Success Advice
4 Lessons You Can Learn From the Incredibly Popular Book The School of Greatness
While there are tons of successful people in the world, the self-made, comeback stories are the ones that tend to be the most compelling. Stories like Tony Robbins, Sylvester Stallone, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson or Arnold Schwarzenegger. A newer version of this story is Lewis Howes — a top 100 Podcaster, best-selling author, and ex-professional football player.
Here are four lessons I learned from Lewis Howe’s first book “The School of Greatness.”
1. Create & Align Your Life With Your Vision
As a kid, Lewis was 100% committed to his vision to become a professional football player. After years of hard work, he finally achieved that vision. But it was short lived as a freak injury ended his career suddenly and left him feeling lost on his future.
As he found out, when you have no vision you will lack identity. A vision is something that defines you, it’s not simply a goal you can achieve. Your vision needs to be specific and makes you jump out bed on both good and bad days. It should inspire, motivate, and make you become a better version of yourself.
“A powerful vision emerges when we couple our dreams with a set of clear goals.” — Lewis Howes
Creating a vision takes time but once created it can help you transform your life. To start crafting your vision, spend time thinking about big picture life goals and desires.
Ask yourself questions like:
- What do I want to create in my life?
- What type of legacy to do I want to leave?
- Where do I want to live in my lifetime?
- Where do I want to travel? What experiences do I want to make?
Another great way to help create your vision is to constantly invest in yourself. Whether you are reading books, listening to podcasts or walking on fire at a Tony Robbins seminar, it all will help you understand what you want in life. Once you create your vision it will be easy to make decisions as anything you do will either move you closer or further from it.
2. Develop a Winning Mindset
As an ex-professional football player and current professional handball player, Lewis has some great sports references in the School of Greatness. One of the big lessons is taken from the elite athletes; ones like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Muhammed Ali, and Michael Phelps. For everyday people, these athletes look like they are living in a different world and in some way they are. Top athletes in any sport are clear about what they want to achieve. They have fully committed their vision.
This is the mindset you have to create to achieve your goals and make your vision a reality. It doesn’t just come to you, it takes a lot of work. These athletes didn’t get to the top of their sport by doing the minimum amount of work. They are the first to practice, last to leave, and thinking about their goals 24/7. This is how you need to feel and think about your goals. Your goals should be top of mind all the time. Whether you are writing your goals in a journal daily, visualizing your goals as complete or constantly talking about your goals.
All of this work will pay off, not always monetarily but almost always in the form of belief. Once you begin to cultivate a winning mindset you will instill a belief in yourself that is unwavering. If you believe you can accomplish your goals then you will. As Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t you are right.”
Check out these epic quotes from Lewis Howes!
3. Write in a Journal Daily
Lewis a huge fan of writing in a journal on a daily basis and can help you design a successful life. Start this daily habit by spending time each morning writing in a journal. It doesn’t need to be legible or read by anyone else but it should be focused toward creating your future. Start by putting yourself in a peak state by focusing on your accomplishments and three things you are grateful for in your life already.
Journal writing is important in the morning because while you slept, your subconscious mind did not. Instead, your mind was trying to find answers to the problems you are currently facing. This is why you might wake up with an answer to your biggest problem, have vivid dreams or have an “aha” moment showing in the morning. By writing in your journal you can capture some of these ideas and take action.
Write your top three goals down that you are trying to achieve in your life every single day — burn them into your memory! When you verbalize and write down these thoughts you will become more aware of your thoughts and understand what you are trying to create on a daily basis.
The majority of time journaling is in the morning but I’ve taken Lewis’ advice to spend 5 minutes writing before going to sleep. Here’s how:
- Write down all the things you reacted to or failed at during the day. Were you rude to someone at work? Did you get angry when someone cut you off in traffic?
- Write down all your wins for the day!
- Ask yourself the hardest questions you are trying to solve so your subconscious mind can get to work on them while you get to sleep.
Journaling will also allow you spot patterns, solve problems, gain clarity, and keep you aligned with your vision.
4. Always Give Back
As Lewis achieved more success he soon began to realize that personal achievement is important but giving back and helping others is even more important. He has helped build schools with Pencils for Promise and loves how impactful his podcast is to the millions of listeners.
“Slowly but surely, moments happened where I witnessed and started to understand the value of giving back and being in service to others. This may be my most important lesson to date.” – Lewis Howes
When you climb the ladder for success don’t forget to look back and help bring someone else up. Giving back could come in many forms — donating money, time or creating a business that helps others. Find a cause you love and find a way to give others more opportunities.
As Lewis ended his book, “Greatness is a voluntary degree. Its study is self-administered. That means it’s all on you. And you get out of life what you put into it.”
What did you think of his book? Comment below!
Success Advice
Why You Shouldn’t Discount A Brick And Mortar Store In 2025
We’re constantly told about how stores are closing down and how shoppers prefer online options, but is it worth questioning this theory?
In 2024, you’d be forgiven for thinking that physical shopping is a thing of the past. We’re constantly told about how stores are closing down and how shoppers prefer online options. But is it worth questioning this theory? (more…)
Success Advice
How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements
Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.
Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.
There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.
Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.
Embed the strength of AI and ML.
AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.
Bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.
ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses.
In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.
Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities
Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased.
Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information.
Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place.
In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.
Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development
You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.
You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.
Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.
Developing key skills to achieve goals
Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.
Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.
Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.
Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.
Development/Coding Knowledge
Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.
Hacking proof framework
There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.
Communication Abilities/Soft Skills
Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:
Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.
Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.
Agile Implementations
It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.
Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy
A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.
- Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds.
- Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
- Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
- Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them.
- Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.
Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy
Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.
- Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
- Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
- Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.
Conclusion
There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.
Success Advice
Understanding the Power of Yes and No: How to Create Boundaries For Success
These words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds
The two smallest yet most powerful words in life, “Yes” and “No,” have a big impact on our growth on both personal and professional levels. In addition to affecting the choices we make every day, these words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds. (more…)
Motivation
From Couch Potato to Go-Getter: A Step-by-Step Motivation Plan for Everyone
By understanding what motivates you, you can turn your dreams into reality
Are you tired of feeling like a couch potato? Do you want to transform your life and become a go-getter? You’re not alone! Many people struggle with motivation, but the good news is that change is possible. (more…)
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