Developing Your Personality

[Cameron Akhtar]

When you are becoming obsessive about your work, its easy to fall into the trap of letting the rest of life fall by the wayside. Even in myself I notice that when I am in a period of really grinding, I can lose focus on the social aspects of life. An extreme example of what I'm talking about might be the genius forward-posture neckbeard software developer. He might be the best at what he does, but nobody wants to be around him. I think that this is the biggest mistake a lot of people make when they enter into a period of intense focus on any skill. They get really good, but they don't spend much time doing anything else and they come out of it being kind of weird. If you can develop yourself into a charismatic, magnetic personality, doing business with others will be so much easier for you. If you are a genius programmer but everyone hates working with you because you haven't developed yourself socially, you are going to have a big problem when it comes to working with other people. So, throw in some personal development into your routine. You don't have to limit yourself to only reading business books. You can read books about whatever you want, social psychology, relationships, personal memoirs, whatever. Anything that will sharpen you as a person is no waste of time. I encourage you to be the ones to initiate interactions with your friends, be the organizer for events. Isolation will catch up to you quickly.

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[Pawan_Rathore]

Absolutely! doing different things will not only embark your potential to be more creative at your current work but also will calm and compose your mind... so it's worth it.

 

[Gypsy Soul]

.

 

[Maxkaz]

IMHO, this mindset is a path to mediocrity and median-to-low results.

I do not know whether it is the case now, but in my World of Warcraft years there was a term for a greatly built character - this character was called "imba", short for "imbalanced". A defining characteristics for such a character was that it was 100% focused on a task. A tank was tough and managed agression, but did not do much damage. A healer healed but was thin as paper. And so on.

When we start our business we need focus and effort. Tons of both. Dedication, bordering obsession. For months, even years. And those who have it can gain speed and monentum and only than start diverging.

There is a false idea out there of a work-life balance. It is an idea from salary world. It is bad for an emerging business. But it is widespread as we see lots of successful speakers, writers and youtubers who have those balanced lavished lives and we naturally assume that we need to get there. But what we see is a podium, while the race usually went under the radars.

As a summary - work-life balance is something a businessman must EARN by long, hard, dedicated work.

 

[Awaken Study]

When you are becoming obsessive about your work, its easy to fall into the trap of letting the rest of life fall by the wayside. Even in myself I notice that when I am in a period of really grinding, I can lose focus on the social aspects of life. An extreme example of what I'm talking about might be the genius forward-posture neckbeard software developer. He might be the best at what he does, but nobody wants to be around him. I think that this is the biggest mistake a lot of people make when they enter into a period of intense focus on any skill. They get really good, but they don't spend much time doing anything else and they come out of it being kind of weird. If you can develop yourself into a charismatic, magnetic personality, doing business with others will be so much easier for you. If you are a genius programmer but everyone hates working with you because you haven't developed yourself socially, you are going to have a big problem when it comes to working with other people. So, throw in some personal development into your routine. You don't have to limit yourself to only reading business books. You can read books about whatever you want, social psychology, relationships, personal memoirs, whatever. Anything that will sharpen you as a person is no waste of time. I encourage you to be the ones to initiate interactions with your friends, be the organizer for events. Isolation will catch up to you quickly.

I understand the premise of this post but for most people there's nothing wrong with being obsessed the first few years. That intensity is needed more than the networking especially if you are doing a lean start-up.

I personally thrive when I spend time away from people. It allows me to focus completely on my project without the responsibility that comes with maintaining relationships.

Yes develop social skills but that can easily become action faking if you aren't able to continue working diligently.

 

[Gypsy Soul]

.

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[Awaken Study]

IMHO, this mindset is a path to mediocrity and median-to-low results.

I do not know whether it is the case now, but in my World of Warcraft years there was a term for a greatly built character - this character was called "imba", short for "imbalanced". A defining characteristics for such a character was that it was 100% focused on a task. A tank was tough and managed agression, but did not do much damage. A healer healed but was thin as paper. And so on.

When we start our business we need focus and effort. Tons of both. Dedication, bordering obsession. For months, even years. And those who have it can gain speed and monentum and only than start diverging.

There is a false idea out there of a work-life balance. It is an idea from salary world. It is bad for an emerging business. But it is widespread as we see lots of successful speakers, writers and youtubers who have those balanced lavished lives and we naturally assume that we need to get there. But what we see is a podium, while the race usually went under the radars.

As a summary - work-life balance is something a businessman must EARN by long, hard, dedicated work.

Great explanation. When I was young someone told me I was too obsessed so I backed off and lost the momentum I had built.

8 years later I'm all for going all in. I don't think founders are lying when they say they spend 90 hours a week working. More commonly called "Monk Mode" today. I believe intensity is required for us to achieve Fastlane in 10 years rather than 40 years.

 

[Cameron Akhtar]

IMHO, this mindset is a path to mediocrity and median-to-low results.

I do not know whether it is the case now, but in my World of Warcraft years there was a term for a greatly built character - this character was called "imba", short for "imbalanced". A defining characteristics for such a character was that it was 100% focused on a task. A tank was tough and managed agression, but did not do much damage. A healer healed but was thin as paper. And so on.

When we start our business we need focus and effort. Tons of both. Dedication, bordering obsession. For months, even years. And those who have it can gain speed and monentum and only than start diverging.

There is a false idea out there of a work-life balance. It is an idea from salary world. It is bad for an emerging business. But it is widespread as we see lots of successful speakers, writers and youtubers who have those balanced lavished lives and we naturally assume that we need to get there. But what we see is a podium, while the race usually went under the radars.

As a summary - work-life balance is something a businessman must EARN by long, hard, dedicated work.

For the most part I agree. What I mean to say is that development of the social skills is an important aspect of being a well-rounded sales / businessperson. Part of the same skill tree if you want to look at it like that. And when I say "social life" I don't mean it in the degenerate partying and drinking all the time way in that it is often used. What I mean is developing your charisma, your warmth, being someone that makes other people's days better. That is an overpowered skill to level up.

 

[Gypsy Soul]

.

 

[cYn]

From my experience, being heads down, obsessed, and build by yourself can only take you so far. You'll make good progress, but entrepreneurship is encountering and solving problems daily. At some point the problem is bigger than what you're used to. You can still solve those problems by yourself, but speed to the solution will be slow.

I had a partner who recently left our business (on good terms, he wanted to pivot in his career). I was stressing because I needed to find someone like him, and that's going to take time. I reached out to my network for help. Within minutes I was connected to someone I needed. Had I not build and maintain the relationship in my network, my problem would have taken weeks to be solved.

Success is built on connections and relationships because it takes a collective effort to build something great. My network has helped me solved so many problems, all because I maintain great relationships by helping them in return.

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

 

[Jobless]

From my experience, being heads down, obsessed, and build by yourself can only take you so far. You'll make good progress, but entrepreneurship is encountering and solving problems daily. At some point the problem is bigger than what you're used to. You can still solve those problems by yourself, but speed to the solution will be slow.

I had a partner who recently left our business (on good terms, he wanted to pivot in his career). I was stressing because I needed to find someone like him, and that's going to take time. I reached out to my network for help. Within minutes I was connected to someone I needed. Had I not build and maintain the relationship in my network, my problem would have taken weeks to be solved.

Success is built on connections and relationships because it takes a collective effort to build something great. My network has helped me solved so many problems, all because I maintain great relationships by helping them in return.

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

Good insight. A social balance is great. Where you give value to others, and in exchange they provide value to you. This is how all networks operate. When there is no fair and voluntary exchange of value, relationships can become exploitative.

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)