Too Stubborn to Fail

Some legendary businessmen are just too stubborn to fail.

Once the Daewoo founder needed to give bribes to a Japanese official. Just to see the official he had to wait at that officials gate every morning  for a month.

The same thing happened during the Genting founder's trip to Japan to sell his mines. The Japanese simply refused to take him seriously at first.


The same thing repeated when Matsushita/Panasonic tried  to work with Phillips in the 50's. In Matsushita's words, the Dutch company with more advanced technology tried to "throw its weight."

Are you stubborn enough to succeed?

One Proven Way to Build Confidence

True confidence comes from accepting your total and ever-present failure to be like anybody else, and from building your life from there.

1. Specialize. But don't specialize out of fear of competition. The competition will find its way into your home turf anyway.
   
2. Feel free to compare. It is both natural and good for learning.
   
3. Accept that you have already failed and that you will never do things the way the stars in your chosen field have done or are doing.

You don't play football like Maradona?

No problem.

Do you make that 10-meter pass today better than you did yesterday?

Will you make it better tomorrow?

You may not be a second Maradona, but you may make bigger contributions to football than the first and only Maradona!

Good luck!

One More Way Not to Build Confidence

Another common advice to build confidence goes, 'Stop comparing with others. Just work hard.' This advice is both impossible to follow and also harmful to do so.

Impossible

How can we stop comparing?

1. We do not live alone, in total isolation, in the universe.
2. We do not live in sensory deprivation chambers, with eyes seeing nothing, with ears hearing nothing, and so on.

Harmful

Why should we stop comparing? In matters of learning, comparison comes even before imitation and copycatting!

Say, I am a young swimmer. How much arrogance or blindness would it take for me not to know and learn from Thorpe , Phelps and other greats.

Say, I am a young golfer. How much arrogance or blindness would it take for me not to know and learn from Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Gary Player and other greats.

Say, I am a young footballer. How much arrogance or blindness would it take for me not to know and learn from Ronaldo (Brazil), Romario, Maradona and other greats.

There must be a better way. Let's see.

One Way Not to Build Confidence

Looking for your core competence, sticking to your strengths, staying true to your essence are commendable life strategies. But they will never build you true confidence. They encourage you to live inside a cocoon, to avoid real threats and real opportunities.

 Orcas cannot climb trees. Monkeys cannot fly. Eagles cannot swim.

So orcas should keep themselves to seas, monkeys to trees, and eagles to the sky?

1. So a budding poet should not study math because he will never be able to do math as well as his classmates? 
2. So a budding mathematician should not touch literature and arts because he will never do them as well as his classmates? 
3. So a promising engineer should never dabble in enterprise because he will never do business as well as her classmates?

All sound and sensible and sham and fake and lame!


If you avoid competition and comparison, the universe is never wide enough for you.


If you choose math out of your fear to compete in other fields, you shall find lots and lots of competition in your own field. What about famous mathematicians in history?

If you choose poetry out of your fear to compete in other fields, you shall find lots and lots of competition in your own field. What about famous poets in history?

If you choose business and enterprise out of your fear to compete in other fields, you shall find lots and lots of competition in your own field. What about famous entrepreneurs in history?

There is a better way. See the next post.

Cao Cao's Assurance

Cao Cao was a famous warlord during the Three Kingdoms Period in Chinese history. At one time, hist troops were camping uneasily, there were alarms throughout the day and the soldiers were too fearful to sleep as the night came.

Cao Cao told them that he knew there were enemy troops nearby far outnumbering them, that they had seen him outwit the enemy many times before in similar situations.

Finally he suggested that they "put their hearts at peace and have a good night's sleep" for the coming battles.

This is the voice of True Hope. This how Andrew Carnegie added meters to his rather diminutive stature.

This is how I intend to sell my vision, my ideas, and my products.

Effectiveness | Confidence of a Joe Girard

Joe Gerard, in his own words (from "Joe Girard Complete Audio Collection," 2006), is "No 1 new retail car salesman in the world" in Guinness Book of World Records. He is the only car salesman who sold cars by appointment. You have to make appointment in advance to buy from him.

Why do people find him irresistible? Why was he so successful? What are his secrets? As I said, I'm not going to do an overall, comprehensive summary. I'll do just an impression, just a compilation of peak passages in his books, just a number of remarkable strokes.

Foundation

He works from a solid moral, ethical foundation. He insists that there must be two winners in every sale he makes.
He believes the true mark of a successful sales is the repeat business.

An Honest Secret to Confidence

Every morning before he leaves home for work, he'd ask himself,"Will I buy from me?"
Do you radiate confidence to your buyers? Do you send out negative signals?
How do you annihilate such negative cues?
And what's his secret key to confidence? The answer is "Homework." He did a thorough preparation. I can't help admiring his disarming honesty here. He declares there are no short-cuts. Thorough preparation is the price you pay for radiant, winsome confidence.

Long Haul

How do you sustain your enthusiasm?
(1) Celebrate small successes. If you live only for monumental successes, most days in your life will be disappointing.
(2) Be grateful for everything, be grateful even for the next 24 hours you're going to live today.

There are many more pointers to learn from his tapes and books. Here I gather only what is relevant for the topic of personal effectiveness.