(c) Mike Brescia - All rights reserved, Think Right Now
(Excerpt from WealthBooster Magazine -- Issue #163 -- July 18, 2003)
"He who seeks advice seldom errs." - Philippine proverb
The old cliché "Success leaves clues" is possibly the most ignored pathway to achievement I know of.
Why?
In addition to not wanting to look unknowledgeable, I think, a big reason is because getting advice and answers often either costs money, which people don't want to invest, or time, which even fewer want to invest.
I say invest because whenever you "spend" time or money on learning, you've given yourself the chance to grow and become better now and in the future at whatever you invested your time or money in. And if you are better at something as a result of your "spending" then you've made a wise "investment."
The average person jumps head first into most situations without knowing a thing about what they're doing.
A great example of this is a story my uncle Dave told me this past weekend.
You see, he and a friend took a fishing trip to Canada a few weeks ago. Every guest in the lodge they were staying in was there for the same reason... great fishing.
Most of the guys there were fairly experienced fisherman.
And that was their biggest problem.
They were just going to go up there and catch more fish than they ever did before. Man, those fish were just going to jump in the boat. We'll just drop our line in and pull out the fish.
Right.
My uncle and his friend, also very experienced fishermen, took a slightly different view.
They'd never fished that area before.
So, for $150 [$75 apiece], they hired a guide for the first two entire days of their trip.
What they got was the experience of a 71-year-old man who'd been fishing in that area his entire life. He was an expert in that area. He showed them which lakes, where on each lake to fish, why, which lures, you name it.
Their results?
Well, consider this...
In a virtual fishing paradise, one guest in the lodge that week caught just 6 fish all week long.
My uncle, with the advice of the guide, caught 294 Walleyed Pike during the same week fishing the same lakes... more than any of the other guests.
He told everyone about the guide.
So did anyone else hire a guide that week? Nope. He told me that no one even asked him what he was doing to catch so much. I guess they all just thought he was getting lucky. Big egos.
This is a perfect parallel to how 97%+ of all people treat all aspects of their lives.
I see it every day. Everywhere. In all settings. Obvious solutions to problems are just ignored.
If you want to reach an important goal in your life, if you want to blow away your competition, if you want to have great relationships...
If you want to excel at everything you do.
...Then you absolutely MUST get direction from someone who's been there before, wherever "there" might be.
Buy books and read them.
Ask experienced people for solutions and listen.
You might have already known 90% of the answer. So what you have to listen for and hold dear is the 10% you didn't know.
And use it.
I love going to amazon.com and reading the reviews people post for books. So many people give bad reviews because in their opinion, there was "nothing new." What they don't say is that all the "old" stuff, what now is generally accepted, they don't even use that.
There is nothing wrong with hearing the same old stuff. Because unless you use what you've heard or read, you don't really "know" it.
Most tasks look easy on the outside, and they are... IF you know what you're doing.
I wouldn't even dream, for instance, trying to put something together or learning a new piece of software without having the instructions at my side. But most people ignore them. And their results show it.
Look, you may have an I.Q. in the stratosphere. But if you aren't constantly looking to learn what you MUST know to get your tasks done quickly and effectively in EVERY part of your life, then you are creating a destiny of almost doing a good job, of coming close to finding happiness but not quite getting there, of being known by everyone, including yourself, as undependable. And with that comes a poor self-image.
My purpose in writing this is so that you become more and more a person who is passionate about learning what you MUST learn order to set and reach both the little and big goals on the way to your dreams.
You just can't do it any other way. This isn't my opinion. It's an immutable principle of life. To deny this is to guarantee a high failure rate at many things you attempt.
You don't want that. I know it.
So do this...
Make a list of your To-Do's for the next week. Look at each item and ask yourself the question, "Am I really good at doing this?" If the answer is no, then before you start, write down all the things you need to know and do to prepare before you start. If you need some information, get it.
And get excited. Smile. Laugh. Because when you get that info, when you learn the thing you didn't know before and when you achieve your outcome easier and with more joy than you ever did before you have expanded your knowledge, your capabilities and your value to yourself and others from that moment on.
Whenever you learn something new, no matter how small, you just taught yourself that you can achieve the largest of goals... the most amazing of accomplishments... because what are big accomplishments? Aren't they just many little ones all piled up?
It's funny, huh?
Success at just about anything is amazingly simple when you look behind the curtain.
My uncle was a high school drop out. He didn't even go for weeks at a time.
But when he changed his view about learning, he got his GED, went to college at night, got his degree and ultimately became the highest paid civilian employee in Central New York in the NYS prison system.
In the process, he learned that learning is fun and that in every single experience he has, there is something he can take away from it to help him make smarter decisions in the future... like hiring a fishing guide when no one else would.
So, how many "fish" are YOU going to catch in the next week?
P.S. By Frederick Mann: If you would like to learn how to get better at "fishing," just ask me in the BigboosterGroup Forum.
If you have all kinds of "silly stuff" in your head that stops you from asking questions and learning from the answers... then get over it!
See also #TL10E: THE POWER OF DOING THINGS RIGHT
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