This is an incredibly simple 2-step system for maximum achievement and success...
Step 1 - achieve autonomy
Step 2 - use autonomy for maximum achievement
This simple two step system for success is another in a long and growing list of gems cultivated from the Dan Kennedy No BS newsletter. A newsletter I've been subscribed to for quite some time now, and that pays massive dividends every time I open my mailbox, bring it inside, and sit down to devour it on a quiet Sunday morning.
This simple two-step System I read about recently was mentioned in the context of the Fourth of July. A good time for all of us to put ourselves in check in regards to the pursuit or lack thereof, of our own personal and professional independence. Because everywhere you look, the world is secretly working on just the opposite. As Dan pointed out, Thomas Jefferson himself worried a great deal about people's uncanny eagerness to surrender their independence. Look around you and you will easily find example after example of this constant surrender to your employer, your employees, your neighborhood association, your kids' school, to other people's opinions, to "the way things are done around here", to the power of the big corporation, ignorance, and worst of all...conformism for the sake of simplicity. Explained another way... "get in line. This is the way we have always done things, and so this is the way we are going to do it, even if there is a better way. Because it's almost always easier not to change."
The best recent example I have is that of choosing to do something that surprised everyone. Deciding to join the team at Mad City Mitsubishi. Proof that I'm willing to do what needs to be done to maintain my liberty and independence. My dignity. My self-respect. A leap so grand that even my wife couldn't understand what I was doing.
This change was certainly for the better. My Destiny, in fact. The push I needed to commit to joining the Mad City team, and have the opportunity to perform the important and life-changing work we do EVERY day. That experience was also the uncomfortable reminder I needed about never placing my success in the hands of anyone other than me. The important and sometimes silent commitment you have to make every day so that you never end up in the position I found myself in. No man is an island, but he needs to surround himself with the right set of mates to make success a reality.
Still, I want you to know...If you are close to me, and I see you doing something stupid, or if I know there is a better way, I'm not going to follow you over the edge of the cliff just because you think you are in charge. I will question EVERYTHING! And if you don't like it, tough! Because I will NEVER surrender my independence. For anyone...for anything. Neither should you.
The beautiful thing is that at Mad City, this attitude is celebrated! Even revered. Never have I felt more fulfilled while working for someone else than I do here inside this crazy, innovative, and highly misunderstood place. Never I have I felt happier in my work. Never have I felt less afraid to be myself, and to let my incredibly difficult, passionate, and ever expanding personality and ego squeeze in to every corner of the room until everywhere you go, there I am. Ready to pounce!
Now, before we part for the time being, I do want to come back to my initial point about autonomy. Because when I was released back in to the wild by my last employer, I made a very important promise to myself...that I wold NEVER AGAIN move forward in my career building something that was not my own. Fortunately, a company like Mad City celebrates this attitude. In fact, you can't accomplish what they have by being small.
There is no telling where exactly this new sense of autonomy will lead me, and what exactly it will create as I continue the work of reinventing myself and my career. There is one thing for sure, however. Here at Mad City, where we perform the unique and rewarding work of being a 'Dealer for the People', I sense an important role.
-John
...OR, as they like to call here at Mad City...
-"J-Rock!"
