I've been struggling with this business for two years, the economy seems to be falling apart, I'm ready to give up. What does Richard Branson tell me to do?
Richard Branson:
Do everything you can to survive and not to give up. As long as you tried everything you can, then if you fail, you'll sleep okay and you'll pick yourself up and when things are better you'll start again. If on the other hand, you give up too readily you will forever kick yourself. I wish you all the best in your quest, because I'm afraid there's a lot of people who will fail.
And I think the other important thing is not to take failure too seriously. It's something that happens to... something like 80% of all small business people fail. They either go into chapter 11 or actually go bankrupt and that's a lot of people and some people take that really badly and they should realize that the important thing is just to learn from it and come back and start again.
An awful lot of really big multimillionaires and billionaires who have been through 2 or 3 bankrupt companies in their lives have learnt from them and have come back stronger. It is what limited companies were designed for by governments. It was to say to people... try things, and if you fail, it shouldn't affect you personally, people know the risks in dealing with you.
Don't be embarrassed about your failures as long as you tried everything you can to avoid it, don't take it too personally.
Back from my long break! Hope people are still around. This video that I just uploaded is an edited Commencement Address by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the 38th Governor of California, at the University of Southern California on Rules of Life. Enjoy!
Arnold Schwarzenegger:
People ask me all the time, they say to me "What is the secret to Success?" The First rule is Trust Yourself, but what is most important is that you have to be dig down, dig deep down and ask yourselves who you want to be, not what but who. And I'm talking about not with your parents and teachers want you to be, I'm talking about favoring out for yourselves, what makes you Happy, no matter how crazy it may sound to the people.
Rule number one was trust yourselves no matter how, what anyone else thinks.
Rule number Two is Break the Rules. We have so many rules in Life about everything. I say break the rules! Not the law, but break the rules. It is impossible to be maverick or a true original if you're too well behaved and not want to break the rules. You have to think outside the box. That's what I believe. After all, what is the point of being on this Earth if all you want is be like by everyone and avoid trouble?
The only way I ever got anyplace was by breaking some of the rules.
Rule number Three: Don't Be Afraid to Fail. Anything I've ever attempted, I was always willing to fail. You can't always win, but don't be afraid of making decisions. You can't be paralyzed by fear or failure or you will never push yourself. You keep pushing because you believe in yourself and in your vision and you know that it is the right thing to do, and success will come. So don't be afraid to fail.
Rule number Four which is Don't Listen to the Naysayers. How many times have you heard that you can't do this and you can't do that and it's never been done before. I love it when someone says that no one has ever done this before, because then when I do it that means I'm the first one that has done it. So pay no attention to the people that say it can't be done. I never listen that, "You can't!" I always listen to myself and say, "Yes You Can!"
Rule number Five, which is the most important rule of all: Work Your Butt Off. Believe in leaving no stone unturned. Mohammed Ali, one of my great heroes, had a great line in the '70s when he was asked, "How many sit-ups did you do?" He said: "I don't count my sit-ups, I only count when it starts hurting. When I feel pain, that's when I start counting, because that's when it really counts." That's what makes you a champion. That's the way it is in everything. No pain, no gain. When you are partying, horsing around, someone out there at the same time is working hard. Someone is getting smarter, and someone is winning, just remember that. If you want to win, there is absolutely no way around hard, hard work.
None of my rules by the way of success will work unless you do.I've always figured out that there's 24 hours a day. You sleep six hours, and have 18 hours left. I know that there are some of you out there that say well, wait a minute, I sleep 8 hours or 9 hours a day. Well then, just sleep faster I would recommend.
Rule number Six which is a very important rule: It's About Giving Back. Whatever path that you take in your lives, you must always find time to give something back, something back to your community, give something back to your state or to your country. Let me tell you something, reaching out and helping people will bring you more satisfaction than anything else you have ever done.
Remember those Six Rules: Trust Yourself, Break Some Rules, Don't Be Afraid To Fail, Ignore The Naysayers, Work Like Hell, and Give Something Back.
Nick Vujicic is an Australian preacher and motivational speaker. At aged seventeen, he started his own non-profit organization, Life Without Limbs. A
longtime resident of Australia, he now lives in southern California. It
was in recent years that Nick made the move from Australia to Southern
California from where he now continues to passionately travel around the
world, spreading a message of hope to all people.This is a short edited clip from one of Nick Vujicic's talks.
Nick Vujicic:
Thank you, thank you very much! Good Morning everybody. Morning. How you doing? All fine? All sweet? Nice to see you! My name is Nick Vujicic and it's a pleasure to be with you. I have no arms and no legs and I was actually born this way. I have no limbs but I have a chicken drumstick. We call this a little chicken drumstick because first of all it looks like one and second of all sometimes my dog thinks it's one. And I tell you, man, it's so funny, he comes up to start biting on it and I have to hit him in the head a couple of times.
So with my little foot I can also write. This is my pen here. I can actually write and type with my foot and I learned how to draw and all this sort of thing, so that's pretty cool.
I play drums. Do you believe me?
You like that? Wouldn't it be really cool if I could get this on my wheelchair and play it while I'm driving? And get some techno going like, here we go... one, two, three, four...
But honestly, along the way, you might fall down like this, alright? So what do you do when you fall down? Get back up! Everybody knows to get back up, because if I start walking, I'm not going to get anywhere. But I tell you there are some times where you fall down, you feel like you don't have the strength to get back up, so you sort of put a mask on your face and come to school and pretend that everything is okay when it's not and you go home, and lay in your bed when no one's looking at you, when you don't have to impress anybody and you're yourself.
And fear comes in. You know the fear that you have as soon as you walked into the doors of your house? Maybe it's a broken home. Maybe you have doubt in your life. Maybe you don't know for sure what's going to be happening in the future and it scares you.Maybe you're worried about what people think of you, what people say about you. Just that fear that paralyzes you and I just wan to ask you today, do you think you have hope?
Because I tell you I'm down here, face down, and I have no arms and no legs, it should be impossible for me to get up. I mean, you go home and tie up the legs and arms of your brothers and sisters and like push them down and see how long it's going to take them to get back up.You know what I mean? You know you can tell them that you'll see them tomorrow. You know what I mean? But this is the thing - it should be impossible for me to get back up. But it's not.You see, I'll try 100 times to get up and if I fail 100 times - if I fail and I give up, do you think that I'm ever going to get up? No. But if I fail and I try again? And again and again? For as long as I try there is always that chance of me getting up. Does that make sense? And it's not the end until you've given up. And just the fact that you're here, should persuade you that you have another chance to get back up.
There's still hope.I'm not here today to tell you that I understand your pain.I don't know how it feels to be abused.I don't know how it feels to feel quote "fat" or you've got an eating disorder.I don't know how it feels to have a broken home. I don't know how it feels. But I know how it feels to have a broken heart. And I know how it feels to be alone. And I want you to know that I've found my strength in Jesus Christ and you're going to find your strength in whatever you find in it. But I just want you to know that it's not the end. It matters how you are going finish. Are you going to finish strong?And you will find that strength to get back up, like this...
Don't give up. And you know that there is always someone out there who believes in you and who loves you just the way that you are.
Will Smith: I have a great time with my life and I wanna share it.
Shares his WISDOM on Life
I love living, and I think that's infectious, it's something that you can't fake.
GREATNESS exists in all of Us
Greatness is not this wonderful, esoteric, illusive, God-liked feature that only the special among us will ever taste. It's something that fully exist in all of us. Very simple, this is what I believe and I'm willing to die for it. I know who I am and I know what I believe, and that's all I need to know, so from there, you do what you need to do. And I think what happens is we make the situation more complex. It can be that easy.
YES it can
We didn't grow up with the sense that where we were was where we were gonna be. We grew up with the sense that where we were almost didn't matter because we will becoming something greater.
There's no shortcut to SUCCESS
The separation of talent and skill is one of the greatest misunderstood concepts for people who were trying to excel, who have dreams, they want to do things. Talent you have it naturally, skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.
I've never really viewed myself as particularly talented, where I excel is ridiculous, sickening work effort. You know while the other guys sleeping, I'm working, while the other guys eating, I'm working.
There's no easy way around it, no matter how talented you are, your talent is going to fail you if you are not skilled. You know if you don't study, if you don't work really hard, and dedicate yourself to be better every single day, you will never be able to communicate with people, with your artistry the way that you want.
The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I'm not afraid to die on a treadmill. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, but if we get on the treadmill together, there's two things - You are going to get off first, or I'm going to die. It's really that simple.
Lay one Brick at a TIME
One summer his dad tore down a brick wall in front of his business, and told twelve year old Will and his nine year old brother to rebuild it, the job they said was impossible. It took them a year and a half... but they did it. Will Smith: And he said: "Now don't you ever tell me there's something that you can't do."
You don't try to build a wall, you don't set out to build a wall, you don't say "I'm going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that's ever been built." You don't start there. You say, 'I'm going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid." You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall.
FOCUS on making a difference
You know there's an idea that my grandmother always said, "If you gonna be here, then there's a necessity to make a Difference." She always instilled the spiritual responsibility that you have to make every group you come contact with better.
I want to do good. I want the world to be better because I was here.
I want my life, I want my work, my family, I want it to mean something. If you're not making someone else's life better then you're wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other lives better.
Represent an IDEA
I want to represent an Idea. I want to represent possibilities. I want to represent the Idea that you really can make what you want. One of my favorite books is the Alchemist, Paulo Cohelo... and I just believe that. I believe that I can create whatever I want to create.
You have to BELIEVE
The first step before anybody else in the world believes it is you have to Believe it. There's no reason to have a plan B because it distracts from plan A. I think that there's a certain delusional quality that all successful people have to have. You have to believe that something different than what has happened for the last 50 million years of history... you have to Believe that something different can happen.
Confucius said, "He who says he can't and he who says he can't are both usually right."
NOTHING is Unrealistic
Being Realistic is the most commonly travelled road to mediocrity. Why would you be Realistic? What's the point of being Realistic? I'm going to do it! It's done! It's already done. The second I decide it's done it's already done, now we just got to wait for you to see.
It's unrealistic to walk into a room and flip a switch and the lights come on, that's unrealistic! Fortunately Edison didn't think so. It's unrealistic to think you're gonna bend a piece of metal and fly people over an ocean. That's unrealistic! But fortunately the Wright Brothers and others didn't believe that, and it just seems like such a ridiculous idea to me to embrace the idea that it's not going to happen and that's not real for that to happen. As soon as you say it, now you just made that real.
Our THOUGHTS are Physical
Our Thoughts, our Feelings, our Dreams, our Ideas are physical in the Universe, that if we dream something, if we picture something, if we commit ourselves to it ... that is a physical thrust towards realization that we can put into the Universe. That the Universe is not a thing that's going to push us around. That the world and people and situations are not something that push us around. That we are going to bend the universe and command and demand that the Universe becomes what we want it to be.
I study the patterns of the Universe.
There's a redemptive power that making a Choice has, you know rather than feeling like you're an effect to all the things that are happening. Make a Choice! Just decide, what it's going to be, who you're gonna be, how you're gonna do it. Just Decide! And from that point the Universe is going to get out of your way, it's like water. It wants to move and go around stuff.
You know there's a flow of the Universe that I've grown to know just how to go with it.
You really gotta FOCUS
I realised that to have the level of success that I wanna have it's difficult to spread it out and do multiple things. It takes such a desperate, obsessive Focus. You've really gotta Focus with all your fiber, and all of your heart, and all of your creativity.
Attack your Fears
I'm motivated by fear. Fear of fear! I hate being scared to do something, and I think what developed in my early days was the attitude that I started attacking things that I was scared of.
Be WILLING to die for the TRUTH
You can't be scared to die for the Truth. The Truth is the only thing that is always going to be constant.
Protect your DREAM
Don't ever let somebody tell you you can't do something. Not even me, alright? You got a Dream? You've got to protect it! People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. You want something? Go get it! Period.
I’m wondering what would be the single most valuable piece of advice you’d give us to even attempt to create some of the value that you guys have done in both your very impressive companies.
Steve Jobs:
People say you have to have a lot of Passion in what you're doing, it's totally true, and the reason is because it's so hard, and if you don't, any rational person would give up. It's really hard, and you have to do it over a sustain period of time, so if you don't love it, you don't have fun doing it, you don't really love it, you gonna give up.
That's what happened to most people actually, if you look at the ones that being successful in the eyes of society and those that didn't, oftentimes it's the ones who were successful love what they did so they can persevere, when it got really tough, and the ones that didn't love it quit, because they're sane, right? Who would want to put up with this stuff if you don't love it?
So it's a lot of hard work and it's a lot of worrying constantly, and if you don't love it, you gonna fail, so you've got to love it, you've got to have passion and I think that's the high-order bit.
