I love learning from survivors and successful people. Matt Sweetwood, who is the author of the best-seller book Leader of the Pack, recently inspired me with his extraordinary life story.
At a young age, Matt’s wife left him with five small children to raise and in the middle of rescuing his photographic business from bankruptcy, with 100 employees depending on him.
In his book, he outlines the ten lessons he learned from successful people:
- Successful people take personal responsibility for everything that happens in their life. Unsuccessful people blame others and adopt a victim mentality.
- Successful people know that they must reimagine and reinvent themselves to survive. This requires aggression, guts, and out-of-the-box thinking.
- You should do the reimagining when are at your peak. He tells the sad story of Kodak, who had 85% of the world’s film market. Ironically, they invented the first digital camera but didn’t want to launch it too early, for fear of harming their film market. In 2012 they filed for bankruptcy.
- Physical strength is the foundation for emotional and mental strength. Invest in your health.
- Often people make bad decisions out of fear of loneliness, not realising what power lies in being on your own. Learn to love being alone – it will set you free to excel.
- Choose your relationships carefully and surround yourself with quality people. People’s success is married to who they allow into their personal and business lives. Remove people who are not a positive influence in your life.
- Lead your pack by example. Be kind to people, scrupulously honest, relentless in work ethic, and outwork everyone under you.
- Always find a way to pay it forward and help others in need. This changes your perspective.
- Become an expert in your field by becoming a teacher. This is how you become a leader.
- When you set your goal, make sure you want it badly enough. Do what it takes, even when it means doing things you do not like.
The day you take personal responsibility for everything that happens to you, is the day when you bring your life under your control, Matt discovered.
