, our fear of being laughed at. We are afraid of our own destiny. We have the choice to do something shocking and we trade it in for a few less laughs?

Part 2: Why are we so scared?

Gives us all something to think about. Right?

But, Seth goes further, he talks about the value of what we do as artists. That being edgy (on the edge of what the rest of world things is normal) is risky and amazingly rewarding…

Part 3: Can you put a price tag on what you do?

What a great reminder to avoid toxic influences in our day-to-day lives. I make the mistake many times of trying to win over all the detractors — at the risk of losing my core focus on the overall goal. Many of you find yourselves doing the exact same thing. You get burned out trying to change the wrong part of “the world”. Some things, some people will not change while you are alive….

Know that what you do is amazing, unique, and sometimes only partially comprehensible. And just know that means you won’t be able to convince everyone of your value. Be edgy. Fight for your destiny. And avoid “schmoes” who make you insane.

Part 4: Do you expect a “Thank You”?

Part of being effective (on the edge of outrageous opportunity) is the idea of giving away your talents. They are a gift. Something that you don’t expect to be fully compensated for. Can someone really pay you enough to get the extra mile with each email or phone interaction you make for your company?

That means that you create art. And you let karma bring you the appreciation.

You do what only you an uniquely do and stop worrying about “getting the credit”.

Part 5: Are you doing enough? Anything at all?

Nothing gets done until someone else benefits from your passion (your “gift”). Sadly, we too often trade what is safe for what would change the world. That means that we fight for our “day job” and the pay raise when we should be focusing on investing in other people’s lives and our own personal development.

And putting in amazing amounts of effort is an admirable quality. It shows discipline. But it’s not “art”.

Art is when you finish what you started.

It’s when you close the prospect….. It’s when you finally make contact with a contact that help you influence the decision maker…. It’s when you take hopes and wishes for a deal and turn it into a relationship….

It’s not so much about about what you do but how you do it.

Part 6: Are you the guy who will successfully have bad ideas?

Wouldn’t you like to know that you are indispensable? That without you the wheels falls and the cart crashes to the ground. Not in a twisted egomaniacal sense of tyranny, but in a somber sense of inspiration.

Art is edgy.

From the raw definition.

Some art connects with a large audience. Some a much smaller group.

You will fail along the way. At least it might appear that way. If you use failure as your laboratory for building your destiny, you will find that each time you hit an obstacle you fight to get back to the edge.

Because at the edge is where you’ll find success. That’s when you’ll realize that you are indispensable…

No. I’m not like that.

Dan Waldschmidt — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:53:35 +0000

We hate to be misunderstood. Better yet, we can’t stand over-hearing (in someone else’s casual conversation) that our motives or intention suck.

How many times have you been in a conversation with a bunch of people when you thought you heard your name spaced too close to an insult or some other negative nonsense?

Maybe a little something like this:

Crowd: That Dan guy…. … what a moron! I would never do something like that….. idiot…. you’re telling me… what a loser!

You: Hey, you guys talk’n to me?

Better yet (what you really want to say): “You guys talking about me?”

You’ve been there, haven’t you? I know I have.

And for a guy who trained for an Ultimate Fighting competition, it can be hard to bite your lip and leave the area before it becomes the scene of a crime (that would be a bad intention).

Here’s the kicker:

Usually it’s our fault people challenge our intention….

Oh, sure, I know that really we can’t help what other people think or do. We all get that.

What most of us still don’t understand is the idea of rephrasing our discussions around clearly stating our intention.

Get what I am saying?

Instead of explaining the 6 things that we are going to do; and then justifying the 19 sub-reasons why doing those things is the best way to accomplish our goal, many times it simply easier to state our intention.

Follow me?

Replace “I am going to…..” with “I intend to……”

Now don’t start throwing things at your computer screen (yet…). You’re right. It is a subtle shift. It’s a small deal. But it has strong psychological power…

People will take “pot-shots” at your actions all day long. Frankly, it’s pretty easy to do. Still further, you’ll find people who take what you think is a success and turn it into a “major failure”. They’ll lambast your 1st Prize ribbon as self-serving and selfishly ego-maniacal luck. They’ll call you all manner of sophisticated names and even use religion, race, or pedigree as a platform for mis-characterizing your activity.

If you happen to eavesdrop long enough you’ll find out that you might have even murdered the queen of England…

It’s fairly ridiculous behavior. Right?

Here’s an observation for you: These same people back down when you say VERY clearly what you are “intending”…

When you say “I intend to make that happen”, they say “Go to it…”. But when you say “I am going to do that”, they say “Over my dead body”

While we are jealous and petty people at times, we find ourselves reluctant to challenge inanimate intention… When a motive is clearly stated, we tend to accept it. Start stating yours…

Don’t take this lightly. Here some things to consider:

Be smart about the abuse you decide to take — Life is short but it certainly comes at you hard. It’s a non-stop game of survivor. Be careful about how much effort you place in convincing people of your point of view. Leave the politics around tactics to someone else and state your motives right up front. It will take a lot of guts for someone to challenge you. Some still will. And, maybe, you do need to be challenged. You will find, though, that the mindless jibber-jabber fades into the background when you are clear about your intention.
Create your own drama to boost your productivity — Great politics is great PR. You certainly don’t want to launch a full scale ad campaign every time you want to get something done, but it doesn’t hurt though to tell your side of the story first. Create the narrative before people start imagining. There is a reason we call the imagination “wild” — because it is. Stating your intention early and often keeps all of us sane and motivated. The more you remind people of the goals from the beginning, the less you will find yourself “challenged” as you attempt to navigate an every changing tactical landscape.
Make doubters look like idiots, debating themselves — Make your activities a by-product of your intention and strategical downplay your exact movements… Let’s talk turkey here. You don’t always know how you are exactly going to get something done. Right? You might have a ton of experience in a specific area, but that doesn’t mean that this challenge is exactly like all the rest. You might want to tell us more about the destination than the journey. Ask the doubters what tactics they would like to employ to get your goal accomplished. One of two things will happen — your goal will get done or you will silence your critics. Either way, I am sure you’ll be happy.

Let me show you how this works:

I intend to change the world of high-performance…

That’s my motivation. That’s what I am “up to”.

And, no, in case you overheard the same thing I did, I’m not like “that”. Just a guy with a different perspective trying to help you be more effective and unstoppable.

What do you intend to do?

Clean up your act… (or else)

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:44:26 +0000

For those of you who ignored my rage against the fad of making New Years resolutions, I say “bravo”… Sure it’s a mindless waste of time to commit to an important goal for just a few months, but you already knew that.

All rage aside, I have goals for my life and most of you do too. I have to think you wouldn’t continue to hang out here at The DEW View if you didn’t want more from your life.I tend to be pretty annoying.

(By the way, I hope several of you made resolutions just because I told you, you shouldn’t…)

So back to goals….

We all have them and we all would say that we want our goals to work out. The reality is that you can have what you want. Your goals really can happen…

You just need to clean up your act.

Here’s a fun fact for you: You guy’s don’t need me to tell you how to be successful. Most of us know what to do to be productive people.

We know that we need to prioritize better…
We know that we need to manage our time more effectively…
We know that we need to be more disciplined…

Right? So why don’t we?

I think it has a little to do with how I spent my weekend:

I have had the house to myself for the past few weeks and with two boys and a maddenly busy schedule, things get sloppy. Despite the pics you see of me on Facebook and elsewhere with my hair uncombed and collar pushed up, I am kind of a neat freak. It doesn’t hurt that I grew up with a mom that made me clean the toilets and polish the sinks each more morning before I went to school.

So I went back to my roots and decided to get the house back in shape – bathrooms, hard word floors, and carpets. And it wasn’t easy. For starters, I couldn’t find the supplies. I mean, isn’t there supposed to be a caddie thing with all the sprays and soaps and stuff? Where is it?

I couldn’t find it.

I made a trip to Wal-Mart with the boys to rectify the situation. Forty-five minutes later, a bucket, a mop, soap stuffs, a little green duster, and a pair of elbow-length pink gloves later, I hit the scene like Saturday night at the movies.

It was nasty. I won’t go into detail here because it will likely reduce my readership quite dramatically. It will suffice to say that things got sudsy in a hurry.

And about four hours later, the house looked better. It still needs a professional though…..

Here is my observation. I could have the most beautiful house in the world, but without periodic cleaning, it’s going to get pretty nasty, pretty quick.

That’s exactly what happens to your goals.

Your sales goals for this quarter. Your commission goals for this year. Your 3-year plan for conquering the world.

What starts in January as beautiful and full of delight turns into a March disaster, June denial, and November depression…

Along the way your goals get dusty, dirty, and downright nasty. What’s started out nice and beautiful quickly becomes something you can’t stand to be around. They stink.

“And when your goals stink, they start to rub off on you…”

So what am I saying?

Donate regular time to clean up bad habits that limit your potential…
Spend effort shining up new talents and skills…
Soak up any advice you can get from great books, bios, and magazine articles…
Don’t let failure and negativity leave scum on your beliefs…

So clean up your act!

It’s not me being a jerk; it’s your best chance of changing the world.

(I need to take my advice with this one too…)

What do you think?

Yep… your New Year resolutions are worthless.

Dan Waldschmidt — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:09:22 +0000

It’s that time of year again where we take stock of our poor performance from last year and write down blissful wishes for what we want to make happen this year.

It actually a pretty worthwless activity…

From joining a new gym to going to church more to drinking less — whatever you resolve come New Years has a 78% chance of ultimately failing. That’s almost everybody!

I didn’t make that up. That’s what a recent international study of almost a thousand people indicated.

Just like we have been trained to do nice things for people around Christmas even though we act like inconsiderate jerks the rest of the year, so we have also trained ourselves to pause ever so briefly at the beginning of each year to wish we could do a few things differently in the coming year.

And it’s a worthless waste of time for 8 out of 10 of us.

And while I am on the subject, why are we still talking about 3-year and 5-year plans when we can’t get this yearly thing figured out? Seems like a bunch of silly nonsense.

Seriously, are we committed to real change? Real sacrificial “it hurts like hell” change.

We don’t even apply the same level of respect to our own goals as we do the dudes we watch on ESPN.

We respect an obsessive work ethic that makes an all star like Michael Jordan sink 100 free-throws in a row before leaving practice. We marvel at the obscene practice put in by perfectionists like Tiger Woods who practice distance putting at 3 and 10 foot intervals for hours a day.

And yet when it comes to putting in a little more effort for ourselves, we tend to be the first to come up with excuses (good ones too). And the older we get, the more experience we gain explaining why our failure was really a good thing.

Aren’t you tired of mediocrity? Of being an “almost all-star”?

Are you willing to do something about it? To change?

Are you willing to:

Connect your goal with a larger mision in life… (turn “making more money” into “helping a small company flourish”)
Construct your goal into a series of smaller monthly milestones… (turn big deadlines into a series of progressive tasks)

If so, you might be ready to see breakthrough this year. This might be the year of YOU… ALL of the 22% who accomplished their annual goals noted that these two were the two primary drivers for their success — passion and planning.

It’s amazing what you can do when you really want something more for yourself.

You might just change the world.

Who Convinced us to Trade MORE for MERRIER?

Dan Waldschmidt — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:28:00 +0000

Parties… You love going to them. What’s even better — you love getting that late minute call to go crash your buddy’s friend’s pad to join in the “uninvited” festivities.

You can’t have hosted a party more than once in the past two millenia without a buddy asked you if he could bring some other dudes to the event.

It goes down a little like this:

YOU: Hey, I am throwing a little party at my place tomorrow night. You wanna swing by?

BUDDY: Awesome. I’ll bring some beers. By the way, do you mind if I invite the other guys?

YOU: Sure. No worries. The more the merrier…

What came of this?

I will tell you. Good times were had by all!

You had more people show up. Things got louder. And you didn’t find yourself talking to only that one person in the corner all night. There was more of everything. It got crazier. And people probably had fun.

Back in Virginia, our house got to be called “Schmidty City” because of the memorable happenings that went down. (Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to stop that picture from floating around the interwebs of me wearing a pink tube-top…)

Let’s get serious for a second. Especially as we think about closing out the year.

“MORE” works for parties — not for closing business deals.

For all the opposite reasons that chaos is the key to a great party, it’s the death of a business deal.

So avoid it… Stop thinking that you are making progress toward closing that big deal because you have the amazing ability to fire off 3 gazillion HTML emails to only-slightly-less-then random Jigsaw contacts.

The only think you can chalk up to success is your tenacity for annoying other people.

Believe it or not, intimacy still matters in business. The “merrier” part of the equation is most powerful — not the “more”.

So it might seem less than peachy to tell the “Big Cheese” that quantity isn’t your game, but that’s actually the truth.

Here’s a key pointer to help you keep your priorities straight:

Make sure you understand what the person on the other end of the deal thinks they are are getting out of the arrangement..

If you know that factoid and keep it top-of-mind as you work through your business deal, you will find yourself being much more successful.

As you go into 2010, keep an open mind about the idea of “edgy conversations” that I am spending more time defining. More leads, more potential customers, more busyness — none of these is the answer. You might find yourself sleeping fewer hours and running a more frenetic schedule, but you won’t find your revenue skyrocketing like you want it to.

Think “merrier”… all the way to the bank!