13 Components

The 13 Components of My Future Success

One of the great things about having your personal blog is that you can be as narcissistic as you want to be. It’s your voice, your vision, and in many ways it gives you an opportunity to think outside of your head. For many, that’s the beauty of Twitter: short and concise thoughts out loud. As we’re nearing the second half of 2009, for the first time I am realizing the opportunity ahead of myself, and in many ways seeing a shift in who I am and what I plan to be. I have had quite a bit of changes in my life in the first half of 2009, and it really has put things in perspective of what my mission has been all along. The shift has occurred and it feels like some sort of coming of age.

Success is one of those terms that gets thrown around and the definition lies in the eyes of the beholder. Too often we associate success with material possessions, status, and prestige. When I talk and think about success, it means that you accomplish the goals you set out to make,  you feel good about what you’ve done, and you make other lives better as a result. For anyone that really knows me, I have a burning desire to succeed in my own way. It doesn’t mean that my way is the best (or good for that matter), but it is the way I’ve always wanted it to be. Many people are turned off by my I am the CEO of Emile Cambry, Jr. philosophy and in many ways, I’ve compromised many situations as a result. Many people who have started reading this blog post, have already clicked off and went to browse another site. I’m very comfortable with that, something I wouldn’t have been in the past. But the great thing about this coming of age is that I have no regrets, regrets I would have had in the past. The universe is aligning itself based on my vision, and there is some shake-out of the forces that throws off that alignment.

As an entrepreneur, you really begin to learn a great deal about yourself. Entrepreneurship is one of the hardest things in the world in my highly biased opinion. Your job is to put yourself at risk personally, professionally, and financially where in many ways, you feel like you have control, but you have no control at all. It takes a long time to determine whether you are wasting your time, and everyone and their grandmother questions how could you make such a gamble. Your previous corporate job sometimes seems like a good idea when you’re down. Everyone has their two cents on what you should be doing and very few think you’ll ever succeed.

I am very far from my vision of success for myself. I’m so thankful and grateful for the opportunities I have been a part of. The job isn’t done. A story my mother always reminisces about is how in kindergarten, I always had to be the first in line, even if that meant I had to finish playing early and anticipate when the teacher was going to tell everyone to line up to get ready to go inside or outside.

I was tweeting (posting to Twitter) and I had a brief exchange with one of my Twitter followers that I follow as well about the need to get organized, stay focused, and keep things moving forward. It occurred to me that I didn’t know the components of what I needed to do, and how I needed to do it. I had to know the various factors that will holistically make me succeed and things to keep in mind moving forward as I enter a new stage in life. Many people probably make this realization much earlier in their lives, but for me, better late than never. For anyone that follows Mark Cuban’s blog, much of this is inspired by his Success and Motivation blog posts.

I am planning on adding a new tab to my blog, that strictly discusses my challenges and triumphs aiming to align my intentions of wanting to succeed and these 13 components of my future success. It will be called 13 Components.

The 13 Components Of My Future Success

1) Positivity. Over the past year, I have started to study and understand the power of a positive mental attitude. I’ve integrated it in my life with symbols, reminders, and achievements that I attribute solely to having the mindset that enables the universe to work in my favor. I think we have to have the mindset to accept the blessings that come our way, and thinking that every day will be an awesome day, will make that happen. Every day we make mistakes, but it is is impotant to open your eyes in the morning, and be grateful and thankful for those experiences. Life is too short,and each experience will serve as motivation and inspiration when you finally put it all together. I have seen the Secret, but it’s much deeper than that. My understanding of how our mind interacts with the universe is impacted by quantum mechanics, books such as Evolve Your Brain, and other literature I read about our understanding of the brain. The old saying is that we only use 10% of our brain. There’s so much about our brain that we have no idea about. Maybe, just maybe, it’s much more powerful than what we’ve ever imagined it to be.

2) Family and Friends. I thought about putting this as number 1, because invariably, we’re going to assume that there is some order of importance assigned to these components. In this case, I felt that highly positive family and friend relationships start with my positive attitude, which enables blessings such as friends and family to be appreciated. One thing that I’ve learned in 2009 is that the people that I have to double down my efforts on, are the people that have been with me since the beginning, and will always be there. I’m not saying that new people you meet are not important or a necessity, but what I will say is that there is something special about the lifelong friends and family that support you through it all. People come through our lives each and every day, and I feel that we have a tendency to overvalue their priority because of the freshness of the situation, but moving forward, I am going to spend more time with the friends and family that helped me get to where I am today. I have been lucky enough to have special people who have really given a great deal to me.

3) Eating healthy. I have never been the healthy eating type and I always felt that I could lift weights to counteract the tainted fuel for the body. What I am starting to learn, trying to incorporate more raw fruits and veggies in my diet, that these essential ingredients are important to sustainable energy, mental toughness and well being, and to ward off diseases and colds that take us away from our goals from time to time. As a foundation for goals, it’s becoming more and more important to give yourself the best chance to stay in the game long enough to accomplish goals that are out of the ordinary. I put Premium fuel in my car, so why wouldn’t I power myself with better alternatives? At the end of the day, say what you want to say about Barry Bonds and his steroid use, the reason he was great was because he stayed in the game for 20+ years at the highest level, not one or two good years. To get to the level where very few get, is a result of time, dedication, and desire. If you don’t enable your body to last the tests of time, the other factors don’t even matter.

4) Working out. As with eating healthy, it’s another component that I’m trying to re-integrate into the regular routine of my life so that I can be sustainable long-term and release the stresses of the day.

5) Organization. I have never been an organized person, but with more and more responsibilities and goals, it seems impossible for me to take that next jump without being organized. I’m notorious for being helter skelter at times, and moving forward, this is going to be critical for the higher value opportunities. I am planning on using more web applications, more tracking tools, and make use of it on a daily basis.

6) Goal setting: Putting it out there to the universe. One thing I’ve always been shy about is making others aware of my goals, whether it’s a diet, launching a new opportunity, or wanting to spend more time with my parents. Combined with Organization, it’s easier said than done for me. Not my strong suit, but a necessary evil.

7) Recording Progress and Reflection: Write about it! Through my blog and my Twitter account, this is the conduit to write about the ups and downs of the journey. Additionally, I’m going to have a personal private blog to capture the journey more intimately. These 13 Components will serve as a foundation of how progress is measured.

8 ) Passion/Hunger: Unfortunately, but fortunately, I thrive off of passion. If I’m not passionate about something, I do a terrible job. Most of the time, it’s either hot or cold. There is rarely gray area with me. My goals moving forward is to spend the time with projects I’m passionate about, and leave the other opportunities that are not as interesting. Too often, I have had a tendency to spread myself too thin, with projects that aren’t interesting, but because I promised someone that I’d help. I have to be hungry about the opportunity.

9) Execution and Effort: As Mark Cuban said in on of my favorite blog posts, there’s only one thing you can control in this life, effort. You can’t control whether someone says yes, or things fall in your favor, but more times than not, if you work your rear end off, good things will happen. Effort isn’t measured by how many hours you sat at your desk. Effort is when you execute on your plan. Either you make the commitment to get results or you don’t get any.

10) Work with others who share similar philosophies of hard work and effort. There’s alot of great ideas on out there.  Lots of promising plans. There is a lack of people wanting to succeed as hard as you do. There can’t be a Kobe Bryant of the team to try and carry the rest of the team on your back. It doesn’t work that often in life. Any Business 101 book will tell you that the strength of your team is your most important asset. You have to be on the same page, and willing to commit to each other as you would a successful marriage.

11) Make No Excuses! In the past, I have fallen into the habit of putting the blame on someone else, or blaming things out of my control. The universe aligns itself to fit properly into your plan. My success falls upon me, and no other person is more critical to this than me.

12) Rest and a Routine One of the things that I used to wave around like a battle flag is how little sleep I got. Oh, poor me, I don’t sleep because I’m Mr. Overachiever trying to make something happen. As with my time at JPMorgan, you realize how much of the day is wasted by not doing anything. Breaks are good. Time off is better. What’s more important is getting proper rest, establishing a routine that I can STICK to, and having the positive mental outlook that will make it possible for me to execute on a daily basis.

13) Stop Caring What Others Think: If you think my business project is stupid, I don’t care. If you think I am wasting my time, it doesn’t matter. Too often, decisions are guided by the social acceptance from friends, family, and disinterested parties. Why do we do so much to get their approval? I’m terrible at this, and moving forward, my ability to push through the doubts and cynicism is what makes Components 1-12 all worthwhile.

Success is a marathon, something that only comes to very few who set out for it. In reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, it takes approximately 10,000 hours for someone to achieve that next level of greatness. I want it, I’ve always wanted it, and I hope to make a great deal of people better off as a result.