5 Money-Makers from a World's #1

Last year after speaking at a conference for financial advisors to the affluent in Nashville, I got to walk for three hours with a three-time New York Times bestselling author and world’s #1-ranked executive coach who endorsed three of my books last year - Marshall Goldsmith - around his gated-community home surrounded by neighbours such as Taylor Swift and various country music stars.

1.     Choose your own self-concept and feed it

What self-concept are you instilling in yourself (and your children for that matter)?

It was fascinating to hear Marshall Goldsmith tell me his life story in his own words. I was so struck by the impact his mother had on him as a young child telling him he was the smartest kid in town. It’s crazy to think that we can grow up simply believing whatever messages come from our parents without consciously realizing it – and that it can stick with us forever (which does not always serve us)!

It also reinforces the idea that we can believe anything we want – from useless to empowering.

What is it you want to believe about yourself so that you can grow your business to the level of your greatest dreams?

I would implore that you spend some time reflecting on this one question alone to start embedding your answers into your subconscious. Rather than thinking about your worries, how can you spend more time focusing your thoughts on who you want to become? (The best tips on how to instill these beliefs are in Joe Dispenza’s Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself)

Lesson: Choose your own self-concept and feed it.

Want some free coaching like I got from him?

I made a remark about not being good at something and he said:

2.     “Never label yourself in a way that doesn't serve you!”

It’s one thing to read this in a book (or here), but to hear him jump on my comment was startling. And I’ll tell you why: because after decades of coaching Fortune 100 CEOs, his ear is innately trained to listen for ways we unwittingly limit ourselves. It created such a negative knee-jerk reaction from him, it jolted me to realize how damaging it really is for each of us to do this to ourselves because it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Lesson: when your self-talk labels you as “no good” at something you care about, try to catch it and concede that you are merely making an excuse or telling yourself a story that doesn't have to be true.

Goldsmith uses a great one liner in his latest book, The Earned Life: “Although I’ve been bad at x in the past, that was a previous me. I do not have an incurable defect that prevents me from changing for the better.”

It reminded me of Stephen Covey’s point: “Argue for your weakness and it’s yours.” I’ve probably read or heard that point many times but it’s perfect proof that knowing isn’t doing. It’s useless information if we don’t actually do anything with it!

3.     Success is trying your best regardless of the result

My perspective shifted on ‘success’ after three hours with him and I’m not sure I can explain how. Since he’s worked with so many people who have accomplished at the elite level, I was struck by how often he referenced luck or timing as a factor in some people’s success (including his own) that few of them would ever admit this themselves. Isn’t it interesting that very few people who have achieved something big ever acknowledge that luck or privilege played a part? It’s not socially acceptable or our egos won’t allow it. But it happens. We all like to convince ourselves that we earned ours 100%.

As we walked around this gated community in Nashville, TN filled with rock stars’ and movie stars’ homes, I also heard unsavory stories about some well-known people and about problems they had that none of us would wish for. I was reminded that each of us has flaws. Nobody has everything figured out – Goldsmith shared his opinion that almost everyone has some idiotic beliefs about the world. Yes, many people do things that warrant great respect, but putting people on pedestals is unwise – and I’ve made this mistake more than I’d care to say.

Goldsmith writes about this in The Earned Life: “We place our heroes on pedestals too high to reach, rarely considering them as role models to copy.”

There are two points I’m trying to make. First Lesson: I have a chapter in my book, The 5 Habits to Mine Your Gold, which is: “Define True Success and True Failure” for yourself so you are purpose driven and not just blindly chasing money, power, or fame.

Second Lesson: You can do all the right things and still not necessarily get identical fame, fortune, and outcomes as another person. No one likes to talk about this. Goldsmith admits he can’t help assure a certain result and it does not always include “a trophy ceremony”. His work aims to “help you try your best to reach a goal” – because all any of us can do is our best. This is the closest we can get to being the world’s #1.

“The reward of living an earned life is being engaged in the process of constantly earning such a life.”

Consider asking yourself daily: ‘On a scale of 1-10 today, did I do my best?’

4.     How can you start closer to the top?

I don’t know about you, but I definitely started in business at the bottom in the one of the poorest places in North America. I scavenged at local chamber of commerce events and got heavily involved in local small business networking groups and BNI – and that’s how I survived, so this was a great use of my time. Working your way up is not easy and it can take a long time. Goldsmith was lucky to have a chance introduction to a global leadership expert who ultimately provided him an opportunity in business. It also gave him an excellent consistent income which allowed him to do unpaid work for many years with other leaders in the business and philanthropic world who were then willing to return the favours.

Granted, most people would not have done such work for no pay for as long as he did. This enabled him to co-author books with some of them and over time, collaborate on other, bigger projects. More doors got opened. These nationally known leaders endorsed his work and books.

Lesson: How can you knock on some bigger doors and find a way to serve and build those relationships? It will make a huge difference in going to bigger places: who you spend time with is who you become.

5.     If nobody knows about you, you can’t help anyone, and your results will be poor

This may sound so obvious but my time with Marshall Goldsmith reminded me that we have to ask for what we want and never stop marketing. I’m guessing that you are like me and wish everyone could just tell that you are a good person trying to help people, but sadly, it doesn’t work that way. Goldsmith told me that he was “shocked” how hard he had to work to market his most recent book even though he had already had three New York Times bestsellers. It made no difference. He still had to get out there and shake a lot of trees.

I too wish it were otherwise! Quite possibly none of us are going viral.

Lesson: Better get busy asking and staying in front of the VIPs in your network so they keep thinking about you!

It’s helpful to have a power habit about making a specific number of asks per week.

To becoming the world’s #1!!!

Matt

Copyright Matt Anderson, 2024