Honestly, I was surprised by the response I got from this mentorship post. I got many retweets from professionals on Twitter who have functional healthy jobs and careers. Wouldn't have guessed that this would be on the minds of so many people: How to Let Go
"The most successful people write down their goals"
This is a true story. Growing up, I had a childhood friend named Steven. Steve's young life was effortless. Not effortless in the sense that his parents did everything for him. His life was effortless in the sense that everything he did went smoothly. While the other kids were visibly gnawing on their pencils or kicking at the dirt, Steve was always composed. Steve always did well.
One thing I noticed about Steven was that he was a contemplative kid. He seemed to do a lot of thinking. But not in the heavy concentrated "the Thinker" kind of way. Steve's moments of thought seemed to settle him.
My life was very different. I had a noisy life growing up. Years later, when the noise from my home bled over to a calculus midterm in the form of a 59% grade (that's just one percent way from being a non-failing -D), an exasperated high school version of me asked Steven what his secret was. To my surprise, he actually had one.
Steve invited me over for dinner with the family. His dad had become a mentor to me over the years. I told his father my tragic story. He told me his own.
"When I was 14," he started, "my Dad had me work in his plumbing company over the summer and after school. First it was miscellaneous errands and taking out the garbage. Then it was plumber support. I did whatever the master plumbers needed me to do. A couple years later, I got promoted to the accounting department.
"My Dad was grooming me to eventually take over the business.
"While I was in the accounting department, I noticed that Gary, the oldest plumber, worked half the hours but made twice as much money as all the others. It was my Dad's business and it was his money. I didn't give it a second thought.
"But each day, when I came into the office I'd see all the other plumbers scrambling to get out the door to their calls by 9am. And each day I'd see good ol' Gary still sipping his coffee at 11am, feet up on the desk, thumbing through the paper.
"A couple months of this and I couldn't take it anymore. One day, I pulled my Dad aside as soon as Gary left for his calls - this, at about noon. I said, 'Dad, at first I didn't think much of it but now it's really bugging me. Gary is ripping you off. He works half as much as the other guys and gets paid twice as much. Why?'
"My Dad just smiled. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'why don't you ask him when he gets back?'
Over the next 5 hours, my upset became my furious
"Over the next 5 hours, my upset became my furious. When Gary finally got back, I ran up to him with all the books in hand and laid it out down. 'Gary, you're ripping off my Dad. You work half as much but get paid twice as much as everyone else. How does that make you feel? How can you justify this?'
"I was pretty much yelling at him. Gary was surprised at first. But he took a long deep breath. Then he smiled at me. After a pause that seemed to last forever, he said, 'Son, while all the young guys rush out to their jobs and fiddle and tinker with parts, tools, and tight crevices, I've learned a long time ago that it's easier to fix plumbing in your head than it is under the sink.
"Bob," Steven's dad wrapped up, "When you're in a rush, slow down."
Continued: How to Uproot the Conditioning that Suffocates Your Success OR How to Melt Away 98% of Your Stress - Now.
When I was studying in NYC, I heard of Bennett Peji. He was all the way out in San Diego. He had a design firm in La Jolla where seagulls shit on your car, parking is impossible to find, and guys in their 30's still play flippy-cup. But on the other hand, women come to lunch wearing sandy bikinis and the telecom boom was just taking off.
Everyone was there. Qualcomm, Verizon, Nokia, Motorola, and even Jabra. I know this because I moved out to San Diego right about then.
I met Bennett at an AIGA conference. I networked the hell out of that event. What I found was that 98% of the designers there were starving. The other two, including Bennett and just a few others were doing well. Their clients were the well funded big telecom and biotech clients in San Diego. I asked the 2% how they got their clients. Nobody said a word. Bastards.
Since then, I've been asking my most successful friends how they got their big clients. These are the 9 hidden disciplines of creatives who score big clients (who actually pay).
9. They Take Names
There is no way a million banner ads, billions of brochures or trillions of #FFs can even compare with the rapport and trust built by one hand shake. When you meet another human, whoever they are, add them to your contact list. Add them to your contact list using their profession, city, and venue. If I start typing "Starbucks" in the TO field of my Gmail, hundreds of people come up. Honestly, You'll forget their name. You'll never forget what they do or where you met.
8. They Make Contact
Immediately drop them an email. Do the reverse of the above. They will forget your name. They will forget what you look like. But they will not forget where they met you or what you talked about. Put that data in the subject line of your "touch-base."
7. They Touch-Base
Back when I started my research on the habits of the most successful designers and writers and basically anyone who has clients, it was a Rollodex. Yes, people were still using Rollodexi just one decade ago. They had some fancy filing system where they would know who to touch base with every day. Today, there's Google Calendar. Use it.
6. They Touch-Base Early
I was creative director in a couple of ad agencies. The most successful AEs and principals always got into the office and placed touch-base phone calls right around 6 am local time. It wasn't until much later that I found out why. Their prospects weren't used to email yet. Their prospects were in their 50's. Their prospects enjoyed phone conversations. Most importantly, at 6 am, they sent out the implied message that "if you give us a project, we will be in the office working on it at 6 am." Touch base with your prospects monthly. Touch base early.
5. Golf
4. Be the Best Dressed Human They Will See All Month
When you meet a big prospective client, may not know what political party they align with. You may not know what their favorite book is. And you certainly will not know when you'll meet them. So there's no possible way to know how to make a lasting impression on them except by dressing well - all the time.
3. Get in Their Social Circle
Go to the same charity events. Go to the same country club. Go to the same church, sinagogue, mosque, temple, and Kingdom Hall. If you had to chose to buy bread from an amazing French baker vs a mediocre guy who could get you Lakers floor seating, who's bread would you butter? Face it. It doesn't matter how talented you are. It doesn't matter how good you are. Pretty girls get hired more than ugly ones. Mediocre designers with connections get hired more than pretty girls. And if you're a moderately decent designer...
2. Publish Yourself In High Profile Websites
Back in the day, you'd submit your work to annual competitions like CA, Print Magazine, HOW, etc... Now, nobody reads print. So, post up your work in user generated content sites like http://stumbleupon.com and niche design sites like http://plurban.com ... If you still have time, submit your work to design blogs. I get just as much work from my web "presence" as I do the local execs I meet.
1. Never Fuck Up
Earn the reputation that if you're given a project, it'll be done perfectly - every time. Clients are stressed out. Be their oasis. Be perfect. Think about it. If your girlfriend goes out and once in a blue moon she fucks some dude, you're going to stress every time she goes out.
The 13 Habits of the Most Successful:
http://rawksoup.com/neighborhood/pg/blog/developer/read/841/13-extreme-success-secrets
How to Feel Beautiful:
http://rawksoup.com/neighborhood/pg/blog/developer/read/1044/you-are-beautiful-because-1
The 7 Hidden Rituals of Creative Geniuses:
http://journik.posterous.com/the-7-secrets-of-creativity-how-to-be-inspire
How to Overcome Anger, Depression, and Fear:
http://rawksoup.com/neighborhood/pg/blog/developer/read/1153/practice-healthy-emotions
10 Things You Just Don't Tell Your Kids:
http://rawksoup.com/neighborhood/pg/blog/developer/read/3196/10-things-you-just-dont-tell-your-kids
Hi.
The 5 Hidden Rituals of the Most Successful Happy People On Earth:
The 7 Shared Traits of 25 Teen Millionaires
How Lovers (and married people actually meet) in the Twitter and Facebook age
And the Premium (Russians say this a lot)
How to Shed 97.3% Of Your Loneliness - Because It's Just Not Attractive
Lessons I learned from a Zen Master
You know what I'm talking about. Your best friend keeps dating the same kind of loser. You brother keeps getting fired. A neighbor keeps getting DUIs. And some dude named Steve keeps making a quarter billion dollars every time he release some new product without any buttons.
What the heck keeps us in these cycles of success or failure? Steve Jobs went to India for a few years before starting Apple with Wozniak. I turned to Korean Daoism. This is what I learned about what keeps you in vortex cycles:
VIA: http://meditation-mantra.org/downloads.html
If you're a yoga instructor, we need you to teach 1,000s of Journic.com Members around the world. Register in less than 90 seconds and teach what you love: http://journic.com/daoism/pg/register/
A mate leaves their lover saying, "I'm not happy anymore."
Then, in their emptiness, they soon realize that they were indeed happy. They had everything they needed. So the mate betrays fullness for the excitement of filling emptiness.
In business, you might do the same.
There is a saying, "If you are frustrated, lower your dreams (or raise your skills)" - Taoism
You pursue a new client, a new market, or a new sector at the risk of losing what you've already built. You may even quit your job prematurely to start a business. Children climb up stairs for the excitement of sliding back down again. This is often called the "perspective of scarcity" or "mutually exclusive thinking."
To be fair, there is a joy in seeing growth. The trouble happens when you unconsciously let what you've already grown suffer for it.
There is a saying, "If you are frustrated, lower your dreams (or raise your skills)"
If there's a yin way to solve a problem, there is also a yang way. There is a core cause of loss and destruction in both business and love. It's easy to blame what's already in the bowl for crippling your ability to collect more. The hard part, the path of a successful person, is to keep what you have and simply enlarge your bowl (Next: How to Enlarge Your "Bowl": - Practical Taoism for Business )
Let's talk about business and web media marketing from an ancient Daoist perspective, call 310 598 1606 or bob.wan.kim@gmail.com to discuss the opportunities you may be undercapitalizing upon.
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