by Karla Silver | Sep 19, 2015 | Business
Justine Musk, first wife of billionaire Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has learned a few things about wealth and hard work from her ex-husband, who has an estimated net worth of $12.1 billion.
In her own right, the former Mrs. Musk is an author and influential blogger.
And apparently, she’s not afraid to speak her mind.
This was made clear in a response to a Quora thread that asked the question, “Will I become a billionaire if I am determined to be one and put in all the necessary work required?”
Here’s what Musk had to say to that:
No.
One of the many qualities that separate self-made billionaires from the rest of us is their ability to ask the right questions.
This is not the right question.
(Which is not to say it’s a bad question. It just won’t get that deep part of your mind working to help you — mulling things over when you think you’re thinking about something else — sending up flares of insight.)
You’re determined. So what? You haven’t been racing naked through shark-infested waters yet. Will you be just as determined when you wash up on some deserted island, disoriented and bloody and ragged and beaten and staring into the horizon with no sign of rescue?
We live in a culture that celebrates determination and hard work, but understand: these are the qualities that keep you in the game after most everybody else has left, or until somebody bigger and stronger picks you up and hurls you back out to sea. Determination and hard work are necessary, yes, but they are the minimum requirements. As in: the bare minimum.
A lot of people work extremely hard and through no fault of their own — bad luck, the wrong environment, unfortunate circumstances — struggle to survive.
How can you *leverage* your time and your work?
Shift your focus away from what you want (a billion dollars) and get deeply, intensely curious about what the world wants and needs. Ask yourself what you have the potential to offer that is so unique and compelling and helpful that no computer could replace you, no one could outsource you, no one could steal your product and make it better and then club you into oblivion (not literally). Then develop that potential. Choose one thing and become a master of it. Choose a second thing and become a master of that. When you become a master of two worlds (say, engineering and business), you can bring them together in a way that will a) introduce hot ideas to each other, so they can have idea sex and make idea babies that no one has seen before and b) create a competitive advantage because you can move between worlds, speak both languages, connect the tribes, mash the elements to spark fresh creative insight until you wake up with the epiphany that changes your life.
The world doesn’t throw a billion dollars at a person because the person wants it or works so hard they feel they deserve it. (The world does not care what you want or deserve.) The world gives you money in exchange for something it perceives to be of equal or greater value: something that transforms an aspect of the culture, reworks a familiar story or introduces a new one, alters the way people think about the category and make use of it in daily life. There is no roadmap, no blueprint for this; a lot of people will give you a lot of advice, and most of it will be bad, and a lot of it will be good and sound but you’ll have to figure out how it doesn’t apply to you because you’re coming from an unexpected angle. And you’ll be doing it alone, until you develop the charisma and credibility to attract the talent you need to come with you.
Have courage. (You will need it.)
And good luck. (You’ll need that too.)
by Karla Silver | Sep 1, 2015 | Business
Did you realize less than 2% of women-owned businesses reach the million dollar mark?
I am honored to be participating in the “Lead Like You Mean It Summit” with 15 women who have either passed the million dollar mark or are well on their way.
Leadership is a crucial skill in business. You simply cannot create a highly profitable business or career by yourself.
It’s not too late to register but you need to act fast.
Best of all it's FREE to you, my subscriber!
The Lead Like You Mean It Summit is easy and free to attend. Simply click on this link, register, and you will receive a training video a day from September 8-25th which will be free to watch for 24 hours.
I will be training on “7 Things to Do Right Now to Be Seen as an Expert in Your Niche.”
I can’t wait to share my tips with you!
In addition to me, you will get to hear from Sheryl Wolowyk, Nadia Brown, Dolores Hirschmann , Dawn Raquel Jensen , Eleanor Beaton , Kamila Gornia , Catrice Jackson , Donna Spina , Placida Acheru , Jennifer Latham, Nicole Gebhardt , Towanna Freeman , Alyssa Granlund , and Amy Walker!
These women are leaders in their industries. They are highly sought after business coaches, experts, authors and business strategists.
We all know education is priceless but I want you to truly understand the value of this event. If you were to attend training with each of these women individually, it would cost you upwards of $7,500.
So when I say you can attend this event for free, I want you to jump at the opportunity.
You CAN be successful. You CAN lead a profitable business. We are here to support you in that journey.
There are people who spend their life saying, “I wish I had…”
Why not be one of the ones saying, “I’m glad I did.”
Registration closes on Monday September 7th. Register now so you will not miss a single training!
Click Here to Register.
by Karla Silver | Jun 12, 2015 | Business
You already know this. You've heard it a thousand times.
Meditation, mindfulness and getting up early can… you already know the LONG list of benefits!
How can we shift so that we have a little bit of “mindful me time” in the morning?
How is that possible when you have to do so many other things for your loved ones or when you gotta pay those bills.
Cue: Destiny’s Child, Bills Bills Bills
How can we begin the process of creating space for ourselves in the morning just like we make time to brush teeth, shower, put diapers on (lol – the babies of course) or take the dogs out for a spin.
You all said you want it.
Bad.
Because on the days that we do take time to take a conscious moment before the day gets rocking and rolling there is a different magic floating through the air.
On the days where we actually do hold a little space for a big mindful breath and a little wiggling of the toes before the day starts to hit full swing and swerve – man we feel the lerve. (Thats love.)
On the days that you can commit to a little you and maybe a little yoga, you notice that you are not so reactionary and you are able to observe life with more ease and even a beautiful presence that is unique to you.
I learned that sometimes we have time to go to the gym and pump-it-up and sometimes we have a that sexy slow Sunday morning (my personal favorite.)
But most of the time – morning yoga or meditation takes a back seat leaving us to hope and dream for the future.
Ultimately we have to commit to making that “mindful me time” every morning to EVENTUALLY (maybe! someday!) set this ritual high up with the other necessities. Like – deodorant (sniff sniff), taking the kids to school and you said it… coffee.
So, we are working on a little project that, NO, will not solve all your problems of getting everything done in the morning without getting up at 4am.
At least not right away.
But, I think it will help.
Creating rituals that support us. That is what I’m all about and why I am thrilled to have you here with me having this conversation.
Ah, and as an entrepreneur and “best-life seeker” – I have always been enamored with rituals.
Using the practice to get back to our finest and truest self and setting up each day to counter a world that at times – steers us away from just that.
HOW TO – create time and space for yourself each morning.
Don’t wait for this project to be done.
Lets start marinating on this now.
Tomorrow, wake up and smell the roses!
Love you,
Karla
by Karla Silver | May 2, 2015 | Business, Inspiration
A PUNCH IS JUST A PUNCH, THEN A PUNCH BECOMES MORE THAN A PUNCH, THEN A PUNCH BECOMES JUST A PUNCH…
By Chris Record – this post originally appeared on Facebook here.
I remember back in the early 2000’s I heard a cassette tape of a motivational speaker who talked with charisma and healthy doses of positivity, and in his most enthusiastic voice he said “A punch is just a punch, then a punch becomes more than a punch, then a punch becomes just a punch again…”
I didn’t realize it at the time, but he was quoting Bruce Lee. And I also didn’t realize how profound those words really were.
Now years later as I look back and reflect on that quote, I’m amazed at how exact that process is with almost everything that we do on the journey towards success in our lives, and how powerful the meaning behind it truly is.
To help put this in perspective, let’s talk about what this quote actually means.
A PUNCH IS JUST A PUNCH…
When you first start learning martial arts, you inevitably find yourself throwing hundreds, no scratch that, thousands, no scratch that, tens of thousands of punches.
It’s all about learning the proper dynamics of a punch, and then practicing with as much repetition as possible right?
Over and over, every day if possible, throwing hundreds of punches, sometimes thousands of punches.
Let’s face it, this kind of daily repetition is extremely BORING!
At first it starts out fun and exciting because you are learning something new, but then it just turns into a crapload of work that you have to do every single day.
Not just any work, but super repetitive work. Repeating the same thing over and over and over and over again, and again, and again, and again…
The vast majority of people never make it past this phase, because of it’s boring and repetitive nature, plus you don’t see a lot of results in this phase.
THEN A PUNCH BECOMES MORE THAN A PUNCH…
One day, out of nowhere, you have an epiphany. You have a breakthrough. It’s hard to explain exactly when it will happen, or how it will happen, but it always happens.
That same punch that you have thrown tends of thousands of times, suddenly becomes Magical.
You begin to look at it a different way. You begin to realize how amazing the punch is. You go through the motion again, this time in slow motion, and you are blown away by how perfect the “art of the punch” truly is.
You fall in love with the beauty of the punch, and it no longer feels like a punch at all.
Your punch feels like water, formless and shapeless. When you put water into a cup, it BECOMES the cup. When you put water into a bottle, it BECOMES the bottle.
In the same way your punch has grown into something so much more than a punch. You find yourself thinking about it, and admiring the simplicity, yet in awe at the complexity of it all.
THEN A PUNCH BECOMES JUST A PUNCH…
Some time passes and you practice tens of thousands of additional punches, truly refining your skills and mastering your craft.
At this point you have thrown so many punches, and have gone through a full spectrum of emotion around them, that you find yourself realizing that a punch has just become a punch again.
It’s no longer about the beauty of the punch, but rather the perfection of the repetition.
It’s about knowing with full confidence that your punch is on point, and that you have put in the hours, the long days, the months of grueling effort, the years of practice, and you have now mastered the art of the punch.
And while one might think that their punch would become even more glorious than it had previously been, you come to find out that it actually returns full circle.
You now come to your final epiphany, that can only come as the result of a long journey and a crapload of repetition to get you there.
And that is…
A punch is now just a punch.
It’s now on a subconscious level. You know longer even have to think about it. You can have your mind completely focused on a million other things, and still throw that beautiful punch.
A SALE IS JUST A SALE, THEN A SALE BECOMES MORE THAN A SALE, THEN A SALE BECOMES JUST A SALE.
For some perspective on the power of this quote, let’s replace the word “punch” with the word “sale”.
My entrepreneur friends will be able to relate to this example, as I’m sure most of you have been through this experience in your journey as well.
When you first start in sales, it seems so hard to make your first dollar. All you want to do is close your first sale. All you want to do succeed.
You find yourself a mentor, and that mentor most often teaches you the principle of repetition, which is to find an income producing activity, and repeat that activity every day to start seeing results.
So you begin your boring, and repetitious journey of income producing activities that eventually lead to sales.
Common examples of this might be phone sales, or door to door sales, or handing out flyers, or writing blog posts, or making youtube videos, etc.
Regardless of the activity, you will often find that it’s the repetition of the income producing activity that actually gets the results.
But repetition is BORING, so this is where most people fail. They fail to endure the repetitive learning curve. They fail to last long enough to get through this painful phase.
For the small percentage that trust in the process, and create repetitive habits of daily income producing activities, they find themselves graduating to the next phase.
Suddenly, a sales becomes more than a sale.
They fall in love with the sales process! When they aren’t selling, they are passionate about learning everything they can about sales. Even if they weren’t making an income from sales, they would still want to sell because suddenly it’s engrained within them, and they see the beauty of it all.
They begin to see the simplicity and complexity of it all and they grow a deep passion for it.
They spend their nights reading sales training books, and they seek out some of the most influential sales people they can find, constantly amazed by the wisdom and knowledge being passed along with every word that they read.
The art of selling becomes so profound that they begin to see things in a completely different light, where everything around them is sales.
They had to sell their spouse on going out on their first date with them. They had to sell their parents on letting them go to a party. They had to sell their kids on making a compromise on something. They got sold an upgrade to the large popcorn at the movie theatre, and on and on and on…
The epiphany is so massive that they begin to realize that in almost every form of communication throughout they day they are either being sold, or they are making a sale.
They are in awe at the beauty of the entire process of the “art of selling”.
Then, a sale just becomes a sale.
Some time passes and they have now graduated on from the repetition phase, to the point where they are selling without even thinking about it.
When they write an email, they phrase it in a naturally persuasive way, without even making an effort to do so.
In daily conversations they find their friends and associates listening in with their eyes focused, as if they didn’t want to miss a single word that was being shared.
When they sit down in a sales presentation, they actually try NOT to sell, just for more enjoyment, they back off the sale, but it’s too late because they customer buys anyways.
They literally tell the customer not to buy, and the customer still buys, because they have come full circle to the point where selling is just selling.
It’s something that can be mastered. And it has been mastered.
Now, every day, they sharpen their skills, they continue to experiment, and they push the boundaries of what they thought was ever possible.
REPLACE THE WORD “SALES” WITH ANYTHING
What are you currently in the process of learning? What skills? What passions? What hobbies?
Maybe you are learning how to surf? Or learning how to raise kids? Or maybe you are looking to make money online.
Regardless of what you are looking to learn, treat it like the Bruce Lee Quote.
Get help from someone to get the proper foundation and learn the right way to do that thing you are passionate about.
Then focus on taking repetitive daily actions to learn that skill. For many things this may require thousands of hours of practice and training during this phase.
One day you will realize that action has become more than that action, it has become something amazing, something pure, something beautiful.
You will fall in love with the process. You will become convicted about it, to a point where nothing will stop you from your vision.
Then, you will find yourself in the subconscious phase, just doing it, without even thinking about it.
And this phase is where you can truly live in your power and your potential.
We ALL deserve to live in our true power and our true potential…
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments below. Did you enjoy this post? Did you you gain value from it? Do you have something to add to this? Let me know.
I was inspired to write this tonight, because one of the biggest fights of the century will be watched by millions, so every time you see a punch during that fight, see if you can envision that they had to throw that same exact punch hundreds of thousands of times to get where they are.
Are YOU willing to put that type of commitment towards YOUR dreams and goals?
When we do, we can play at a high level like that in our own lives…
#FightOfTheCentury #DreamChasers #TakeMassiveAction
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