Here’s a confession…
I’ve been pretty mediocre throughout my entire career.
No contract in Romania ⚽️
At 20, I tried to win a contract as a professional soccer player in Eastern Europe.
I honestly had no right to be with a first division club, but somehow I got myself there.
I was a decent player growing up, but I was never great. Never #1 on good teams, in the state, and forget the nation. Same in college. I barely played my first two seasons.
Getting friendly with Rihanna and Pharrell 🎧
After some injury struggles and landing in NYC, I eventually pursued another venture.
This time it was DJing. It started as something a friend of mine wanted to do together for fun, but once I caught the bug, I was all in.
Was I good enough to be a full-time professional DJ? Hell no. But somehow, I got myself in a position to be the opening act for Rihanna for one gig (remember her “Pon De Replay” days?).
Then I managed to get in charge of Gucci’s worldwide background music through my employer at the time, Scratch. The highest compliment paid during that nearly three year period was Pharrell Williams walking into a Gucci store and asking “who made these mixes?”
I even made an appearance in a book about DJing, called “On The Record.”
What the f*ck?
Selling into the Fortune 10 📈
Next up… sales.
Back in 2008, when I was just cutting my teeth in SMB sales, I was about to get fired from a local community events paper, having only sold two small print ads in a span of four months.
Luckily I was smart enough to move on before that happened.
Exactly ten years later to that day, I found myself sitting across from Steve Nelson, the then CEO of UnitedHealthcare, a Fortune 7 company, talking about how we could personalize health care as easily as music playlists through conversational AI (maybe my DJ experience was valuable after all?).
We ended up closing a multi-year, multi-million dollar deal a couple years later.
The lesson in telling you all of this is this…
I thrive through a personal operating system (and so can you) ⚡️
Even though I’ve been mediocre in my skills across whatever domain I’ve pursued, I’ve managed to deliver exceptional experiences – giving all that I could, but gaining way more than I deserve.
Reflecting back on the common thread across these ventures, and now my forward-looking pursuits as a creator, community-builder, investor, solopreneur, and author; I recognize I was able to benefit not from my skills, but more through how I consistently operated.
My personal operating system is built on two very, and I mean very, simple premises. I see skipping them as the #1 reason for holding a lot of people back with way more talent than I could dream of.
Here they are:
1) Forget the things I can’t control
This means I avoid being affected by things like:
- – Gossip
- – Volatility
- – Macro events
- – Change of leadership
- – Other peoples’ reactions
2) Intentionally and intensely focus on what I can control
Important inputs like:
- – What information I consume and when
- – How I treat my body and mind
- – How I start my day
- – How I end my day
- – How I treat others
Pointing towards your North Star ⭐️
Last time, I talked about putting this personal operating system into action.
Here, I wanted to share my story as a reminder that you too can systemize success and satisfaction by focusing your TEMPR on the things you can control and letting go of the things you can’t control.
Maybe you feel like you’re not tapping into your full potential, or you’re not getting more than your fair share, or perhaps you’re getting distracted by things out of your control?
Before we get too deep into the year, now is the time to course correct. That’s why I have intentionally been using the past few editions to help get your mindset, approach, and system finely tuned.
I have found that pointing your personal operating system in the right direction starts by asking yourself some very open-ended questions, along with some quiet time to reflect and plan.
You can do all of that HERE.
Besides, how can we be in a position to help others if we can’t best serve ourselves?
I know you’re here to Make More (money, time, and satisfaction) and Hustle Less, so future editions will get more tactical. Next time I deconstruct the half a billion dollar proposal I used to win a top global cable company a few years back.
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When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:
- 1. Get the exact system I’ve used to go from earning $200K to over $1M a year in SaaS sales without burning out here. (1,800+ students)
- 2. Join a community of Purpose-Curious™ sellers in the Make More Hustle Less Club where we develop a personal operating system together here. (300+ members)
- 3. Book a 1:1 coaching session to up-level your performance here. (Limited spots available)