I love to learn. It helps me grow in so many ways. That’s why I read and follow successful people as much as I can. That way I can find out what they do differently with the hopes of improving myself.
Darren Hardy is an individual, who like Napoleon Hill, has spent many years of his life interviewing successful individuals as the publisher of Success Magazine. At a training he did, he spoke about the five perverse pursuits of high performers.
In this article, I will talk about them with the hopes of helping you grow. The first one is STRESS, which we should see as our friend and ally. It is a stimulus for growth. That is why, great performers welcome pressure. In fact, they thrive on it. Pressure occurs at moments when a meaningful accomplishment is possible.
We should not see it negatively, but rather a psychological energy. Stress is very different from distress as pressure is different from anxiety and nervousness is different from worry. We should perceive stress as a doorway to success and something that fuels our fire. As Tiger Woods has said, “The day I’m not nervous stepping onto the first tee–that’s the day I quit.”
The absence of stress or feeling pressure is a sure sign of boredom and disinterest in whatever you are doing. This is one reason why I love real estate so much. Every situation with a motivated seller varies. It keeps me on my toes.
The second perverse pursuit is CONFIDENCE. As Deion Sanders puts it, “Nobody gets paid to be humble.” Be confident, be different, and be happy doing it. Who cares if you stray too far from the majority view? You might be labeled as arrogant, weird or even crazy and that’s okay. Call me crazy.
Do you think Oprah, Steve Jobs, Jesus, Gandhi, or Mohammad Ali were labeled as normal? High achievers, by definition, are abnormal. So, don’t be afraid of thinking or acting differently.
I wanted to do things differently than all other local real estate “investors” in my area. I did not want to follow the crowd. This brings me to the next pursuit, which is be a CONTRARIAN or doing the opposite. That is what successful people do. Find what’s popular, what everyone else is doing, likes, watches, reads, listens to, even where they go, and then do the OPPOSITE.
You should want to break free from the cult of mediocrity. Be forewarned, that by being different, some people will not want to hang out with you anymore. This did bring sadness to me at times. People I used to work with in real estate kind of disappeared when I started doing things differently.
The next perverse pursuit of successful individuals is FEAR. Think about it, the more you go to the edge of your limits, the more your limits will expand. If you are not scared, not in pain, not failing, then you are not GROWING.
So, run at your fears and see that power resides on the other side of them. Don’t be satisfied with being safe as you won’t see the change that way. Don’t let life pass you by before you realize that you never sailed. Remember that fear is not real. It’s an illusion that only exists in your mind.
How do we conquer it? By changing our perspective. Separate survival from illusion. Are you going to die for picking up the phone and calling a FSBO? Of course not. Do it! Are you going to die if you go on an appointment in search of a motivated seller? I don’t think so. Do it!
But one thing is for sure, you will be one step closer to getting a deal if you refuse fear to get in the way. After a while of doing these, they become a habit and the fear that you used to feel will no longer be in sight.
Ask yourself on the 3 things that you are most afraid of right now and then go after them.
Lastly, a perverse pursuit you will find very surprising is FAILURE. High achievers know this – that you must fall to get better. We all know the saying, “No pain, no gain.”
Like John F. Kennedy said, “Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly”. Even Thomas Edison failed his way to success.
So, thrive on failure. Be willing to fail fast, fail often and continue to persevere. Don’t give up on your dreams of real estate because one or a few sellers said no to you or you did not get a deal. Be thankful it happened and learn something from that experience.
Do you know how many appointments I have been to that I didn’t get a deal at? There was just too many that I’ve lost count of them.
You should ask yourself on how you can double your rate of failure. Because this is the key to reducing your recovery time and getting closer to where you want to be. Now that we know these pursuits, let’s all go after them.
To your success,
