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Football is big business in America, and a massive part of the game day experience is tailgating: a world where thousands of excited fans gather to drink, eat and play games for hours before, during and after games. What better place for an entrepreneur to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/finding-a-niche/">make some great money</a> with game-changing innovations in the tailgate economy?



Here are five brands—and the entrepreneurs behind them—that have become integral to game days across the college football and NFL worlds.



<h2 id="h-tailgate-guys">Tailgate Guys</h2>



Tailgate Guys offers turnkey tailgating service for anyone hosting a small family get-together—or a huge corporate gathering with thousands of people. They handle the entire experience and make sure everyone is fed, entertained and happy.&nbsp;



The company was founded in 2009 by Parker Duffey and Michael Otwell. They were inspired by their time at Auburn University, where tailgating is serious business. Now, they host thousands of tailgates all over the country. It’s a genius idea to take the most difficult part of tailgating—the planning, setup and cooking—out of the equation for customers so they can focus on having a great time.&nbsp;



In 2020, Tailgate Guys combined with several other brands in the live event space to form a new company,<a href="https://revelxp.com/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> REVELxp</a>, which hosts larger live events, such as Topgolf Live.&nbsp;



<h2>Homefield Apparel</h2>



Tailgating isn’t just about the food and the fun; it’s also all about looking the part by sporting your team’s colors. But how can you make a fashion statement and stand out amid a sea of people wearing versions of the same thing?&nbsp;



Connor and Christa Hitchcock came up with a solution to that and turned it into the wildly successful clothing company <a href="https://www.homefieldapparel.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Homefield Apparel</a>. They’ve got licensing deals with nearly every college football team and are expanding to the NFL as well.&nbsp;



<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-stand-out-from-the-competition/">What sets their brand apart</a> is their deep knowledge of each team’s history, traditions and legacy, mixed in with a little humor. The shirts and sweatshirts are unique, funny and often vintage inspired. Wearing a Homefield Apparel shirt shows your fellow fans that you know your team inside and out—after all, only true Texas Tech fans would understand the meaning of the <a href="https://www.homefieldapparel.com/products/tortilla-toss-texas-tech-shirt?_pos=4&amp;_sid=1066e7454&amp;_ss=r" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tortilla Toss T-shirt</a>, for example.



<h2>Yeti</h2>



Though not created for football tailgating, <a href="https://www.yeti.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Yeti</a>, and its burgeoning array of tumblers and cold drink products, has become for many the undisputed king of the tailgate beverage. And there’s very little more important than a cold drink at a tailgate.&nbsp;



Yeti was founded by outdoorsmen brothers Roy and Ryan Seiders in 2006. Like most entrepreneurs, the Seiders came up with their idea because they were frustrated by the available options. Yeti is now seen as the top-quality cooler available, and it’s priced that way, too. Some even refer to Yeti products as status symbols because the prices are so high. But that also fuels their popularity. Yeti bumper stickers are slapped on trucks, boats and water bottles all over the country.&nbsp;



An idea that started out as a way to improve a fishing outing is now a publicly traded, multibillion-dollar company and an icon for outdoor aficionados and sports fans all over the world.&nbsp;



<h2>RTIC</h2>



There’s a famous Picasso quote that might apply to the situation between RTIC and Yeti, but we won’t put it here. Suffice to say, <a href="https://rticoutdoors.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">RTIC</a> is Yeti’s main rival. Started by John and Jim Jacobsen in 2014, RTIC’s <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/7-types-of-competitive-advantages-and-how-to-develop-yours/">biggest differentiator in the market</a> is affordability.&nbsp;



RTIC coolers and other products look very similar to Yeti’s but are much less expensive—sometimes priced at over $100 less for the same product. That has made RTIC extremely popular for more budget-conscious tailgaters. It’s also caught the attention of Yeti, <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2017/02/03/yeti-and-local-cooler-competitor-rtic-settle.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">who sued RTIC</a>. The lawsuit was settled in a way that both sides felt happy with the results, and both companies <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/3-keys-to-a-successful-business/">continue to thrive</a> years later.&nbsp;



The popularity and success of RTIC shows that not all entrepreneurs have to reinvent the wheel. You might be just as successful taking something already on the market and making it more affordable. Though, it’s always nice to avoid a lawsuit.



<h2>HitchFire&nbsp;</h2>



<a href="https://hitchfire.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HitchFire</a> is another innovation created for camping and outdoors enthusiasts that actually works perfectly for tailgaters. In fact, you could say HitchFire puts the “tailgate” in “tailgating.” Their trailer hitch-mounted grill system swings out from the back of the truck so you have plenty of room to grill and packs up nice and tight to the truck for easy storage. This allows you to grill in smaller spaces, such as a single parking spot, and to use the bed of your truck or the trunk of your SUV for storing other things—like cornhole boards, chairs and coolers.&nbsp;



Evan Currid and John Griffith are the outdoorsmen who started HitchFire. Though the original vision was for camping, they’ve embraced the football crowd with special packages such as the<a href="https://hitchfire.com/products/tailgating-bundle?_pos=1&amp;_sid=ba1b8edff&amp;_ss=r" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Tailgating Bundle</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The tailgate economy is one built on food and fun, and the possibilities are endless when it comes to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-start-a-business-in-a-day/">starting a business</a> or inventing a product that will be popular among football fans.

Here are five brands—and the entrepreneurs behind them—that have become integral to game days in the tailgate economy.

Here are five brands—and the entrepreneurs behind them—that have become integral to game days across the college football and NFL worlds. | SUCCESS

Brands Built on the Tailgate Economy

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Brands Built on the Tailgate Economy | SUCCESS

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Scott Bedgood is a freelance writer and the author of Lessons from Legends: 12 Hall of Fame Coaches on Leadership, Life, and Leaving a Legacy. He lives in Dallas, Texas, with his wife Sami.

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Scott Bedgood

Will Joining the 5 AM Club Change Your Life?

Personal Development

Personal Development Archives

Personal Development | SUCCESS | What Achievers Read

Robin Sharma wants me to wake up at 5 a.m. He swears I’ll feel more energized and productive. He tells me that Mozart, Frank Lloyd Wright and Ernest Hemingway made a habit of rising early.



He promises that if I wake up at 5 every morning and follow his 20/20/20 formula for what he calls a “Victory Hour,” my life will change. My<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/a-4-question-guide-to-unlock-your-creativity/"> </a><a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/18-out-of-the-box-ideas-to-spark-creative-inspiration/">creativity is going to soar</a>, my fitness will improve and I will generally feel better about myself.



But right now, at 4:58 a.m. on a Thursday, the only thing I feel is tired.



One motivating factor forces me out of my warm bed: The chance to prove this man wrong.



Sharma, the famous Canadian personal success guru and author of many best-selling books including 1996’s <a href="https://amzn.to/3NDGyVv" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari</a>, probably couldn’t care less whether I prove him wrong. But I do.



I blazed through his 2018 book, <a href="https://amzn.to/3uqIvhj" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The 5 AM Club</a>, in a few days before speaking with him. Told in parable form, the story features four central characters: the Spellbinder, the Homeless Man/Billionaire, the Artist and the Entrepreneur. Throughout the course of the book, the Artist and the Entrepreneur go through a complete life change due to the teachings of The Spellbinder and Billionaire characters. The main point of their lessons is, of course, that the two should get up at 5 a.m. and structure their days according to Sharma’s formulas.



I’m not saying that I was cynical about the benefits, but it did all seem a little overstated. I had to test it myself. When the clock hit 5 a.m., I crawled out of bed to begin my day with the 20/20/20 formula that was supposed to change my life.



<h2 id="h-where-it-all-began">Where it all began</h2>



<a href="https://www.robinsharma.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Robin Sharma</a> is the son of Indian and Kenyan immigrants to Canada. He says he came from humble beginnings and the immigrant mindset that drives so many high-achievers took root in him from an early age. He graduated from law school and became a successful lawyer at a big firm in Toronto.



“But when I would wake up in the morning and look in the mirror, I didn’t like the person that was looking back at me,” says Sharma. “I was very empty. There was an angst.”



He turned to education, this time studying the lives of the great women and men of the world, looking to understand their tactics and methods to implement those practices in his life. Out of this transformation came his first book, 1994’s <a href="https://amzn.to/3bQmK40" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Megaliving</a>.



Despite some difficulties <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-write-a-book-advice-for-new-writers/">as a first-time author</a>, Sharma was able to sell enough copies of the book to begin his career as a speaker, author and personal success guru. Out of that moderate success, Sharma started to dream bigger. His second book, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, caught fire and launched Sharma into global fame.



Suddenly, Sharma was a man in his early 30s speaking to audiences of thousands all over the world. His morning routine and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/3-keys-to-developing-daily-disciplines/">the disciplined life</a> that had been shaped in his 20s were vital to helping him avoid the pitfalls that so many people experience when fame and success come their way.



<h2 id="h-exercise-reflect-grow">Exercise, reflect, grow</h2>



Do you just get up at 5 a.m. and start cranking on those emails before any of your co-workers and competitors? Is that how you get ahead and stay ahead?



Not exactly.



Sharma lays out a detailed routine in the book and claims it’s what has helped billionaires, superstar athletes and others with whom he’s worked through the years.



Here’s how the 20/20/20 formula is broken down: The first 20 minutes of your day are for sweaty exercise. Sharma’s “Billionaire” character gets deep into the science of why sweating and getting your heart rate up early in the morning are so good for you. In summary, you’ll increase your feel-good dopamine and serotonin levels and kickstart your metabolism while lowering your levels of cortisol, essentially a stress hormone.



The next 20 minutes should be quieter, dedicated to<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/the-stoic-art-of-journaling/"> </a>journaling,<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/5-ways-you-can-use-mindfulness/"> </a>meditating, planning, praying or contemplating. This should get your mind, heart and soul in the right place for a day that promises to throw all kinds of difficulty and stress your way. Taking this time to be quiet and still will increase your gratitude and your happiness.



While the exercise piece is a pretty specific and, in Sharma’s terms, “non-negotiable,” piece of the 5 a.m. puzzle, the reflection portion allows more creativity for you to do what is most comfortable for you. But one part that Sharma insists should be included in your second 20 minutes is journaling. Writing down your goals, plans, commitments and the things you are grateful for will shape your day more positively.



The final 20 minutes allow for even more customization. The “grow” period is left for you to learn whatever it is <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/3-techniques-to-never-stop-learning/">you feel like learning</a>. So if you want to listen to a podcast about successful entrepreneurs, read a great book or work on a language you want to learn, all of that is in play in these 20 minutes. The goal is to stimulate your brain and improve your intellectual capabilities.



<h2 id="h-lots-of-coffee-yawning-and-productivity">Lots of coffee, yawning and productivity</h2>



OK, that’s all well and good. But maybe you are like me. You’re a night owl. Your best work has been completed in the similarly quiet hours of 11 p.m. to 2 a.m.



For every Hemingway the book uses as an example of an early riser, I counter in my head with Winston Churchill, one of the most prolific writers and human beings, who would write until early in the morning and stay in bed until about 11 a.m. Surely there are those who are <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-wake-up-earlier/">built for the 5 a.m. club</a>, and there are those who are more suited for the night club.



But, to be honest, I haven’t really been as productive late at night as I used to be. In my college years and early 20s, inspiration would strike late, and I’d grab a coffee and crank something out. I once applied to a life-changing job at 3 a.m. However, those days seem to have passed me by. I need a change.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



So here I am, trying to figure out how to use my old-school alarm clock at 4:58 a.m. because following Sharma’s plan means my phone stays in another room. I slink out of bed as my wife, who decided to join me in this experiment, does the same. We don’t say much to each other. Our dogs, excited by the alarm, run into our room with a burst of energy that helps to wake us up a little more. We head into the kitchen to begin our workout. Honestly, it’s easier than I expected. Once the shoes are on and the warm-up begins, I feel as awake as ever.



After the workout, we split up and eat our breakfast while spending our next 20 minutes quietly. We choose to pray, journal and read our Bibles. This is something we often talk about desiring to do more, but when the stresses of life hit us in the face the second we usually wake up, it’s all too easy to cut 20 minutes of prayer out of the day. We then spend the final 20 minutes reading, learning, listening to things that improve our lives or working on our side gigs.



The Victory Hour is complete. And now it’s 6 a.m. Work isn’t for a few more hours. Now what?



This is where we found even more benefits. Instead of sleeping through the 5 and 6 a.m. hours, we were now fully awake to take advantage of this extra time. My wife has a home bakery and has been putting in really late hours over the past six months, never having enough time after her full-time job to decorate the cookies that she sells. I’m a writer, and I never have time after work to write the things I want to write. At 6 a.m., we are both able to devote ourselves to these things completely free from distraction.



What I found to be the most vital tenet of The 5 AM Club is the ban on electronic devices. Not in your bedroom, not as your alarm clock, not as the first thing you look at in the morning. No checking emails, tweets, Instagram or text messages. No one should need you at 5 a.m.; the phone and computer can wait until you’ve started your day in the right way. Extending this ban until 7 a.m. proved to be simple, yet magical.



But I don’t want to act like this was a consistent, comfortable and clean improvement. Every day that we tried to wake up at 5 a.m. was difficult. Sometimes, we just flat-out didn’t do it. We set the alarms, snoozed them and woke up at 7 a.m. But upon reflection, we missed those extra hours in our day.



I asked Sharma if he ever hits the snooze button, or falls off the 5 a.m. wagon and has to get back on target. I figured after 22 years of perfecting his morning routine that he might not even understand the struggles of a new member of the club.



“I slip all the time. I think most people do,” says Sharma. “One time the pilot on a little plane let me fly a little bit, and as I was holding the yoke, I noticed the plane was constantly being pushed off course by the winds. My goal was to make sure that we stayed on course. That’s what happens every single day to every single one of us. There are temptations and distractions that get us off our habits and our priorities. Each day is simply about fighting the disruptive currents and getting back on track.”



Armed with the knowledge that even Sharma slips and oversleeps, it was easier for me to get back on course and join the club again the next morning. I’m not a billionaire or a superstar athlete or Ernest Hemingway, but I do <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/if-you-want-to-be-more-productive-lose-track-of-time/">feel more productive</a>, alert and ready for my day.



Maybe it’s as simple as not hitting snooze.



This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://store.success.com/shop-all/success-magazine-sept-oct-2019-kathy-ireland.html">September/October 2019 issue of SUCCESS magazine</a> and has been updated. Photo by Prostock-studio/Shutterstock.

Robin Sharma, author of ‘The 5 AM Club,’ wants you to wake up at 5 a.m. because the early bird gets the worm. But how does it taste?

The early bird gets the worm. But how does it taste? Our writer decides to test Robin Sharma’s 20/20/20 formula to find out. | SUCCESS

Will Joining the 5 AM Club Change Your Life? | SUCCESS

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<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/50-greatest-entrepreneurs-of-all-time/">Great entrepreneurs</a> tend to have a handful of things in common, but this one trait is perhaps most unmistakable: They can each see a massive societal problem, one that would take a whole city or country or the entire world to fix, and think, I’m the one who should do something about this.



For Lindsay McCormick, founder and CEO of Bite, it was the not-so-small problem of plastic waste, specifically the colossal amount of empty toothpaste tubes we toss out each year. To address, she would need to take on the monumental task of changing the way people brush their teeth, something most of us have been doing a specific way for generations. Making the challenge all the more impressive, McCormick wasn’t a dentist or a chemist or a scientist of any kind. She was a 30-something TV producer living the dream in California.



And still she thought, I’m the one who should do something about this.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sustainable-living">Sustainable Living</h2>



McCormick has always had a passion for sustainability and a love of the outdoors. While living in Los Angeles and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/5-ways-to-pursue-the-job-you-want/">looking for a job</a> in TV, she taught surf lessons in the summer. Over time, the plastic in the ocean that would wash up on her board inspired her to go all-in on working in TV so she could make nature and conservation documentaries.



She eventually became a producer for House Hunters on HGTV. The job had her flying all over the country to film, but the lifestyle didn’t jibe with her waste-free passions. Although she was able to use refillable containers for most toiletry items like shampoo, conditioner and lotion, it was those pesky travel-sized toothpaste tubes that she couldn’t refill and would have to throw away. She tried every possible toothpaste alternative and never found anything she liked. Her research into the issue also turned up the estimate that over 1 billion plastic toothpaste tubes are discarded every year, or as McCormick likes to visualize it: the equivalent of 50 Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other.



So like all great inventors, she decided to try and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/the-art-of-problem-solving-4-creative-strategies-to-tackle-your-biggest-obstacles/">solve the problem</a> herself. “I started making it in my living room,” McCormick says. “I hit up every friend from high school and college who became a dentist or dental hygienist and I was like, ‘What do you think of these ingredients and this formula?’ ”



She also took online chemistry classes and purchased a machine that allowed her to test out each new iteration in the form of a tablet. The result was a creation the size of a small breath mint that users place in their mouths and chomp down (hence the name Bite) and then brush with a wet toothbrush. The tablets foam up in your mouth, and your teeth still end up feeling just as fresh as with regular toothpaste. And best of all to McCormick, the chemicals used are environmentally friendly and never tested on animals.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Explosive Success</h2>



McCormick wasn’t trying to become a toothpaste tycoon, she just wanted to make a product that people like her would use. In fact, she kept her full-time job in the early days. In 2018, zero-waste bloggers began talking about Bite online, and the product gained momentum. Soon Women’s Health asked her to make a video about the product. Overnight her business exploded, and she and her boyfriend, co-founder Asher Hunt, quit their jobs to go all in on Bite.



“In the first year I made about $6,000. Within two weeks of the video going viral we made $200,000,” McCormick says. “It was like, we need to make this a real company!”



Now Bite is more than just a toothpaste company, offering an entire suite of oral care products, including mouthwash bits, floss, bamboo toothbrushes and whitening gel. The company also recently announced the addition of a deodorant. Big competitors have started to roll out similar products, which McCormick greets with an open mind. It might be challenging for her business, but it’s great for her zero-waste mission.



“I think that we are continuing to show them that this is a market that is viable, and this is something that is important to people,” McCormick says. “Everybody should be trying to fight the plastic pollution problem.”



This article originally appeared in the January/February 2022 Issue of SUCCESS magazine. Photos courtesy of Bite Toothpaste

The entrepreneur behind Bite toothpaste was propelled by a mission of conservation.

The entrepreneur behind Bite toothpaste was propelled by a mission of conservation. | SUCCESS

The Founder of Bite Toothpaste Is on a Zero-Waste Mission, But She Never Intended to Disrupt the Oral Care Industry

Bite Toothpaste Founder's Zero-Waste Mission without Disruption

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Shante Saulsberry was born into a world of abuse, drug addiction and poverty. She wants to help others break these cycles.&nbsp;



But she doesn’t have millions of dollars or tons of experience working in the nonprofit sector. So how in the world is she starting a women’s shelter? She’s got two things that money can’t buy: her inspiring story, which helps her connect to people, and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/overnight-success-is-a-myth-here-are-4-ways-to-persist/">unrelenting persistence</a> that drives her to see everything through to the end.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-born-in-abuse">Born in Abuse</h2>



As children, Shante and her sister were placed in the California foster care system because of their mother’s drug abuse. Eventually their aunt and uncle adopted the girls when Shante was 10. Even though this finally gave them a stable home, different forms of abuse persisted.



When she was 17, she was kicked out of the house because she had a boyfriend her aunt didn’t like. She moved in with him, only to experience domestic violence. Her aunt still wouldn’t let her come back to the house. Even though the boyfriend treated her horribly, she felt that at least someone was looking out for her.



“I felt that protection because I’d never had it,” Shante says. “That is how a lot of women end up staying in their situations, because they feel protected.”



She and her boyfriend soon had a son, Taivon, but the abuse continued after his birth, until Shante left her abuser when she was 19.



A few years later, she married another man who finally provided her with stability and protection unlike anything she’d ever experienced in her life. They had a daughter together and were married for 14 years, but eventually divorced after years of infidelity on his part.



All the while, despite her circumstances, Shante stayed focused on her education and work. She <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/5-ways-to-pursue-the-job-you-want/">built a career</a> in the legal profession, first as a stenographer and then as a paralegal. Through this field she connected with Sheri, a federal officer, who started out as a friend and confidant but is now Shante’s wife.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-chance-encounter">A Chance Encounter</h2>



Soon after moving from Miami to Phoenix in 2019, Shante encountered a homeless woman named Janice. She bought her breakfast and chatted with her for a while. She learned about her challenges and her abusive past. The two quickly <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-find-yourself-by-connecting-with-others/">connected through shared experiences</a>, but one thing Janice told her stuck out.



“The people here in Arizona, they don’t help,” Janice said. Shante reached out to shelters on her behalf and received no responses.



Shante decided that she was going to change this. She was going to start her own women’s shelter which would provide dignity and protection for women in the same situation as Janice. And she had the <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/this-is-the-key-to-a-successful-partnership-and-a-successful-life/">perfect partner</a> for this venture in Sheri. Sheri’s years of experience as an officer could help her create an environment of safety and protection for women like Janice.



But there were a few problems: Shante was in the midst of recovering from devastating blood clots that nearly killed her, plus she had no experience running a shelter or the money to start one. But Shante has never let challenges hold her back.&nbsp;



“What started as one simple gesture has turned into one big mission,” Shante says.&nbsp;



Now she and Sheri are in the midst of raising $7 million to build Janice’s Women’s Center in the Phoenix area. She named it after Janice, who Shante hasn’t been able to contact since November 2020. The plan is to build 52 tiny homes out of shipping containers to provide individual shelters for each family. The goal is to break ground in 2022.



In addition to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/the-complete-guide-to-money-how-to-create-wealth/">raising money</a> via traditional methods, they’ve also opened a for-profit boutique called Janice Vaincre Boutique to raise money via the sale of clothes and other items. Vaincre is French for “to overcome.” Although the challenges ahead are steep, Shante has already overcome much bigger things than raising a few million dollars.



Her son Taivon is now a student at Arizona State University, with plans on becoming a doctor. He has full confidence that his mom can pull this off.



“I have never seen my mom quit on anything,” he says. “Even if she’s not too sure, she still somehow pulls through.” 



This article originally appeared in the November/December 2021 Issue of SUCCESS magazine. Photos Courtesy of Janice’s Women’s Center

Past pain is giving rise to a women’s shelter in Arizona.

Past pain is giving rise to a women’s shelter in Arizona. | SUCCESS

Local Women's Shelters Wouldn't Respond, So These Two Friends Decided to Build Their Own

Local Women&#8217;s Shelters Wouldn&#8217;t Respond, So This Couple Decided to Build Their Own

Building Our Own: Couple Creates Women's Shelter Solution

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5 Situations Where You Should Celebrate Saying and Hearing “No” As an Entrepreneur

My wife and I are both <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/the-side-hustle-handbook/">side hustlers</a>. I do this, freelance writing, and she runs a decorated cookie business on the side when she’s not taking care of our son. Both of our businesses live and die by clients saying “yes” to doing business with us.



But we recently found ourselves in uncharted territory around the same time and it made us reconsider the ways we think about our businesses. I had an idea for a story that I thought would be cool, but I knew the only publication interested in it might not pay well. However, I still thought it might be worth the time and effort. So I reached out to an editor who thought my idea was interesting but asked me to do a significant amount more research before they might accept my pitch. Knowing that this extra work would only be worth it if the payment on the backend was good enough, I asked how much they pay for stories. The editor never responded. At first, I was annoyed. Soon, I realized I should be thankful I was ghosted. In the past, I would have likely done the extra research, sent in a better pitch, been excited about this story, scheduled my time to do it, and then found out it would never be <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/time-is-your-most-valuable-resource-dont-waste-it/">worth my time</a>.&nbsp;



In the same few days, someone submitted a complicated and large cookie order to my wife’s business. This would have taken many, many hours of my wife’s free time. But if the client was willing to pay what her time was worth, it could be a great thing and she wouldn’t have to take any more orders for the rest of the month. My wife quoted the potential customer with a price that reflected the amount of work the order would require (in fact, I think she still asked for too little) and the client declined, saying it was out of her budget. Again, when my wife first started her business, missing out on a huge order like that might have felt like a major disappointment. This time she was relieved. She knew that there was no way this order would have been worth the effort.



It was then that I realized how important it is to celebrate the times we hear “no” as much as the times we hear “yes.” Hearing no from a client or customer isn’t the ideal situation most of the time, but it can net positive sometimes. Here are some times that “no” is even better than “yes.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-when-the-work-isn-t-worth-the-time">When the work isn’t worth the time</h2>



This is the most important “no” in your work life. As you grow in your business, whether it’s your main gig or your side hustle, you will come to a point where certain clients or customers just aren’t paying enough anymore. A key way to figure out whether you’re <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/side-hustle-smarts-5-metrics-to-measure-success/">making enough from a client</a> is to determine how much you’d like to make per hour and calculate whether that client’s work meets the threshold.&nbsp;



When you first <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-start-a-business-in-a-day/">start a business</a>, you are ecstatic to have any customer. A “no” can be devastating. But even as you grow and your prices increase with your offerings and/or skill, it’s hard to turn down a potential client. Embrace your growth and celebrate the fact that you’ve become so successful that you no longer need to cater to low-paying clients.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-when-the-work-isn-t-your-specialty">When the work isn’t your specialty</h2>



Depending on your line of work, this can come up often. For me, I often write for publications that allow me to interview people, write feature stories or write articles like this one. It’s what I’m good at. But as a writer, I’m often trying to figure out other ways I can make money from my skill.&nbsp;



There are myriad ways that writers can make money, such as technical writing. In the past I’ve tried to get jobs as a technical writer, thinking it’s something I could probably teach myself. Now that I know more about what that job requires, I can celebrate the fact that no one ever entrusted me to try it. I would be terrible at it. The same thing can happen in many industries. You might think a certain job is right for your skill set and when you get turned down, you might be upset… until you figure out that you were completely unqualified for it.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-when-the-client-is-difficult">When the client is difficult</h2>



If a client is difficult and takes up more time and mental energy than anything else you do, you should probably be the one saying “no” to them. But for some people, being the one to do the breaking up just isn’t in their nature. Instead, they try to nurse the relationship along, thinking that the money the client is paying them is worth all the trouble they have to deal with. This continues until one day, the difficult client breaks up with you. You might think, The nerve! They were the difficult ones!



Look, nobody wants to be turned down, even if it’s for the best. Take a second and think about how much better your life will be without this difficult client. You’ll be able to focus more on your other clients, you’ll have time to go out and find a new client and your mental state will significantly improve.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-when-you-have-higher-priority-work">When you have higher-priority work</h2>



The importance of finding new clients and customers is clear, but sometimes you need to focus on your current roster. You might have nailed the sales pitch to a new and exciting customer, but your longtime customers are feeling a little neglected. Maybe that potential customer saying “no” is the sign you needed to refocus your time on your current customers. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/customer-love-how-to-take-your-business-from-good-to-great/">Retaining satisfied customers</a> remains the top business priority.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-when-you-need-time-off">When you need time off</h2>



High-priority work isn’t always business related. Maybe the high priority work is spending more time with your family, or your mental and physical health, or doing a project around the house.



My wife has people nearly knocking down the door with cookie orders. She has a strict per-week cookie limit because she used to stay up until 3 or 4 a.m. filling orders. I’m rarely overworked in this way. It has been a process for her to accept that a “no” on an order can be a good thing. Instead of using up all of her free time for a week or more, she could spend time doing things that give her fulfillment and rest. It’s a lesson she has learned through many difficult experiences.&nbsp;



Celebrating “nos” can also apply to situations in our lives, from the ending of bad relationships to rejections from jobs we apply for that would have taken <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/too-busy-for-relationships/">time away from our families</a>. It’s all about having the proper perspective.&nbsp;



Photo by&nbsp;Nattakorn_Maneerat/Shutterstock

Not every gig is worth your time. | SUCCESS

5 Situations Where You Should Celebrate Saying and Hearing "No” As a Freelancer

5 Situations Where You Should Celebrate Saying and Hearing &#8216;No&#8217; As a Freelancer

Saying 'No' as a Freelancer: 5 Celebratory Situations

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5 Situations Where You Should Celebrate Saying and Hearing “No” As a Freelancer

Shelly Bell’s eternal optimism allows her to see everything as a problem that she can solve, not just in business, but in the community and the world as a whole.



It’s what sets her apart from many would-be entrepreneurs who flit from one business idea to the next without committing. Bell, the founder and CEO of <a href="https://www.blackgirlventures.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Black Girl Ventures</a>, solves problems and achieves her goals through ingenuity, dedication and relentless positive energy.



<h1 id="h-watch-me">Watch Me</h1>



Bell’s problem-solving comes from her wide range of experiences. After earning a degree in computer science, she worked in industries as wide-ranging as education, patent and trade, workforce development, and vacuum cleaner sales. But her entrepreneurial journey began in an incredibly unconventional way. Many entrepreneurs can tell a story about starting their business in their own living room. Bell’s story is the same, except in her living room was a teepee, and inside the teepee was a total stranger.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img src="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/s.com_speaking3-1024x682.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-61352" width="512" height="341"/></figure></div>



Her first foray into business was renting out a teepee in her living room on Airbnb. When she came up with the idea, the response was less than enthusiastic.



“Everybody was like, ‘Nobody’s going to sleep in your living room in a teepee,’ ” Bell recalls. “And I told them, ‘Yes they will, watch.’ ”



It was only after she hosted her first guest that she realized that the hospitality industry wasn’t for her.



“I quickly found out that I didn’t want people sleeping in my living room in a teepee,” Bell says with a laugh. As a true optimist, Bell didn’t take this as a setback. Instead she started to look for her next venture. It came in the form of a T-shirt line which got off on the completely wrong foot but led to her first major success.



“It sucked and nobody bought it. It fell flat,” Bell says. “I was on the phone with the printer and I said, ‘You know what, it’s made by a Black woman; I should put that on the shirt.’ ”



She designed a “Made by a Black Woman” logo and put it on her tees, and suddenly people were interested. Her mom invested her retirement money in the company, and Bell used her tax refunds to buy her own printers. She and her mom hustled at events all over selling the clothing items and eventually made it into Essence magazine’s Holiday Gift Guide for a line of infant bodysuits. Orders from Google and Amazon quickly followed. Her relentless optimism and entrepreneurship had finally paid off.



She would have been happy sticking with this business, she thought. But for Bell, there’s always another adventure and another problem to solve.



<h1 id="h-world-changer">World-Changer</h1>



This time it wasn’t a new entrepreneurial adventure that caught her eye, it was a news headline with a startling fact: Black women start businesses at six times the national average, yet they receive less than 1% of venture capital.



“My thought was: Someone should do something about that. I could do something about that,” she says.



Black Girl Ventures was born. The first event was a gathering of 30 women in a house in Washington, D.C. Four people pitched their businesses and the women in the audience voted on a winner who would receive their joint investment funds to start their company.



From there, the endeavor took off. A partnership with Google took Black Girl Ventures to a new level.&nbsp;It now works like Kickstarter meets Shark Tank. Audience members vote on businesses with their dollars. Black Girl Ventures also offers a fellowship teaching leadership development to entrepreneurs.



Whether her goal is to rent out a teepee in her living room or to change the circumstances for her fellow woman, Bell’s business superpower is commitment: She does what she sets out to do. That’s good, because she does not think small about her future as an entrepreneur, or the future of Black Girl Ventures.



“I want to change the world,” she says. “I am invigorated by that idea. I want every person to think, I have something that can change the world. Because you absolutely can.” 



This article originally appeared in the September/October 2021 issue of SUCCESS magazine. Photo courtesy of Shelly Bell and Black Girl Ventures

She would have been happy sticking with this business, she thought. But for Bell, there’s always another adventure and another problem to solve.

She would have been happy sticking with this business, she thought. But for Bell, there’s always another adventure and another problem to solve. | SUCCESS

The Founder of Black Girl Ventures Gets Things Done

The Founder of Black Girl Ventures Gets Things Done | SUCCESS

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2 Important Rules for Attracting Wealthy Clients

Go with me here: You’re a salesperson. You could be selling anything: real estate, cars, vacuum cleaners, watches, timeshares, ideas, projects, anything. For our purposes let’s say it’s watches. You’ve had some moderate success in your career, some wins you’re proud of, and some tough sales that you got over the finish line.&nbsp;



But when you write down your five or 10-year plans, your real goal is to make major deals. You don’t want to spend the rest of your career convincing someone to spend money they may not have to buy a product they may not need. No, you want to work with whales—the big clients, the big spenders, people who definitely have the money and even more definitely don’t need what they’re buying. Because these people already have everything they need and more. You don’t want clients who just read SUCCESS, you want clients who are on the cover. 



<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/success-25-definitive-voices-for-powering-your-personal-growth/">Daymond John</a> isn’t just going to call you one day and ask you to sell him a new watch… right? 



Probably not. But just imagine he did. He wants to meet somewhere next week to discuss a new watch purchase. He says, “I’ve heard you’re the best damn watch salesperson in the world.”



Thoughts race through your head, Did he call the wrong number? Who told him I’m the best salesperson in the world? Why me?&nbsp;



You take a deep breath and say, “Yep, that’s me. I’ll see you next week.” You hang up and immediately start panicking.&nbsp;



Now what?



You’ve got a week to prepare for the biggest sale of your life. You look down at your department store slacks and your wrinkled shirt and your $100 watch. You think about John in his custom suits, silk pocket squares, and $25,000 watches.&nbsp;



There’s a major difference between the two of you. He would never want to buy a fancy watch from you, even though you’ve got experience and you know your stuff better than anyone. You don’t look like wealth. Daymond John looks like hundreds of millions of dollars.&nbsp;



So do you immediately go and max out your credit card on a new Armani suit? Order five different fake Rolexes to figure out which one looks the most realistic? Do you call every dentist in town to get a laser whitening appointment?&nbsp;



These are all natural things to think about, of course, but they are completely wrong.



<h3 id="h-time-over-money">Time Over Money</h3>



Ryan Serhant, the host of <a href="https://www.bravotv.com/million-dollar-listing-new-york" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Million Dollar Listing New York</a> on Bravo and owner of <a href="https://www.serhant.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SERHANT</a>, his own real estate firm, has made a career of selling ridiculously expensive properties to ridiculously rich people. 



His latest book, <a href="https://amzn.to/3eWaD4r" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Big Money Energy</a>, addresses this exact topic. You might not get a random call from Daymond John asking you to sell him a watch, but Serhant actually lived a very similar situation that resulted in his first major deal. He was a mid-level real estate broker who got a call one day from a wealthy Chinese woman who wanted him to sell her a $2 million apartment in New York City. Many of the same thoughts coursed through Serhant’s head as he prepared for the client’s arrival. Long story short, he nailed the sale and it jumpstarted his real estate career. But it wasn’t the new clothes he bought that impressed his client; in fact the client was so jet-lagged that she slept most of the time in between property viewings. It was the knowledge he possessed that made the best use of her short time in America.



“The greatest asset wealthy people have is not their money, it’s their time,” Serhant says. “If you save them time, they will appreciate you far more than if you save them money.”



Besides upgrading his look, he’d spent all of his time researching the neighborhoods and buildings the client might be interested in. That was far more valuable than any new suit or nice haircut.



You’re never going to impress Daymond John with your clothes. He’s spent more money on his clothes than you’ve ever spent on anything in your life. Don’t go into credit card debt trying to impress a guy who can’t be impressed. Spend that time researching everything you could ever want to know about luxury watches. Which brands are on the rise? Which hold their value the most? What’s rare or unique that could make John stand out the next time he’s on a yacht with Robert Herjavec? Price isn’t going to be an object. What John wants is someone who can tell him everything he needs to know succinctly and with authority. He wants someone who can answer his questions without pulling out their phone and Googling the answer.



“A lot of people think you need to pretend to be wealthy to assimilate with the wealthy. The opposite is true. The wealthy are wealthy and they know they are,” Serhant says. “You don’t need to be flying private jets or buying Rolexes to appear to be successful, because it won’t be authentic.”&nbsp;



Authenticity is key when it comes to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-sell-against-competition/">selling to the rich</a>. Whales are often surrounded all day by people pretending to be wealthy, pretending to be smart, and, sometimes, pretending to be their friend. When someone is real, it stands out and makes an impression.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img src="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/RyanSerhant.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-60891" width="300" height="300"/></figure></div>



<h3 id="h-be-who-you-want-to-be">Be Who You Want to Be</h3>



We would be remiss not to mention that, you should absolutely be presentable. Wear nice clothes that make you <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/10-powerful-ways-to-stand-up-for-yourself-in-any-situation/">feel more confident</a> and sure of yourself. 



Serhant’s book emphasizes his ability to project a future, more successful version of himself onto the current version to achieve his goals. Part of that is the clothes he chooses to wear—his “confidence costume.” When he was an up-and-coming salesman, he tried to imagine what the future, rich, version of himself might be like. He called this eventual persona Big Ryan.&nbsp;



“I had a fake Rolex and it made me feel good. But it made my wrist turn green,” Serhant says. “It was like my vision board for my wrist. I knew one day I would sell enough where I could afford to buy the real thing. Having this fake ridiculous watch on my wrist, that I would hide most of the time because I knew it looked fake, made me feel like it was possible. But I didn’t show it to rich people, that would have been a disaster.”



Projecting this Big Money Energy and envisioning the future version of yourself is not the well-worn “fake it ’til you make it” idea. Instead it’s about making yourself into the person you want to be each day.&nbsp;



“Fake it ’til you make it is Bull---- Money Energy,” Serhant says. “It’s faking a personality that you may or may not have one day. For me, Big Money Energy is about projecting that image of the future you and being that person today.”



Remember, when <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/what-not-to-do-when-pitching-daymond-john/">Daymond John gives you that call</a>, he’s not calling because he wants to see how nice your clothes are, or so you can fake your own wealth in front of him. He’s calling because you know your stuff, you won’t waste his time, and you’re going to sell him the best watch in existence.



Why you? Because you’re the best damn watch salesperson in the world. 



This article originally appeared in the July/August 2021 issue of SUCCESS magazine. Feature image by Jacob Lund/Shutterstock

Here’s what it takes to become a trusted seller to the wealthiest people.

Here’s what it takes to become a trusted seller to the wealthiest people. | SUCCESS

2 Important Rules for Attracting Wealthy Clients | SUCCESS

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During the course of doing this story, I’ve found that there are two types of reactions when people first hear about Pavlok.



Some people are inspired, excited, and ready to try it. Others are repulsed by what they consider a torture device. If you’ve never heard of Pavlok, here goes: It’s a wearable wristband that delivers not-quite-as-mild-as-I-assumed jolts of electricity when you indulge a bad habit. You might be shocked to hear that Pavlok can shock you, for example, if you curse. Or bite your nails. Or procrastinate even when you know you shouldn’t. If it’s a habit you don’t like about yourself, all you’ve got to do is press a button and let Pavlok’s volts—up to 340 of them—trigger immediate regret.



Yes, really.



If you’re in the inspired-excited-ready group, you might also come away impressed by Pavlok’s creator, Maneesh Sethi. You’ll hear his stories of using “aversion therapy” to improve his own life and the lives of thousands of others, and you’ll want to join that group. You’ll even see his public embarrassment on Shark Tank as a story of a person going through a difficult time and <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/you-are-stronger-than-you-think/">coming out the other side stronger</a>.



The torture device camp may see Maneesh Sethi as misguided, arrogant or weirdly sadistic. You might see him as the Shark Tank hosts saw him. Mark Cuban called him a “con man.” Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary went with “---hole.” Maybe you’ll agree.



This is a story about a person, a problem, and a product. If all goes according to Sethi’s plans, the product will take care of the problem and make him famous for all the right reasons.



<h2 id="h-the-person">The Person</h2>



Sethi is a Tim Ferriss disciple through-and-through. The Stanford student didn’t just read <a href="https://amzn.to/2PBiuub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The 4-Hour Workweek</a> and change the way he organized his email inbox; he read it and three days later booked a ticket to Buenos Aires. He traveled the globe working only four hours a week from his laptop for many years. You can still see a video on YouTube from his life as a digital nomad.



The video is equal parts insufferable and inspiring. A 22-year-old Sethi explains how he lives the lifestyle he wants with just a few pairs of pants, three shirts (two of which are the same “because I look damn good in them”), and a Baby Taylor guitar (“mostly for picking up girls”). In the course of his travels his eyes were opened to the power of technology, which caused him to create a nonprofit to provide laptops and internet access to children in a poor village in India.



After moving back to the U.S., he started a blog called Hack the System, for which he experimented with self-improvement techniques, just like Ferriss. He was part of the marketing team for Ferriss’ <a href="https://amzn.to/3dhpDYF" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Four Hour Chef</a> book. But even with a dedication to hacking the body’s programming and becoming the most productive person he could be, he still had serious issues with procrastination and focus.



<h2 id="h-the-problem">The Problem</h2>



Sethi says he dealt with ADHD his whole life, which would cost him valuable time as he <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-train-your-brain-to-focus/">struggled to concentrate</a> on things that mattered. Despite studying under habit expert BJ Fogg at Stanford and having a blog that focused on productivity hacks, he lacked that one specific piece of motivation that could get him to be more productive. So for his blog, he decided to try out an experiment to get himself more focused. It’s a window into Sethi’s mindset.



“I hired a girl, and her job was to follow me around,” he says. “Whenever I wasted time, she would slap me in the face. It was pretty funny, but what was really interesting was that it really made me more productive. I wrote more content in four days than I typically would write in four months.”



The blog post went viral and got the wheels turning in his mind. He and his friend then got the idea to take a shock collar, exactly the kind a desperate dog owner might inflict on a wayward pooch, and hook it up to a computer to zap someone whenever they got on Facebook. The idea may have seemed silly at first, but Sethi says it was a lightbulb moment for him.



“There’s a million wearables that track what you do, but this one is actually changing what you do,” Sethi remembers thinking. “Maybe there’s something more than a funny blog post; maybe this is something that really helps people.”



<h2 id="h-the-product">The Product </h2>



Pavlok’s main feature is the “snap” functionality. (That’s what they call the electrical impulses delivered after a negative habit: snaps, not to be confused with zaps.) It’s dependent on you to call your own foul when you commit a bad habit. If you press the button, it gives you a shock. This snap is designed to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-train-your-brain-for-positive-thinking/">train your brain</a> to associate bad habits with physical discomfort.



The idea is all about aversion therapy. Instead of triggering the reward center of your brain when you light up that cigarette, Pavlok triggers the pain center of your brain. Sethi is a big believer in aversion therapy, but he says the most important part of Pavlok isn’t the snap itself; it’s knowing that there is a consequence for your actions.



“It’s not the threat of the zap that motivates me; it’s the accountability,” Sethi says. That accountability comes in the form of the community on the Pavlok app where users can discuss their journeys with habit breaking and good-habit forming. Sethi’s goals for Pavlok go well beyond your wrist, he sees it as a community of people working together to improve their lives.



But aversion therapy is not without its critics. Stanford professor and habit expert Russell Poldrack, author of the upcoming book Hard to Break: Why Our Brains Make Habits Stick, says that aversion therapy isn’t a universal solution.



“While there are a number of papers claiming that aversion therapies work, meta-analyses of all the studies out there that I’ve seen are not particularly positive,” Poldrack says. “However, it may well be that some people respond better to that kind of therapy than others.”



Essentially, it depends on the type of person you are. Sethi obviously responds to this kind of negative feedback, but others—like me, it turns out—don’t react as positively. You could say Sethi is a glutton for punishment. But even he didn’t enjoy his experience on Shark Tank.



<h2 id="h-the-person-1">The Person</h2>



Maneesh Sethi—whose brother is author and personal finance guru Ramit Sethi—went on the show, like every other entrepreneur, hoping his pitch would trigger a bidding war between the sharks. That’s not what happened. Robert Herjavec was interested, but was quickly convinced by Cuban’s insistence about Maneesh Sethi’s “nonsense” research.



Finally, O’Leary was the only shark left. (The <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/success-25-definitive-voices-for-powering-your-personal-growth/">March/April 2021 cover figure</a>, Daymond John, was not allowed by producers to be on Sethi’s episode because the two previously knew one another.)



Unbeknownst to O’Leary, Sethi had decided before he appeared on the show that he wouldn’t accept a deal with him. He told me it was because of previous statement O’Leary had made that rubbed Sethi the wrong way. Though O’Leary offered Sethi a deal, he turned it down with a shocking statement: “I would take an offer from anybody besides Mr. Wonderful.”



O’Leary was enraged and told Sethi to “get the ---- out.” It was one of the most memorable and stunning Shark Tank episodes of all time. Sethi walked away empty-handed and into infamy.



Within a day of the episode airing, he says they had 39 fake 1-star reviews on Amazon. His dream had become a nightmare. Pavlok was no longer a cool startup wearable company; it was the company that got ripped apart on Shark Tank. Most entrepreneurs might have looked to get as far away from this brand as possible.



That was five years ago. Pavlok has since sold over 100,000 units. The Pavlok 3 and Shock Clock 2, much-improved versions of the original devices, were released in late 2020. A recent crowdfunding campaign raised more than $250,000 and was backed by north of 2,000 people. The brand is stronger than ever.



Sethi and the Pavlok team came out of the Shark Tank more focused on making the best possible products to tackle bad habits. Might it be fair to say, then, that this episode was a very public example of the potential power of aversion therapy?



<h2 id="h-the-problem-1">The Problem</h2>



<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/13-daily-habits-of-highly-successful-people/">Habits are actually a good thing</a>. The fact that your brain can set certain regular activities on autopilot is vital to daily life.



“Without habits, we’d be screwed,” Poldrack says. “Habits are our brain’s way of figuring out what’s constant in the world and not making us think about that.”



But it’s when that part of the brain goes sideways, for very serious reasons like drug addiction or less explainable ones like teeth grinding, that problems arise. It can be extremely difficult to break those habits, even ones that don’t involve chemical dependencies. Every human being has tried to stop bad habits and start good ones, to varying levels of success.



Some people are incredibly effective at this. But Poldrack says that despite years of study, it’s unknown what exactly makes one person able to stop bad habits more easily than others. It’s certainly not the widely accepted “willpower” reasoning.



“If you look at the willpower of someone who is trying to get drugs for example, they are very strong-willed when they are doing that. It’s not as if they don’t have power of will,” Poldrack says.



He went on to explain that in a drug-addicted person, the brain’s habit system is being hijacked by the drugs, which makes that desire stronger than their willingness to quit.



“Obviously some people are able to do it,”Poldrack says. “But I haven’t seen compelling scientific research that tells us why exactly one person is able to quit and one person isn’t.”



This humanity-wide problem is one of the reasons that Sethi’s company has survived despite his Shark Tank experience. Bad habits are everywhere. Even the most disciplined person you know could tick off a list of things they’d like to stop doing.



So, without specific scientific research that explains why certain people can stop bad habits more effectively than others, the market for products and courses and methods to stop these habits remains strong. Some people are willing to try anything to stop, even inflicting physical pain on themselves.



<h2 id="h-the-product-1">The Product</h2>



I’ll admit, I wasn’t super excited to start using the Pavlok 3. For one, I couldn’t figure out where to start with my bad habits.



Do I use it to stop touching my face? Or what about as an alarm clock? Or to stop slouching? Oh, I know. I should use it to stop me from wasting so much time on Twitter. No, I need it to make me stop my little outbursts of anger.



I’ve got some issues.



Fortunately, the Pavlok comes with a course to take to help you identify which issues you really want to address; it involves some meditation and mindfulness exercises led by Sethi. While doing the exercises, I realized how much valuable time I was <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/20-pros-and-cons-of-social-media-use/">wasting on social media</a>. I knew that I needed to focus on this habit. So whenever I found myself opening up that extra tab for Twitter or grabbing my phone for a peek at Instagram, I pressed the button on the Pavlok 3.



Don’t let the playful word snap distract you from the fact that this thing is designed to give you an electric shock. I know you are wondering, so here goes: It freaking hurts.



The pain initially happens in your wrist but immediately can be felt in your brain—specifically for me, in the front part of my brain. Sometimes it would even make me a little hot for a brief second. And then after that brief second of pain, it all goes away. And it makes you want to stop doing whatever you just did to cause that pain. In short: it works exactly the way it was intended.



<h2 id="h-the-point">The Point</h2>



The truth of the matter is, I’m not the target audience for this device. I didn’t have a burning desire to stop doing one of those annoying habits, even if I know deep down that it would be better for me. You can’t passively rewire your brain; it requires significant, dedicated effort. If you’re reading this story and are ready to order a Pavlok, it’s because you are thinking of one specific habit that you have tried to stop for years. You’ve reached the end of your rope and are ready to step up to using this device.



While I can’t brag about serious <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/100-simple-secrets-of-productive-people/">leaps in productivity</a> (a bout with COVID during this trial period didn’t help), I can say the Pavlok made me much more aware of myself. It got me out of autopilot and showed me ways I was letting behaviors control my life. Sethi says this awareness is one of the most important lessons to learn from Pavlok, even if the shock part isn’t your cup of tea. Poldrack, though he has never used the product, agrees that this is an important benefit.



“An important part of change is just becoming aware of the habit,” Poldrack says.



When you’re aware of your bad habit, there are of course other routes you can take to stop it than shocking yourself. I’ve installed a blocker on my computer that limits when I can access certain websites. It doesn’t inflict physical pain on me and it still gets the job done.



The truth is, I installed this tool years ago, only to forget about it until I started using the Pavlok. The awareness that I gained in reporting this story allowed me to rethink and refocus my self-improvement efforts.



We all have bad habits. The most important thing is being aware of them and figuring out the best ways to change your behaviors.



Or else.







This article originally appeared in the&nbsp;<a href="https://store.success.com/by-media/success-magazine-mar-apr-2021-daymond-john.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">March/April 2021 issue of SUCCESS magazine</a>. Photo courtesy of Pavlok

This is a story about a person, a problem, and a product. If all goes according to Sethi’s plans, the product will take care of the problem and make him famous for all the right reasons.

This is a story about a person, a problem, and a product. If all goes according to Sethi’s plans, the product will take care of the problem and make him famous for all the right reasons. | SUCCESS

Could This Wearable Device Cure Your Bad Habits?

Could This Wearable Device Cure Your Bad Habits? | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Pavlok.jpg

Future of Work

Future of Work Archives

Future of Work | SUCCESS | What Achievers Read

During my writing career, I’ve interviewed hundreds of people. While my memory isn’t the best, I can definitively say that this is the first time that I’ve run over an interview subject with a powerboat.



Not to victim-blame, but she knew I had only just learned how to drive the thing a few minutes earlier, and yet she was just standing there in shoulder-deep water right behind my boat.



Luckily none of this happened in the real world, and my interviewee, Melissa Daimler, easily laughed it off. An organizational culture expert who has worked for Adobe, Twitter and WeWork, Daimler has seen everything in the workplace—collaborative cultures working toward common goals as well as toxic cultures that make people miserable.



But she’s never seen anything like the virtual office campus where we met, a creation of VirBELA, the remote collaboration software company angling to revolutionize the future of work.



<h2>The World Is Changing</h2>



In the simplest terms, VirBELA has essentially transformed the workplace into the world of a video game. Think of its virtual campus as a combination of a conference call and the game Second Life.



For the non-nerds amongst us, Second Life is an online game in which you create a digital avatar and live another life alongside thousands and thousands of others—real people living vicariously through their own avatars. VirBELA’s software is built using the Unity game engine, which was created for virtual and augmented reality games and experiences.



With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing most office workers to telecommute for months, VirBELA has grown exponentially in 2020 as businesses seek out ways to improve the draining experience of working remotely via endless Zoom video chats and conference calls.



One of the greatest challenges businesses and their leaders have faced during this strange year has been to maintain positive, connected company cultures. Think about all of the time you’ve spent through the years casually talking with coworkers you ran into in the hallway. Those “water cooler” moments are much more important for company morale than it may seem.



VirBELA’s open campus and those it creates for its client companies allow employee-users to create their own digital likenesses which can move around and interact with one another while conversing through a shared voice connection. Along with fun perks like the powerboat, the virtual headquarters come with furniture, doors that can be left open or closed, and conference rooms where users can hold meetings. Although you could teleport around these virtual environs, VirBELA Chief Strategy Officer Glenn Sanford says walking across campus is encouraged so workers can have the same psychological feel of being in a real office.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/VirBELA-office-1024x546.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52850"/></figure>



“In a campus setting, I could be hanging out at my desk in my office and people could randomly come up to me and ask me questions,” Sanford says. “It creates lots of opportunities for surreptitious, meaningful collisions to take place on campus. That’s the big, big selling point of VirBELA, because it allows us to have those water cooler conversations that are hard to have using other meeting technologies.”



In addition to his role with VirBELA, Sanford is the founder and CEO of eXp Realty, which acquired VirBELA in 2018 after using it for several years. The fastest growing real estate brokerage firm in North America, eXp boasts a workforce that is fully remote, including its nearly 40,000 agents across the U.S., Canada and Australia. The value of eXp stock (symbol: EXPI) had more than quadrupled year-over-year as of press time.



As the pandemic has driven more companies to remote operation, many have scrambled to find the best platforms for their employees. VirBELA had about 20 full-time employees at the beginning of 2020, but expanded to more than 100 by the end of the summer as the company saw a 260 percent increase in revenue in the second quarter of the year compared to Q1, seeing its new user base jump sixfold.



A growing number of conferences and events, moved online by the pandemic, have been held in a VirBELA universe. The company’s clients include a diverse array of organizations, from huge multinational corporations like the computer manufacturer HTC, to universities such as Stanford and Arizona State looking to the platform for virtual learning, as well as small businesses made up of less than 10 people. Users can choose different packages, from a small office to customizable islands complete with soccer fields and concert venues.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/VirBELA-soccer-2-1024x529.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52851"/></figure>



<h2>Creating Real Culture, Virtually</h2>



Daimler, a consultant for VirBELA, was a relatively new user when we spoke, but she’s on board with the company’s mission because she recognizes it as a way for organizations to maintain their cultures from a distance.



“This crisis has amplified a lot of the practices that we should have been doing anyway in the office,” Daimler says. “I think people are responding either in ways that are strengthening their culture or not.”



Following my tour of the island and sincerest apologies for the powerboat incident, our avatars sat at a table near the center of campus. As she spoke, someone walked directly into our table and stood between us for a few seconds, clearly trying to get a handle on the controls. In real life this would have been incredibly rude and odd. In the virtual world it made Daimler and I laugh out loud.



It’s strange to say, even though I never saw Daimler’s real face, I felt we had formed a bit of a friendship by the end of the interview through these misadventures. Whereas a video conference call often makes people self-conscious, this avatar-based world can have the opposite effect.



That’s a big appeal for businesses that are seeking ways to keep their employees at ease and productive while working remotely. A comfortable, less self-conscious worker is one who is free to use his or her creativity. That’s why Daimler says a platform like VirBELA is so vital in disconnected times, especially for extroverted positions like sales.



“Culture is dead if you think of culture as things that happen in the office,” Dailmer says. “But I define culture as what happens between people.”



While Sanford is quick to point out the millions of dollars a company could save by not renting physical office space, Peter Hirst focuses on the experiential side when explaining the benefits to executives. The Senior Associate Dean of Executive Education at MIT’s Sloan School of Business, Hirst has studied and worked with platforms like VirBELA for years.



“I just say ‘You’ve got to try it.’ It’s such an experience that, as much as I can try to provide you with the benefits or explain it, you won’t get it until you try it,” Hirst says. “Even if you’re not sure about it for yourself or your own work, it’s worth keeping in mind that this is one of the ways that the current and coming generations are actually interacting with each other. Yes it sounds a little bit like computer gaming, but in reality, that is a mode of interaction that an increasing number of people are comfortable with.”



<h2>Fun, but Does It Work?</h2>



I found my visit to the VirBELA open campus to be extremely fun. From customizing my avatar, to driving the powerboat, to racing strangers on the soccer field and just walking around exploring new places, I was having a great time. But that’s not my workplace, so I was still a little bit unsure how the people who visit it every day feel.



I could see how it would be really convenient to have a large company meeting in one of the auditoriums, with the ability to put all the attendees in a seat, mute their microphones while the speaker talked, and give more of a feeling of togetherness than a huge conference call. And I could really understand the benefits of meeting together without having to make yourself look presentable in the harsh light of the computer screen for a video call.



But I still wondered about the benefits for a business, so I had to see exactly how a real-life company used it. For that, I took a tour of eXp World with a spokesperson for eXp in the company’s communications and marketing department. She showed me how eXp’s agents use the platform to get tech support and for meetings. We even teleported from the Texas offices to the Canadian offices, which is where I finally got a full understanding of the importance of a platform like VirBELA.



As we stood in the Canadian office, with doors that led to the branches dedicated to each province of Canada, a woman named Juliette entered. She greeted my tour guide warmly and they had a nice conversation before Juliette invited us to walk through the Quebec door “if you want to enjoy some French.” After Juliette went to her office, I asked my guide if they were friends in real life or just eXp World.



It turns out they have interacted quite a bit on the virtual campus, but have only met once in person at an event.



When they finally met in person, my guide said, it was like seeing an old friend.&nbsp;



 This article originally appeared in the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://store.success.com/by-media/success-magazine-nov-dec-2020-payal-kadakia.html" target="_blank">November/December 2020 issue of SUCCESS magazine</a>. Photo by GaudiLab/Shutterstock.com

As more workers continue to telecommute due to the pandemic, VirBELA seeks to build sustainable virtual cultures.

As more workers continue to telecommute due to the pandemic, VirBELA seeks to build sustainable virtual cultures. | SUCCESS

Could You Work in a Virtual Reality?

Could You Work in a Virtual Reality? | SUCCESS

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After six months of being cooped up at home with only the occasional trip to the grandparents’ houses to break up the monotony, my wife and I and our 6-month-old son were starting to pack for a much-needed beach vacation.



We had debated and researched many different trips over the summer. We wanted to go to Colorado so we could get out of the intense heat of a Texas summer, but we decided against a 13-hour drive with a 6-month old. So we started looking closer and chose a beach vacation to Galveston. Sure, it may not be the prettiest beach in the world, but it is the closest to us in Dallas and it would give us a great excuse to go somewhere. And my in-laws were going to tag along to help us with the baby.



To say we were excited was an understatement. The COVID-19 pandemic had upended every one of our plans for <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/10-lessons-i-learned-raising-a-baby-in-a-pandemic/">the first half year of our son’s life</a>. Finally we were going to get to take him somewhere new.



Then, Hurricane Laura came through. Only a few days before we planned to get in the car and head to the coast, the storm’s trajectory changed and it was heading straight for where we’d be going. Fortunately, the hurricane turned away from the larger population centers of the Houston area and didn’t do major damage to Galveston, but we couldn’t have known that at the time. We had to make the decision to cancel our trip. At that point, it would have been easy to get annoyed, pocket the refund from our Airbnb and try again another time.



But if we’ve learned anything in 2020, it’s that you’ve got to roll with the punches. So we quickly pivoted, found a new place to go and booked a great guesthouse there. I’m so glad we didn’t just sulk over our unfortunate circumstances, because it turned into an amazing weekend getaway with family.



In this crazy year when nothing is going according to plan, flexibility has become one of the most important traits to have. Here are five reasons why an adaptable mindset is key:



<h3>1. Unmet expectations create disappointment.</h3>



One thing we’ve all learned in 2020 is that we can’t predict the future. Things have been canceled this year that we never thought could be stopped. Think back to March and April—how devastating were the cancellations of events like the March Madness basketball tournament, Easter services at your church or <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/3-life-lessons-i-learned-after-postponing-my-wedding-as-a-covid-bride/">a wedding</a>? They hurt especially bad because we had never experienced anything like that before in our lives.



Now, think about the next event coming up on your calendar—you almost expect it to be canceled or altered in some way. But it probably won’t hurt as bad as it did earlier in the year. That’s because your expectations have changed; you’ve learned to be flexible with plans, though that lesson was taught in a harsh way.



Plans change, even in non-pandemic times, so don’t put all your hopes and dreams into something that could be affected by circumstances outside of your control.&nbsp;



<h3>2. You never know what you’re missing out on.</h3>



For some people, spontaneity comes naturally; it is part of their daily life. For many others, the opposite is true. But in a year like this one, it’s a skill we could all use. Sometimes the most fun plans are impromptu ones, and how would you know if you don’t look past what “should have been.”



We ended up going to New Braunfels for that weekend instead of the beach. I’ve only been to the area a few times, so it was really fun getting to explore it. If my family had given up when our original plans got canceled, we would have missed out on a great experience. Plus, now looking back, we remember a great weekend that we had and can also look forward to our first family trip to the beach someday in the future. 



Vacations often happen this way. A lot of times, the most <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/what-happened-when-i-had-to-rely-on-the-kindness-of-strangers/">memorable vacation</a> moments are when something went wrong or you got lost, or your plans changed and you were forced to improvise. Life is like this, too. Of course, impulsive decisions aren’t always advisable and it’s smart to take time before making big decisions. But when it comes to small decisions like deciding where to eat or what to do on a beautiful Saturday with no plans, allow yourself some flexibility to try something new. I can guarantee that it will make for a more memorable day.



<h3>3. Attitude changes everything.</h3>



Things aren’t always going to go your way, but you don’t have to live life being constantly disappointed. Which you can do by recalibrating your attitude. Instead of seeing each new disappointment as another reason to get down, you can see it as an opportunity to try something different.



Sometimes altered plans won’t be quite what you had imagined—like that big wedding with friends and family that you had to cancel and change to a small wedding that you had to stream to your extended family. Instead of focusing on the negatives, which will only bring you down, look for the positives—like how you are finally married to the love of your life, and you have someone by your side to go through this crazy time with. Having a positive outlook about it (whatever “it” is) will keep you going when things get hard.



<h3>4. Everyone loves a problem solver. &nbsp;</h3>



No one in a tough situation says, “Boy, I sure wish there was one more person here complaining.” Spiraling in negativity isn’t productive or helpful (or healthy), but stepping back to look at the circumstances and your options is.  



Has complaining ever helped you solve a problem? Have you ever looked back at time spent feeling sorry for yourself and been glad you did that? Allowing yourself room to feel sad or upset is OK, but staying in that feeling isn’t beneficial. Instead of extending your pity party, it’s best to start plotting your next moves as quickly as possible. 



Being flexible means you are willing to adapt to situations and make changes to find solutions. Think about the businesses and restaurants that adapted quickly to the pandemic. They had a choice: to be resourceful and get creative, or close. Apply the same perspective to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-love-your-problems/">your problems</a>.



<h3>5. You can’t predict the future.</h3>



How you respond matters. Being upset or angry, or sad or disappointed, when something expected happens will turn a difficult situation into a major problem. Being flexible, on the other hand, will make life easier and more manageable.



It’s smart to keep tabs on things like like the economy and the weather, but you also have to remember that both of these are outside of your control. You aren’t going to affect the market one way or another, and you aren’t going to stop the rain from falling. But you can make sure your assets are protected, and that you have backup plans for your outdoor party. Then it’s time to put the worry aside. 



Think back through your life, how often has everything gone according to plan? Did you get everything that you ever wanted? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean that your life has been terrible—there’s even a chance that you’re happy things didn’t go the way you initially planned. So don’t waste time being upset about circumstances beyond your control.



Nobody has enjoyed the punches we’ve all endured during this trying year, but those who can roll with them are the ones who will thrive and be prepared for whatever new blow comes our way next.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">Read next: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/8-habits-of-people-who-thrive-in-crisis/">8 Habits of People Who Thrive in Crisis</a></blockquote>



Photo by @alexandrahraskova/Twenty20.com

In this crazy year when nothing is going according to plan, flexibility has become one of the most important traits to have.

In this crazy year when nothing is going according to plan, flexibility has become one of the most important traits to have. | SUCCESS

5 Reasons Why Flexibility Is Key

5 Reasons Why Flexibility Is Key | SUCCESS

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How Nina Vaca Has Perfected Business Resiliency

It’s a good thing that Nina Vaca’s reputation precedes her. She would have a hard time fitting all of her experiences on a résumé.



It would have to start with an awards and accolades section discussing her appointment by President Barack Obama to the Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship program in 2014, for which she traveled the globe to tell her story to future entrepreneurs. Then she could list superlatives like being named the fourth most powerful Latina in the country, or that her business, Pinnacle Group, was named the fastest growing woman-owned company in the country in both 2015 and 2018.



But then she would get to the skills and accomplishments section of the résumé and things would get really interesting. She could talk about her ability to hire and manage a staff spread across the globe, or about the major clients she’s picked up through the years, or about her public speaking abilities. 



However, a survey of her life and career makes one skill stand out above the rest: Crisis Management.



Vaca has been at the helm of Pinnacle Group, the Dallas-based workforce solutions company she founded on the floor of her apartment, for more than two decades now, and has seen her fair share of challenges.



After leading Pinnacle through several major crises and countless smaller ones, all while dealing with situations in her personal and family life, the chairwoman and CEO knows the next crisis is always around the next corner.



Whether that crisis is a global pandemic, an economy that crashes overnight, a medical emergency, or any other business or personal tragedy, she has learned that the thing that matters the most in any situation is how you respond.



“A crisis is a time where your true character shines. It’s a very important thing for a leader to not react but to respond,” Vaca says. “That means taking time to gain perspective to be thoughtful and then setting your course of action.”



<h3>Early Hardship</h3>



Vaca’s stories of overcoming challenges and leading through crises weave a thread through her life from an early age. The daughter of Ecuadorian immigrants in California, Vaca grew up learning entrepreneurship from her father and civic leadership from her mother.



She worked in her father’s travel agency as a teenager, but when he was tragically killed during a robbery at the business, Vaca and her sister had to step in and take over. This placed a massive burden on the 17-year-old Vaca, but she learned invaluable business and life lessons. It also drove her to college at Texas State University. 



She started her own IT staffing firm at the age of 25. From the company’s founding in 1996 until 2001, growth was astounding. She was a young Latina entrepreneur with a thriving company, a husband, and two children.



Then came another crisis, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The resulting economic crash hit Pinnacle hard. The situation got so bad that Vaca, at the suggestion of outside advisers, prepared a liquidation plan. But she couldn’t give up just yet.



Instead of closing up shop and moving on, Vaca stopped taking a salary and started seeking solutions. If her clients weren’t needing Pinnacle’s services, what did they want and how could she cater to these needs?



Eventually, the company was able to transform its offerings to what clients and potential clients wanted, and the business began thriving once again. 



Vaca credits her willingness to be honest and seek answers with her ability to lead in tough times.



“Transparency is imperative in a time of crisis,” she says. “I have a learner mindset instead of a knower mindset. The learner mindset is more vulnerable and accepts the fact that they may not know all the answers.” 



<h3>Roller Coaster</h3>



Making it through the economic downturn after September 11 led to impressive growth for Pinnacle Group and the accolades for Vaca and the company followed. She and Jim had two more kids. Things were looking up again, even as Pinnacle fought through the challenges of the Great Recession.



The next crisis didn’t affect the whole world or the whole country. In fact, it only affected herself.



Vaca is a dedicated triathlete who has competed in endurance races, so a health scare was the furthest thing from her radar. And then one day in 2014, her appendix burst. She was severely weakened and had to receive treatment for a month because an appendectomy wasn’t possible.



For someone used to running, swimming, biking and leading a company that is growing exponentially, being taken out like this was unthinkable. She spent the next two years getting back into triathlon shape before testing her body, and her nerves, by completing the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon in San Francisco, where participants begin the race by jumping into the ice cold, shark-filled waters of the San Francisco Bay.



Fear is clearly not part of Vaca’s mindset.



<h3>Passing It On</h3>



Vaca’s business successes are easy to see, but that is only half of what she wants to be known for. Her father was an entrepreneur, but her mother was heavily involved in civic leadership, and Vaca has taken up that mantle in a big way. She has used her story to encourage young entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams and not to let societal influences keep them from trying to accomplish big things.



Today only 2 percent of publicly traded company board members are Latina, but Latinas comprise the fastest growing sector of the entrepreneurial market.



Just as she has, Vaca hopes young Latinas use their life experiences to accomplish great things, and she wants to be the person who points them in the right direction. 



Pinnacle mentors students in the Pathways in Technology Early College High School program (P-TECH) at a local Dallas high school with a 99 percent minority population, of which 78 percent are economically disadvantaged. The students graduate with a high school diploma and an Associate Degree in a STEM field.



“We all have different ways that we advocate,” Vaca says. “The way that I have decided to advocate is by sharing my personal experiences, particularly for people who look like me.”



<h3>Learning How to Respond</h3>



When the COVID-19 crisis hit earlier this year, Vaca knew it would be different from past challenges, but that she and Pinnacle were ready.



Vaca built her company on her entrepreneurial instincts. She is adept at weighing risks and making quick decisions. But those same instincts can be detrimental in a crisis where cooler heads tend to prevail.



“I’m always about fast responses and immediate actions. But as a leader I know that I am more effective when I can take the time to be thoughtful to reflect before taking action,” Vaca says. “As new information is presented or as the situation changes I can think carefully about our responses rather than just allowing that knee-jerk reaction to guide our steps. In the time period between what happens and your response, there’s a lot of freedom and choice. As I’ve matured as a leader, I treasure that. We have a choice in how we react and we have certain freedoms in how we react.”



This became even more important in a crisis so full of unknowns like the COVID-19 crisis. Vaca felt it was vital to reach out to her entire workforce with a message of reassurance, but not one full of empty platitudes. Instead, she led with honesty.  



“It was very important for me to get on a Zoom call and be completely transparent,” Vaca says. “Transparency has been the cornerstone of how we have really managed through COVID-19. Sometimes I didn’t have all the answers and I had to be honest about that.”



Vaca’s student mindset has been crucial during this crisis, and her business experiences dating all the way back to the travel agency at age 17 prepared her for the moment.



“My background and my circumstances and the things that have happened to me in my life, the circumstances in which I grew up, all of it together has combined to give me an incredible gift: the gift of experience,” Vaca says. “For me, mindset has always been at the forefront, even when I was a teenager…. Being personally responsible and having that positive mindset in looking toward the future have helped me in life and in business.” 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">Read next: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/nina-vaca’s-top-5-tips-for-facing-challenges/">Nina Vaca’s Top 5 Tips for Facing Challenges</a></blockquote>



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<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://store.success.com/patchworks-imported-products/success-magazine-sept-oct-2020.html" target="_blank">This article originally appeared in the September/October 2020 issue of SUCCESS magazine.</a> Photo Courtesy of Nina Vaca

The global pandemic is just the latest in a series of crises that leading businesswoman Nina Vaca has navigated.

The global pandemic is just the latest in a series of crises that leading businesswoman Nina Vaca has navigated. | SUCCESS

How Nina Vaca Has Perfected Business Resiliency | SUCCESS

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Nina Vaca’s Top 5 Tips for Facing Challenges

After more than two decades in charge of the company she started as a 25-year-old, Nina Vaca has faced her fair share of crises. These challenges have been both professional and personal, but no matter what form the crisis takes, she knows that there are certain things she has to do to be able to meet them head on.



Vaca has guided Pinnacle Group, a workforce solutions company, through these times all while raising four children with her husband Jim. Her ability to navigate family challenges while heading up a thriving business was honed as a teenager when she and her sister had to take over the family travel agency after the tragic death of their father.



As she developed business skills and learned how to run the business, she was driven to get a college degree. Once she had her degree, she moved to New York City but soon missed her family and moved to Texas where they were living. In Dallas she founded Pinnacle Group, an IT staffing firm. Everything began going her way—she was winning new clients, growing the company, getting married, having kids—and then it all came to a grinding halt with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.



Suddenly, none of her clients needed her business anymore. The economy was crashing and Pinnacle Group was heading down with it. She even had a liquidation plan in place, but instead of putting it into action, she decided to stop taking a salary and start seeking solutions. Eventually she and Pinnacle Group figured out what their clients needed and pivoted the business to meet those needs. After, they had even better relationships with clients, and the company was on more financially sound footing than before.



Vaca and her associates used this same strategy to overcome the 2008 financial crisis and several other personal and professional challenges. Even with the COVID-19 global pandemic, Pinnacle Group has continued to grow because of the same principles of seeking solutions, pivoting to client needs and financially sound practices.



Vaca’s experiences have taught her important lessons about how to respond when crisis strikes. Here are her top five pieces of advice for facing challenges:



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-prepare">1. Prepare.</h3>



Vaca says that the lessons she and Pinnacle Group learned from their experience after 9/11 has served them well during the COVID crisis as well as other crises they’ve encountered. The most important thing in a crisis is what you’ve done before it even hits.



“Your past serves as an incredible teacher for the future. We learned a long time ago about diversifying our portfolio, having a healthy balance sheet, doubling down on infrastructure, reinvesting in the company and making the right technology investments,” Vaca says.



Making those smart decisions before a crisis can help keep you afloat while you search for ways to survive, or even thrive. Maybe you don’t own a business like Vaca, but principles like diversifying your portfolio, saving money, and investing time and money into improving yourself are smart no matter your circumstances.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2-respond-don-t-react">2. Respond, don’t react.</h3>



“It’s very important for a leader to not react but to respond. And that means taking the time necessary to gain the perspective and be thoughtful about setting your course of action,” Vaca says.



It’s so easy to try to immediately think of quick ways to fix the problems that have been caused by an unforeseen challenge, but it’s much more effective to take a step back and take the time to do your research and ask the right questions—to respond appropriately.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-3-be-honest">3. Be honest.</h3>



“Transparency is imperative in a time of crisis,” Vaca says. She has found that as a leader, people are often looking to you for answers, but they will always know when you’re bending the truth. And that doesn’t just apply to leadership, it applies to people in all challenging situations. It's much more important to be honest and admit when you don't know the answers, but that also means you need to do what you can to find the answers.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-4-be-empathetic">4. Be empathetic.</h3>



Sometimes a crisis doesn’t hit you as hard as it hits your co-workers, friends or family members. That is when empathy really comes into play. Talking with those who are going through something very difficult and offering ways you can help, even if you are also struggling through similar issues, can be a way to not only help others but to help yourself.



As the CEO, it could appear that Vaca might not be able to sympathize with what her employees are going through, but she makes it a priority to learn the challenges they are facing and ways that she and the company can help. “Empathy is an incredible part of leadership, to be able to put yourself in their shoes. To lead them and role model what they can be if they’re willing to put in the work,” Vaca says.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-5-work-on-transforming">5. Work on transforming.</h3>



Often the focus in the midst of a crisis is trying to get back to “normal,” but Vaca says that’s the wrong mindset. Crises fundamentally change us, and we shouldn’t focus on going back to the way things were before these challenges. Instead, Vaca recommends working on transforming during these times so that you come better on the other side.



In difficult times, people have to adapt by learning new skills and adopting new habits. Vaca says it’s important to reflect and focus on what new skills you want to take from it as well as any old habits you want to keep. By combining your recent experience with existing positive processes, you may find you emerge from the crisis with a new skill set or a new way of doing business. Instead of reverting to the way you did things before, you transform into a more well-rounded person, ready to meet the next challenge head on.



No one asks for challenges to come, but they inevitably do. How you respond determines how well you will recover.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
Read next: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-nina-vaca-has-perfected-business-resiliency/">How Nina Vaca Has Perfected Business Resiliency</a> 
</blockquote>



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Photo courtesy of Nina Vaca

Businesswoman Nina Vaca’s experiences have taught her important lessons about how to respond when crisis strikes.

Businesswoman Nina Vaca’s experiences have taught her important lessons about how to respond when crisis strikes. | SUCCESS

Nina Vaca’s Top 5 Tips for Facing Challenges | SUCCESS

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10 Life Lessons I Learned Raising a Baby in a Pandemic

My wife and I welcomed our first child into the world in late February, and for the first two weeks of his life everything felt normal. Well, as normal as is possible for two brand-new parents figuring out how to keep a newborn baby alive. But then after a couple more weeks, COVID-19 shook up our world, and everyone else’s world, and we had to make the incredibly hard decision to quarantine ourselves in our home without the help of friends or family.



That was when the difficulty truly began. Not only were we trying to figure out the feeding, napping, soothing, diaper-changing, etc., etc., etc., we were having to do it all on our own. After six weeks of pure survival mode, and only after confirming our family members had been quarantined, the grandparents came to our rescue.



Those six weeks alone were challenging to say the least, but we learned some incredibly valuable lessons about ourselves and about being parents. I recognize that my situation is no longer a unique one as so many other people have become moms and dads during this time, too. I think the things I’ve learned over the last four months could be helpful for other new parents making the adjustment to this new world. And if you didn’t just have a baby, these are lessons worth learning about yourself no matter what stage of life you’re in, so read on!



<h3>1. Make the most of your time alone.</h3>



I’m an extrovert, so I never thought I would crave alone time, but being cooped up in the house with an infant, my wife and two dogs, time to myself became a rare commodity. I began to recognize how valuable alone time really is, and that I needed to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/12-efficiency-secrets-of-the-worlds-busiest-people/">use it efficiently</a> and productively when I got it. Now, I try to complete a task in the time I have, whether it’s 30 minutes to fit a workout in, an hour to write an article or even 15 minutes to call my parents. At the same time, I realized it was important not to put too much pressure on these blocks of time, either—sometimes the best thing you can do for your mental health is actually to do nothing at all, or to take a power nap if you need a restart, or to read a chapter of your book or watch an episode of your favorite TV show for a mental break. That’s OK, too. Either way, make sure you use your alone time wisely. &nbsp;&nbsp;



<h3>2. The value of deep breaths.</h3>



I’m not typically an angry person. In fact, I pride myself on being fairly even-keeled in pretty much any situation. But the exhaustion and frustration that inherently comes about when raising a child has brought out emotions in me that I didn’t even know I had. Frankly, I hate even admitting that, but it’s true, and maybe it’ll help others to know that you’re not alone if you’re going through a similar experience. When the baby just won’t stop crying and screaming, and it’s the fifth time in the last few hours that he’s woken up, it can feel like I’ve lost all my self-control that I normally have. I have learned how helpful it is to take deep breaths, say a quick prayer and refocus myself in those moments—reminding myself that I love my son and that it’s not his fault is vital. Resetting like this has helped me in other situations, too, like work and other things that can cause frustration.



<h3>3. (Truly) appreciate your family and friends.</h3>



My wife and I are fortunate to live fairly close to both of our parents, and we of course appreciated the help they provided in the first few weeks of our baby’s life, but we didn’t truly understand how helpful they were until we were without them for six weeks. While we learned valuable lessons about self-reliance, we also learned how crucial it is to have people around you to help you and support you. The old saying about it taking a village to raise a child is so true, and I have profound respect and admiration for single parents. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it, or even before you do. If you have friends who are new parents, text them and see how you can help; maybe it’s an afternoon coffee run, picking up groceries or dropping off a meal, or even babysitting. Being a new parent is overwhelming and sometimes it’s hard to ask for help, so reach out and offer it if you can.



<h3>4. Think beyond yourself.</h3>



I was told this so many times before I became a dad, but I didn’t really understand it until it happened: We, as human beings, are selfish, and having a baby reveals just how selfish you are. It’s natural and nothing to be ashamed of—you’ve spent your entire life up to this point mostly focused on keeping yourself alive and well. And although getting married helps reveal some of your self-centered traits, having someone’s life depend on you not being selfish really highlights all the ways you put your own comfort and well-being above everything else. I’ve had to check myself during these last few months and put my own needs and desires to the side—and I’ve become a better person for it.&nbsp;



<h3>5. Remind yourself of the small victories.</h3>



Most days, 90% of our day is filled with crying, feeding, diaper changes, and refusals to sleep. But then I remember the 10% of the day that featured big smiles, chuckles and snuggles, and it makes the hard parts worth it. When times are tough, it’s important to focus on the victories, no matter how small they might seem. This doesn’t only apply to raising a child; it’s also about hard days at work or difficulties with friends or family. It’s about periods of poor health or financial troubles. Yes, there are days when everything is terrible. Sometimes, there are weeks or months like that. But that’s when it can be life-giving to focus on the small victories. For me, it’s those smiles and hugs. For you, it could be a cup of coffee in the morning, or the joke your friend told, or the phone call you had with a grandparent. Let the little moments of joy be reminders to press on through the tough times.



<h3>6. Intentionally practice gratefulness. &nbsp;</h3>



It’s easy to complain, but more helpful to be grateful. True when things are normal, and even truer when they’re not—like in a pandemic or life with a new baby. I try to always remember to be grateful for the blessings in our life: good health, our baby, our family and their support. Sometimes, though, when I’m rocking my son to sleep because he won’t nap in his crib and it’s the only way he will go down, I start feeling sorry for myself. So to combat these negative feelings, I begin listing the things that I am grateful for and I thank God for each blessing. With this little prayer of positivity, I am able to change the direction of my thoughts, reminding myself that I am blessed and lucky to be right where I am.



<h3>7. Give grace.&nbsp;</h3>



I’ve written about <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-give-yourself-grace-to-start-again/">giving yourself grace when you feel like you’ve failed</a>, but it’s also so true as a parent, and a new one at that. Giving yourself and your spouse grace when you make mistakes is the only way to move forward and grow as a parent and as a partner. Beating yourself up after a tough night or holding a grudge for something your wife said at 3 a.m. will drive you crazy and make everything worse. Choose consistent forgiveness instead.



<h3>8. Start each day fresh.</h3>



As we were drinking our morning coffee a few weeks ago after a long night, my wife asked me, “Do you ever wake up in the morning and feel silly for being so upset the night before?” She had a great point. So often during a long night of no sleep, we feel like it’s the end of the world, but then when morning comes, it’s a new day and we are given a fresh start and a fresh perspective. Last night wasn’t the end of the world, and tonight won’t be, either. Taking things one day at a time is the best and only way forward.



<h3>9. Be flexible.</h3>



With a baby, the moment you think you know what you’re doing, everything changes again. Finally sleeping through the night? Well, here comes the four-month sleep regression. Loves to play in his bouncer? Guess what, now he hates it. There’s nothing more frustrating than unmet expectations—a very common occurrence with babies—so we’ve learned to hold things loosely now, meaning we know we can’t be fully set on a plan because he might not cooperate, and that’s OK. By setting our expectations knowing that our plans could change, there’s less frustration when they inevitably do.



<h3>10. The importance of kind gestures.</h3>



Acts of kindness are always a good idea, but they’re even more important when things are chaotic. As new parents, my wife and I seem to always be running around trying to take care of everything—the baby, ourselves, the house, work. Our quality time together is limited these days. In circumstances like these, and especially in quarantine when we’re all stuck at home, a kind gesture goes a really long way, whether that’s going to get an afternoon pick-me-up or doing chores around the house. Even the smallest gestures are significant.



I know I’m far from a parenting expert. In fact, I’d say I’m the exact opposite. I have so much more to learn about raising a child and about myself, but these are the lessons I’ve learned so far in my journey, and I’m excited for the ones yet to come.



What lessons have you learned as a new parent or in a new chapter of your life? Share in the comments below so we can help each other!



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">Read next: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/10-business-lessons-from-a-baby/">10 Business Lessons From a Baby</a></blockquote>



Photo by @WhitneyB/Twenty20.com

My wife and I welcomed our first child into the world in late February, and for the first two weeks of his life everything felt normal. Enter COVID.

My wife and I welcomed our first child into the world in late February, and for the first two weeks of his life everything felt normal. Enter COVID. | SUCCESS

10 Lessons I Learned Raising a Baby in a Pandemic

10 Lessons I Learned Raising a Baby in a Pandemic | SUCCESS

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"I know what I forgot."



Those words from my wife Sami set off a chain of events that ended with a new friend, a returned pair of boots, and a life-changing philosophy.&nbsp;



It was 2017. We were in southern Iceland, on our second trip to the country in as many years, driving from the small town of Kirkjubæjarklaustur toward the capital of Reykjavík. Sami had left her brand-new hiking boots at the guesthouse where we stayed for the last few days. It was about a five-hour drive and we were halfway into it already—too late to turn back.&nbsp;



We found a place with wi-fi and sent a message to Valur Blomsterberg, the owner of the guesthouse.



Valur was a successful businessman in his late 50s who opened the guesthouse because he loved interacting with visitors. He was extremely friendly to us for the few days we stayed with him, but we had no idea just how kind he was.&nbsp;



We were hoping that someone else from the guesthouse might be heading to Reykjavík and could meet us in the city somewhere with the hiking boots. After arriving in the capital, we received a message from Valur saying he was actually traveling to Reykjavík himself the next day and would bring the shoes. This was perfect.



Except, that was the only detail he gave us. Our follow up messages about times or places were met with very laid-back responses with no details. We had a full day of sightseeing planned away from the city and didn’t know what to do, so without the information, we decided to continue with our sightseeing the next day and figure it out later.&nbsp;



We spent an amazing day experiencing the best of Iceland and got back to our farmhouse outside the city about 9 p.m., having long ago given up on ever getting the boots. We were preparing for bed when a message popped up on Sami’s phone. “I am in downtown RVK. Where are you guys?”



We told him we were outside town and he said, “Meet me in Hafnarfjörður, N1 station.”



With that, we grabbed our coats, threw on our shoes and started driving. When we pulled up to the suburban gas station, there was Valur waiting on us with a big smile on his face and the boots in his hand.&nbsp;



I said, “I can’t believe this worked out.”



And he replied, “Everything works out in Iceland!” and wrapped up both of us in a big hug.&nbsp;



Valur wasn’t parroting some slogan of the Northern Atlantic island nation’s tourism bureau. He was expressing in English an Icelandic phrase, idea, and philosophy that marks the way Icelanders live. This idea has had a profound impact on my life ever since.&nbsp;



* * *



The phrase&nbsp;þetta reddast&nbsp;(pronounced “thet-ta red-ust”) has become synonymous with the Icelandic way of life. In one way or another, every Icelandic person lives by this creed. Costa Rica has “Pura Vida,” Iceland has&nbsp;þetta reddast.



The direct translation is difficult. Some say it means “everything will work out” or “it will all be OK,” but both of those could be deployed cynically or flippantly when said in English. A more full definition is needed for the nuances of the phrase.&nbsp;



Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson is a professor of Icelandic at the University of Iceland and one of the world’s leading experts on the language. His definition of the phrase is more all-encompassing.&nbsp;



“It’s sort of a combination of being careless and being optimistic,” says Eiríkur. “It can mean ‘maybe we don’t have to do so much to make this work’, or ‘maybe it’s impossible to do something about it, but it will be fine in the end.’ ”



A quick flyover of Icelandic history reveals why people live this way. For a thousand years Icelanders, descendants of the Vikings who inhabited this unforgiving island in the North Atlantic, have fought harsh weather, volcanoes, earthquakes, famines, disease, and each other. Multiple times in their history the entire population was nearly wiped out by plagues or volcanic eruption.&nbsp;



Isolation prevented Iceland from joining the rest of the modern world unil the second half of the 20th century. The 1980s were a decade of major growing pains as the island began to rapidly change.



It was then that, according to Eiríkur’s research, the phrase&nbsp;þetta reddast&nbsp;began appearing in newspapers and other media. It’s no surprise that a turbulent decade that resulted in positive changes was when people could begin looking at circumstances in life with a more positive view.&nbsp;



Even modern Icelandic history is marked by extreme highs and lows. Amid the global financial crisis in 2008, all three of the major private banks in the country defaulted. It wasn’t just Icelanders who lost money and experienced inflation; Iceland’s reputation as a banking capital meant that the reverberations were far reaching.&nbsp;



Perhaps even more significant than the financial crisis was the eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajökull in southern Iceland in 2010. The giant plume of ash and smoke that was launched into the atmosphere disrupted air traffic for most of Europe, grounding flights for six days and affecting 10 million travelers. It was the largest air traffic shutdown since World War II. Suddenly, the entire world was either angry with or fascinated by the island.



Many credit the publicity from the eruption with the subsequent tourism explosion as people began learning about Iceland. The tourism industry is now the most important sector of the country‘s economy. More than 2 million visitors travel there each year and 10 percent of Iceland’s GDP comes from tourism. Suddenly, tons of foreign cash was being pumped into the economy. Infrastructure improved across the country.



The idea of&nbsp;þetta reddast&nbsp;isn’t that you just assume things will work out based on no evidence. It’s a philosophy steeped in experience. Icelanders started to realize things would work out once they’d had the experiences that confirmed this philosophy. In the same way, applying this philosophy to your own life only works when you can look back at similar circumstances and realize how they’ve shaped your life in both positive and negative ways.&nbsp;



* * *



I was unemployed when we were on that 2017 trip. The company I worked for closed up shop the week before we left. It was totally out of the blue and the flights and lodging for our trip were already paid for, so we decided to go ahead and take the vacation. It was a great time to get my mind off of the panic of having to search for a job.



I had basically no leads on new jobs because I loved what I was doing and naively thought I didn’t need to keep tabs on new opportunities. There was a lot that I could have been worrying about, but chasing Icelandic waterfalls kept my mind occupied. Little did I know that I was learning a lesson that would sustain me through this period of unknown and the many that would follow in the next few years.&nbsp;



Would I have chosen to lose my job and say goodbye to coworkers? No way. But I did make the most of the situation. With about two months of free time between jobs, I finished writing my first book, a personal side project that has opened many doors since, allowed me to make money on the side, and let me meet some of my heroes.&nbsp;



That’s the heart of&nbsp;þetta reddast. Things aren’t going to work out exactly the way you thought, but if you keep going and work hard, most of the time they will work out.&nbsp;



* * *



“Volcanic activity may be around the corner, maybe this or that will happen, but&nbsp;þetta reddast. However the outcome, whether we have to evacuate or not, whatever way the lava will flow, things will have their way and sooner or later, life will be back to normal,” says Dagmar Jóhanna Eiríksdóttir.



I reached out to Dagmar, a friend we made on our travels, to ask her about&nbsp;þetta reddast, and she greeted me with the news that the volcano only a few miles from her house was trembling. She didn’t know if there would be evacuations or not.&nbsp;



So it turned out to be a good time to talk about&nbsp;þetta reddast. Her response couldn’t have been more quintessentially Icelandic. Will this volcano erupt for the first time in 800 years and envelope our house in lava? Maybe, but we will just have to evacuate and life will go on.



Such is a life lived in the shadows of volcanoes. It’s not just a fanciful idea or trite mantra about “the journey. ” Sometimes&nbsp;þetta reddast&nbsp;literally means that you don’t know which way the lava will flow.&nbsp;



* * *



In 2019, Sami decided to quit her job to go full time with her cookie decorating business. It was a tough decision to take a risk like that, but she was regularly working until 2 or 3 a.m., then getting up just a few hours later to go to her day job.



We were nervous, but it helped to remember that things will likely work out fine in the end. Maybe the business would be a smashing success, or maybe it wouldn’t. Either way it was worth a shot.&nbsp;



Auður Ösp Olafsdottir runs a tour guide company called I Heart Reykjavík. What began as a blog about her love of her hometown has spun into a full-time business as she shows foreigners her favorite spots in the city.&nbsp;



I asked her how she’s applied this philosophy to her life and she pointed out that she is often a pragmatic person that loves having a plan. However, when she started her business, she did so with much less planning than she should have.&nbsp;



“Now that I actually know what I’m doing, I’m not sure I’d recommend this approach,” says Auður. “On the flip side of that, if I had done my homework and realized how much work this would be, I probably would never have made the leap, which is maybe the magic of&nbsp;þetta reddast.”&nbsp;



One of the reasons we felt comfortable with Sami starting her own business was that I had finally taken what I thought was a stable, corporate job. It was with a solid company that wouldn’t be going out of business any time soon (a welcome departure for me) and we thought it was a good time to not only start a business but to eventually start a family.



You’ve read this far, so you can probably guess that isn’t how it all went down. We found out we were pregnant last July, but by the end of 2019 things were again unstable with my job situation. Suddenly instead of the stability we craved, we were deep in uncertainty.&nbsp;



And then, as I began to plot a risky career leap into full-time freelance writing, I received an offer to work part time at a place I’ve been trying to get into since I graduated college nearly a decade ago. It was an exciting opportunity that would allow for a little bit of a safety net for me as I transitioned into full-time freelancing. So, I left my corporate job two weeks before our first child was due.&nbsp;



As this issue hits newsstands, the baby is now several months old. By now we surely know if I made the dumbest or best decision ever. Judging from our life experiences, it will likely be somewhere in between.



There will be ups and downs, and we may not know which way the lava will flow, but we do know it’s going to work out one way or another.&nbsp;



* * *



We went back to Iceland in 2018 to make it three trips in the span of three years. What can I say? We love everything about the place. This time we brought along my wife’s brother and his wife to show them the country.&nbsp;



When we reached out to Valur to see if we could stay at his guesthouse, he told us that he sold it. The guest interactions were great, but he was tired of cooking and cleaning every day.



Instead, Valur offered to let us stay at his personal home for free.



We took up his offer quickly, even changing our original driving schedule to make it work. After seven days of staying in cramped and quaint farmhouses or hostels it was a breath of fresh air to walk into Valur’s modern mansion. The house was everything you’d imagine a Scandanavian millionaire might have.



And, of course, it had a beautiful view of a volcano that Valur told us was 10 years overdue for an eruption. I asked if that worried him and he said, “No, I will have the perfect view of it!”



We each got a room with a large bed, nice soft sheets and big comforters to keep us warm. Valur offered us all kinds of food and drinks. He had a massive liquor cabinet and said we could have whatever we wanted from it.



Honestly, at a certain point we all started thinking this guy might be just a little... too nice. No one is this friendly to relative strangers. We were really beginning to question his motives. When we looked at the massive liquor cabinet and said we didn’t even know what might be good he got a twinkle in his eye.



“Wait, I have a&nbsp;special&nbsp;drink for you.”



Alarm bells began going off in everyone’s heads, but no one said anything. He reached into the freezer and pulled out an unlabeled glass bottle with a murky purple liquid in it. He then grabbed four Viking-themed shot glasses. When we asked what it was he refused to answer. He poured the shots and passed one to each of us.



Now, this was the time to say something if anyone had concerns. Later we would all admit that we had the same thoughts and worries, but no one was brave enough to say anything. I had never done a shot in my life before, or after, this moment.&nbsp;



But, when in Iceland...



Skál!&nbsp;



It turned out to be just vodka mixed with crushed up black pepper licorice candies. I don’t know if it was good or if we were overcome with happiness that we hadn’t been poisoned, but we all had big smiles on our faces afterwards.&nbsp;



We spent the rest of the night in the hot tub under the Icelandic sky reminiscing on another great trip.&nbsp;



See, it all works out in the end.&nbsp;



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img src="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/The-Icelandic-Almanac-1-512x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-51780"/></figure></div>



 <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://store.success.com/patchworks-imported-products/success-magazine-july-aug-2020.html" target="_blank">This article originally appeared in the July/August 2020 issue of SUCCESS magazine.</a> Photo by Asiatravel/Shutterstock.com

A travelogue on attaining the most important mindset

A travelogue on attaining the most important mindset | SUCCESS

Why We Should All Live Like Icelanders Live

Why We Should All Live Like Icelanders Live | SUCCESS

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<a href="https://juliapimsleur.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Julia Pimsleur</a> had reached the entrepreneurial mountaintop. First she took her passion project from a side hustle into a full-fledged business. Then she ascended to the even more difficult peak of turning a business making a few hundred thousand dollars a year into one generating millions per year.



She decided to write the book Million Dollar Women, detailing how she turned Little Pim, a company that produces multimedia materials to help children learn foreign languages, into a global language-teaching powerhouse. But the book didn’t just focus on Pimsleur’s success; she featured other women who had taken their businesses past the million-dollar-per-year mark and pointed out that fewer than 3 percent of women entrepreneurs ever achieve this milestone (it’s 6% for men).



After the book’s release, women began reaching out to her and asking for advice. The entrepreneurial wheels in her mind starting spinning once again.



“I realized, maybe I should try to get out in front on this issue. Clearly there were thousands, if not millions, of women just like me,” says Pimsleur, who lives in New York. “I’ve always been interested in moving the needle on something for women and realized this was it… I want to help close the economic gender gap by helping more women scale up their businesses.” She decided she wanted to help other women to reach the million dollar mark and beyond by providing them with coaching, community and mentorship. &nbsp;



Pimsleur came to a major crossroads in her life. Her passion for the mission of Little Pim would always remain—it is in her blood, in fact: She is the daughter of Paul Pimsleur, an icon in the world of linguistics whose Pimsleur Method of learning languages is still widely used today. But her involvement in the company began taking a backseat to her new mission of helping other businesswomen take their own passion projects to the next level.



She decided it was time to step aside as CEO of Little Pim and go all-in on her <a href="https://juliapimsleur.com/mdw-about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Million Dollar Women</a> brand. This became yet another teaching moment for fellow CEOs.



“I got together with my board and my advisors and said that I felt this calling to teach women entrepreneurs,” Pimsleur says. “We decided we could sell, merge, or hire a new CEO and we explored all three. People often start their companies with the idea that they are going to do it forever, but the reality is that a lot of people leave their companies or get tired of them or have a new passion. People rarely talk about how to do that.”



Little Pim decided to hire a new CEO and keep Pimsleur on the board so she could devote her full energy to the Million Dollar Women organization, now a thriving social venture that reaches over one million women per year and which has continually multiplied its resources for women entrepreneurs.



The organization’s mission is &nbsp;to get over one million women to reach $1 million in yearly revenue for their businesses. They do this via their four-month online business school for women called Million Dollar Women Masterclass,&nbsp; the Million Dollar Mind podcast that she hosts, the Million Dollar Women Summit and a nonprofit scholarship program for women of color entrepreneurs. Million Dollar Women is more than just Pimsleur, it’s supported by her team, and a five-person board including Verne Harnish, founder of EO (Entrepreneur’s Organization) and Stephanie Cartin, CEO of SocialFly, as well as advisory and leadership councils packed with powerful businesspeople—both men and women. Everything Pimsleur does is geared towards helping women in the exact circumstances she was in.



“I created our Masterclass as an online business school because I wanted to meet women where they are at. Most women start businesses in their mid-30s when many of them have children, aging parents and are at the intersection of a lot of different roles in their families,” Pimsleur says. “Women are super busy! They can’t necessarily stop and drop everything and go to a class to learn what they need to learn to make their businesses big. So I decided to bring it to them.”



Pimsleur has identified several key issues that most women tend to face in their careers, namely lack of access to capital, a lack of role models in their industry, or that their businesses are not set up to be scalable. These are challenges that Pimsleur specifically addresses in her Masterclass. And the results speak for themselves. She says that that so far, 50 percent of the Masterclass graduates doubled their revenues and 10 percent have already reached that million-dollar goal with many more getting there each year.



The most difficult part when it comes to scaling businesses for many women, Pimsleur says, is that the skills one might use to reach a certain level of early success are potentially the skills that could hold them back from reaching the next level.



“Women tend to be perfectionists,” Pimsleur says. “The irony is that the very skills that made them start their business, like being highly competent, Type A, driven achievers, and may have gotten them to $200,000 or $300,000 in revenue is what keeps them from going big. You need a totally different set of skills to scale a business. It becomes more about being a leader and working on the business not in the business. That’s where we come in.”



 <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://store.success.com/patchworks-imported-products/success-magazine-july-aug-2020.html" target="_blank">This article originally appeared in the July/August 2020 issue of SUCCESS magazine.</a> Photo courtesy of Julia Pimsleur

The entrepreneur decided she wanted to help other women to reach the million dollar mark and beyond by providing them with coaching, community and mentorship. So she went all-in on her Million Dollar Women brand.

The entrepreneur decided she wanted to help other women to reach the million dollar mark and beyond by providing them with coaching, community and mentorship. So she went all-in on her Million Dollar Women brand. | SUCCESS

How Julia Pimsleur Is Paying Her Success Forward

How Julia Pimsleur Is Paying Her Success Forward | SUCCESS

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When all of this coronavirus chaos started, I had a lot of goals. I wasn’t going to let being stuck at home break my pattern of working out consistently, I wasn’t going to let it get me down mentally, I wasn’t going to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/10-ways-to-cut-down-on-screen-time/">waste time on my phone</a> or watching TV, but I was going to learn new skills and use the time to really improve myself.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/11-things-to-do-in-self-quarantine-that-are-more-productive-than-netflix/">11 Things to Do in Self-Quarantine That Are More Productive Than Netflix</a>
</blockquote>



It’s easy to look back at all of these goals and chuckle a little bit. While I have kept some principles in mind over the last couple of months, I haven’t been nearly as consistent as I wanted to be.



I’ve gained weight because, frankly, I didn’t work out for several weeks, although I did try to get into running but mostly as an excuse to just do something and get out of the house for a little; it didn’t stick. I haven’t eaten as healthy as I’d like; however, I do have a newfound love of brown sugar toast. I’ve spent far too much time on Twitter, and if I wanted to, I could probably write an entire essay just about the bad habits I’ve started.



On the flip side, I could also look at the positives. I’ve become pretty adept in the kitchen, making things I never thought I’d make and giving my grill a good workout in the process. My wife and I have learned, through much difficulty, how to take care of our 2-month-old son pretty much on our own. I’ve been able to carve out a living as a freelance writer in what many would describe as one of the most difficult times for freelancers. And I finished reading a book that I’ve been working my way through for two years.



But do you want to know what I’m most proud of during this time? (And this is truly something I think everyone needs to focus on as we look forward to a completely uncertain future.) I’m proud of the fact that I gave myself enough grace to get back up on the horse after falling off several times.



I wrote a piece about <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/the-5-am-club/">Robin Sharma’s 5 AM Club</a> last year, and when I was talking to Sharma about waking up that early every day, I asked him if he ever overslept. Here’s a guy who has been waking up at 5 a.m. every morning for decades. He’s written a book encouraging people to do the same. If anyone could never have an off day, it’s Sharma. But his answer surprised and encouraged me. “I slip all the time,” he said. “I think most people do. Each day is simply about fighting the disruptive currents and getting back on track."



There sure are a lot of disruptive currents in our daily lives, not just while we’re stuck at home, that pull us away from our goals. But that’s where it’s so vital to give yourself grace.



For me, I had to apply that grace when it came to physical fitness. I’ve never been a workout fiend, but I stayed in decent shape before the baby and the stay-at-home orders. Weekly indoor soccer games combined with a gym membership that I used a couple of times a week kept me from gaining too much weight. But when all of that was stripped away, I just couldn’t motivate myself to work out at home. And one or two days of laziness started spiraling into two or three weeks, until I finally looked at myself and realized that I wouldn’t be able to just flip a switch and get back to where I was before all of this started.



I didn’t change my ways immediately. It still took a few days and a group of friends who could keep me accountable. With their support, and their own admissions that they were in the same boat, I paid for a membership for some online workout programs. I found one that would suit my goals and I started. One thing the trainer says all the time is, “Do your best and forget the rest.”



At first, my “best” was not very good. I was barely able to finish the first workout, and this was the beginner level! My friends agreed; they were just as exhausted as I was. Having other people going through the same thing was encouraging, and even though the weight I gained didn’t magically fall off, I felt so much better about myself. Those weeks of inactivity didn’t matter anymore because I had just finished a week of consistent workouts. Will there be days I don’t do the workouts? Certainly, but instead of spiraling back down into a pattern of laziness, I have to forgive myself for that one day and start again the next.



Here are some things I’ve learned for how to give yourself grace and start again to accomplish your goals. These tips apply in so many different situations in life, from fitness goals to business goals to raising children. Think about these any time you just can’t find that motivation to begin again once you’ve stumbled.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-leave-the-past-behind">1. Leave the past behind.</h3>



For some, it might be a motivational factor to be a little angry at yourself for failing. For others, that may have the opposite effect. Either way, it’s imperative that you <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-to-break-the-pattern-of-dwelling-on-past-mistakes/">don’t dwell on your mistakes</a>. Think about what you want to accomplish today and work on steps to reach those goals.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2-take-that-first-small-step">2. Take that first, small step.</h3>



I knew that with several weeks of little physical activity under my belt, it would be unwise to jump into an intense workout program. So I started with one that takes only 25 minutes a day; it doesn’t make me so tired and sore that I can’t continue. And while it’s getting me back into shape, it’s also building a daily habit that will help me graduate to a more intense program in the future.



Think about how this same principle applies to other facets of life. <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/ways-to-read-more-books/">Want to read a book a week?</a> Start by trying to read a book in a month. Or start with a shorter book. Want to eat healthier? Instead of eating only salads every meal for a week, eat one salad a day, or replace dessert with an apple. Do something small that gets the momentum going in the right direction.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-3-find-people-who-can-help-hold-you-accountable">3. Find people who can help hold you accountable.</h3>



Having accountability is important all the time but especially when everyone is physically distant. It’s so easy to let yourself slip in areas of discipline <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-working-from-home-can-make-you-more-productive/">when no one can see you</a>. So it’s helpful to reach out to somebody close, share your struggles and your goals, and support each other in forming and sticking to new, good habits.



I know I didn’t start working out again until I said something to my community group about how I wanted to do it. I’d been thinking about it for weeks, but it wasn’t until I had someone encouraging me, offering to join me, and making me feel like I wasn’t alone, that I committed to doing it.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-4-take-it-one-day-at-a-time">4. Take it one day at a time.</h3>



It only takes one day to start a new streak. You can’t work out 30 days in a row on a Monday. You can work out on that Monday and then again on Tuesday. But it can’t all happen at once. All it takes is a dedication to make today the day that you take a step in the right direction. It doesn’t matter what happened yesterday, and you can’t do anything about tomorrow yet; all you can do is make decisions for today.



So whatever it is that you want to start doing, don’t get lost in thoughts about how long it’s going to take or how difficult it might be, just think about what it will take to do it today.



These are weird times, and none of us know quite what we’re doing or how to do it. So forgive yourself for bad habits you may have started or mistakes you might’ve made in adjusting to your new normal, and look forward instead. A bright future begins with good decisions today.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
Read next: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/the-secret-to-staying-motivated-during-this-pandemic/">The Secret to Staying Motivated During This Pandemic</a>
</blockquote>



Photo by @criene/Twenty20.com

Forgive yourself for bad habits you may have started or mistakes you might’ve made in adjusting to your new normal, and look forward instead. A bright future begins with good decisions today.

Forgive yourself for bad habits you may have started or mistakes you might’ve made in adjusting to your new normal, and look forward instead. A bright future begins with good decisions today. | SUCCESS

How to Give Yourself Grace to Start Again When You Feel Like You’ve Failed

Starting Again with Grace: Overcoming Failure and Rebuilding

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For a self-proclaimed lazy person, Tom Bilyeu sure has a lot of irons in the fire. The co-founder of <a href="https://impacttheory.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Impact Theory (opens in a new tab)">Impact Theory</a> and Quest Nutrition, is a highly sought speaker within the personal development and empowerment community. Millions watch his weekly interview series that “explores the mindsets of the world’s highest achievers to learn their secrets to success.” Clearly this is not the same Tom who used to lie in bed for three hours after his alarm went off.



It started with a decision to finally change his mindset. An ambitious guy with little drive to actually accomplish his goals, it was the motivation of a disapproving future father-in-law and disgust with himself and his position in life that began his quest for self-improvement. His discovery that personal drive was something that could actually be developed helped shape his future.



Quest Nutrition was a unicorn startup. The company sold to Simply Good Foods for $1 billion in 2019. He and his partners, including his wife Lisa, grew Quest from its founding in 2010 to becoming No. 2 on the&nbsp;Inc&nbsp;500 Fastest Growing Companies list by 2014. Quest is well known for its highly popular nutrition bars, which are free from added sugars. He says he came from a morbidly obese family, so Quest was a way of impacting the world for good from a health perspective.



He credits his “growth mindset” with changing his life and allowing him to achieve things beyond his wildest imaginations. His efforts today are focused on passing that mindset on to others through Impact Theory, a media company that produces shows, comics, graphic novels, films and more ventures focused on the goal of positively impacting our culture.



“The ultimate goal for me is to pull people out of the Matrix at scale by giving them an empowering mindset,” Bilyeu, 43, says.



<a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/how-the-movie-the-matrix-taught-quest-nutritions-tom-bilyeu-whats-real-and-whats-not/">The Matrix&nbsp;metaphor</a> is one that Bilyeu has used consistently throughout his career as a personal development speaker. It’s an apt comparison for Bilyeu’s take on the normal human experience. In the film, main character Neo is taught that his life is part of a massive simulation. He’s offered the ability to take a Blue Pill and go back to his normal life within the computer program or take a Red Pill and exit the Matrix to begin to think for himself. Bilyeu wants everyone to <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/tom-bilyeu-on-why-to-take-the-red-pill-not-the-blue-pill/">take the Red Pill</a>. His work at Impact Theory is a way to create more Neos in the world.


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Bilyeu isn’t shy with his ambitions for Impact Theory, either. He and his team are attempting to—his words—build the next Disney. They believe that the best way to shift culture is through narrative and one of the most powerful ways he wants to teach the growth mindset is through children’s programming. He wants kids to be able to see stories of people who have that same mindset that changed his life so that they will begin to internalize the mindset at an early age.



It took Bilyeu until after college to make those important changes in his life and he wants others to realize their potential well before he did.



“I do not like that people’s lives are essentially dictated by the small group of people around them,” Bilyeu says.



Impact Theory exists to provide people with the tools to change their lives no matter who surrounds them. He says that human beings are the ultimate adaptation machines. Essentially, humans can do whatever they set their minds to do. He believes that epigenetics, essentially the idea that we can change parts of our genetic makeup without changing our genes themselves, is at the heart of human behavior. If you can change your mindset you can begin to change your habits and then you can accomplish your goals and dreams.



His own shift from the unmotivated person lying in bed for hours on end to the incredibly successful entrepreneur, speaker, and inspirational figure didn’t happen overnight. However, it did start when he made the decision to better himself. Every change has a starting point and Bilyeu hopes Impact Theory can be that starting point for many.



Today Bilyeu spends about 80 percent of his working time building the business of Impact Theory and the other 20 percent as a personal development speaker and coach. The two work together for him as so much of what he’s doing at Impact Theory dovetails with what he’s talking about at his speaking engagements.



Impact Theory offers content designed to give people the tools and knowledge they need to unlock their potential and impact the world. This includes weekly episodes of the flagship Impact Theory series, health focused content, Impact Theory University curriculum, reading lists, and a knowledge center focusing on teaching the theories of the growth mindset that got a young Bilyeu out of bed and into the boardroom. He’s now dedicated to teaching as many people as possible on how to change their own lives like he changed his.&nbsp;



 Meet the other New Thought Leaders: 



<div class="wp-block-columns">
<div class="wp-block-column">
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/new-thought-leader-gabrielle-bernstein/"><img src="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2-2.png" alt="" class="wp-image-44077" width="150" height="150"/></a><figcaption>Gabrielle Bernstein</figcaption></figure></div>
</div>



<div class="wp-block-column">
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/new-thought-leader-brendon-burchard/"><img src="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1-7.png" alt="" class="wp-image-44078" width="150"/></a><figcaption>Brendon Burchard</figcaption></figure></div>
</div>
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This article originally appeared in the March/April 2020 issue of SUCCESS magazine. Illustration by Hanane Kai

For a self-proclaimed lazy person, Tom Bilyeu sure has a lot of irons in the fire. The co-founder of Impact Theory (ImpactTheory.com) and Quest Nutrition, is a highly sought speaker within the personal development and empowerment community.

For a self-proclaimed lazy person, Tom Bilyeu sure has a lot of irons in the fire. The co-founder of Impact Theory (ImpactTheory.com) and Quest Nutrition, is a highly sought speaker within the personal development and empowerment community. | SUCCESS

New Thought Leader: Tom Bilyeu

New Thought Leader: Tom Bilyeu | SUCCESS

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Cecilia Meis

Jonny Auping

Jamie Friedlander

Like a lot people, <a href="https://thehollisco.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Rachel Hollis (opens in a new tab)">Rachel Hollis</a> discovered personal development through need. She had crippling anxiety attacks that increased in both frequency and intensity, eventually occurring several times per week. When self-medication through alcohol stopped helping, she felt hopeless.



“It got to a point where I thought,&nbsp;I don’t want to live this way anymore,” Hollis says.



Already a successful self-taught businessperson, Hollis questioned whether she could approach her anxiety the same way she approached business. She became a self-described “personal development junkie.” That was years ago. Now the 37-year-old author, motivational speaker and founder of Texas-based media company The Hollis Co. is on a mission to equip others with the tools to improve their lives. In other words, she found a way to save her own life and wants to share that with anyone, everyone.



Hollis’s grand entry into the personal development world started in 2018 with No. 1&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;best-seller,&nbsp;<a href="https://amzn.to/36LX94a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Girl, Wash Your Face (opens in a new tab)">Girl, Wash Your Face</a>&nbsp;and 2019 follow-up&nbsp;<a href="https://amzn.to/2GJkAk4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Girl, Stop Apologizing (opens in a new tab)">Girl, Stop Apologizing</a>, but she’s been in the business of self-growth far longer.



“When I was a food blogger, my tagline was, ‘Give people the tools to change their life,’ ” Hollis says. “The tool I had back then was a casserole recipe and the tool I have today is books and podcasts and conferences and coaching.”



Her point: The medium of delivery doesn’t much matter. And that shows in the 3.2-million-strong digital fan base that has followed her through the past decade, through stories about food, mom life, personal style and now personal development. The message isn’t really a casserole recipe, or the video about her struggles with Bell’s palsy syndrome, or even the story about that one time she peed a little while jumping on the trampoline with her three sons because #momlife.



These stories are the threads of connection that make Hollis more than a motivational speaker talking to a crowd at one of her <a href="https://thehollisco.com/pages/rise-events" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Rise events (opens in a new tab)">Rise events</a>. They make her human. People come for her humor and sarcasm and stay for her ability to share stories so deeply vulnerable that it allows them to see their own stories in hers and feel just a little less alone.



“There are a lot of [personal development professionals] in this space who say one thing and are doing another,” Hollis says. “I think you can only get away with that for so long. Credibility comes from living the thing that you’re telling other people to live.”


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Hollis builds that credibility through transparency. Every morning, fans can tune in to her Facebook Live morning show with husband, Dave, to get a glimpse behind the emerald curtain. Often sans makeup, wearing pajamas and holding a cup of coffee, she dishes stories about whatever struggles, triumphs or lessons were learned in the past 24 hours. Tens of thousands tune in. If you follow her Instagram story, you’ll get a near-constant stream of one-person dance videos to Beyoncé, “I didn’t want to run, but I did it anyway and it feels great” confessionals or quick photos of the Hollis family on a movie night at home. It could be anyone’s Instagram. And that’s the point. For every curated post, there is a real life being lived out on the same principles she delivers on stage.



“We are doing every single thing that we’re telling our community to do,” Hollis says.



This specific brand of in-my-living-room personal development speaks to the changing nature of the industry. Many of Hollis’s fans don’t self-identify as personal development enthusiasts. They might not have even heard the term before. They probably don’t know who Dale Carnegie is. They simply stumbled across someone they relate to who is a little less prescriptive and a little more, “This worked for me. You try it.”



To have more than 3 million fans and still be in touch with what they need, Hollis says you have to be “obsessive.” She doesn’t care if she’s categorized into the blogging, speaking or personal development industry. Sure, she wants to reach a wider audience. And sure, she of course wants you to buy her products and attend her conferences and sign up for her business coaching seminars. But at the core, she’s thinking about what she might have needed in this or that season of life, as she calls them, and passing along what she learned during those times.



She’s working on a new book right now about health and body image. And she has more Rise events scheduled for 2020. But she’s also working on a lot of other things that don’t really feel like personal development but feel very Rachel Hollis. And that’s certainly on-brand.



“This is human nature,” she says. “It’s so much bigger than one industry.”



Meet the other New Thought Leaders: 



<div class="wp-block-columns">
<div class="wp-block-column">
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/new-thought-leader-marie-forleo/"><img src="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2-2.png" alt="" class="wp-image-44077" width="150" height="150"/></a><figcaption>Marie Forleo</figcaption></figure></div>
</div>



<div class="wp-block-column">
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/new-thought-leader-lewis-howes/"><img src="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1-7.png" alt="" class="wp-image-44078" width="150" height="150"/></a><figcaption>Lewis Howes</figcaption></figure></div>
</div>
</div>



This article originally appeared in the March/April 2020 issue of SUCCESS magazine. Illustration by Hanane Kai 



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Rachel Hollis’s grand entry into the personal development world started in 2018 with No. 1 New York Times best-seller, Girl, Wash Your Face and 2019 follow-up Girl, Stop Apologizing, but she’s been in the business of self-growth far longer.

Rachel Hollis’s grand entry into the personal development world started in 2018 with No. 1 New York Times best-seller, Girl, Wash Your Face and 2019 follow-up Girl, Stop Apologizing, but she’s been in the business of self-growth far longer. | SUCCESS

New Thought Leader: Rachel Hollis

New Thought Leader: Rachel Hollis | SUCCESS

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Success | SUCCESS | What Achievers Read

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Naveen Jain is crazy.
That’s not an insult, that’s exactly how Jain describes himself. “If people don’t think you’re crazy, then you’re not thinking big,” he wrote in his book <a href="https://amzn.to/3Sl1q9V" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Moonshots: Creating a World of Abundance</a>, released late last year.
And when Jain says “people” he’s not necessarily referring to people on social media or a general public he may never meet. In his case, those “people” are his own family members.
“When my family first heard about the idea of mining the moon, we were all like ‘What?’ ” says Jain’s youngest son Neil.
That’s right, mining the freaking moon.
Naveen told the family, which, in addition to 22-year-old Neil, consists of wife Anu and their two older children, 29-year-old Ankur and 25-year-old Priyanka, that he planned to start a company that would land a rover on the moon and begin the process of mining for helium-3, which Jain believes will ultimately solve the all of Earth’s energy concerns.
Wild as the idea may have seemed, the Jains knew to take Naveen seriously about the company he was forming, Moon Express. And, after the initial shock wore off, they knew he could be just the man to pull off such an astonishing feat.

<blockquote>Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/the-abundance-mindset-a-jain-family-tradition/">The Abundance Mindset: A Jain Family Tradition</a></blockquote>
Jain’s entire life has been structured around a specific mindset that allows him to dream big. But it’s not just about dreaming big, it’s about actually working to accomplish these seemingly impossible feats. A serial entrepreneur, he thinks in terms of <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/11-ways-to-attract-abundance-in-your-life/">abundance</a>. As he says in Moonshots, “Once you change your mindset from one of scarcity to a mindset of abundance, you begin to think of potentials and possibilities rather than the things that can’t be done.”
Not satisfied with just one dramatic goal, Jain has another startup with a seemingly impossible vision. His company Viome has a very simple aim: to make illness optional.
“I believe it’s easier to solve a large problem than to solve a small problem,” Jain says.


<hr />

<h3 style="text-align: center;">I believe it’s easier to solve a large problem than to solve a small problem.</h3>

<hr />

You’re probably not a tech billionaire. You’re probably not planning to land a moon rover in 2020, and you’re probably not trying to change the entire healthcare system. If you’re like most people, you’re more likely worried about your next sale or getting your kids to school on time.

But Jain insists his mindset applies in all areas of life. His life experiences confirm the benefits of the attitude
of abundance.
<h2 class="Body----SUBHEAD">True Scarcity</h2>
“I did not realize that my mother was actually illiterate,” says Jain, reflecting back on his childhood in and around New Delhi, India.
The Jain family was very poor, but his mother and father worked hard to make sure that their son was educated. It is from this background that Jain developed strong intellectual curiosity, which is evident just in the incredible disparity in the companies that Jain has started and the many hats he’s worn throughout his career.
Jain worked hard to get into the Indian Institutes of Technology—among that country’s most prestigious schools—where he earned a degree in engineering. Better still, he says, he achieved greater confidence in himself.
But he wasn’t satisfied: He wanted to prove himself in America. So he moved to the United States in the 1980s and eventually found his way to Microsoft. He married his wife, Anu, and started their family. Anu is a highly accomplished individual in her own right, holding an MBA from Rutgers. She worked alongside Naveen for years at his first startup, all while raising their three children.
The immigrant success story is a familiar one, especially in the tech and startup world. The current CEOs of Google and Microsoft (Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella, respectively) are both fellow Indian immigrants. Sergey Brin, one of the founders of Google, was born in Russia. Perhaps the person Jain is most similar to in his world-changing ideas, though, is another immigrant, South African-born Elon Musk.
All of these men, whether they’d articulate it in exactly the same way that Jain does, share <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/6-ways-to-embrace-an-abundance-mindset/">the abundance mindset</a>. It allowed them to dream about moving to America to do bold things and has given them the ability to succeed in unimaginable ways.
“Oftentimes people who are immigrants are the most resilient, tough, ambitious people,” says Jain’s daughter Priyanka. “To be successful in almost any job, the most important trait you can have is resilience, and I think that is why you see so many successful immigrants. They grew up training their muscle of resilience every single day.”
So: resilience, toughness, ambition. All good qualities for anyone to have. But not everyone with those qualities takes moonshots quite like Jain. But maybe they aren’t as crazy as they initially sound.

<h2 class="Body----SUBHEAD">Aim High</h2>
In 2010, when Jain first proposed the idea for Moon Express, a private company landing on the moon seemed extremely far-fetched. But with the rise of other space companies, like Musk’s SpaceX, the chance of actually getting a lunar lander to the moon becomes less remote.
And as Jain explains in Moonshots, the technology becomes significantly cheaper each year.
He believes that the rocket that will deliver the first Moon Express lander will cost under $5 million. In the past, a private company could never dream of spending the billions and billions of dollars that NASA has spent on space exploration, but now those companies are running more efficiently. Moon Express is one of nine firms that will be assisting NASA on its own mission to return to the moon.

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<img class="alignleft wp-image-36453" title="Naveen Jain Has Crazy Dreams" src="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Naveen-Jain-Has-Crazy-Dreams_clipart.jpg" alt="" width="344" height="550" />And that hits on one of Jain’s key theories about the future. In his opinion, no longer will nation-states be the only superpowers capable of achieving incredible human feats. Jain envisions a world in which entrepreneurs and their companies are the new superpowers. Their ability to adapt and achieve major goals quickly without having to pander to voters or fight through the machinations of bureaucracy gives them a clear advantage over nation-states, according to Jain.
“It doesn’t matter how small you are, you are actually closer to disrupting the industry leaders than being disrupted,” Jain says.
The ability to disrupt an industry is something that Jain thrives on. He firmly rejects the idea that legacy knowledge is more valuable than an outsider’s opinion. He says that if you are in an industry for too long, you are no longer innovating, most likely, and you have a chance of being disrupted.
“So, that means the more the mature the company is, the bigger the chance they really have of becoming obsolete,” Jain says. “That means every single time, if you are starting out, you’re closer to being a success.”
This is why Jain has companies in fields he has no experience in himself. He believes in his, and his team’s, ability to penetrate the space industry as well as the healthcare field.


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<h3 style="text-align: center;">The abundance mindset doesn’t allow him to think small.</h3>

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Viome is the perfect example of Jain’s disruptive mindset. He believes that the healthcare landscape is ordered in the wrong way—patients go see doctors when they are sick and doctors treat the symptoms with medicines that can have harmful side effects. Viome believes that by tracking a customer’s vital signs, specifically their gut health, and supplying them with the proper treatments before a condition worsens, they can eliminate illnesses before symptoms even arise.
Jain puts it in revolutionary terms: What if illness were elective?
The abundance mindset doesn’t allow him to think small.

<h2 class="Body----SUBHEAD">Even If You Miss</h2>
It’s a cliché classroom poster: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
The saying, credited to several sources including the Power of Positive Thinking author Norman Vincent Peale, is, of course, technically inaccurate. But it’s quite inspiring if you work for Moon Express. Jain believes that entrepreneurs never fail; they just pivot.
His life hasn’t been a never-ending string of successes. His first company, InfoSpace, was at one time valued over $31 billion during the Dot Com Bubble of the late 1990s, according to a 2005 Seattle Timesarticle. But, like many tech companies in that era, it collapsed. Jain and his fellow executives became mired in lawsuits.
Jain says many of the issues with InfoSpace came down to inexperience.
“I was a victim of being a first-time entrepreneur. I wasn’t paying attention to the minor details,” he says.
His oldest son Ankur (named to the SUCCESS30 Under 30 in this issue for his own accomplishments) grew up going to board meetings at InfoSpace and was often at the office with his dad as a youngster. He remembers the difficulty of the post-crash days, but credits his father’s impressive ability to think positively with his quick rebound.
“A lot of people can get beaten down by stuff like that,” Ankur says. “He didn’t spend time complaining or self-loathing. He just focused on the next steps. That is a powerful mindset.”
<img class="aligncenter wp-image-36296 size-full" title="Naveen Jain Has Crazy Dreams" src="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/DSC0485.png" alt="Naveen Jain" width="506" height="863" />©Mark Perlstein

<h2 class="Body----SUBHEAD">Success or Something Close</h2>
Perhaps that’s the unstated through line of all of Naveen Jain’s ventures. Yes, he wants to land on the moon and successfully mine it for the helium-3 gas that he believes will eliminate the need for the energy resources we fight wars over here on Earth. Being the guy who ends war while also making illnesses optional would be a pretty nice way to be remembered.
But perhaps falling short wouldn’t be the worst thing. Failure for Moon Express could mean that it becomes one of the few private companies capable of landing on the moon and still benefits mankind in the future. Failure for Viome might still mean making the world a bit healthier—and doesn’t every little bit count in that regard? These are noble goals in their own right, but only made possible by the initial goal being so far-fetched that “settling” is still world-changing.
Jain, at age 59 and worth billions, could have retired to the golf course a long time ago. But there’s nothing crazy, audacious and world-changing about lowering your handicap.
He sums it up this way: “Why would you want to waste your life on chasing a small ball on a golf course, when you could be chasing the moon?”
The moon has a long association with people perceived to be crazy. Our English word lunatic comes from the Latin lunaticus, referring to the moon, as Romans believed it caused madness.
Only time will tell if Jain is remembered as a lunatic or a lunar legend, but for now he isn’t worried. He doesn’t determine his success by the amount of money he’s made or the acclaim he’s earned. Instead, it’s all about the problems he’s solved and the things he’s created and the next steps.

<blockquote>Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/think-slow-and-other-tricks-for-better-problem-solving/">Think Slow and Other Tricks for Better Problem-Solving</a></blockquote>
This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://store.success.com/by-media/success-magazine-fall-2019-the-side-hustlers-handbook.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fall 2019 issue of SUCCESS magazine</a>.

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An abundance-based life philosophy has serial entrepreneur Naveen Jain thinking big—really big—and testing the limits of what is possible.

An abundance-based life philosophy has this serial entrepreneur thinking big—really big. | SUCCESS

Naveen Jain Has Crazy Dreams

Naveen Jain Has Crazy Dreams | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Naveen-Jain-1.jpg

The ability to find solutions to problems and shoot for seemingly unobtainable goals has rubbed off on all three Jain children. Ankur Jain graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania while both Priyanka and Neil Jain graduated from Stanford.
Priyanka helped build a school for girls in Afghanistan when she was only 14 years old. Both Neil and Ankur work at Kairos, a startup incubator founded by Ankur that supports businesses that tackle global problems.
Ankur, whose own startup Humin was acquired by Tinder in 2016, created his first company when he was 10 years old. Despite having a billionaire father, Ankur says that his parents were often strict on not spending money frivolously. So when he wanted something that wasn’t essential or beneficial for education, it had to come out of his own pocket.
Ten-year-old Ankur had one goal in mind: He wanted to dunk a basketball.
As a “skinny little Indian kid,” in Ankur’s words, he knew he had little chance of making the basketball team. But there was one product on the market that promised to improve his chances. “I read online about these plyometric things you can wear on your shoes to help your vertical jump,” Ankur recalls. “They were like $110 and my parents wouldn’t buy them for me.”
That didn’t deter Ankur. Instead, he decided to be like his father. He started his own company, but instead of finding an industry he knew nothing about, he concentrated on something every 10-year-old kid was into at the time, and created a quiz-based portal for AOL Instant Messenger. In Ankur’s words, it exploded in popularity. Using this newfound success, Ankur made his move.
“I called the company that made these plyometric things and asked for the CEO and somehow the assistant put me on the phone with the guy,” says Ankur. “I told him about my portal and said I’d love to do some promotion of their product through my portal, but he needed to send me a free pair as payment.”
Ankur didn’t land his moonshot. He didn’t develop calves of steel or become the next Vince Carter.
“I never dunked,” Ankur says. “But I did touch the rim.”

<blockquote>Related: <a href="https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/naveen-jain-has-crazy-dreams/">Naveen Jain Has Crazy Dreams</a></blockquote>
This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://store.success.com/by-media/success-magazine-fall-2019-the-side-hustlers-handbook.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fall 2019 issue of SUCCESS magazine</a>.

The ability to find solutions to problems and shoot for seemingly unobtainable goals has rubbed off on all three of Naveen Jain’s children.

The ability to find solutions to problems and shoot for seemingly unobtainable goals has rubbed off on all three of Naveen Jain’s children. | SUCCESS

The Abundance Mindset: A Jain Family Tradition

The Abundance Mindset: A Jain Family Tradition | SUCCESS

https://successcom.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Naveen-Jain_The-Abundance-Mindset-1.jpg