Performance & Success Advice Blog Post # 15 - Achieve YOUR Full Potential!

It is certainly funny how life works.  Just the other night while I was in New Orleans, I made friends with Lloyd, the night manager at the hotel I stayed in.  We ended up talking about our goals in life, leading me to tell him about my blog and the Collegiate Performance Magazine.

I told him that my goal is to become a professional speaker, a business coach and consultant, to publish the book I am writing, and to film the reality TV show I am writing.  Likewise, he told me about his goals.  Lloyd was my first inspiration for writing this blog post since we spoke about what was keeping him from reaching his goals or Achieving HIS Full Potential. 

Life works in miraculous ways.  The second motivation of why it was imperative for me to create this post was revealed to me while driving from New Orleans to Tulsa yesterday as I was listening to podcasts by people I like.  This one in particular by Scott Smith of the Daily Boost called “How to Achieve Your Full Potential,” ironically was exactly about what Lloyd and I had talked about – our own Human Potential.

We all have goals, dreams and aspirations.  In this podcast, Scott speaks on why some are successful in achieving theirs and why others are not.  Those that are not yet successful all have one thing in common – constraints, or things that hold them back.  

To successfully achieve your ultimate goals, dreams and aspirations one must:

1. Recognize what your constraints are
2. Remove your constraints so you can move forward
3. Move forwards to Achieve YOUR Full Potential!

You can achieve anything and everything you set your mind to.  Don’t take it from me; go listen to Scott’s podcast to hear it first hand!  He ends the podcast powerfully by saying - “You have all the potential in the world.  You have some hope that believes you can get there.  You have the faith that it’s within you right?  You have that.  You have the frustration that says you have all this potential. If you can only remove the constraints, your on your way!” 

My constraint was the full-time commitment that my college education demanded of me, which diverted my focus, time, and effort away from growing my business.  On August 8^th, I graduated with my Bachelors of Science in Marketing and a concentration in Sales eliminating my constraint. 

I am now moving forwards to Achieving MY Full Potential.  There is nothing holding me back.  I have embarked on my journey with my compass pointing me daily towards Achieving MY Full Potential. 

What is holding you back?

Listen to Scott’s podcast on iTunes called “How to Achieve Your Full Potential!”  Invest in yourself!  Don’t let anything stop you and Achieve YOUR Full Potential!

Questions?  Comments?  Blog with me!

Performance & Success Advice Blog Post # 3 - Becoming an Entrepreneur

I would like to speak about something that hits close to home for me today, becoming an entrepreneur.

The first thing to realize is that it is a journey.  You will be forced to learn and adapt to many challenging circumstances as you exercise problem solving as you make strategic decisions.

As you prepare for entrepreneurship, begin focusing on the WHAT question.  WHAT is it that you want to pursue?  That is the first question you must answer.  As you are formulating the answer to this question, it is also important to be open and attune to opportunity and be willing to take a risk and run with any that you think are valuable.

The next question that you need to ask yourself is WHY.  WHY do you want to pursue it, and WHY do you think it is valuable?  This is one thing that SCORE (a resource partner with the Small Business Administration of the U.S.) taught me to question.  I sought SCORE's FREE business counseling on a transportation venture years ago where I wanted to provide a service to safely transport students from the University area to the Downtown night club district.  This type of question allowed me to consider if the potential business had a large enough market, was financially feasible, and realistic [which in the case of that venture it was not].

The third question to ask yourself is the HOW.  HOW is determining how you are going to physically convert this idea from an idea into reality, the manifestation of your idea.  The process of manifesting your idea requires you to seek the people that you need to surround yourself with, find the capital to finance it, and the logistics of making it happen.  I would like to make a personal note here and quote myself, "I believe that if you commit to any idea that you are passionate about, think is valuable,  and believe to be realistic, the HOW should not even be a question."

*TIP* One of the best sources of angel funding is from people in your network, like your family, friends, and family and friend's network.

I would like to end this post with a story to reinforce the idea of VALUE.  My first business venture was a commercial carpet cleaning business at age 19.  To begin and try to get my foot in the door at hotels and resorts, I would offer the lowest price in town.  I learned quickly that this is no way to do business.  The value to customers competing on price was nothing more than the lowest price, having little regard for you or your company.  By competing on quality, I was dealing with a much better crowd of people.  The VALUE to them was having a job well done, and for that, they were willing to be loyal and pay a premium for.

Don't take it from me.  Take it from the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh in his PERFORMANCE Interview on Value Innovation - http://www.collegiateperformancemagazine.com/tonyhsieh/entrepreneurial-advice/value-innovation