This summer I had the esteemed privilege of being a keynote speaker in front of 8000 of the world’s top financial professionals at The Million Dollar Roundtable. Recently someone asked me, “Rory, aren’t you intimidated talking in front of people of that caliber?” My response, “Absolutely not.”
Why?
Because contrary to what you might think, it’s not successful people that are too good to learn anything – they got to where they are by being a student of the game. Quite the contrary, it’s the marginal producers of the world who are typically cynical, inconvincible skeptics. It’s the mediocre performers, the average among the masses, the naysayers and the un-excellent that are the ones who often think they know it all.
Successful people, on the other hand, live by The Rent Axiom from Southwestern mentioned in Take the Stairs that says “Success is never owned; it is only rented – and the rent is due every day.”
People who are successful embrace the idea that the rent is due every day. They welcome the challenge. They remain humble, knowing that whatever they did yesterday isn’t enough to last them forever, and they remain hungry, knowing that whatever they’ve accomplished in their past shouldn’t restrict them to what new heights they can achieve in their future.
Successful People Do The Work Others Often Aren’t Willing To Do
Successful people became successful by doing the work that no one else would do. They paid the price that no one else was willing to pay. And they developed the attitude that success isn’t something that is bestowed overnight – but that it’s earned over time.
So no, I’m not intimidated by them – I’m inspired by them. They are people who are on the journey just like me. They are people who know enough to know that they don’t have it all figured out.
And so, instead we take pride in, and are thankful for, one more day, where we get the privilege to pay our dues.
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Rory Vaden, MBA, is a Self-Discipline Strategist, Cofounder of Southwestern Consulting, and New York Times bestselling author of Take the Stairs: 7 Steps to Achieving True Success. Visit him at RoryVaden.com