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Now Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary isn't what you'd call sensitive...
His go-to response if you turn down an investment offer?
You're dead to me
But there's a heck of a story behind all that bravado.
In 1986, he used a $10,000 loan to start SoftKey Software Products...
...which he sold to Mattel for $4.2 billion just 13 years later.
Ker-ching.
Now, most folks would probably think:
"O'Leary was lucky"
or
"It was the dot com bubble"
Wrong.
Want to know the catalyst for Kevin O'Leary's incredible success?
Well, it came down to an incident in an ice-cream parlor...
...that lasted just a few seconds back when he was a teenager.
(Almost sounds like a scene from Back to the Future, right?)
But get this:
Even decades later, just thinking about it brings O'Leary to tears...
(Check it out here - takes like 90 seconds to watch)
So, what's the real driving force behind his success?
EMOTION.
Put it this way:
If the teenage O'Leary had merely thought, "It'd be kind of nice to have a 911 Turbo and a Rolex someday..."
Do you think he'd be worth a gazillion dollars right now?
Nope.
Bottom line?
While success made it possible for him to buy all the toys...
...it was emotion that made his success possible in the first place.
And unsurprisingly...
All Doers Share the Same Story
I mean, just look at Richard Branson.
Back in the early 70s, he was fined heavily for selling "export only" products in his UK record store.
Guess what the FEAR of being sent to jail for missing the payments did to him?
It supercharged his commitment to building a successful business.
And it doesn't just work for fear...
Hey, Tom Watson used ANGER.
After being fired by the founder of National Cash Register, Watson told him:
One day I will build a company that will dwarf yours
...and he went on to take IBM from a $4 million/year to an $800 million/year company.
Then there's Soichiro Honda (yes, that Honda).
FRUSTRATED that he lacked the funds to create a "motorized bicycle" (something desperately needed in post-war Japan)...
...he hand wrote 18,000 letters to bicycle shops throughout the country, asking for investment.
So, here's the upshot:
If success is an engine, emotions are the fuel...
...and massive success requires massive emotion.
Whether "success" means:
• Losing a whole bunch of weight
• Building a 7-figure business
• Squatting 315 pounds
• Becoming a kung-fu master
Or pretty much anything else.
And here's the awesome news...
You're Already an Expert
(Trust me, you are)
Just think back to anything you've done that other folks said was "impossible" or "crazy".
Now twenty bucks says you had a ton of powerful emotions associated to the desired result.
Perhaps positive, perhaps negative.
Maybe it was excitement, maybe it was fear.
That doesn't really matter so long as those emotions work in our favor.
Listen, when I committed to running my first marathon last year...
...I was both EXCITED by the thought of completing it and TERRIFIED by the thought of failing.
(I'd told anyone that would listen, so there was no backing out)
BINGO - that's the ultimate in leverage.
So Here's the Bottom Line
1. You've got something you want to achieve
2. You've already got all the emotions you need to make it happen
Now all you need is a trigger, the spark that's going to ignite all that emotional fuel.
Your "red-pill moment".
Kevin O'Leary's happened in a few seconds and, like he says:
It changed my life forever
Listen, it only takes an instant to turn things around.
Even better:
You don't have to wait for something to happen to you.
• Getting laid off, downsized or chewed out by the boss
• A health check result that scares the bejesus out of you
• Catching a glimpse of yourself in the bathroom mirror, and wanting to sob (yep, been there)
The reality is you can make a decision and have your red-pill moment anytime you want.
And as there's no time like the present...
...how about making it right now?
- Tim
Images:
Bigstock
Richard Branson - D@LY3D (Flickr)