"Gaining Greatness in Life and Work" Article

Came across an interesting web article offering a prescription for gaining greatness in work and life. The advice is based on 20 years of research and interviews of leaders from various backgrounds and interviews. While I have come across lot of these types of 'self-help' books/advice, the simplicity of Dennis Kimbro's findings is the beauty of his work as it could be broken down into four simple tenets. Yes, a lot of these are commonsensical but nonetheless, food for thought.

I. Dream Big

• Get a big dream and believe in yourself when no one else will.
• Be different in your thinking; the world rewards differentiation.
• Determine what you love to do (i.e. what you would do for free) and act on it.

II. Be Inner Directed vs. Outer Directed

• Being inner directed is having purpose and using it to define your vision; not letting outside influences motivate you.
• Focus on your area of excellence.
• "You cannot succeed being like everybody else. The opposite of success is not failure but conformity. You must be willing to take the lonely road."

III. Dedicate Your Life to Lifelong Learning

• Become an expert in something; because we are an information-based society, those who take time to seek out information will be rewarded.
• As a leader, 90% of the time you can show up on time with a plan and succeed. Those who beat their competition are those who show up on time with a plan and commitment to carry out the plan. Think Kanye West. Yes, that was his example... the rapper from Chi-town.

IV. Refuse to Fail

• Make failure never a viable option for you.
• Interesting statistic: average millionaire does not find his or her dream until age 45 and does not become a millionaire until age 54.
• "You are being trained to manage people and money but won't get on the fast track until you begin to manage yourself."
• Greatness takes time.

Other Notes:

• When making decisions, you can filter in one of two ways:" accept the circumstances as they are or take the responsibility to change them."