Posts Tagged success
Intelligence Is Overrated: What You Really Need to Succeed
Albert Einstein’s was estimated at 160, Madonna’s is 140, and John F. Kennedy’s was only 119, but as it turns out, your IQ score pales in comparison with your EQ, MQ, and BQ scores when it comes to predicting your success and professional achievement.
IQ tests are used as an indicator of logical reasoning ability and technical intelligence. A high IQ is often a prerequisite for rising to the top ranks of business today. It is necessary, but it is not adequate to predict executive competence and corporate success. By itself, a high IQ does not guarantee that you will stand out and rise above everyone else.
Research carried out by the Carnegie Institute of Technology shows that 85 percent of your financial success is due to skills in “human engineering,” your personality and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead. Shockingly, only 15 percent is due to technical knowledge. Additionally, Nobel Prize winning Israeli-American psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, found that people would rather do business with a person they like and trust rather than someone they don’t, even if the likeable person is offering a lower quality product or service at a higher price.
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Opinions on May 11th, 2012
Three powerful principles for success
By Brian Tracy
There are many similarities between business and war. In both cases, the victor is the one who uses superior strategy against his or her competition.
There are three principles of military strategy you can apply to your work every single day. The first idea from the military is called the Principle of Maneuver.
The principle of maneuver says that you should be clear about the goal, but be flexible about the process of ach ieving it. According to the Menninger Institute, this quality of flexibility is the most important single quality that you will require for success in times of rapid change.
Be Open to Continuous Feedback
A key peak performance quality for you is to “accept feedback and self-correct.” Peak performers are those who can take information from their environment and even if the information is contrary to all of their planning, they can accept the information, modify their plans, and continue moving forward. They are always open to new ideas and insights.
Learn What You Need to Know
The second military principle you can use is the Principle of Intelligence. This principle of intelligence means simply, “get the facts!”
Posted by Tom Polanski in Personal Growth on May 12th, 2009
Accept yourself unconditionally
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
There are few events as devastating as the loss of employment. The damage done to a persons self-esteem, especially if the length of time without a job is extended, can be crippling. Try to remember that your future isn’t in a job; your future is within you.
I think that self-honesty is of critical importance. Once we’re able to divorce ourselves from the various illusions and obsessions that affect our decision making, we’re free to make choices that are based in reality. Until then we’re held hostage.
I’ll give you an example, when I was a young actor in New York I had to make a living between jobs. Actors in New York become waiters, right? That’s the archetype. Waiting on tables gives an actor an income, and scheduling flexibility. I decided I would get a job waiting on tables. Within a few days I found a job at a prestigious restaurant in Gramercy Park. By my third evening shift I was fired. I couldn’t believe it.
So I went out and found another job as a waiter. The same result. I was fired. I was a terrible waiter primarily because I didn’t really enjoy it. However I couldn’t accept that. I became obsessed with proving to myself that I could excel in the restaurant industry. I found another job, and again, the same result; I was fired.
I was fired from twenty restaurant jobs in ninety days before I was finally bludgeoned into accepting that I just wasn’t a good fit for the restaurant industry and that the restaurant industry would never be a good fit for a klutz like me.
Sometimes rejection is God’s protection. I found a career in acting which was not only a way of life but a way to life. In additon, the skills I learned as an actor prepared me for a career in sales. Do a self-inventory including asking yourself what you really want from life. I’ve found most people can tell me what they don’t want but fare able to define what they want.
We’re all inundated by messages from our family, friends, peers, and the media. It can get to be a little confusing.
Here are a few thoughts offered by Brian Tracy that may help to guide you towards clarity of mind and purpose. The journey begins with acceptance, and in particular, self-acceptance.
Remember, dire circumstances have the potential to reveal who you really are. The bad times in my life forced me to discover capacities, talents, and resources I didn’t know I had.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Personal Growth on March 19th, 2009
Those who are the most disciplined experience the greatest freedom
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
That seems paradoxical at first glance, doesn’t it? However the more you think about it, the more sense it’ll make. One example is exercise. Include some sort of physical activity into you day and studies indicate that there’s less chance of devastating illness, and that means, freedom from Doctors and Emergency Rooms. Another is meditation. I meditate everyday. This has resulted in a more focused, in the moment, and disciplined mind, which allows me to do my work in a more efficient manner with fewer mistakes and a lower level of frustration. That means I have remnant time and good cheer to apply elsewhere.
I could go on and on but I think you see what I mean. Go down your personal list, and I think you’ll find areas of your life where you could be more disciplined. Think it through, and you’ll identify benefits in improving your level of discipline in all areas.
I’ll bet there are quite a few “movers and shakers” in the financial industry who’re looking over their shoulders right now because they weren’t morally disciplined. Madoff is definitely not free.
In regards to your profession, Brian Tracey writes: Discipline yourself to do what you know you need to do to be the very best in your field. Perhaps the best definition of self discipline is this: “Self discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.”
It is easy to do something when you feel like it. It’s when you don’t feel like it and you force yourself to do it anyway that you move your life and career onto the fast track.
What decisions do you need to make today in order to start moving toward the top of your field? Whatever it is, either to get in or get out, make a decision today and then get started. This single act alone can change the whole direction of your life.
There is a powerful seven step formula that you can use to set and achieve your goals for the rest of your life. Every single successful person uses this formula or some variation of this formula to achieve vastly more than the average person. And so can you. Here it is:
Posted by Tom Polanski in Personal Growth on January 23rd, 2009