Secrets of the Successful: I.M.A.G.E. - "G" is for what? Tips of the GREAT Men.

This is a continuation of what I shared about the Tips of the Great Men of being Successful. The secret is contained in the acronym IMAGE. What is the "G" in image?

The "G" simply stands for the need to have the GUTS in business. 

You need no title to be a leader, but you do need to have huge toughness and big guts. To lead, you will have to be unrealistically persistent and wildly courageous. You'll need to dare more than the reasonable person and risk more than the ordinary man. That's not as hard as it might sound. Every one of us has at our core well of courage just begging to be tapped. We all want to be superheroes in some form or another and have the capacity of character to keep going when everyone around us is ready to give up. You see, success truly is a numbers game. And those that become the best and brightest leaders in their work are those that develop the mind-set of failure not being an option. Too many people throw in the towel on that new idea that will make the business better or that new tactic that will bring the team closer the second they face a little resistance. But the very nature of leadership is such that as you dream bigger dreams and act with greater mastery, you will meet with greater resistance. The more you leave your valleys of comfort in passionate pursuit of your mountains of opportunity, the more obstacles you'll face as you make your climb. Setbacks will happen. Things will go wrong. Competitors will try to knock you down. And even the people around you will try to discourage you. Those who are clinging to the old way of doing things and frightened of change will join hands and become your loudest critics. They will claim you are doing something that's wrong, rocking the boat, and basically being abnormal. And that would be true.

To have guts to see opportunities where others see challenges and to envision things becoming a whole lot better while others grow complacent is to become a visionary. And most of us are just too scared to go there. More people are just too threatened by the change one needs to move through en route to a better version of your greatest vision. They just can't bear to let go of all they've known and release their needy clinging to the way things have always been. So anyone who thinks and behaves differently from them will be called "abnormal". Because most people just can't break free from their past by stepping up to becoming and doing more. And rather than applauding someone with the pure guts and raw drive to innovate, re-create, and excel, the mob condemns them. Shouts them down. Mocks and ridicules them. Becomes their loudmouthed critics. But the truth of the matter is that's just the coping mechanism of individuals afraid to grow. "Criticism is the defense reaction that scared people use to protect themselves against change."

It's true. All I'm suggesting is that part of showing real leadership involves attracting the attention - and condemnation - of critics. Some will insult your new level of leadership thinking. Others will harass your higher way of operating. Yet more will oppose your passionate commitment to overdelivering. Many will be jealous of you. But as Fulton Sheen once observed: 'Jealousy is the tribute that mediocrity pays to genius.'

As you do all you can to drive better results and influence world-class outcomes, you will meet inevitable obstacles. And as you stand-out above the crowd by holding yourself to standards far higher than anyone could place on you, you will experience periods of self-doubt. But your faith in the difference you can make and your belief in the leader you must become has to outweigh your fear. As I suggested earlier, you must stay passionately committed to your vision and have the strength to keep expressing the absolute best within you. And that takes guts. That takes courage. That requires the fierce resolve that every great man and woman who has walked before you has tapped into.  You have it! Maybe now it's time to seriously embrace it.

If you discovered and learned something from this, read more about it from this blog or buy Robin Sharma's Leader Who Had No Title. :-) 

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