The Mindset Paradox

This book is a lot like the book The Secret.

It has the capacity to give hope to people who may have lost hope, or to those who never had hope to begin with. And hope (aka optimism) is a good thing — in the proper measure.

But if there’s a credible complaint about The Secret — and this book as well — it’s that too many people who don’t have a clue read books like these and then end up getting so filled with irrational hope that they start wasting their money left and right investing in false promises, charlatans, and smoke.

They have hope, but it’s an immature hope. It’s an irrational hope. It’s a dream.

And that dream can turn into a nightmare.

The proof of this is the millions of people who purchased homes for which they couldn’t afford after their payments went up a little bit. KABOOM!

The proof is every MLMer who’s making less than minimum wage if they add up all their hours.

The proof is all the businesses doomed to fail — for reasons any experienced business person could see in an instant.

AND YET — this positive mindset is ESSENTIAL for true, outrageous success. Rockefeller, Schwab, Carnegie, Edison, Ford — these are the people whose mindset inspired this book.

How can this be? How can something ESSENTIAL also be a siren song calling people to ruin among the rocks?

I call this the MINDSET PARADOX.

And I believe this is the most important insight so far in the Brevity Brief series.

To explain the Mindset Paradox, I’m going to use the analogy of bowling because I’m pretty sure everyone here has experienced the pleasure of bowling. Plus it’s a skill that you can get better with in time. So there are a lot of parallels to personal development.

Here’s the scoop. I went out and interviewed the top 10 bowlers of all time… and I asked them what separated them from the top 100 of all time. The difference wouldn’t be technique. The difference wouldn’t be persistence. The difference wouldn’t be visualization, or practice, or coaching, or any of the other things it takes to be a good bowler.

The difference would be MINDSET: Total control over their mind. Their body. Their spirit.

I know because I met a man who studies the top 10 athletes in the world in many different sports to figure out the difference between them and the next 10 in line.

The answer is always very subtle tricks to control the mind.

BUT — and here’s the answer to the mindset paradox — if you take those mind control techniques that are CRITICAL to elite success, and you share them with beginning bowlers who are averaging scores around 50 pins, what’s going to happen?

Their scores will probably go down — because they’ll be focusing on the wrong things.

Beginning bowlers need two things:

1. Hope that they can eventually succeed.
2. Basic instructions such as:
   • How many steps to take.
   • Which foot to start with.
   • How the arrows work. Etc.

In other words, the advanced mindset required for great success is NOT HELPFUL to beginners, except maybe to give them a glimmer hope, but not a foolish hope.

So that’s the answer to the Mindset Paradox.

People who want success in life should read the books The Secret and Think and Grow Rich. And as soon as they have hope, then they should throw those books away and get down to work learning something real.

And to Napoleon Hill’s credit, he does address this point.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us with the 6 steps to success, our 2nd insight.

The 6 Steps to Success

1. OPTIMISM
   • Optimism gives you the energy and momentum to keep going when times get tough.
   • Success KILLS optimism. Success becomes expected. That means you’ve plateaued. To regain momentum you need courage to go for it — to risk everything again.
   • To get optimism, read The Secret, Think and Grow Rich, or The Millionaire Mindset.
2. REASON
   • I put ‘reason’ second because it is the counterweight to irrational optimism, and it is ESSENTIAL for every step that follows.
   • By ‘reason’ I mean the ability to think CRITICALLY — ANALYTICALLY — LOGICALLY. Most people do NOT have this skill, and yet they think they do. I cannot overstate that last line. An ability to justify an action or a decision is not thinking. ‘Thinking’ is when you can figure out you’re wrong before your spouse tells you.
   • Reason gives you brutal respect for reality, ethics, rational optimism, success without guilt, awareness of your true capacity, your strengths, your interests, your limitations, your potential, other people’s needs, and the true estimation of the value you can deliver.
   • Reason also gives you the tools you need to define your purpose in life and business relative to your capacity, strengths, limitations, and the needs and wants of the real world. Purpose is the next step.
3. PURPOSE
   • Purpose keeps you out of trouble because it keeps you busy! When you have a purpose you become productive. You become MOTIVATED. Voltaire, an 18th century philosopher, cut deep-thinkers down to size saying: “That is all very well and good, but I must tend my garden.” In other words, happiness is having a simple purpose — work to do — and ignoring all other distractions.
   • Figuring out your purpose helps align your activities. It’s the cure for adult ADD and “idea-person” ADD — because a strong purpose naturally brings your creativity into focus on a more narrow playing field. You might still be distracted by new ideas, but at least all the ideas support each other!
4. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
   • Personal Development increases the VALUE you have to share with the world. It is essential.
   • The goal is two-fold… mastery of success principles, and mastery of knowledge specific to your purpose in life. Combined they give you the CONTEXT you need to succeed.
   • Advanced Personal Development is essential to leadership, to effectiveness, to efficiency, and to exponential growth.
   • Personal Development will help reset your financial-thermostat and that psychological circuit that keeps you at the same income level.
   • Personal development is a life-long journey. As they say, “love as if you’ll die tomorrow. Learn as if you’ll live forever.”
   • Since starting Brevity, I have become a HUGE fan of personal development — especially by reading books, and preparing Brevity Briefs. It’s the pressure of creating these briefs that is really helping me.
   • Now, to be fair, you may need to bounce around these last three steps until you achieve clarity in reason, stability in purpose, and advancement in personal development.
5. MASTERMIND
   Napoleon Hill often gets credit for inventing Masterminding. Some people give credit to Ben Franklin. Me? I give credit to the group of cavemen who first figured out how to kill an elephant. Now that’s masterminding.

   In the modern era, it’s just as important. We all have ‘elephants’ to kill or projects that are beyond us. By harnessing not only the wisdom of others, but also the wisdom of the group — the end result can be mind-blowing.

6. MECHANIZE
   If your success is not automated and PASSIVE, then you are only making money when you work. If your business GROWS without your presence, you are mechanized. If it stays flat without you, or shrinks, you have work to do.

   Systemizing your business consists of three things:

   • People
   • Automation
   • Documents

   And there are two kinds of people: those who create systems, and those who operate systems. Don’t get confused on that point! You may be the only one in your company capable of truly systemizing it. If so, no problem! DO IT.

   A well run, well mechanized company can create great wealth.

   A poorly run, poorly mechanized company is a never ending trap.

How to Apply These Insights

• Get optimism if you don’t already have it. To get optimism, read The Secret or Think and Grow Rich.
• Adopt a BRUTAL RESPECT for REALITY. Practice brutal honesty everywhere you can. Get permission first.
• Inventory your strengths, your interests, and your options, and then declare a LIFE PURPOSE. It doesn’t matter if it’s wrong. The act of DECLARING it will cause an instant feedback loop between you and those close to you. Declaring your life purpose will accelerate your momentum towards your TRUE life purpose.
• Read a book a week. And if not that, stay current with me here on Brevity.
• Join or form several mastermind groups, and stick with the one that works. If you have over a million dollars a year in revenues, consider Vistage.com.
• Automate your business so it no longer needs you… so it can grow BEYOND you… so it can SURVIVE you. This is a necessary step for true wealth.