CHAPTER IV
YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE PASSION
“You Must Want To Become an Alpha Male”
Whether you’re planning to put up a restaurant business or fresh out of college, you’re simply thinking of the right path to take in a career. It is a ‘must’ that you go with your passions if you want to succeed.
For the most part, when we talk about success in life or in our professions, it’s inevitable that the conversation leads to certain personal character traits. Things that come to mind are: determination, ambition, right attitude, discipline, persistence, even connections and some luck. These are deemed to be critical for success. What we usually tend to forget and include is passion, or what I had described in the earlier chapter as “lots of heart”.
This important thing, this passion for whatever serious venture we get into (as in becoming an alpha male) is an integral part of the success formula. In fact, in most cases, it makes all the difference. Passion – along with the other good traits – and success go hand in hand.
What is true Success?
But, even before I go on with why you should be following your passions, let me talk a bit about success. Often, it is immediately associated with great wealth and widespread fame. These are not, however, the primary definition of success. The true meaning of success is the achievement of something you and I greatly desire. Ergo, the most successful guys in the world are those who get what they want out of life. Of course, money, along with some degree of fame and respect, is a good goal to have. We all like to have plenty of money to keep ourselves and our family comfortably sustained. But you know what? These things almost come naturally as by-products of success. The equation goes something like this: the more passion you put into your work, the better chances of success that leads to wealth.
What is this passion I’m talking about?
As I talk about passion in relation to becoming an alpha male, keep your imagination in check. Don’t let it run wild as to conjure images of you and Megan Fox in a romantically hot love scene. No.
Deep down inside every one of us, resides this strong feeling of enthusiasm, this thing called passion. In varying degrees, it’s demonstrated in things we do: working out financial statements, running after a basketball, playing our pet sport or even indulging in our favorite food. In many individuals, this passion is very strong. When you inject this into your work, you are aligning yourself for achieving true success.
Why passion is so important to success
When you are keenly enthusiastic of, and proud about, the work you do, you become better armed to beat any obstacles that are sure to surface with, say, starting a restaurant – or pushing on with becoming a stand-up comedian, hopeful the audience laughs at your silly jokes. The stronger the passion, the more predisposed you become to putting in the extra effort to make yourself better. Almost naturally, this passion will drive you to become an expert at what you do and inevitably lead you to a higher pay. Passion spells a more meaningful career and raises the chances of you creating more wealth.
See this clearly. As you go through your transformation into an alpha male, you’ve got to bring out your passion. You’ve got to really want to become an alpha male.
Look at how the guys with all the passion in the world fared in their respective circles:
Steve Jobs: In an article titled “The Seven Success Principles Of Steve Jobs”, written by Carmine Gallo, and based on numerous interviews with Jobs and Apple employees, the number one principle cited in the article is DO WHAT YOU LOVE. The late Steve Jobs, the smart, sharp ex-CEO of Apple, was a great believer in the power of passion. At one time, he was reputed to have said, “People with passion can change the world for the better.” You and I know he did. He showed it was his passion for his work that did it for him, that created his monumental success.
Mark Zuckerberg: This thirty-one-year-old CEO of Facebook changed the way we live, and made billions of dollars in the process. One of his ingredients for success is “following your passion”. According to David Kirkpatrick, who wrote the inside story of Facebook, Zuckerberg suggests “follow your happiness”. He says that even if you don’t wind up with a great fortune, you will at least be doing something you love.
There are a lot of other successful personalities who got to where they are today through the keen enthusiasm and passion they combined with their endeavors: Steven Spielberg; the former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger; the great popular song composer, Burt Bacharach; X-Factor’s Simon Cowell; Bill Gates; Oprah Winfrey; and a host of other corporate executives, businessmen, inventors, writers, technologists, doctors and surgeons, who may be less-known but have had, nevertheless, a taste of the true meaning of success because of their passion.
All fired up at becoming an alpha male? Great!
Read on and know this… it’s easy enough to ooze with enthusiasm and be an eager beaver about a new personal or professional venture. Sometimes, though, when these projects encounter some snags and success continues to hide, you may find it hard to stay all pumped-up. At the same time, you can’t raise a white flag and give up. No way! Remember, those bumps along the way are your stepping-stones to success, which could be lurking just around the corner. So what do you do to keep the music playing? How do you keep the lights of passion glowing when the lights seem to be busting?
Here’s what you do:
1) Get away from it all. This may sound like it’s going against the grain but it can really do you a lot of good to pull back for a week or two from whatever it is you may be working on. Your mind can be weird sometimes. It’ll work in mysterious ways and function better when you’re not consciously or deliberately trying to break through a wall of snags.
2) Go for the Internet. Dig in and do some research into how others have hurdled their own similar frustrations. Watch some videos of successful entrepreneurs. Their satisfaction, enjoyment and joy could motivate you into jumping right back into your own venture.
3) Go look for somebody willing to be your mentor. Usually, there is one among friends, family and relatives – such as an uncle or a wise family friend who’s acquainted with the secret of success and willing to share it with you. You’ll be amazed at how successful people are almost always eager to lend a hand. You’ll simply have to shout out for help when things are getting rough.
4) Scale down your goals. Don’t go telling yourself you’ll make your first million in 6 months. Heck, unless you hit the Lotto Jackpot, that’s like shooting for the stars. Be reasonable and bring down your figures or stretch the timeframe you’ve set for yourself to achieve something. Build your success with the concept of building blocks: one block at a time, one step at a time. Each time you hit a small goal is an affirmation of success, which will keep your passion burning.
5) Forget your smart phone, your tablet and your email. You’ll be able to shake off the stress and become more focused on whatever it is you’re trying to achieve if you don’t try to respond to all the text messages and email immediately. Focus, after all, is really key to realizing your goals.
At the end of the day, do whatever it takes to keep your passion, or retrieve it if you’ve lost it. Remember what today’s highly successful alpha men have to say about passion… Follow it. Success won’t be far behind!
To become an alpha male, you’ve got to get rid of your ATYCHIPHOBIA
(that’s fear of failure – another new word I had to look up in the dictionary)
Let’s get down to the basics. Ask yourself the following questions. Your frank and honest answers will give you an indication whether or not you’re suffering from this word I can’t even pronounce (let’s stick to “fear of failure”). But don’t worry. A lot of us mortals will stumble and fall many times in our lifetime. Doors will get shut in our faces, and some girls, in their right senses, will turn us down. But first things first. The questions:
1) Do you like trying new things? Do you hesitate or avoid them, especially getting involved in challenging projects?
2) Do you usually say, “I’ll never get on that debating team. I’m not smart enough.” Does your low self-regard mean you’re scared to ask the queen of the prom for a date, ‘because you know she’ll say no’?
3) Do you procrastinate often, have excessive anxiety and fail to follow through with goals?
4) Do you only do the things that you know will be completed successfully and without hitches?
I’m not going to belabor the point. We may or may not be suffering from these symptoms. What’s key is that we recognize failure is a matter of perspective. We’ll all meet up with failure at one point (or several points) in our life. We’ll somehow say hello to it. The important thing is that we don’t get to be too friendly with it and become “best friends forever!” Instead, say good-bye as quickly as you can!
Did you know that Michael Jordan, one of the best, one of the top basketball players of all time, was taken off his high school basketball team because the coach didn’t think he had enough talent? Can you imagine what a stupendous loss it would have been for the NBA, nay, for the world, if Jordan had decided there and then to stop pursuing this sport he loves?
When you let failures stop you, you’ll never know the opportunities you might have missed…
Here are some thoughts from great, successful men who have ‘been there–done that’ to help you overcome your fear of failure:
Failure is Like Practice: “I try to think of failure like exercise or practice. You’re going to do things, and you’re going to be terrible at first. The more you do it, the better you will get as time goes on. You will learn a lot if you look at failure as practice.”
Henry Balanon
Stratos, Inc.
You Must Fail To Learn Success: “Do something incorrectly. Make a mistake. Mess up. Then, learn from it. Don’t run from the failure. Evaluate your shortcomings, and use that to propel yourself into your future endeavors. If you never fail, you will never know when you’ve reached true success.”
Joe Apfelbaum
Ajax Union
So What If You Fail?: “Most entrepreneurs are playing a high-risk game, so fear of failure comes with the territory. In the worst-case scenario, you fail, but so what? It will free up your time to work on your next business, and you will have more knowledge about starting and running a business. Just remember, fear makes you human, and when you hit rock bottom, there is nowhere to go but up.”
Nikki Robinson
Gloss and Glam
I’ve chosen to end this chapter with some inspiring thoughts from these highly successful alpha entrepreneurs. I feel that as you go through adopting the lessons I’ve lined-up for you, you may run into some problems. If, by some quirk, your passion to become an alpha male may waver, these inspiring insights should drive you back into what needs to be done.