The Most Dangerous Person in the Room

Want my 2 cents? How about a 50 cent lesson instead?

One of the books I reread regularly is Think and Grow Rich.

Today I’ll share one of the most inspiring stories from it.

And we’ll cover the lessons from it, of course!

One day, somewhere in the beginning of the previous century, a little girl walked into an old-fashioned mill where Mr. Darby and his Uncle were working. Mr Darby was the owner of a large farm where multiple black farmers lived.

This girl was the daughter of one of them.

“What do you want?” snarled Darby.

The girl spoke up and said “My mommy said to send her 50 cents.”

To which she got an absolute “No!” and she was told to run on home. She nodded and said “Yes, sir.” however she did not move from her spot. Meanwhile the two men went back to work.

After a short while, they noticed this girl still standing there.

“I told you to go home! Now leave, or I’ll take a switch to you!”

He was yelling at this point.

Again, the same thing happened:

The girl replied “Yes, sir” but she did not move.

This is where the uncle’s patience ran out…

He put down the grain he was holding and walked forward towards the little girl, still standing next to the door. Imagine how frightening it would be for a child to be faced with a furious grown-ass man.

This girl however seemed unfased.

As the uncle almost reached her, shed didn’t step back or cover in fear!

Quite the opposite.

She stepped forward, looked him straight in the eyes and yelled on the top of her lungs:

“My mommy’s gotta have that 50 cents!”

Mr Darby’s uncle paused in his actions.

After a moment, he put down the stave he was holding and was threatening her with. He reached for his pocket, took out the money she asked for and then handed it to the girl.

Mission accomplished!

The girl took the money and slowly backed out of the room…

… never taking her eyes off of the man she had just faced and won!

The Most Dangerous Person in the Room

It wasn’t the person prepared for violence.

In life, it comes down to this:

The most dangerous person is the one who never gives up until they accomplish their goals. Your competitors might be smarter, more established, more creative, or have more resources. Still, the one who will win in the end is the one who ruthlessly takes action until success!

For example:

• J.K. Rowling was rejected by 12 publishers, then became a billionaire through the Harry Potter series.
  

• There once was a man who was talking to banks to get funding for his idea of starting a company creating animated movies. He got rejected more than 300 times before he got it. The man’s name? Walt Disney!
  

• Once, there was an actor who only had 2 lines in a movie. Not sure how you can mess up 2 lines, but he was told he was so bad that he should just give up on acting altogether. Anyone who has seen Star Wars will be glad that Harrison Ford that not take that advice.
  

• In doing some research on this section, I found that none other than Steven Spielberg was rejected from film school. Not once, or even twice, but a whopping 3 times.
  

• You might be familiar with the story of Thomas Edison. His invention of the lightbulb changed civilization forever. And in order to make that invention, he merely had to grow through more than 1000 failed attempts before making it work.

Two things to note here:

This does NOT just apply to people in business or celebrities. This principle of persisting ruthlessly until you succeed applies in every area of life. However, because of that, we’ll never know the names of the millions who use it.

Secondly:

This is not about talent, luck, genes or skill.

For every person who pushes through adversity, there are dozens or even hundreds of people with the same skills… who fail utterly. Talent only enters the equation AFTER someone has been through a ton of hard work!

Think about it like this:

If Michael Jordan never practiced, he’d get his ass kicked by even amateur players!

Talent only really matters at the very top!

If there’s one thing I’d like to impress upon you in this newsletter is that you have everything you need to succeed, right in this moment! All that’s standing between you and your goals is focused action and patience!

That’s everything!

Only YOU Can Defeat You!

There’s a main reason why most people will never put in the kind of work we discussed:

Fear!

• Fear of failure

• Fear of criticism

• Fear of the unknown

• Fear of rejection

• Fear of being vulnerable

And so on, many kinds of fear stop people in their tracks.

Ironic isn’t it?

We live in a world where virtually any goal you set your mind to can be accomplished. However, most people are defeated before even starting…

All that stands between you and your goal is focused effort.

However, the problem is that when you don’t believe you can achieve the outcome, or that you think you’re unworthy of it, you’re never going to give it the full 140% required, are you?

So, how do we fix this?

For starters, there is 1 crucial belief we must all take on:

“If I put effort into practicing something, I WILL get better at it.”

That’s the only belief that matters. Because when you believe this to be true, you know that you’re only learning a new skill away from your goal. Instead of thinking “I can’t do this” you’ll add the word “yet” to that sentence and start working on the required skill.

The second part?

We’ll discuss that in our action steps below.

Additional Resources
In this featured video, I’m diving into how these limiting beliefs are formed.

Back to You, Time to Implement

Today, let’s look at two of the extremes of goals you might have:

Today & in a decade.

For this, there are two exercises you can do right now.

Exercise 1:

For a goal to be effective, it needs to be big enough to excite and motivate us. Otherwise, you’re likely to give up when things get hard. You’ll have that feeling of “Why even bother, this just isn’t worth it…”

Here’s my #1 rule for goals:

When you think of your goal and achieving even 10% of it, does that bring a huge smile to your face? Does it excite you? Are you like “Oh my god, YES! I would be over the moon if only I could achieve that!”

If not, start dreaming bigger!

Start by writing out this goal of yours. Use as much specificity as you can think of. Make use of sensory language (what do you see, feel hear, smell, etc.) to describe what it would be like when you achieve it.

This brings the goal alive to your subconscious mind.

Have it close to you and review it daily to make it sink in.

Exercise 2:

Time to make good on a promise I made:

How can you overcome any fear that might be holding you back?

Simple:

Prove your fears wrong!

If you’ve done the first exercise, you’ve now got a B.H.A.G. or a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. You’ve got something that excites you, but because it’s so big, it’s probably intimidating as well, isn’t it?

You might think “How could I possibly do all that?!”

Here’s what I want you to write down:

What are certain activities that if you do them daily, would make it ridiculous for you not to succeed (in the long run)?

Got that?

Let’s break it down even further:

What is the smallest step you can take right now to do that work?

Let me give you an example of this:

Back when I was creating a lot of written content (years ago), I would have liked to write an article a day if possible. However, I did not set that as the goal for myself!

Instead, I told myself to write 1 measly paragraph.

After that, I would be off the hook.

For your goals, pick something that is so small that there is no excuse for not doing it. Something small enough to not feel intimidating in the slightest and is simple.

Why This Works So Well

If you tell yourself to work out for 90 minutes, it’s easy to then say “Well I don’t have the time today” and not go.

However, what if you made setting foot in the gym your goal?

That’s something so small that time isn’t much of a concern. And when you do set foot in the gym, what are you gonna do? Have goodbye to the person at the desk and walk right back out again?

Probably not.

You might try one machine and then check your watch.

It’s not quite time for dinner yet, so let’s do one more.

You’ll get in a state where you’re more motivated because you got started. And once we start creating momentum, it’s MUCH easier to keep on going!

Maybe you do the full 90 minutes, maybe not. It doesn’t really matter that much, because you did more exercise than you would have done if you forced yourself to do the mountainous task instead!

Proof Your Fears Wrong

The initial steps are always the hardest.

What you’re doing with this process is you’re proving to yourself that you can get yourself to do the tasks required. You show yourself that you CAN achieve your goal by taking steps to achieve it!

The more action you take and the more you reinforce positive actions, the stronger this belief becomes!

One thing now stands between you and that goal:

Persistence!

And that completes the circle of this newsletter!

Quick Question for You
Thank you for reading this newsletter until the end! Hope it brings great value to you! :)

Since my goal is to help people, I’d like to ask the following:

Is there any question related to personal development that is on your mind? Or perhaps you’re facing a problem in your life? Reply to this email and I’d be happy to talk about it in a future newsletter (if I have a solid answer).

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