The Drive to Aim High Page 7

  Worry and anxiety are two of the biggest detriments to success in any endeavor. Staying in a constant state of high alert is not the answer. In fact, doing so will most assuredly prevent you from leading courageously, and create even more fearfulness within you. Allowing yourself to be enveloped by anxiety and worry robs you of focus and energy; it creates stress and fatigue and displaces any opportunity to experience joy and victory.

  Studies have shown that some of primary things that cause people to worry center around events that never even take place, or past situations that cannot be changed. Other sources of worry have been revealed to be petty and unimportant, and only a minuscule percentage tend to be about things that can be shifted and/or controlled.

  As a thought leader, directing your energy into seeking solutions for things that can be changed is a huge step in the right direction. Refusing to fritter away precious energy and time worrying about things that are static and unchangeable is another characteristic great leaders adopt. Taking action that is purposeful to create solutions with determination and zealousness is one sure way to thwart worry and employ a courage mindset to your best advantage.

  The Courage Mindset Creates History and Inspiration

  Nelson Mandela

  Imprisoned for 27 years for his participation in political uprisings in opposition to the South African government, Nelson Mandela is one of the most stalwart and inspirational examples of someone who, no matter what, followed their courage mindset.

  Being an anti-apartheid activist took tremendous courage. Even though that contributed to his arrest, once released, he resumed his work to end apartheid. He went on to become South Africa’s first black president and to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. Due to his courage, leadership abilities, and undying commitment to create a better nation, South Africa’s racial segregation was demolished, and now, multiracial elections take place.

  A person with lesser courage might well have succumbed to the injustice and horrible conditions of his prison time, but Mandela found the strength within himself to emerge from that situation even stronger than before. The courage mindset can work wonders if one is willing to remain steadfast in their beliefs and life’s mission. Nelson Mandela provided an exemplary case in point, making it through insurmountable odds to create a better life for his country.

  Helen Keller

  Definitely one of the most courageous people of all time, Helen Keller blazed trails where no one with disabilities had gone before. At just 19 months old, an illness left her blind and deaf. Keller’s story continues to inspire generations, along with her shared journey with her beloved teacher, Anne Sullivan. The book about their journey together was adapted both into a stage and screenplay, The Miracle Worker.

  Keller was the first deaf and blind person to graduate college with a Bachelor’s degree. She authored several books and became a highly sought-after speaker worldwide. Her political views were considered radical in her day. She was a supporter and lecturer for many causes, including socialism, labor rights, women’s suffrage, and more.

  Keller’s courage mindset kept her going until the age of 87. Her achievements are remarkable for any individual, let alone one who had such severe challenges to overcome. She defied the odds of her disability time and again, including writing twelve books, traveling to 35 countries, doing fundraising for the blind, and becoming an inductee into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

  If you are seeking inspiration to keep going despite many challenges on your path, take a few minutes to reflect upon what Keller accomplished in her life, and take heart. You have more courage within you than you know. Her example can help you tap into it, and no matter what you face, courage can help you to reach your goals.

  Courage and Confidence

  When starting my first business, I had confidence. The confidence that I had was in myself. It wasn’t so much confidence in the market, nor the idea that I wanted to create a Romanian business. This was a deeply rooted core confidence that blinded me, actually shielded me, from seeing potential adversity. This kept me from seeing the risk of not making it, and buying into that possibility. Also, my wife had a lot of faith in me that I was going to make it. All of these factors drove my decision to start my own business.

  Courage is an innate drive. Really, the drive to succeed is a foundational piece, an accelerator, or a catalyst for the mindset. It’s very important when we talk about the courage mindset. You must employ your courage mindset to challenge yourself to actually live your dreams.

  Many people refuse to live their dreams, or to go after them because they don’t have that drive. The fear of failure looms so large for them that they often give up and don’t even try to realize their dreams. Their mindset seems to be, If I never try, at least I won’t fail. This is sad, and one of my hopes is that my story will inspire others to breathe a fresh belief into their dreams, and to pursue those with all their heart and soul.

  What was important to me at this turning point in my life was that in addition to having the drive, I felt like I was ready. I also felt that the moment was now because it was what I had been preparing for since my childhood. I didn’t let the fact that I didn’t have the capital to invest in the company stop me from proceeding with starting my own company in Romania.

  The company’s first computer was a black and white IBM received from my father-in-law. My business idea was not complete but was based on my previous needs as a student. When I graduated from the university, we had no gowns and caps to celebrate our graduation. This had never felt right to me, so I decided set up a company offering graduation services to high schools and universities - the first of its kind in Romania. I used the only money that I had at the time to order the first set of graduation gowns from the US.

  I started working with the Romanian high schools and universities. It didn’t take me long to realize that this was an extremely seasonal business, as graduation only happens once a year, in the same month. Also, getting many schools to organize the graduation events on different days in a short window of time was almost impossible. It was time to panic, but my drive kept me strong.

  Then, I saw the opportunity to go into advertising and marketing services. More specifically, we began offering youth marketing services to multinational companies that provided products and services targeted to students. After all, we were the only company with official direct access to the schools, having already been approved by the Ministry of Education on one side and schools and universities on the other. So, that piece was in place.

  With no money left, there were many days I worked with one employee. Typically, we didn’t have money to buy lunch. When we did, we would stop at the corner store next to our office to buy a loaf of bread and some ham. It was all that I could afford. We were together all day, holding three to four meetings or calls at a time with potential clients. At the end of the day, we went home for dinner, but then came right back to the office in order to work at night, replying to clients’ email requests and doing whatever else needed to be done.

  Throughout all of these early development challenges, I still held onto the strong belief that things were going to work out. There was no other option in my mind. So, I kept on moving towards overcoming the obstacles that occurred and forged onward.

  Defining Moments

  My initial defining moment in business arrived with the first contract we got. This took place four months after launching our business idea of becoming an advertising and marketing agency. We were implementing a campaign for Chupa Chups. Those are lollipops. Chupa Chups’ advertising agency saw a potential in our youth marketing positioning. They offered us the contract to see if we could deliver on our promises.

  I remember we had to set up the details and logistics overnight, as we were such a young company with no procedures and no proper database of all the school details in the territory. In addition to normal work hours, we would come to work at night, from 10:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m., building our databases and preparing presen
tations for clients.

  My father-in-law, who lived in a city 370 miles from us, moved to Bucharest for a couple of months to help build the stepping-stones of my company, from working procedures to client meetings. It was far from easy to achieve everything, but we delivered.

  Not long afterwards, we signed our first direct contract with a multinational company. That company was Unilever. We were going to implement a campaign in schools across Romania for one of their brands, Rexona. I saw that as a second moment of truth because it was adding up as more proof that my faith in setting up a business in Romania was justified.

  After the first few years of operation, I decided to look abroad to search for partnerships I could bring into Romania. Shortly after I started my search on the Internet, I came across the US-based merchandising company, SPAR. At that time, they had several international partnerships. I seized the opportunity to approach them with the idea of entering the Romanian market. It took about a year to negotiate and set up the partnership.

  It was an important moment for me. Looking at my background and where I was then, I perceived it as a great accomplishment that I was able to successfully negotiate a joint venture with a US-based company listed on NASDAQ.

  Throughout the start-up of my business, my wife was working. So, when the company wasn’t making any money, especially during the early years, she took care of all of our home expenses. As I would regularly run out of cash, I also had to borrow money from friends. As the saying goes, “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” I enjoyed then and will always be grateful for the support of my best friends in those difficult times.

  One of those friends was my best friend from Liberia, a former student I had met in Romania. By that time, he was living in the UK. We had stayed in touch, so I called him up and asked him for a loan of £3,000, which, of course, I repaid in due time. He is now in Liberia and is an excellent doctor. In fact, he is the doctor who currently takes care of my family back home.

  We went on to work with other leading multinational companies, including Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Vodafone, Nespresso, L’Oreal, Coca-Cola, Kimberly Clark, McDonalds, and many more. Today, we have clients that are blue-chip companies. It all started with the confidence that I had in myself, and a drive that was so strong that it blinded me from seeing the risk of failure or any obstacle in my way. It all began from there.

  I believed in myself, I had the drive, and I didn’t see or worry about the obstacles that were going to come. Full disclosure: I have had lots of difficult moments since I started my business. But, I persisted, and I still do today.

  An important piece here is knowing when you have nowhere to go back to, nothing to fall back on, and are past the point of no return. I believe that people who eventually quit down the road are those who have also left their options open. But, me? I burned my bridges. I burned away the possibility of reconnecting with all of my previous options when I made my decision to go into business. I just didn’t leave any other options open. I gave myself no other choice than to succeed, period.

  In life, when you make a decision to do something, and you’re not 100 percent sure, you end up leaving to pursue other options. In Napoleon Hill’s timeless book Think and Grow Rich, he shares the story of a general whose division went sailing across the sea to an island to fight the enemy. When they got off the ship, he told his soldiers to burn down the boat. He said by looking back and seeing that they now had no point of return, they knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that they must either win or perish.

  That’s the mindset you need when you decide to do something. You know that there is no point of return. That’s what I think the courage mindset implies. It’s knowing that you will overcome everything that stands in the way of your success. Knowing that you refuse to be disappointed if obstacles pop up in your way, or when you encounter difficulties. The word quit is simply not an option.

  The fact that I eliminated all these options contributed to my courage to stay in business in Romania. I could have always quit, closed down my company and applied for a job. But, I didn’t see that as an option. My drive is to continuously overcome the difficulties that I encounter, outmaneuver any obstacles, and move on.

  If I look back and ask myself, “Where did I get all this bravery? Where did this courage come from?” I think it has to do with being born in a poverty- stricken village as a poor child. I believe if you look at where you were born, the environment, roots, and all of that, your bravery, courage or drive can often be traced back to those things. Depending on what conditions you were born into, as well as how you were brought up, can affect your mindset.

  Doubt

  I had moments of doubt my entire life. Anyone who tries to tell you they’ve never felt a doubt in their life - well, let’s say that’s probably far from the truth. I felt responsible for giving up the comfort of a steady job while pursuing my dream and at the expense of the financial stability I would have loved to offer to my family. I felt responsible for running a sustainable business that was providing work to hundreds of full-time employees and part-time employees every month. I knew a lot of people depended on me, especially while going through the harsh periods.

  So, with that many commitments, like many people, I had and still have doubts. It’s part of being human. But, I always return to my courage mindset to stay focused and committed.

  I tell you all this so you know that no matter how successful you are, you will always need courage. Things can change overnight as many of the events in my life show. But, with a courage mindset, it is possible to meet them head on and not just survive but thrive.

  Steps to Integrate the Courage Mindset into Your Daily Life

  Learn to trust yourself. You do this by creating small successes along the way. It’s a lifestyle, not just a skill.

  Keep a journal of your successes. Write down your decisions and how you arrived at them. You can keep them in your head, but having them on paper lets you go back and review them and track your progress.

  Write down your failures. Thousands of organizations around the world conduct debriefings after every mission, project, success, or failure. These reviews take a cold, hard look at what went right and what went wrong. This allows the organizations to create policies and procedures, train their employees, and develop a courage mindset. Even if you don’t have staff or others you can debrief with, it’s important to analyze your failures. You can’t improve what you can’t measure.

  Strengthen your courage muscles. Courage is like a muscle: you must use it frequently and increase the demand on yourself daily if you want your courage to grow. If you have children, you know how they explore their world, a small piece at a time.

  They may crawl first, then walk, but at some point, they make the leap and start opening cabinets and getting into everything, oblivious to whether it will hurt them or not. They have started to develop their courage muscles, and will keep doing so unless they start listening to their parents say, “No! That will hurt you,” or “No, that’s bad.” Sadly, many of us still listen to those voices even after we are grown. But, you can still build those muscles.

  Step out of your comfort zone in small ways to begin building your courage. Travel, try a new food, go to a new restaurant - learn something that scares you, whether it’s a new hobby or a new skill. Each time you step out of your comfort zone and try something that scares you, or at least makes you nervous and uncomfortable, you train your brain to be courageous.

  Fear has a bad reputation because it is uncomfortable. No one likes to be fearful, except maybe people who enjoy horror movies. But many successful people feel fear every day. The difference is, they’ve learned to use fear. Popular speakers, pilots, attorneys, and entrepreneurs all experience fear every day. But rather than let fear dictate their actions, or force them to walk away from a situation, they use fear as a tool. What is their fear telling them? Instead of listening, they choose to control and use their fear, so it won’t control and use them.

 
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  THE PERSISTENCE MINDSET

  “If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”

  —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

  This quote embodies the fiber of persistence and perseverance. Having a persistence mindset requires that you seek the next best approach when something doesn’t go according to plan. Make the best of the options available to you and move forward towards your goals rather than abandoning your mission.

  Everyone faces obstacles along their path in life. The difference is that some people choose to forge onward rather than allowing challenges to stop them in their tracks. I had my share of obstacles, and because I chose to keep going, to do everything I could to overcome them, it made me stronger. That is something I have never regretted.

  Sometimes you feel as though you simply cannot go on, especially after being faced with a domino effect, or landslide of one challenge after another. That’s normal, perfectly human. Yet, there is something deep within you, an inner strength that can rise to the surface and inspire and encourage you to move forward despite all odds.

  Think about those times in your life when this has been the case, and know that same persistence and resilience is there for you, always. It may be that you simply need to come at a situation from a new perspective, a new approach. It certainly does not mean you must abandon a goal or project altogether. I will share some of my personal experiences in the hope that you take heart about your own, and persist.

  Test of Faith

  Along the way, I went through bankruptcy. It’s normal to have fears in life. The fear of failing is one of the modern-day obstacles that stops millions, if not billions, of people from going after their dreams. What I think we should fear most is accepting failure as the end of the route to our dreams or goals.