Category: Productivity

Famous Failures – Jeff Bezos

Posted on by Chris Mahan

If you wanted to compare prices on a product, do you know where 9 out of 10 buyers go online to do so? Do you know which online seller sells more than 12 million products annually? Which online seller averages more than 200 million unique visitors per month? The answer to all three questions is Amazon.

In 2020, Amazon’s net revenue was more than $386 Billion.

Yes, that’s BILLIONS.

From an early age, Amazon’s founder & CEO, Jeff Bezos wanted to be known as someone smart. As a kid, his heroes included Thomas Edison, which makes sense, considering his dreams involved building something no one had ever seen before. To get there, he realized he had to be highly educated on multiple topics. With that in mind, he read profusely and drank in as much knowledge as he could. As a result, he became a top student at an elite university. Upon graduation, he worked for smart startups before eventually selling everything and heading for Seattle to try doing something entirely new all on his own.

With only $10,000 to start and a load of debt, Jeff and his wife began selling books online out of their garage. At the time, few paid any attention to them. After all, who would want to buy books online? Even his parents expected him to fail. To everyone’s surprise, the online bookstore, named after the longest river in the world, succeeded. Within 3 years, he’d made $54 million and wasn’t about to stop there.

Jeff Bezos saw how the world was changing around him. People were going to the internet for more than memes. Over the next several years, Jeff dipped his toe into many things, expanding Amazon to include everything from travel services to groceries. Not everything worked, the aforementioned travel services, for example. Yet other things took off like a rocket. Now, millions of people worldwide do their shopping for everything from above ground pools to zucchini on Amazon.

The exciting thing to learn here involves taking chances. When you look over the history of Amazon since its inception almost 27 years ago, you’ll find a lot of great ideas alongside some that weren’t great at all. (Anyone remember the Amazon Fire Phone?) Some of those mistakes cost the company millions. The point is that Jeff never gave up. He was willing to take risks. Which is how a company that entered the stock market at $1.96 a share in the 1990s came to be worth $3057 per share at the writing of this article.

What can you learn from Jeff Bezos?

Don’t be afraid to try. If you fail, it’s not a big deal. Get up. Try again. Keep trying until you make it. Keep trying until, like Jeff Bezos, you find what you’re good at and succeed.

Famous Failures – Stephen King

Posted on by Chris Mahan

Who comes to mind when you think of famous authors? To readers and non-readers alike, Stephen King will almost always show up near the top of everyone’s list.

Why does everyone know his name?

Stephen King exemplifies the sort of success story every author dreams of. Not only are his books popular, but many of them have been adapted quite successfully for television and as movies. He’s known all around the world as being one of the great storytellers of the weird and creepy.

So, what’s his story? And how does his story apply to yours?

Stephen King was a writer at heart all the way back to his school days when he used to scribble out short stories for his friends. Writing wasn’t his original career ambition, though. He’d set out to become a teacher, and only resorted to writing when he couldn’t find a job in his field.

However, writing didn’t come easily either. When writing his first novel, Carrie, he was plagued with massive self-doubt – so much so he threw away his initial attempts. But with the encouragement of those around him, he went on to finish the book, got it published and watched as it turned into a great success.

Too much success.

The stress of having to produce another book when his first had proven so popular caused Stephen King to question himself further. He didn’t feel he was equal to the task and started drinking heavily. This was the beginning of a struggle with alcoholism that would nearly ruin him.

In the end, he persevered. He forced himself to seek out help for the problems holding him back. He didn’t let alcoholism destroy him and went on to achieve significant accomplishments. Now he’s one of the most recognized authors in the world. He has sold more than 350 million books worldwide, has published 63 novels (including 7 published under the pen name Richard Bachman), 5 non-fiction books and written more than 200 short stories.

Stephen King’s story is important because it addresses a malady that many people, regardless of profession, fall victim to. It is that prevailing belief that we are not good enough. Most everyone has moments where they feel like they’re not good enough at something. Sometimes they resort to unhealthy ways of dealing with the pressure when they feel like they can’t perform to some unattainable standard set by themselves or by those who influence them. Some people, much like Stephen King, resort to drugs or alcohol to cope when it all seems too much.

What we need to remember is this: We are more capable than we think. No matter how far we’ve fallen, no matter how much we feel like we can’t…we CAN. It may not be easy, but we must make the decision to get up and keep going. We need to write that next word, we need to put in that next hour of work, we need to try one more time until we achieve what we would have called impossible only a short time ago.

Famous Failures – Soichiro Honda

Posted on by Chris Mahan


Situations can change in an instant. One moment you’re moving right along on one path, thinking all is right with the world when suddenly, the carpet is pulled out from under you. Technology shifts, something becomes obsolete, you find yourself embroiled in a worldwide pandemic. Suddenly, what you’ve been doing for years no longer works. What do you do?

For Soichiro Honda, the answer was to shift and adapt. Like Honda, you need to find the next best solution, regardless of how crazy or off the wall it seems at the time.

Honda started out back in 1939 with the idea of creating a piston ring for Toyota. His prototype flopped almost immediately. Undaunted, he threw himself into the project determined to bring his idea to fruition. He succeeded! His invention enabled him to gain the contract he desired. Suddenly, a major problem erupted on the horizon – one entirely beyond his control: WWII.

With a shortage of material with which to build a factory, Honda might have given up. Instead, he created a new kind of concrete he could use in place of more traditional materials. However, problems continued to abound. His new factory was bombed twice, and when he was finally ready to go into production, there wasn’t any steel.

There was, on the other hand, plenty of empty gasoline cans to be found, discarded by the American fighters.

Taking advantage of what was on hand, he used what was readily available to him. It seemed fate was finally smiling down on him. But fate can be just as cruel as she is generous. An earthquake completely destroyed Honda’s factory. After this many severe setbacks, a lot of people would have taken them as a sign to get out of business altogether. Not Soichiro. He chose to persevere.

In the meantime, with resources slim – especially fuel for vehicles – Honda set out to solve his own problem. What he found was a solution for everyone else as well. He motorized a bicycle with a tiny engine so he could get to work. This engine was something his neighbors admired greatly and wanted for their own. Seeing an opportunity to make a success in a direction he had never considered previously, Honda set out to mass-produce a small engine that could serve the needs of the community. This engine went on to become the foundation of his company.

His real success came during the 1970s American fuel crisis. With a demand for cars that used less fuel to travel more miles, Honda leveraged his knowledge to build fuel-efficient vehicles, making him a leader worldwide in engine technology.

Soichiro Honda accomplished a great deal in his lifetime. Being willing to adapt to circumstances and looking for the opportunities in the midst of crisis rather than becoming caught up in his setbacks, he created a product which launched his success.

Entrepreneurs who seek success should learn from his example. No matter what life may throw at us, no matter what setbacks we may experience, we must avoid giving up and giving in. Instead, finding the opportunities that exist within all predicaments, we must choose to move on.

Famous Failures – Bubble Wrap

Posted on by Chris Mahan

Have you ever had what you thought was a really great idea only to have it turn out to be not so great after all? Now imagine someone else picking up your discarded idea and proving it actually was quite brilliant.

This is what happened to Al Fielding and Marc Chavannes back in 1957.

These two gentlemen were working on an aesthetic problem. They wanted to create a textured wallpaper in order to create an interesting effect in a room. Their solution? Take two shower curtains and put them together so that pockets of air would be trapped between them. This sheet of plastic could then be put up on the walls to make for unique and charming décor.

The world didn’t exactly come flocking to their door.

Undaunted they tried again. Same product: different marketing approach. Maybe this unique bubbled plastic could be used to insulate greenhouses.

Not really. It sort of worked – but – it was not something every greenhouse owner couldn’t live without.

It took two years for someone to figure out what to do with the product. Frederick W. Bowers, who worked for the company which made the sheets of plastic with air pockets, realized they would be perfect for the transport of computer equipment for a company which had a sudden need for this kind of product – IBM. The material, now called ‘Bubble Wrap,’ was absolutely perfect for the job. The rest, shall we say, is history.

Bubble Wrap is one of those products that seemed to come along by accident. As a wallpaper, it wasn’t a great idea. (Just imagine your kids going around the house and poking the bubbles to pop them?). On the other hand, someone who was willing to think outside the box, or more accurately, think creatively about what to put IN a box, was able to come up with a use for the product no one else would have ever considered.

Thankfully, the creators of Bubble Wrap hadn’t given up on the product. They knew they had something interesting, they just didn’t know what to use it for. Sometimes you must experiment with your ideas to discover what you really have. Sometimes you have to think more creatively about what you have at hand.

The point is not to give up. Failure should never be anything more than a marker to tell you it’s time to attack the problem from a different angle. Learn from the mistake, then move on. Imagine what you’ll come up with when you do!

 

 

 

Famous Failures – Albert Einstein

Posted on by Chris Mahan

Stupid. Failure. No good. Idiot.

Albert Einstein heard all these phrases about himself and more. Growing up was tough for young Einstein. He didn’t express himself well and he struggled in school. Even his teachers gave up on him, deciding that he was impossible to teach. Those around him considered him mentally retarded, and no one thought he would ever make anything of himself.

 

This doesn’t sound like an auspicious beginning for someone who is considered to be one of the greatest geniuses of all time, does it?

Einstein seemed to meet failure at every turn. He wished to attend the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology but had to take the entrance exam twice before he was admitted. Even then, his troubles weren’t over. His teachers laughed at his ideas, calling his doctoral dissertation “irrelevant and fanciful.” After college, no one thought much about him. He worked in a patent office. A situation which turned out to be perfect because the work was so mindless giving him plenty of time to think.

And think he did. A lot!

Albert Einstein used his extra time to work out several theories. In fact, he became so caught up in his ideas, he grew absent-minded and oblivious to the world around him. In the grand scheme of things, maybe it didn’t matter quite so much whether he forgot to wear socks with his shoes. The important thing was what he developed, what he created in those deep thoughts. From the Theory of Relativity to every one his subsequent theories, it soon became evident that Albert Einstein’s thoughts were considerable. So much so that he became a professor himself, and even won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.

Imagine what his critics had to say about him then!

From Albert Einstein, we should learn not to let the world define us. No one truly knows what you’re capable of but you. Even if you don’t always express your ideas well, it doesn’t mean those ideas don’t have merit.

Albert Einstein is also an excellent example of what it means to do your own thing. His ideas didn’t mesh with the way people typically thought about the world. Even in his lifetime, not everyone saw things his way. This didn’t stop him from expressing himself and standing by what he said.

So be smart like Einstein. Don’t be afraid to share your ideas with the world. More importantly, never let anyone else tell you what you can do. That’s for you to show them.

 

5 Tips for Getting a Grip on Self-Doubt

Posted on by Chris Mahan

Did you know that a whopping 85 percent of people have low self-esteem to some degree? This issue can affect our personal and professional lives, including our careers, our health, and even our salaries. In other words, self-doubt and low self-esteem can keep us from reaching our peak potential.

Low self-esteem is a personality trait that often develops in childhood and either exacerbates or diminishes with time. If self-doubt plagues you, read on to learn how to get a grip on this potentially debilitating issue.

Know You’re Not Alone

Even the most successful people have doubts every now and again. They may find themselves questioning their actions and wondering what the right thing is to do. How do they harness those doubts?

It helps to focus on building your confidence and self-esteem. You might never get rid of your doubts entirely, but you can stop them from taking over your life. Here are five tips you can use to help determine when to listen to the inner voice of self-doubt.

Accept Yourself

Self-doubt is part of being human. Embrace it and turn it into a strength. When used correctly, this personality trait can help you make better decisions. It can cause you to give pause before making an impulsive decision. Think of it as a tool that guides your actions and keeps you from making costly mistakes. I view self-doubt as one aspect of our inner voice.

Just make sure you are making the conscious decision when to listen to your inner voice and when to ignore it. If you allow it to have unfettered influence over you, it can become detrimental to your well-being and success. Unbridled, self-doubt can make you question your sanity and decision-making abilities.

Get the Facts

Your doubts don’t necessarily reflect the truth. Most times, they mirror your fears and emotional struggles. If not challenged, they can convince you are, and have always been, a failure. But that isn’t the truth, is it? Think about your achievements and how hard you worked to get where you are today. Be proud of yourself and admire your capabilities.

Whenever doubt arises, get the facts straight. Don’t act on incomplete information. Research the issue in question, weigh the pros and cons of possible responses, and don’t hesitate to seek the guidance of trusted friends and associates.

Acknowledge Your Strengths

Make a list of things you excel in. Write down your skills and accomplishments. Accept praise from others gracefully and acknowledge your talent.

Celebrate your strengths every single day. Make positive affirmations and remind yourself how much you’ve done so far. Stop thinking of what you could have done better and focus instead on the positive things. In other words, don’t beat yourself up – build yourself up!

Often, your inner critic may tell you that you are incapable of accomplishing a certain task or goal. If you are acutely aware of your past successes, you can immediately counter your inner critic with examples of when you were successful in the past in accomplishing this task or goal or something similar.

Choose Your Friends Wisely

Negative people can drag you down and ruin your self-esteem. Nothing will ever be good enough for them. That’s why it’s so important to surround yourself with positive people who support you and listen to you instead of judging.

Do you best to limit your exposure to toxic individuals. Some you cannot avoid entirely because they are co-workers or family. However, you can still control how much time you allow yourself to be exposed to their venomous talk.

Define Your Values

Lastly, define the values you live by daily. Having a clear set of life values will provide you with a filter you can use to determine if your inner voice is helping or hurting you. They will enable you to have a more realistic perspective of your current situation which will in turn allow you to determine the validity of what your inner voice is saying. Focus on the thoughts and attitudes that drive your actions, move you forward toward your goals and are at the core of your beliefs.

Overcoming self-doubt and taming your inner critic is a lifelong process. Learn to tame your inner critic so it isn’t questioning every decision. Don’t allow your inner critic and self-doubt to cause you to waste time and energy overanalyzing every situation along with your possible responses. Instead, build your self-confidence and learn to trust your decisions. Then, act and put your plans in motion.

To learn more about taming your inner critic, visit my Life Coaching website.

 

Simple Ways to Overcome Your Fear of Taking Action

Posted on by Chris Mahan

Don’t fault yourself for being afraid of taking that big step–the massive action that needs to happen in order for you to realize your dream! It’s a natural response to moving out of your comfort zone. But while you shouldn’t rebuke yourself for feeling fearful, neither should you wallow in it so that you never get past it. When fear rears its ugly head, use these simple tactics to put it in perspective and move on.

Recognize fear is only a feeling

Fear can feel very, very real. But it’s only an emotion that survives and thrives when we dwell on it and start to believe it. The first step in mastering your fear of taking massive action is to remind yourself that fear is only an emotion – one that you can control.

Remember, everyone has experienced fear of failure

Most everyone experiences fear before they try something new. Think of the most successful person you know. Do you think they haven’t experienced fear of failure? Sure they have. And I’m sure they would tell you that. Everyone has experienced fear of failure, the fear of looking like a fool, the fear of losing friends when you become too famous, too wealthy, too thin, or too whatever. When a moment of panic comes over you, imagine your role model and remember that they too have experienced fear. But they moved through it anyway.

Take the first small step

We’ve all heard of Newton’s 1st Law of Motion: A body at rest tends to stay at rest, while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. When you notice that feeling of fear arising, consciously make the decision to take that first small step in spite of the fear. You will feel amazing after you have done that one little thing. The success of even a small accomplishment will give you the confidence to take the next step. You will realize that you can do it, and you’ll be excited to keep the momentum going. Fear will be replaced by enthusiasm!

Use a lifeline

Sometimes we recognize fear for what it is but can’t seem to get over the hurdle anyway. That’s the right time to call in some reinforcements. Reach out to a friend, colleague or family member who is totally on board with your goal. Buy them a cup of coffee and talk to them about your feelings. Use them as a sounding board, ask for their advice or just come out and ask for a pep talk! Choose to do this with a person who loves you and has faith that you can achieve your goal. That way you don’t need to worry about being embarrassed to tell them that fear has you in a paralyzing grip! They will support you through each step you take. Sometimes all we need to hear is a person we love and admire tell us it will be all right.

One final thing to consider:

Give thought to hiring a coach. A Life or Business Coach can help you identify the fear that may be temporarily paralyzing you. They can remind you of others who faced their fears head-on and became widely successful as a result. Your coach can help you identify that first small step, along with the subsequent ones that will enable to realize your goal. And, a coach can be that lifeline you can turn to whenever you need to lean on someone for support.

How to Prime Your Brain for Success in Just 10 Minutes a Day

Posted on by Chris Mahan

Visualization can be the secret weapon which enables you to turn your dreams into reality. The power to achieve what you want in life; motivation, strategy, and the “Big Idea” are already there, locked in your subconscious mind. By taking just ten minutes each day you can unlock that power and start to move towards your goals.

  1. Harness the Power of your Subconscious

You may not realize how powerful your subconscious is in determining whether or not you succeed in life. A negative mindset can sap your energy and inhibit forward motion, stopping you from imagining your dream life and doing the things that will make it possible. It will remind you of past failures and tell you that gaining success and wealth is hard work, painful, and, even impossible.

Studies have shown that you can rewire your mindset by programming the Reticular Activating System in your brain to focus on positivity and success. The RAS acts like a filter. It helps you to focus on what’s important to you and discard the rest. If you program it to prioritize information that will feed your success, you will have your subconscious mind working for you, not against you.

  1. Make Visualization a Habit

Just ten minutes a day of visualizing your future life is enough to keep the momentum going and your motivation high. Make the visualization habit easy by doing it at the same time and place each day. The ten minutes before you get up and before you go to sleep are perfect times to practice visualization. You’re relaxed, unlikely to be interrupted, and in the ideal state of mind to have an impactful visualization.

Bring to mind every detail of your future successful life: How does it look? What can you see, feel, hear, and taste? What kind of clothes are you wearing? What kind of car are you driving? Where do you  live and where do you spend your vacations? What emotions are you feeling? Make the visualization of your future as real and as detailed as possible.

  1. Be present

You can practice visualization not just by thinking about the future but also being fully present in the here and now. Placing all of your happiness in the future may cause you to miss out on all the good things in your life right now. And that can be demotivating and lead to a drop in positivity.

Don’t postpone happiness. Think of all the things in your life that you are grateful for right now. Celebrate your successes and your gifts and use them to fuel your ambition for more and better things.

Imagine a map. Where you are at the present is your starting point while the success you envision is your destination. See yourself working your way along that map and ticking off your successes (sort of like marking off the miles) as you get closer to achieving what you want. Mark every success and celebrate it in some fashion, no matter how small. Doing so will help keep your energy and motivation high.

WORKING FROM HOME: 9 Tips to Help You Stay Organized Every Day

Posted on by Chris Mahan

 

 

Working from home has become the norm – rather than the exception – thanks to COVID-19. While it certainly has its upside, working from home can also bring about a whole new set of challenges. One major challenge is to stay focused on your work and not allow yourself to be distracted by the people or things that surround you at home. While there are many ways to combat that distraction, I would say that being organized in your approach to your work is one of the most important.

Being organized should be a way of life and second nature to you. That way it’s a habit rather than a chore. Of course it takes time and effort to create the habit in the first place. Once you’ve achieved it, you won’t want to go back to an unorganized approach. These nine tips will help you to stay organized every day with very little effort or fuss.

Check In

Start your day by checking your schedule and your to do list. It may be that you’ve thought of something you need to add. Prioritize your to do list so that you tackle the important items first.

Plan

As well as your to do list you should plan your day. Include calls, meetings, chores and goals. You can use pen and paper, a planner (a bullet journal is ideal) or a planning app. Don’t forget to include scheduled breaks. Make sure to include time for friends and family.

The F.A.R. Rules

The F.A.R. Rules are essential for helping you to stay organized. They apply equally to your personal life as your business.

  • File it – if it’s important and needs to be kept (either in paper or electronic form) then file it immediately.
  • Act on it – if something needs to have action taken for example, paying a bill or making a call, then do it immediately. Then either file or recycle it.
  • Recycle it – whether it’s junk mail or papers and items you’ve finished with, recycle it immediately once it’s no longer needed.

These rules apply to emails as well as paperwork. By following them you can keep your inbox under control.

Digital Aids

At times technology can be a distraction but there are some items that can help you become and stay productive. However, choose your devices and solutions with care so that you don’t create more of a problem for yourself.

You may decide that an app to monitor your health and fitness would be a good idea to keep you on track with your goals. There are also menu planning apps, scheduling, time and project management, as well as household organization apps.

Track

To be successful with your organization skills you need to track and monitor your progress. What’s working and what’s not? Be prepared to make changes and adjustments to how you do things. Just because one method of organizing your work space doesn’t work for you it doesn’t mean that another won’t.

Trash It

Don’t keep things for the sake of it. If it’s not useful or necessary then throw it out. If you are keeping it then remember to put it away. That way you keep your surroundings free from clutter and distractions.

Identify

Keep a track of what works for you and keep on doing it. If something hasn’t been successful then identify what needs to be changed and do it that way the following day.

5 Minute Review

Just like you started your day, end your day with a five minute review. Celebrate your accomplishments and cross off everything you’ve achieved from your to do list. Remove any inessential or unimportant tasks that are still remaining. Whatever is left should be added to the next day’s list.

To Do List

Create your to do list for the following day. Include any important tasks that you didn’t complete that day. Try and limit your list to 10 items or less so that you don’t feel overwhelmed or end the day with a list of unaccomplished items.

Becoming and staying organized doesn’t happen overnight and it does require regular effort. However, you can stay on track by following these nine tips. You can be organized every day with a little planning, time and effort.

What Would You Give to Have More Time in Your Day?

Posted on by Chris Mahan

I can’t give you more than the 604,800 seconds that everyone has in their week, but I can show you a simple way to be more productive with those allotted seconds.

Our modern world recognizes being busy as being important. It seems the more running around you do, the more urgent tasks you have, the more respected you are. Think about it – have you ever talked about how busy you are when someone asked you how you were? Probably. We all do it.

But being busy doesn’t mean we are being effective at making the changes we want in our lives. In fact, it may mean the opposite – that we are wasting time on tasks that really aren’t that important. That leaves us drained of energy and wondering what it’s all for.

The Pareto Principle, maybe better known as the 80/20 principle, is a way to use your time effectively so you get more done and are working on the right activities. In a nutshell, the principle says that approximately 20% of your effort yields 80% of your results. Likewise, the reverse is also true. There are tasks that take 80% effort, yet only yield 20% of your results. The goal, obviously, is to determine which tasks are which.

The easiest and fastest way to achieve your outcomes and reach your potential is to streamline your action items. Some tasks that don’t make the cut (don’t yield 80%) can be ignored as unimportant, while others may still need doing, but not necessarily by you. Those 20% yield tasks that still need to be completed can be outsourced so you are free to complete the creative tasks you are best at.

Here’s how to see if an item is a 20% or an 80% job:

  • Keep a list of outcomes handy so you can review it throughout each day.
  • Write down each task that you need to complete for the day.
  • Now, go through each item and compare it to your outcomes. Does it align? From past experience, how much effort did the item take? And what was the benefit? Is it worth it?
  • If it is, but you don’t need to do it, hand it off to someone else.
  • If it’s not, mark a line through it and move on to the next item on the list.
  • Use a simple tracking system to measure the results vs. the effort on each task or technique you use. This will help you determine if something is a 20% or 80% undertaking later.

The point of this exercise is to keep firmly in your mind that not all activities yield the same benefits. And that it’s not necessary to implement every idea that you come across. Choose only those that align with your goals and will offer the most reward.

Of course, you can take a shortcut to increasing your revenue and profits by engaging in what I’ve determined to be 5 areas that comprise the 20% of efforts in your business that lead to 80% of your profit. Visit my website and scroll down to the section, “Free Training for Business Owners.” Watch the 25 minute training video for an overview of an approach that will give you insight as to how you can increase your revenue and profits in as little as 90 days. As an added bonus, I’ll also send you a short email training series to provide even more insight into the process.