Steve Davis, CEO — Total Wealth Academy.
Rocky Balboa, the 2006 film starring Sylvester Stallone, may not be considered the best in the Rocky franchise, but I think it definitely has one of the best lines. At one point in the movie, Rocky tells his son, “It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”
If you, like me, are a business leader who has seen some setbacks on the road to success, I’m sure Rocky’s statement resonates with you. If you are a business leader who has recently taken a hit and you are struggling to get back on your feet, take Rocky’s words to heart.
No one—no matter how big their company or how brilliant their business model—is exempt from difficulties. In my experience, the worst thing you can do is be surprised when things get tough, but the best thing you can do is never give up.
Here are a few tips that will help you keep moving forward when you find yourself on your back on the canvas.
Focus on the solution.
When you encounter a problem, you have a decision to make: Will you focus on the problem or the solution?
It may seem obvious that finding a solution that will move you forward should get 100% of your attention, but many people become obsessed with the problem. They fixate on what caused it, wishing they would have done something differently in the past, or berate themselves for not anticipating the problem and avoiding it. They spend 90% of their time focused on the problem and 10% looking for a solution.
Figuring out how to get around a problem is far more productive than dwelling on how it could have been avoided. If you’ve been knocked down, don’t stay down.
I’ve spoken with dozens of brilliant businesspeople in a wide variety of fields—doctors, attorneys and entrepreneurs of all types—who have told me they aren’t getting the results they want and don’t know what to do about it. They say they have “tried everything,” when the reality is that they simply haven’t yet tried the right thing.
If someone else has done it successfully, so can you. It’s that simple. You just need to find the winners—those who refused to stay down when they got knocked down—and learn from them.
There’s a common belief in the business world that we should learn from other people’s mistakes, but I think this belief is completely useless. Even if you learn every single thing that doesn’t work, that doesn’t mean it will magically reveal to you what does work.
I think the better approach is to find the person who has done it successfully and pattern your efforts after what worked for them. If I can find someone who has achieved what I want to achieve, then I not only know it can be done, but I know how to get it done.
Cultivate the right belief in yourself.
Some will tell you that succeeding is about being better than everyone else. Don’t believe it. If you think you are above others, arrogance could ultimately be your undoing. On the other hand, if you believe you are below others, insecurity could be your undoing.
The belief you need to cultivate is that you are neither above other people nor below other people when it comes to your ability to succeed. When you accept that we are all just about even, you will feel empowered to achieve the same level of success that anyone else has achieved. When someone excels, you realize that you can excel as well because you are neither superior nor inferior to that person.
Don’t make a plan B.
I hate having a “plan B” for one simple reason: When you have a plan B, it’s much easier to give up on plan A because you have something to fall back on. In fact, I would say having a plan B can be one of the biggest obstacles to success.
Instead of making a plan B, I recommend you make a full commitment to plan A and do whatever it takes to achieve it. If plan A isn’t working, fix it, but never abandon it for plan B.
Whether you like him or not, it’s hard to deny that Elon Musk has had some incredible successes in the business world, and it didn’t surprise me to hear Musk has a strong aversion to giving up. In fact, he’s quoted as saying he would need to be “dead or completely incapacitated” before he gave up.
I think that is the kind of bold statement that every business leader should make. If you truly want to succeed, accept that you are going to encounter things that will knock you down. Just never accept defeat.
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