Here's to the crazy ones !
This video is interesting because it speaks of a number of things …
- It speaks of knowing and finding the core, authentic you. That unique person that you were created to be, with your own interests, characteristics, talents, personality traits. After all, never forget, there is no one like you in the entire world. You are completely unique. Fashioned for a purpose. It is just up to you to find out what that is.
- It speaks of never being afraid to be different. Of not being conformed and constrained by the limits that society places on us. The ‘should do’s’ and the ‘shouldn’t do’s’ that we’re bombarded with. The limiting mindsets and opinions that others like to place on us. The conventional thinking and the herd mentality that we so easily adopt.
- It speaks of the process of initiating and inventing and creating. And it reminds me of the process of adopting change (Rogers model for the adoption of innovations) where at first people say that is crazy and ridiculous and then they sceptically try it out, before the majority finally adopt it and come to believe what the early adopters and investors said in the first place but were ridiculed for. Think about Bill Gates or ipads or iphones.
- And it also speaks about how ‘Apple’ were positioning themselves in their advertising. They knew they were branding themselves as different thinkers. As being different. Speaking to early adopters. They knew their brand was about innovation and new and different. They knew ‘why’ they did what they did and ads like this merely brought this view to life. Very clever. Very effective.
Be inspired and be you ! The world needs it.
Failing towards Success II
Do you remember the first video I put up of Michael Jordan speaking about failing to success. The greatest basketballer of all time who not only trained hard but was cut from his high school basketball team.
Well here’s another video that speaks of ‘Failing towards success’ and at the same time of ‘Saying ‘no’ to no !’.
That is don’t let others determine your future. Don’t let others determine what you can or can’t do. Consciously make a decision to not be limited by other people’s opinions or let others somehow try and define your future.
Remember those dreams you had as a kid and watching those heroes that inspired you and dreaming you could be them. Remember planning what you would do when you grew up. Remember holding that secret dream i your hear and stepping out and then someone telling you ‘you’ll never make it’, or ‘you can’t do it’, or ‘why try’ or ‘better to spend your time and energy on something else’ or ‘you can’t earn a living from that’ or ‘get your head out of the clouds’ .. and the list goes on. There’s plenty of people to tell you that you can’t do something.
Well let this video inspire you. And let the following quote that I had on the inside of my bobsleigh during the Olympics inspire you.
“Impossible is a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world that they were given than to explore the world that could be.
Impossible is not a fact, it is an opinion.
Impossible is not a declaration, it is a dare.
impossible is nothing”
Leadership – why would anyone be led by you ?
My post last week on leadership got me thinking again.
You will remember that I told the story of the CEO in a US company who had a special elevator installed which went straight to his office so he didn’t have to talk to the staff.
The thing is – having worked for a global US Investment bank and dealt with some very rich and powerful Private Equity, CLO and Hedge Fund Managers … I can absolutely see this being the case. One might say, that it is a question of time and not spreading yourself too thin. Granted. But there is an attitude behind every action like this. And in this case I would argue it is ego. Thinking you’re better than the staff below you. If I asked the question ‘Why would anyone be led by you’ to that CEO, I wonder what his answer would be ?
You will also recall that I mentioned in my last post how leadership is about INFLUENCE. Plain and simple. Forget particular personality traits. Forget particular leadership styles. You can judge a leader by their INFLUENCE. After all, didn’t Mother Theresa or nelson Mandella have as much influence as Winston Churchill ?
Well let me build on that. You influence others based on:
- The past – your reputation
- The present – your personal example and demonstrated behaviour
- The future – the trust and confidence that those you are leading have in you / your leadership / your strategy
Some of these are personal leadership traits (character, consistency, integrity, belief in your own decisions, what you’re driven by – are you self-actualised or driven by something else like ego, fear, power etc).
Some of these are leadership characteristics (vision, communication, servant heart, teamwork etc)
But don’t get too hung up on the detail. Leadership is about influence. So ask yourself this one question and the rest will take care of itself …
Why would anyone be led by you ?
Leadership – do you have your own elevator ?
I heard an interesting story the other day of a CEO in a US company who had a special elevator installed which went straight to his office so he didn’t have to talk to the staff.
And then I thought about the TV show sensation ‘Undercover Boss’ (which I love btw) which is all about company leaders/CEOs going undercover to get to know staff at lower levels of the business and find out what is really happening in their organisation at the grass roots.
So with those examples in mind, here’s a few thoughts on leadership …
- Do we really need a camera crew and a disguise before we can find out what is happening in our organisation? Aren’t the best leaders all about theie people and realise that people are their greatest resource. Think about some of the best leaders in the world today.
- When you ask people that love working for their company, invariably one of the reasons they’ll say is that the leadership and management is amazing. Perhaps that they provided direction, that they listened and understood, that they appreciated their staff and they had strong relationships with the rest of the company. And if I asked you the same – think about the best team environment you’ve ever worked in and tell me why it was so good – I bet you’d mention the people and the leadership amongst your reasons for why that was such a great team / company also.
- It is funny isn’t it how some people see themselves above the rest of their organisation, whereas others are completely the opposite ? They mix and learn and have deep relationships with the people in the organisation. They are not ego driven, position driven or power driven. They are part of the team.
- Which leader would you follow into battle or sacrifice for – the CEO who has his own lift or the opposite ?
It brings me to a key point about leadership.
Leadership is about INFLUENCING others attitudes and behavior. It doesn’t have to have a particular style and you don’t have to have a certain type of personality. Quiet people can influence just as well as extroverts. Hands off leaders can influence just as much as inspirational leaders as much as hands on, involved leaders. The key is INFLUENCE.
Productivity – Parkinson & Pareto weigh in with some tips !
Here are 5 quick and easy tips to help you with your time management / efficiency and productivity. Enjoy … and implement ! …
1. Low Information Diet
2. Law of Perceived Importance
3. Saying No
4. 10 minutes of Power
5. Pareto’s Rule – 80/20 Rule
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1. Low Information Diet
We live in a world full of information and the temptation exists to digest as much information as possible. Information is time consuming and most the information you consumer is either negative or irrelevant to your goals. (Think newspaper, TV, Magazines, Social Blogs.) Additionally, we’re finding it easy to get engaged with activities that feel like work, but aren’t. (Facebook or social networking is a good example vs actually doing productive work). One reason for this confusion is that we’re often using precisely the same device to do our work as we are to distract ourselves from our work.
Action => Time management is really about making better use of your time. Living on a low-information diet is one way to do this. For the next week try this:
- No reading emails before 10:00am. You may quickly scan for urgent emails if required by your role. Use this time instead to achieve one of your most important goals for the day. Focus on the main to-do action first and then get to your emails before getting bogged down by them.
- Try a two-device approach. Only use your computer for work. Real work. The work of making something. Have a second device, perhaps an iPad, and use it for games, web commenting, online shopping, networking… anything that doesn’t directly create valued output … draw a line, any line, and separate the two of them. (If you don’t like the results from that line, draw a new line). Now, when you pick up the iPad, you can say to yourself, “break time.” And if you find yourself taking a lot of that break time, you’ve just learned something important.
- Limit your web surfing and avoid newspapers, magazines , blogs that suck your time
- Limit your television viewing to one hour of relaxation viewing only
- Before you digest any information, ask yourself – Will this information help me achieve one of my immediate and important goals?
2. Parkinson’s Law of Perceived Importance => Forced deadlines
If I gave you 24hrs to produce a report on the the impact of sleep on the ability to hop on one leg, the time constraints would force you to focus and take action. If I gave you a week, you would spend five days considering options and two days preparing the report. If I gave you a month it would sit on the ‘back-burner’ for two weeks, then you would call a meeting to discuss, send a series of back and forth emails and create the final report in the last two days, am I right? Parkinson’s Law states that “a tasks perceived importance and complexity will increase in relation to the time allotted for its completion.” In other words, the longer you allow for a task to be completed, the more complex and important that task is perceived.
Action => Shorten time frames to reduce the perception of complexity of tasks. Set yourself forced deadlines to get things done.
3. The Power of Saying No
Even more powerful than setting short time frames, is just saying no. It works like this:
Do you think you could put together a report on the impact of room temperature on staff productivity?”
Reply: “No.”
If you’re a bit of a ‘softy’, you could replace the ‘no’ with, ‘I would be happy to help you, but I need you to show me how this will help us achieve our goal of (Insert important agreed upon business goal for which this task is not).
Action => be really ruthless on keeping the main thing the main thing. Do this by saying no more or by ruthless expectations management around talks.
4. 10 minutes of Power
Abraham Lincoln famously said “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” To be efficient and prooductive you need to prepare and plan. Decide what actions you will achieve tomorrow to move you closer to your 90 day goals.
Action => spend 10 minutes before you go to bed or 10 minutes first thing in the morning setting your goals and actions and continue to refer to them during the day.
5. Pareto’s Rule – 80/20 Rule
The 80/20 rule states that 80% of outputs are the result of 20% of inputs. For example, 80% of profit is the result of 20% of customers. This also means that the remaining 20% of outputs are the result of your other 80% of inputs. (i.e. the other 20% of profits is made up by 80% of customers). Or alternatively 20% of customers cause you 80% of your work and hassle. To take back your time you must identify the 20% of inputs that create the 80% of outputs. For example, cold calling 20 clients per day for two hours per day produces one new client per week, whereas one phone call to a local business partner asking to meet and discuss a joint venture takes two hours in total and leads to 10 new clients.
Action => Use pareto’s rule to critique your time management and efficiency. 80% of the results you have achieved this year are the result of 20% of your actions. Identify what’s creating the most output and scrap the rest.
Don’t worry – this is a challenge for me to. Good luck. I’ll be interested to hear your feedback.
My bucket list – things to do before I die
I love inspiring people and one of the reasons I love inspiring people is that it forces me (in a good way) to be living what I’m speaking. To follow my dreams too so it is never a case of ‘do as I say / write and not as I do’. To date I feel so grateful that I can say I really have followed my dreams and I don’t sit here with any regrets. I wish there were 36 hours in every day or that I could have my twenties again because I would happily have pursued some other paths I know I would have also enjoyed. But honestly – it has been a great, rewarding and satisfying journey TO DATE. I want to die in a huff. To be ashes rather than dust. To live an incredible life without regret, to make a difference and to live a life that inspires others.
So with that in mind, here’s an ever evolving list of things to do before I die … my bucket list …
- visit every continent
- write a book
- become a lifeguard
- speak in front of more than 10,000 people
- become an Olympian and compete at the Olympics
- learn to play guitar
- go sea-kayaking through some of the south pacific islands
- learn to fly a helicopter
- drive and navigate around non-english speaking countries. Arrive in a country without knowing where to stay and figure it out.
- own my own horse and totally bond with it in natural horsemanship ways
- get a tube whilst surfing
- put my feet in every ocean
- Meet the woman of my dreams. Exceedingly, abundantly, more than I can ever ask or imagine. My soul mate. My best friend.
- feel half confident in the kitchen and even enjoy cooking
- be as fit as someone ten years my junior. Continue to do so.
- live in another country where English isn’t the first language
- Speak another language fluently
- Travel to a 3rd world country and visit projects that I know I have instigated in my philanthropic/charity based executive role. Know that I am making a massive difference in their lives. Stop, enjoy and be satisfied and content.
- Do an annual holiday with friends
- spent more time with grandma
- host a dinner party with some amazing people invited eg the likes of Nelson Mandella, Anthony Robbins, people that absolutely inspire me.
- Live in a ski resort and do a ski-season
- Feel like I’m one of those few that is actually living my dream. Not conformed by what society tells you you should do. Construct my own life.
- be a professional sportsman
- say grace at the table with my own family
- take more photos
- institute the jeremy rolleston cocktail half hour / jeremy rolleston date night
- live such an amazing, inspiring and influential life that they make a ‘This is Your Life’ about me.
- See someone get a cataract operation that I have paid for and go in blind and come out seeing !
- Run a 1 day seminar that is packed out and people get a lot out of and is successful (as measured by their response)
- Do something that people thought was absolutely left field and impossible for me to do and do it successfully – The Propeller Fashion Show
- Do a dirtbike trip with mates.
- So a surfing trip with mates.
- Get an incredible mentor in my life
- Get a massage every week
- Have a very random conversation to an old person in a pub, hear their story and realise they are amazing and that it was my privilege to have that conversation
Stay tuned !
Overcoming disappointment – stages of grief
If there is one thing I know a bit about it is overcoming disappointment. And if sport is a microcosm of life then I’ve had it in spades.
First there was snapping my posterior Cruciate Ligament whilst playing for the Australian legends (Australia B) rugby sevens side in Fiji. This was two weeks before the Hong Kong World Cup sevens tournament. It was my dream to play for Australia in the World Cup. So to get the call a few days after my return saying I had been picked, only to have to pull out with injury, was devastating. IMy dream was shattered. I never got my Wallaby jersey and I never got a look in again.
Then there was the Vancouver Olympics – my 2nd Winter Olympic Games. I was in the best shape of my life, driving the notorious and controversial track well, and ready to have the race of my life. And then I crashed in bizarre circumstances in front of the world. If only the ground could have swallowed me up. And then to have to pull out of the 4m and forgo the chance of redemption (sport i made for overcoming stories like that) was devastating. Was I really going to retire after that ?
So in light of that, one of the useful things to understand is the actual and natural stages of grief that you will go through. Here’s a video to help you smile at the same time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1spa_ASeHc0
So to recap, here’s the stages with some explanation:
- Comprehension – when what you thought was going to happen and what actually happens don’t line up, your brain tries to cope with this by reacting in a number of ways. These include shock, going into your shell, denial or a sense of numbness like you are in an unreal dream. There is little you can do at this point whilst your brain adjusts.
- Emotion – the powerful emotions of sadness, anger, loss and grief will then take over. You can’t ignore these emotions. Just ride them out and look for comfort and support.
- Reason / Bargaining – to move on you need to break the endless repetitive cycle of thoughts and bargaining and emotions that will drag you down and keep your initial emotional response going long after it should have stopped. You need to resolve and come to a conclusion on what happened. Perhaps the conclusion is that ‘you just don’t know, crap happens, and you will never know the reason why’. Or perhaps there will be a more constructive conclusion that you can reach around your disappointment. Either way, this will allow you to move on.
- Progression (depression and acceptance) – At this point you need to realise and accept that life isn’t always fair and refuse to be the victim. I know this was the case for me. You have to stop concentrating on the setback and disappointment (which will continue to make you depressed) and choose to get on with the next goal or with living your life. (Acceptance is easier said than done I know !)
There are some other tips I have for helping you overcome disappointment as best you can, but let’s leave this post with an understanding of the natural stages of grief you will go through regardless. For more information buy my book A Life That Counts.
The Masai and eskimos are happy too !
………..
Can money buy happiness? Many would say “yes, unequivocally!” A more thoughtful, common, quick, and casual response is something like, “I’m not sure, but it’s certainly better to have money than not to have it.” Perhaps there’s some truth in that.
In 2004, The Wall Street Journal published the results of a survey that found that the Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest Americans, on a scale of 1.0 to 7.0, rated their life satisfaction level at a 5.8. Homeless people living on the streets of Calcutta, India, on the other hand, gave their life satisfaction a score of 2.9. And the Inuit people of northern Greenland and the cattle-herding Masai people of Kenya rated their lives 5.8 – the same as America’s richest.
So what do we take from this ?
- Happiness comes from the inside out not the outside in. It is not found in things ! Even the 400 richest people in the U.S. have only an 82 percent level of life—satisfaction; i.e., only 5.8 out of 7.0. The Masai live in dung-huts with no running water and the Inuit live in the freezing Artic temperatures, with little company, food that is difficult to find and houses which at times consist of igloos and not the marble bathrooms of the American rich.
- Certainly money helps contribute to happiness but it is still a very imperfect predictor of levels of happiness. The homeless street-dwellers in Calcutta, among the poorest of the world’s poor, have a life-satisfaction that is 50 percent that of the richest 400; i.e., 2.9 versus 5.8. When they’re able to move from life on the streets to a life into the city’s rundown slum dwellings, they improve their satisfaction level from 2.9 to 4.6; i.e., to almost 80 percent the satisfaction level of the richest 400 in the U.S.
The modern world offers us materialism and many formula’s for happiness. There is greed and envy and striving to ‘make the list’ or achieve celebrity or gather things. But take a step back. See the nonsense that often drives us. See the mindsets we often look at life with.
Consider what really makes you happy. What could you do without and still be as happy or happier ? What could you focus more on and focus less on that would make you happier, whether you live in a dung hut, an igloo or a mansion with marble bathrooms !
Goal Setting – the magic noone gets
How many posts and articles, videos and books, seminars and podcasts exist on goal-setting ? … Far too many when I consider that nearly all miss the 3 ingredients that make all the difference. Here’s a quick recap of what I mean.
Big goals to little goals
People seem to get confused by how small or big goals should be. They should be both. Olympic gold medallist Lydia Lassila explains this well.
‘You’ve got to have the outcome goals. These are big and bright. The ones you think about every day. You can almost taste them. Under that goal, though, I would have all my milestone goals, and then under those, I would have the ways and strategies for achieving those goals. Before the Vancouver Olympics, I went from having pretty scattered goalsetting methods to very systematic ones where every goal was broken down into small achievable steps.’ (Lydia Lassila, Olympic Gold medallist, Women’s aerials, Vancouver, 2010)
You see you should dream big and these dreams (and associated goals) motivate you and give you energy. They are not cumbersome points on a piece of paper. These are the dreams that keep you up at night. you can’t get them out of your head. They are big and bright. It is then from this point that you start to get structured and organised and employ the more mechanical goal setting techniques (eg S.M.A.R.T.R) to write the smaller goals that you will aim for, achieve, tick off and change as you go along. The shorter and medium term goals that you hit along the way to achieving the big outcome goal.
Write them down as you want them
Remember to write down your goals as you want them to be rather than what you don’t want; that is, they should be positively stated. For example, you wouldn’t say, ‘I’m no longer struggling with my weight.’ You’d say, ‘I have excellent and healthy eating habits.’ Rather than say, ‘I won’t get angry any more when . . .’ you’d say, ‘I act with control and calmly when . . .’ Focus on what your positive expectations are – what you want to occur, rather than on things you’re afraid might go wrong. Use confident, successful, goal-oriented statements such as ‘I will . . .’, ‘I can . . .’ and ‘I’m going to . . .’ You can read more about the psychology behind this in Chapter Four of my book A Life That Counts.
Making your dreams come alive
Most people will get inspired and write their goals down on a list. There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem though is that lists are too tame and too boring. You need to turn your goals into a genuine experience that has emotional power. You need to arouse your emotions because it is this that will drive you forward. You need to change them from just words to powerful images that you can immerse yourself in and connect with and that will fire up those powerful emotional circuits in your brain that are going to be critical in your ability to change and continue to be motivated. You need to feel your goals on an emotional level. Otherwise you will just be relying on your conscious motivation which will dissipate all too quickly (how many NYE resolutions have you seen through to fruition after all). You need to make your dreams come alive – to feel all the fulfilment, excitement, joy, freedom and satisfaction – or whatever emotion that desire means to you – as if you’ve already attained your goals. You need to taste them, smell them, touch them. You need to involve all your senses so your goals become alive, vibrant, tangible and motivating. In so doing, you’ll harness the positive power of emotions (the powerful limbicsystem drivers) in the process of what you are going after. This will help make your goals the sort of thing that make you want to get off the couch and achieve them.
One way of doing this is using vision boards and visualising. As athletes we employ these techniques all the time. You can find out more about this in Chapter Five of my book A Life That Counts. And at the same time, you’ll be closing the gap between what you’re dreaming about and what you actually believe you can achieve. (By visualising your dream so powerfully in your mind, you’ll suddenly find it much easier for your mind to believe you’ll achieve the goal.)
