I have to say…I am pleasantly surprised how well-received my blog post last week about Success Lessons Learned from Kid Rock was. It got a few Diggs, and a lot of positive feedback. Thanks to all of you who posted comments and posted my article (yes…I am talking to the person who shared my work at the Extreme Kid Rock Forum).
So, in the spirit of celebrating Kid Rock and the success lessons, he could teach us, I thought I’d go ahead give you one more thing I learned from Kid Rock (I’m telling you…watch Behind the Music on VH-1…you’ll learn a lot about what it takes to be successful).
One big lesson I learned from Kid Rock is…
…never be afraid to take chances and venture into new areas outside your comfort zone.
Consider Kid Rock for a second. He started as a straight hip-hop icon and has managed to morph himself into a country singer and rock star (think CMA awards here).
I mean what happened to all those other rap/rock bands that came out at the same time as Kid Rock?
Kid Rock has staying power because he went outside his comfort zone, and it paid off BIG TIME for him.
Sometimes, we have to go outside our comfort zones.
Recently, I dropped what I was doing and decided to return to South Korea in order to leverage my previous experience working in South Korea, working for Korean companies, and working with Koreans. And strangely enough, this move has given me opportunities, to do things well outside my comfort zone (like giving speeches, personal coaching with executives relocating to South Korea, etc.). These things are way outside my comfort zone, but I am finding that by not shying away from the things that scare me, I have developed in ways I didn’t think was possible.
When I look at a guy like Kid Rock, he could have stuck with the formula that got him to where he was. But he took a chance and it got him higher than he had even been.
In life, I want to take the Kid Rock approach. It may require me to go way outside my comfort zone sometimes, but isn’t life a little too short to be afraid all the time?
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One day, I was talking with my speaking coach. She looked at me with the most serious face and said, “Carlon, now don’t be offended. You know I tell you things only because I think it will help you.”
I knew this had to be something bad. So, I closed my eyes…
…took a deep breath…
…and waited.
Finally, she spoke.
(more…)
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Now, I’ve done it. Finally put a podcast together. And I think it’s worth the time and effort it took me to set it up. Today’s podcast is an interview with author and speaker Steve Harper. Steve is the author of The Ripple Effect. In this podcast, I talk with Steve about the real and tangible benefits of living selflessly. Listen as Steve and I talk about how ridding yourself of the “what’s in it for me” mentality can benefit you both personally, professionally, and (sometimes) financially.
The Benefits of Selflessness Pocast with Steve Harper [16:26m]:
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“This is the last one, I swear it is,” I said to myself as I lit up another cigarette on my way back from buying my “last” pack. I had done it again. Gone a week and watched my willpower get crushed under the wheels of addiction.
I felt like a complete and total failure. I had tried over and over again to quit. But I wouldn’t make it until…
(more…)
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One of the questions I am asked the most is how to put together a simple budget that someone can actually stick to. Let me tell you: I have tried different kinds of budgets, and most of them flat out don’t work or are nearly impossible to stick to.
But the budget that works for me is the one I discovered…
(more…)
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Picture this:
A coffee shop playing soft cool jazz. A whiff if cigarette fills the air. Men in black turtlenecks. Bohemian artists holding their spiral notebooks. They’re all waiting. Waiting to take their turn at the mike.
One by one they go up, effusing snappy poetic rhymes…some about love…some raging against the current political and social reality…and some just chilling out.
Amidst this scene, a man walks wearing a 3-piece suit, and looks like he is riding high on the corporate ladder. People don’t know him there. But in the corporate world, he is a high-riding VP of an insurance corporation. And before that, he was a big shot lawyer. And that’s EXACTLY what he looks like: a corporate executive.
The people are snickering, especially when he tells them his poem is entitled, “the Snow Man”. Now they’re humming Frosty the Snow Man with an undercurrent of hostility.
He steps up to the mike, and says…
(more…)
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In our quest for a more fulfilling existence, we sometimes start to lose hope. At times, we feel down, hopeless, and discontented. And in times like these, we should look for hope and inspiration wherever we can find it.
So, for the first time on this blog, I am featuring someone else’s writing. It is my honor this week to bring you two inspirational poems from poet and musician Prince Rahman’s latest collection of poetry, Paths of Pondering (re-printed with his permission). I hope they give you a lift where you had none before.
The Gift
By Prince Rahman
Learn
Grow
Breathe deep the gathering fire
You are transformed
More your own true voice
Than you have ever known
Doubts
Like sacrificial lambs
Burst into light
Contradicting their inherent cry to hide
Learn
Grow
You are a gift
Unto the world
A gift much needed
Have you…?
By Prince Rahman
Have you smiled today?
Have you tickled yourself
And grinned a moment away?
Have you gazed at the sky
And sighed
Because its grandeur
Takes your breath away?
Have you thanked yourself
For choosing to live with intention?
Have you thanked yourself
For all the wonderfulness in you?
More in you than there are enough days to mention
Let us thank you
For being who you are
For being how you be
We thank you
So…
Have you smiled today?
Have you?
About the Author
Prince Rahman is a poet, musician, and leadership coach whose mission is to facilitate your ability to become the change you wish to see in your life, and therefore in the world. For more information on how to purchase Paths of Pondering, and its accompanying CD, you can go his site here.
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Posted: July 20th, 2007
Categories:
Inspiration
Tags:
Inspiration,
poetry,
prince_rahman
Comments:
2 Comments.
One day, I watched an interesting “Behind the Music” on VH-1 about Kid Rock. Anyway, I learned more about Kid Rock than I ever cared to know, but I learned A LOT of lessons from it. I won’t go through all of them, but by watching it, I started thinking that using Kid Rock as a role model or success is not such a crazy notion. .
I believe Kid Rock’s success had more to do with his mindset as it did with his music.
So, I present to you 3 important success lessons I learned from Kid Rock:
#1 If you want success, you have to proclaim your desire for success and belief in its inevitability
If you happen to own a copy of Kid Rock’s “Devil Without a Cause,” pop it in now and go to the title track. Kid Rocks exclaims,” I’m goin’ platinum”. When he wrote this, he was nowhere near platinum. In fact, he was lucky to have even gotten signed to a record contract, let alone go platinum.
But if you want to make it, you’ve got to say it and believe it. I don’t mean “fake it till you make it.” And I’m not talking about affirmations. I mean BELIEVING it.
By speaking it out loud, or better yet writing it down, you are proclaiming your success. Kid Rock said it on an album millions would listen to. Imagine how ridiculous that would have sounded had he only sold a few thousand copies?
The point, though, is Kid Rock didn’t care. He made his desires known and shared it with the world.
#2 Feel & Proclaim Your Own Value
If you’re afraid of tooting your own horn, then success will elude you. I’m all for being humble, but if you can’t convey to others your own worth, then how will you achieve what you want in life? You have to know your worth both inside and out.
When Kid Rock was negotiating with record companies, he noted that he wanted “Elvis money and Matchbox 20 money.” That means he felt like he was on par with the King and the top alternative group of the time.
That took a lot of guts, given the fact that he was a nobody outside Detroit at the time. But, he wasn’t afraid to promote himself as the next big thing.
And guess what?
They treated him like he was the next big thing (and eventually, he was).
#3 Never give up
This is the #1 lesson I learned from Kid Rock. This guy’s career should have been over a long time ago. Signed and then dropped from his record label at 18. Told that he couldn’t make it as a white rapper (Vanilla Ice, anyone?).
So, what did he do? He went out, learned to play the guitar, and evolved as a musician.
He worked harder to make it happen. One story that stuck out to me was how he went out and drove 10 hours to mix tracks and worked for peanuts at a studio to record his music. Nothing fell into his lap.
Too many times, people give up at the first sign of hardship. Or they quit when the going gets tough. All I can say is that the music industry is probably the hardest industry to break into…and when you look at stories like Kid Rock’s one thing stands out…
…it’s not always the best that make it, but the ones who persevere through adversity.
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Posted: July 19th, 2007
Categories:
Success Mindset
Tags:
kid_rock,
mindset,
success
Comments:
7 Comments.
“We’ve having another baby!” a friend of mine told me. What joy for them. She was happy. Her husband was also happy. Everything looked like it would be wonderful.
The only problem with another child, however, was the financial burden another child brings. But we didn’t talk about that. I mean who talks about that at times like this.
But my friends did have a problem. They had over $30,000 in credit card debt, 2 car payments, a mortgage payment, and a wealth of other financial problems. So, when I went to their house the next week, imagine my surprise when…
(more…)
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Take a deep breath, and count with me s-l-o-w-l-y:
1…
2…
3…
4…
5…
6…
7…
8…
9…
10…
(more…)
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