“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance. It is so hard. You put so much of your life into this thing. There are such rough moments in time that I think most people give up. I don’t blame them. It’s really tough and it consumes your life. If you’ve got a family and you’re in the early days of a company, I can’t imagine how one could do it. I’m sure it’s been done, but it’s rough. It’s pretty much an 18-hour day job, seven days a week for a while. Unless you have a lot of passion about…

After watching #PixarSoul, what really is “being in the zone”? Definitions – A mental state of focused concentration on the performance of an activity, in which one dissociates oneself from distracting or irrelevant aspects of one’s environment. In psychology, a flow state, is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. A tunnel-vision phenomenon reported by athletes, creatives, and psychologists alike as a hyper-focused, sometimes spiritual, state of mind where anything is possible. It’s where we become our most productive, creative, and powerful selves. In his autobiography, Second Wind,…

“Read 500 pages…every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.” – Warren Buffett *** “I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think,” Mr. Buffet said. He continued: “That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business.” “On the other hand, you have the possibility to read at least 30 pages every day.” By setting this more modest goal and sticking to it,…

“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.” – Steve Jobs “The above statement outlines the importance of setting fresh goals to make sure that you keep up the momentum in your career. If you get distracted by your current achievements, you might lose sight of exciting opportunities and long-term ambitions. Jobs certainly never let the dust settle on his achievements. He had already achieved fame and wealth by 1977, just a year after co-founding Apple. He then continued to seek out and develop new ideas,…

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Apparently, it took around 870 years. That involved a lot of persistence and patience! If we want something to be around for a long time, then we must accept that its creation must be a gradual process. *** Persistence – a key element in the development of expertise. “Keep practicing no matter what. It will take years, you know this, so you have to keep practicing. You have to keep practicing getting better every time you practice. This is a very hard thing to do. You will get tired, bored, and frustrated. It is hard to keep your focus while practicing. I heard a…

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis There is no such thing as being too old to change your life and set new goals and dreams for yourself. Nelson Mandela was 75 years old when he was the oldest elected president of South Africa. Dimitrion Yordandis was 98 years old when he finished a 26 mile marathon on October 10th, 1976. Don’t ever say you are too old. Read more about never being too old – HowToBecomeTheBest.com/never-too-old

“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” – Lawrence J. Peter Highly successful organizations and individuals all have an extremely clear vision of where they are going. *** “To navigate to anywhere you need to know your starting point and where you are going. Once you know that, you can determine the direction and the amount of time it will take you to reach your final destination. You will need a navigation system to guide you along your way. Let’s call this your path.” “You must have a realistic evaluation of your starting point. What do you know? What don’t you know?…

“If you’re bored with life – you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things – you don’t have enough goals.” – Lou Holtz Having goals that we are passionate about gives us something to look forward to each and every morning when we wake up. Not having goals is an excellent recipe for average living. *** “You need to have a specific ultimate goal. Let’s say you want to win an Olympic gold medal in swimming in the 200-meter freestyle. You have a specific ultimate goal, which is a good start because you know your final destination. When I was in graduate school in biology…

“Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” – Vince Lombardi An excerpt from How To Become The Best at Anything. “To become the best takes practice, lots and lots of practice. It takes about 10,000 hours of practice to get really good at something and not just any type of practice, deliberate practice. Deliberate practice is practicing at getting better every time you practice. Note: The number of hours you will need to practice from the start of your journey may vary depending on the area/domain and how much expertise you have already developed.” “The classic example is a man who has gone golfing almost every weekend…