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Success Advice

How A 19 Year Old Kid Got The Chance To Work For Gary Vaynerchuk

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“Crazy things happen when you know who you are. Certainty breeds influence”

This is the story of a new buddy of mine named Swish. I met him over Skype when my friend Joel Brown told me that we should chat. Within minutes of having a phone call with young Swish, I saw something quite incredible.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I knew that this chance encounter was going to change the way I think. As I got to know Swish through the few Skype calls I had with him, I learned something about him that blew my mind:

Swish had been headhunted to join Gary Vaynerchuk’s team in New York.

This is no small achievement. Gary is one hell of a successful man, and there are not too many people that haven’t read one of his books or listen to The Ask Gary Vee Show. His book “Jab Jab Jab Right Hook” changed the way I thought about asking my followers to do stuff.

So how did a 19-year-old kid get the chance of a lifetime? Read below.

1. Age means jack sh*t

Use your weaknesses to your advantage. Being nineteen could be perceived as a weakness. You have little life experience and are still finding your place in the world. Swish didn’t care about his age. He let his passion and enthusiasm light up the world.

The kid has infectious charisma and his certainty breed’s influence. He may not have all the answers at age nineteen, but he certainly doesn’t let you think that. Swish has started more businesses at nineteen than most people start in a lifetime.

He has a wearable tech company that is looking to change the game within the sports industry. Most people thought he was crazy and despite that Swish didn’t listen to them.

2. Surround yourself with winners

Swish didn’t have the contacts to get his wearable tech company into the NBA initially. What did he do? Hired Trevor Booker from the Brooklyn Nets NBA team to join his advisory board. You don’t need all the contacts; you just need to bring the right people with you on the journey.

3. Hustle harder than anyone else

Swish spends lots of time on social media. In the early days, Swish built connections with a few key people on Gary Vaynerchuk’s team via social media. He regularly tagged them in relevant posts. He shared his content with them.

What Swish did that very few do is hustle harder than anyone else. He’s a nice guy at his core so when he asks you to do something you feel compelled to hear him out. Swish is too cool and too nice to ignore. People are drawn to the guy because of who he has become.

He’s the kind of guy that everyone wants as their brother. I’ve often wondered what makes the difference between success and failure. People like Swish have shown me time and time again that it’s a strong work ethic, combined with an infectious human character.

Beautiful people on the inside are not the type of people to be lost in a crowd. Their spirit shines through and that’s what makes them get the results we all want. Swish getting the chance of a lifetime is no accident. It’s not chance. It’s not good fortune. It’s hustle.

4. Back yourself when no one else will

If you go back two years, most people hadn’t heard of Swish. He was unknown and finding his way in a sea of social media influencers. This didn’t stop Swish from following his dream. Fundamentally, like me, Swish is an entrepreneur.

He wants to make the world a better place through his various business pursuits, speeches and content. He’s cast a pretty wide vision and he achieves goals every single day that gets him towards his ideal life. People are drawn to that vision.

A vision for change and a vision for the future is what we all want. The trouble is there aren’t too many people that are bold enough to dream up a vision like this and then execute on it. I believe Swish is one of those people who will achieve the impossible.

There’s no way someone with that much guts can’t influence the right people to bring on the journey. Swish can’t achieve his goals alone and he knows that.

He’s taken the first step though which is backing himself above all else. He believes in himself and so it’s only natural that we will all start to believe too.

5. You have no freaking idea how powerful social media is

I think sometimes we forget the age we are living in. With enough patience, we can literally get in contact and build a relationship with anyone we want. A friend of mine said to me that this idea is limited. He said to me, for example, that if I want to get in touch with Tony Robbins via social media, I couldn’t.

That’s BS though. It would be challenging, but very achievable to get in touch with Tony via social media. High achievers won’t ignore you forever. If I sent messages to Tony and his team every single day and helped spread Tony’s message, then there is no way he would ignore me forever.

I’d probably have to follow this strategy for at least a year and that would require a high level of determination. My point is that I’ve seen it work before. It’s possible.

Swish followed a similar strategy to build a few key contacts that have transformed his life and career. Some of those contacts were part of Gary Vaynerchuk’s team. Next time you think that social media is some tool that everyone uses now and you can’t make a difference, think again.

Yes, it’s harder to cut through now on social media although I still think it’s way more powerful than many of us believe it is.

6. Mega successful people can see your greatness

Successful people have had to fight hard to get where they are. When they see other people, who are doing similar things to what they did on their way to the top they, sit up and take notice. Successful people can spot the same traits that they once relied on to build their careers.

In Swish’s case, Gary Vee saw the same hustle and storytelling ability that he had on his rise to fame.

“We all love an underdog who is just like us: the secrets sauce is that this underdog is happy to work his face off when others would have given up”

Persuade, inspire and influence people with your message. Tell your story even when you think no one is listening. There’s always someone listening and your brilliance will be discovered when the time is right. You must see your own brilliance first though.

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net
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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.

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Image Credit: Midjourney

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.

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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

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Creating legal boundaries
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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…)

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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

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How to be motivated
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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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Success Advice

10 Micro Financial Habits for More Wealth and Peace of Mind

The World Economic Forum still reports that half of U.S. adults lack financial literacy

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micro financial habits
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You’ve heard about developing financial habits, but what about micro-financial habits? Micro habits are the tiny things you can do every day with minimal effort that, together, transform your future. (more…)

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