1. Passion.
Do what you love. When I'm asked why my own career has flourished, I always start with this: I love radio. From the beginning, I have been driven by my desire to succeed in this business. I'm doing what I love ... I love what I do. This is what everything else has been built on. I'm the luckiest person in the world -- I figured it out when I was a kid. That passion never wavered. Early in my career, as I was fired again and again, as supervisors told me how many mistakes I was making or how little talent I had, I knew they were all wrong. (I was the only one who knew it, for about 20 years.) Even when I left the business after "failing" so many times, I still felt the pull of radio. I knew it was the thing I loved. And it was this passion that drew me back in ... to the consternation and distress of liberals everywhere.
Too many people fall into jobs, and let themselves drift until they simply "end up" somewhere, bored and mediocre. Don't ever settle for that -- it is totally unnecessary in this country. To do so is to handcuff yourself (a little Marv Albert lingo, there), and put the brakes on your own dreams.
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates both describe their early, heady days as pioneers of the personal computer world -- creating the industry that has arguably become the engine the driving the U.S. market. They and their tekkie buds lived, ate and breathed every innovation in hardware, software, and programming. They often went without food,
sleep, and to a large extent the outside world -- writing code, troubleshooting, stereos blaring in a creative blur of invention. It was their passion.
Find that passion in you. Passion takes you out of yourself; it harnesses your energy and marshals it into performance; it is infectious. For young people especially, it is important to remember that when you are passionately focused on a goal, negative influences fade away. You become future-oriented; you take the long view. You have little interest in anything harmful or unwise; they are distractions. And let's face it, odds are you are passionate about something because you are good at it. Being really good at anything is a kick ... achievement is its own reward. But you aren't satisfied with that, or you wouldn't be reading this. You don't want to settle for good. You want to be the best.
2. Personal Best.
Talent and passion are what you start with; what truly sets you apart from from the pack are the standards you set for yourself in developing them. Every successful individual I know expects a level of excellence from himself or herself far beyond the norm. Everyone else around them will be satisfied, everyone else will pronounce the effort "good enough," everyone else will turn their attention to the next thing. That's when the achiever is just getting started.
He or she is never satisfied. Those who are successful always expect more from themselves -- and from those around them. They go back and do it over, once more, twice more, ten more times. They do it until they get it right. They do it right until they can do it in their sleep. They do it right until they invent a new and better way to do it, and then they do that over once more, twice more, ten more times. Their consistent performance is at such a high level that their personal best becomes the standard ... for everyone else. And then they work on improving that personal best. Forever.
This is called ambition, drive, enterprise -- and it can annoy those around you who are satisfied with less. But remember that in the end, it is the achiever who raises the bar for everyone else's performance. Those who succeed make everyone better. So let it be you who sets the standard. When the job satisfies everyone else, don't be satisfied. Make your standards higher. Raise the bar.
A few years ago, I went to the Super Bowl in Atlanta, between the Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys, as the invited guest of Steve Sabol of NFL Films. At their pre-production meeting, I listened to Sabol fire up the cameramen, the crew that would be stationed all over the Georgia Dome. He quoted something that his dad, Ed Sabol, had always told their staff and was obviously the standard at NFL Films: "Finish like a pro." In other words, don't forget to go flat-out -- no matter if the game's 25-zip with 30 seconds to play. There still may be a great play out there. Give up on nothing. Finish like a pro.
I pondered that as we went out to the field. There I spotted the man I knew as the chief groundskeeper for the Royals and Chiefs in the late 70s and early 80s when I worked in Kansas City. It was George Toma, now the official groundskeeper for the National Football League at Super Bowls and Pro Bowls ... and he was on his hands and knees, crawling on the sidelines. Photographers and the halftime entertainment were waiting to go out and rehearse the pregame show, and he was kneeling among them.
"George, what are you doing?" I asked. He answered: "I'm getting the field ready for the game." He had tape all over his knuckles. He was on his knees, using tape to pick up lint. I said, "This is the sidelines!" He shot back:
"Biggest game in the world, Rush. You've got TV cameras from all over the world here." I said, "But George, the minute you finish, the band will be walking all over here."
And I'll never forget his reply: "You do everything you can and then just a little more."
I thought I'd seen a vision. Here were two people at the top of their game, Steve Sabol and George Toma, the absolute best at what they do. And both of them were doing things most people would consider a total waste of time. Most people would have been satisfied with far less, but they were not. Their standards were higher. Their personal best required them to do more.
It's not just talent that produces success. It's demanding more of yourself than anyone else does. This approach can start with you right now, today, wherever you are -- while you're in school, looking for a job, on any job, preparing for any challenge. Get there earlier, stay later, produce it better. Study harder, practice longer, go beyond what's "required." When you make this your habit and your mindset, you have to put yourself on the road to success. A route, I may add, that is always self-directed.
3. Discipline.
Before away games, the great Boston Celtic Larry Bird used to arrive exceptionally early at the other team's home stadium ... to study the floor. Hours ahead of the Celtics' practice and warm-up sessions, Bird would do an inch-by-inch survey of the wood on the court. This involved getting down on his hands and knees to check out individual boards, dribbling over every square foot at various speeds and angles, analyzing the floor's
effect on the basketball. He scrutinized the lighting, familiarized himself with the arena's atmosphere, learned the idiosyncrasies of the court. He knew that his knowledge advantage he had over the other players could make the crucial difference at key moments -- and could, in fact, determine the outcome of the game.
This was a boring thing to do. In fact, it was so boring that no one else bothered to do it. But Larry Bird's unparalleled record proves his approach was right. It was his attention to detail, this willingness to immerse himself in the nuts and bolts of his profession when everyone else was relaxing or doing something more enjoyable that created his success. Discipline is the hardest part of this process, because it demands your time. It is not sexy, it is not the part that gets you the limelight. Discipline has no pizzazz. Discipline is private -- it is the internal decision to work on your skills no matter what. It's what makes you get up in the morning to do it all over again. You do things that you don't feel like doing when you don't feel like doing them. Discipline is what you do in spite of your desires. It is also what separates the pros from the amateurs, and the successful from everybody else.
Michael Jordan's high school coach, when Jordan was just another kid in the neighborhood -- he hadn't even made the varsity team yet -- remembers coming in early to work every morning during summer school and hearing the thud, thud of the basketball on the concrete of the outside court. He heard this sound throughout the day, as the heat rose. He would check outside the gym doors, and there would be Michael, alone, for hours, working on his game. That discipline is still paying off today.
Self-discipline is the bedrock upon which to build a successful life. It contains within itself other critically important virtues: Humility, because you are consistently acknowledging your weaknesses as you work to improve yourself. Honesty, because you are constantly assessing your progress and measuring your performance; a disciplined individual has no incentive to fool himself. Self-control. Patience. And optimism, because you are in control of your life.
It is discipline that allows you to capitalize on opportunity. If you live a disciplined life, working on your performance, you will be ready when it comes. And it will -- because this is America.
4. Determination.
When I started the EIB network in 1988, every expert in broadcasting said it wouldn't work. The conventional wisdom was that it would fail miserably. The experts had every reason to predict that -- because everyone else who had tried it had not made much of it. ABC had a network called Talk Radio, with about five hosts and perhaps 80 radio stations (mostly radio stations few people had heard of). The venture was going nowhere.
So, let me ask you: If the experts in my business in 1988 were unanimous in their assertion that what I was attempting wouldn't work ... how could this huge radio network of over 600 radio stations exist and thrive today? Hmm?
Do you think that Steve Jobs or Bill Gates got what they got, did what they did, because everyone told them it was a good idea and paved their way with flower petals in order for them to get it?
No, my friends. I and every other successful American persisted ... in the face of naysayers, opposition and obstacles. Obstacles that stopped everyone else cold -- but energized us. I was fired seven times, folks. And I'm still here -- in fact, as I say, I'm not going away until every American agrees with me. Most successful businesses were started by someone who had flopped at starting a previous business. Sometimes more than one previous business.
What differentiates the achiever from the rest of the crowd is the inner decision to keep going, no matter what. Those words sound simple, but it is a quality that requires a profound stability of character. It's what makes the cream rise. When you fail -- and you will -- it is determination that inspires you to give it another go.
So don't fear failure. Bring on the obstacles. (Without obstacles, you have no reason to soar.) Your determination is the engine that will propel you to your goals. It defines the rugged individualism that built this country -- and it continues to fuel its prosperity.
5. Confidence.
In the early 1980s, Andy Grove of Intel was certain that American high-tech companies were being creamed by the Japanese. And he wasn't unique -- it was the conventional wisdom of the day. Though Grove has since completely reversed his position, he was then convinced that his industry would not survive without protection from the U.S. government. At the same time, Scott McNealy, head of Sun MicroSystems, scoffed at this kind of thinking -- commonplace as it was. He, in effect, said: "Come on, bring on the Japanese! We aren't afraid of competition from Japan, or anywhere else. In a fight like this, always bet on America."
Guess who was proved right.
Confidence, my friends, is critical to success. It is a powerful force that energizes you and those around you; it creates momentum; it can move mountains. Many in our society recoil when they detect confidence in someone, but don't let that dampen yours. Never forget: it ain't bragging if you can do it. Confidence is the natural result of
achievement, and in turn stokes even greater achievement. Be confident! You are far more capable than you think you are.
Now I know that in this day and age you don't get a lot of confidence building from American institutions. Look at all the "crises" this Administration has manufactured in the last six years: there was the economic crisis from "twelve years of Reagan and Bush," the health care crisis, the crisis of meaning, the downsizing crisis, the anxiety
crisis, the Medicare crisis, the dirty air and water crisis, the ozone hole crisis, the school lunch crisis, the school uniform crisis, the v-chip crisis, the El Nino crisis, and on and on. The message in all of this, and in all the liberalism, is plain: You aren't able to face obstacles, meet challenges, solve difficulties or deal with the setbacks on your own. Heck, without "the Village," you can't even raise your children.
But all of American history proves that false. Every American family proves that false. You know it's false. You know that all around you in this country is every opportunity for ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things, and to become extraordinary people. You can be one of them.
My friends, you don't need focus groups. Trust God, and yourself. Don't ever give up. Be confident that you can compete with anyone, at any time, any place. Be confident that you will achieve, thrive, prosper, succeed.
Now go back and re-read my five steps to success. Which of them costs anything? Which requires unusual gifts? Which requires high social position or fame? Which is beyond the grasp of any American -- you, for instance? My friend, your success is entirely in your hands. So, get to it! |
