You make a choice every day whether you’re going to win or lose. If you can win the day, you can win the week. If you can’t win the day, you can’t win the week and you can’t win the month. You can’t win in life. I have found there’s eight daily choices that winners make and losers make, and it’s a very binary choice.
1. Choose Self-discipline
Winners’ first choice is self-discipline. Losers have no discipline.
I g0t up this morning, I worked out, I read, I organized my week. I made a couple of strategic conversations that positioned our week to be better than it would be. I did an interview this weekend.
Talso played golf with my son, ate dinner with my family.I can have balance, but I have self-discipline. I don’t just lay on the soap and get nothing done for the weekend. There’s times when I’ll sit down and love to just relax and watch a sitcom or something like that, but self-discipline comes first. Losers have no discipline, so that’s the first choice.
2. Choose a Level of Risk
Winners take a level of risk. Losers need security. Losers have to have that paycheck. I interview people all the time, and it shocks me when I tell them we have to hold a paycheck and they can’t even make it to the next day. They can’t go without one paycheck because that paycheck is like crack to them.
I’ll talk about the deal I’m doing and someone says that’s way too risky. And I’m like, Why would I not do it? It’s not risky to me, not doing it would drive me crazier. I don’t look for daily security. I take calculated risks because that’s what successful people do. They take risks.
Jeff Bezos got together an investment group and put together two million dollars to start Amazon. That risk has put him in space.
Well, I think that risk paid off. What do you think?
3 Choose to Make Sacrifices
Winners are willing to make a sacrifice. Losers look for today. They’re never going to give up anything.
I recently offered a partnership to someone in my company and it’s amazing. They literally could not look a year down the line. Every five days I’m getting a text, “I’m not making as much as I used to make here”. Maybe you didn’t make as much today, but do you realize you’re going to be partners in a multi-multi-million dollar company, and I’m not going to be around forever and you’re going to have a piece of this.
Winners understand that there’s always a sacrifice.
You know the Olympics are on and you can think about what it takes to be an Olympic athlete, the sacrifice that is needed. For the he people that you look up to and you think are amazing, there was always a sacrifice to be paid. When you look at Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, think about the sacrifices that they made to be where they’re at.
Winners make sacrifices, and losers live for today
4. Choose to Be Decisive
Winners are decisive. We can make decisions very fast. Just give us 40% to 70% of the information and we’re ready to move on it. Losers delay and ignore the decisions they need to make.
I have to make a lot of decisions and I can never wait for 100% of the information. Why? Because if I do, I may have lost the opportunity. Sometimes we’re in “the fire”, and I just have to get my staff out of the fire. I have to be decisive and my staff, my team. expects me to be decisive.
When somebody needs to go from the company, I can let somebody go in 10 seconds. I can make those hard decisions. I don’t have to think about it off to talk myself into it. I don’t need to talk to five people to make a decision.
There are times when I do talk to people and I do want some input. I don’t want you to think that getting a little bit of input is bad. I’ll bounce something off my partners, but I’m going to make the decision and I’m going to make it within a short time frame so no one is left wondering what is going on.
5. Choose to Pursue Greatness
Winners pursue greatness. Losers just settle for average. There’s nothing about average that I like. I don’t like average income. I don’t like average cars.
Are you going to settle for average or are you going to pursue greatness? You know, winners will pursue greatness, and when you pursue greatness, you’ll make the sacrifices that are required. You’ll need the self-discipline that’s required. You’ll take on a level of risk that’s required. You’ll be decisive. That’s how you pursue greatness. Or you can just be average.
6. Choose High Self-confidence
I’m a big fan of me, I joke about that, but I’ve got enough people that criticize me that work for me, 0r people that disagree with me. But at my core, I like myself.
It doesn’t mean I’m perfect. I make tons of mistakes and I’m a work in progress, but winners have a high confidence level. If you’re not confident in yourself, I don’t know how you’re going to lead others. I don’t know how you’re going to get in a heated conversation with an employee when you don’t like yourself, and this person starts criticizing you, you’re going to crumble.
I’ve had people call me some pretty unbelievable names and my staff asks me, Why didn’t you say anything? Well, my goal when I fire somebody is to fire them and get them out of the building as fast as possible. Nothing they say matters to me because I don’t believe any of it.
You have to learn to have high self-esteem because people are going to take shots at you.
I don’t need social acceptance. All my closest friends are on my phone.
7. Choose to Grow and Improve
Winners seek to grow and improve. We talked about pursuing greatness vs. settling for average. If you don’t grow or improve, you’re settling for average; average intelligence, average growth. You’re never going to improve yourself. You’re settling for this version of yourself.
Improving yourself doesn’t have to be college. It’s reading a book, it’s being mentored, it’s going to teaching events, summits, conferences, etc. There are so many ways to grow and improve, or you can settle for the highest level of learning you did and you stop there. That’s average.
The average person reads two books in their lifetime. I go through two books in a week. I have a lot of ways that I do that. I have the Blinkist app, just to kind of see if I want the book, so I listen to it for 10 minutes and then if I want it, then I’ll get it on Audible. If it’s one I want to take notes in, then I’ll order the print version of it.
The 18-year-old me wasn’t good enough, the 22-year-old me wasn’t good enough, the 25-year-old me wasn’t good enough, the 35-year-old wasn’t good enough. I want to keep improving.
8. Choose to Lead
I want to lead. Average people want to follow. I’m in a room, I’m leading. That’s how I’m wired. I don’t want people to lead me that I’m not comfortable with, if they even know where we’re going.
One thing I love about owning my own companies is that if we run into the iceberg, at least I was at the helm. I want to be the captain. If we hit it, I’m willing to take the blame. I’m willing to take the blame for being decisive. I’m willing to take the blame for taking the risk. I’m good with all that, but I’m not just going to follow someone.
