5.30am. Toronto. Aug 6 2008
It’s been a wild week. Last Wednesday I spoke to 600 government purchasing agents in Charlotte, North Carolina. The following day I spoke to 150 motorcycle accessory salespeople from Tucker Rocky in Dallas, Texas. Two days later, I spoke to 900 new recruits to Deloitte in Phoenix and yesterday, I spoke to 650 sales consultants from Infosys in Toronto, Canada.
Each seminar necessitated its own preparation. Each seminar took me into a different world, populated by its own professionals, challenged by its own problems and opportunities. Most importantly, each seminar introduced me to new points of view, opinions and perspective.
Here are the ten things I learnt since last Wednesday:
- Do more with less. Adapting to the reality of scarcity leads to abundance. Don’t blame, build.
- Be prepared to take on more without burning out. There is a major skills shortage looming.
- There are great people in government, but they’re aging and replacements are hard to find.
- Tough times demand huge entrepreneurial energy. Opportunity creation will drive the next upturn.
- Boom times are a function of mindset not circumstance. The best bend circumstance to their will.
- Whatever your experience, think like a new recruit: be idealistic, excited, anxious, curious, vocal.
- Surround yourself with the best people. We become the company we keep. The person with the best colleagues wins.
- Crises are your best friends. That’s when demand for quality is highest – and demand will always outstrip supply.
- The world speaks a common language. Global similarities dwarf local differences. Geography is less important than ideology. Boundarylessness is the new buzzword.
- Seek out and savour conversations with people who come from the place furthest away from yourself. Feast on their flavours. Talk. Listen. Learn. Laugh. Love. Grow.
What’s the one most important thing you learnt in the last week? Let me know. I want to learn it as well. Remember: paying forward is the best payback.
Hi Mike
love your blog, what did i learn last week i realised its not how many times we fall down in life, it is how many times we get up
we just have to push through, and the only way we get any where is through our challenges
and thought of this – just to let you know the elevator is broken
take the 12 steps one at a time, and thats it, go slow.
have a great week
Caryn
Thanks for sharing your remarkable life lessons Mike!
Here is what I learned last week:
Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom.
One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it,
but one cannot communicate and teach it.
Wisdom truly begins with wonder.
Hi Mike,
I just discovered your blog and I think it is fantastic. You have guided me through so much learning over the past few weeks (since I discovered your site and your programs).
I look forward to the opportunity to see you speak in person in Saskatoon on October 14th. I am sure it will be amazing.
The most important thing I learned last week was:
When you finish a task or project that has been hanging around for a while, even if you don’t feel you have the energy to complete it, it provides you with an excitement and an energy that goes beyond words.
Thanks for your inspiration.
I learned that there is always a way…
Can’t wait to hear one life, one meeting…Cheers
Hi Mike,
Some months ago I attended one of your performances for DHL in Bahrain were I ended sitting in the second row. At that time I had never heard about Mike Lipkin or others doing those motivation presentations, so didnt expected anything and when you in the beginning of your presentation “used” me as an “negative” example my thought was: What a rude person! Specially because I couldnt see the big bosses reaction behind me.
But during this 90 minutes presentation I became more and more interested in your message and are problably the only one from the room that day brought your books and cds.
Later the same month I left DHL after 14 years in business and started a new challenge in my home country Denmark, but only after 6 weeks I left the country again as I couldnt fit in it anymore after 10 years abroad. On my way to a new country, Spain, I listend to your cd´s On Fire and did that on and on again and LOVE the program!
Now after nearly 8 weeks here thinking positive and use a “defeat” positive, trying to See More, Have More and Be More and find my Why and How a great oppurtunity suddenly came in trough my door!
Its difficult to believe if you create things in your mind it will come to you, but right now i have this feeling for the first time in my life and will thank you for open up my mind!
Also I have listened and read a bit of Ichi-go Ichi-e and that book mixed with On Fire is helping a lot as I have started up a Network Marketings business on my own.
Ones again thanks for your words, even you were rude to begin with, but when I heard your voice I can see you staying on the stage in Bahrain.
Sure every meeting are important for You, but I still have a feeling that Your meeting with Nelson Mandela was the most importantant one 🙂
STAY ON FIRE MIKE!