You are your biggest investment. Don’t be cheap when it comes to education and self-improvement. Continuous improvement is of paramount importance when it comes to your success in business or in life in general.
Spend more than you think you can afford on education, including degrees, online education, books, audio books, podcasts etc. Whatever it takes. You do have time to read. Yes you do; you can listen to audio books during your commute to work or at the gym. You can also watch many online lectures. In fact, most online lectures are free and my favorites are inspiring Ted Talks. If you have Wi-Fi and a stationary bike at home you can watch online courses at www.Udemy.com or even on YouTube.
Be a voracious reader. Read as many books as you can on successful business people and humanitarians. What are their secrets? Learn from them and watch your career take off.
Follow these People...
I have always been a voracious reader of biographies of successful people. I love learning from them. What are their recipes for success? How did they do it? Did they lead a well-balanced life on the road to their success? Although I am incredibly busy, I listen to many biographies of successful people in the car, and in the kitchen.
Use Twitter to follow your business heroes. They often tweet incredibly motivational quotes that resonate well with me. I love their short snippets of optimism, hope and best practices.
I find it incredibly motivating to know as much as I can about these successful people as most of them came from very uncompromising backgrounds. I love the poor, smart and hungry rags to riches stories. I feel empowered when thinking about them; there are no limits to what you can achieve. These people are no smarter than you are. They all have very positive attitudes, which I love!
I Have Never Met a Successful Person With…
You will never meet a successful person with a negative attitude. If they didn’t believe in themselves and in their goals, then they would never have been successful. The quintessential example of this is Richard Branson. I just finished his latest audio book and my goodness does he ever have an amazing positive attitude! In fact, what I have learned from most of the audio books that I have completed on successful people is that the secret of their success is that they all believe that there are no limits to what you can achieve!
I have spent a lot of money on many biographies of successful people over the years and this was probably my best investment ever. So what is the biggest takeaway of the many biographies that I have read? How did all of these positive people all maintain a positive attitude with so many negative people around them? Their secret is that many of them believed that unjustified criticism is a disguised complement? How prophetic! Successful people often see criticism as a complement!
I used to get a bit sensitive when others would criticize me in business. I don’t let this bother me anymore. In fact, the more successful in life you become, the more this will happen to you. How should you react? Well first of all I hope this happens to you more often because it is a reflection of your success. You almost want this to happen more often as it is incredibly flattering. Your coworkers or competitors might develop a very slightly condescending tone with you over the years the more successful you become as well. You almost want to reach out and thank them for the disguised complement! Don’t worry because maybe they just feel threatened by you which is a euphemism for a huge complement.
Successful people are criticized all the time. The ones that are the happiest and have the best peace of mind are those that see criticism as nothing more than a disguised complement. So bring it on doubters! : )
The most important investment you will ever make is you! Be a voracious reader of published works written by or written on your business and humanitarian heroes. Follow their success blueprints and one day others will follow and read about you as part of the most important investment they ever make!