Its pretty easy for people who have attained great heights to turn around to the rest of us and offer advice as simple as “work hard”. But for those of us on the path, that advice is useless when we are faced with barriers that threaten to end our journey. As a teacher, a Sergeant of Marines, a personal trainer, and a mentor, I have seen a lot of good men and women fail to achieve their goals after being halted by one or more of these barriers. On your path to world domination, its important that you be made aware of these so that when you encounter them for the first time, you can recognize them for what they are. The 4 barriers to success are:
- Boredom
- Ignorance
- Isolation
- Surrender
Boredom
Success requires repetition and hard work. Its making the same cold calls to the same potential customers day after day, or standing on the same corner selling mixtapes every single day. Its going through the same physical fitness routines, performing the same speeches, doing the same profit and loss analysis, working on the same project at the same time every single day. The reward for constantly doing what works over and over again is achievement. Unfortunately, most people have a short attention span, and will go to the gym expecting to see instant results, or make calls expecting instant sales, or attempt to complete entire books and projects in one sitting. When the results they expect arent there after several work sessions, they become bored and conjure up some new idea, a new business, a new project to work on. The actual result is a resume of unfinished projects and half-attempted goals. Success will always be one new idea away for the man and woman that is easily bored.
Willful Ignorance
Willful ignorance describes a person who knows that they dont have sufficient knowledge, but tries to B.S. their way through it. A good example is the stock market. Everybody has an opinion on what a good stock pick would be, but none of them know how to read a company prospectus, or how to conduct a proper technical analysis of stock charts. Rather than taking the time to become competent, these people remain willfully ignorant. When you are first starting out in business, there are volumes of information that you will need to absorb and apply if you hope to be successful. If you decide you want to get in shape, theres alot you will need to learn about body mechanics, nutrition, and biological function (nothing makes me cringe like seeing a guy in the gym who has no idea what hes doing – he’s an injury waiting to happen).You should want to arm yourself with all the information you will need to do whatever it is that you choose to do. By choosing to remain ignorant you are choosing to fail.
Isolation
In Robert Greene’s landmark book, The 48 Laws of Power, he writes
“The world is dangerous and enemies are everywhere – everyone has to protect themselves. A fortress seems the safest. But isolation exposes you to more dangers than it protects you from – it cuts you off from valuable information, it makes you conspicuous and an easy target. Better to circulate among people, find allies, and mingle.”
I have written about both the dangers of isolation as well as the importance of networking time and again, and still there are people who would say “Why should I network?” or “I can do this on my own”. My answer is that nothing worth doing can be done alone. The one-man company is extraordinarily rare, and even one man companies need accountants, suppliers, and professional support. Theres no such thing as a self made athlete, entrepreneur, politician, or professional. More often than not, success is predicated upon having a capable team and a strong network. The strength of the wolf is the pack, and the strength of the pack is the wolf. Lone wolves are dead wolves.
Surrender
“Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.” – Buddha
Giving up before reaching the finish line is one of the most common barriers to success.
There is a famous story written in the last century called Three Feet from Gold about a prospector who gave up looking for gold after a good deal of time searching, only to later discover that he was just three feet away. The implications of the story are just as relevant today as they where last century. So many people give up on their dreams and desires when they are literally three feet from the finish line. Imagine running a marathon only to give up in the last few feet. If you saw such a thing happen in front of you odds are you would ask, “Why doesn’t he just crawl the rest of the way?” But the fact is that this happens every day – people who are literally at the very edge of achieving their goals surrender.
These are barriers that everyone pursuing anything worthwhile will face. Now that you are able to recognize these barriers to your success, you can start to develop strategies for blasting through these barriers. In my Block Standard post, Blasting Through Barriers to Success, I give you some very specific ways to overcome boredom, willful ignorance, isolation, and surrender while you are on your path to world domination.
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