Unfortunately today it is difficult to find role models that our next generations can look up to for inspiration and leadership. Without a doubt, parents will have the biggest influence on their children as role models, but there are always other roles models that our children look up to in magazines and on television. The new breed of heroes for our children are in the entertainment, fashion and sporting worlds. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great role models in those fields, but all too often it is the bad role models making the headlines.

Bad and obnoxious behaviour sells better than good. Everywhere you look and read today, some well-known personality is shown doing something stupid, or just being plain right obnoxious with their behaviour and attitude. Unfortunately, it is this new generation of role models that is having the biggest impact on our children.

As much as we try to protect our children from the poor character traits of entertainment, music or sports stars, it is difficult given the enormous penetration that media has into our lives. It is ultimately the responsibility of every one of us to try to lead by example so our next generations will develop good character traits, values and morals.

Andrew Carnegie was a top-class role model. Below are a few of his character traits and ideals which helped him live a successful life. It is a shame that we have to look so far back into history to find great role models. There is a lot that can be learned from others that have walked the path of a successful life. But there are also lessons that can be learnt from those that haven’t.

Carnegie believed it was the mind that would make the body rich; in order to succeed, one had to cultivate within oneself a number of characteristics that would clear the mind to be able to focus on the end goal. According to Carnegie, opportunities would always present themselves and unless he was in a sound mental state, he would not be able to seize those occasions.

The first and most important point for Carnegie lied in his ability to master his own mood. No matter how difficult the circumstances, Carnegie believed that it was of the utmost importance to maintain a positive attitude. “There is little success where there is little laughter,” he said. “A sunny disposition is worth more than fortune. Young people should know that it can be cultivated; that the mind like the body can be moved from the shade into sunshine.”

With a healthy state of mind, Carnegie then set out to ensure his physical well-being by refining his habits. He was staunchly opposed to drinking alcohol, believing that this would cloud his ability to think clearly and soak up the energy he would need to achieve his goals. “I will not paint the evil of drunkenness, or the moral crime; but I suggest to you that it is low and common to enter a bar-room, unworthy of any self-respecting man, and sure to fasten upon you a taint which will operate to your disadvantage in life, whether you ever become a drunkard or not,” Carnegie said. He was also against smoking, “not that it is morally wrong, except in so far as it is used in excess and injures health, which the medical faculty declares it does.”

Carnegie believed that in order to achieve great success in life, he had to ensure that he was not only in good health and good spirits, but that he also carried himself in an upstanding way. “There is no genuine, praiseworthy success in life if you are not honest, truthful, fair-dealing,” he said. By operating under these principles, Carnegie was able to gain the trust of those around him, which helped to propel his success.

While he was a compassionate man, Carnegie had no patience for those who gave excuses to explain their own failure, particularly when they claimed their circumstances were out of their control. “Some never had a chance, according to their own story,” he said. “This is simply nonsense. No young man ever lived who had not a chance, and a splendid chance, too.”

Carnegie believed in creating his own circumstances and so long as he could control his own thoughts and mind, he could do just that. “His ability, honesty, habits, associations, temper, disposition, all these are weighted and analysed,” he said. “The young man who never had a chance is the same young man who has been canvassed over and over again by his superiors…owing to some objectionable act, habit, or association.”

The person who gains the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.

Andrew Carnegie.

Without vision and goals in our lives, it is easy to lose direction and motivation. Vision and goals can be related to just about any aspect of our lives, but the main areas would be health & fitness, family, work and self-development. Think of life as an arrow. Could you imagine if an arrow had no target or bullseye to hit? Firing an arrow aimlessly at no target is as useful as living our lives without vision and goals — the arrow, and our lives, could end up anywhere.

Having vision and goals that are too specific and over weight to one area of our life can also cause problems, as this can lead us to neglect other areas or people close to us. Losing balance in other areas of our life can have major negative effects and outcomes. I believe that it is powerful vision that drives and motivates us towards what we want to achieve. It is the goals that we establish along the way, which builds the bridge to turn the vision into a reality.

The world is where it is today because it has been developed and shaped by people with powerful vision.

Walt Disney, before he died, was looking out at a flat piece of land. One of his workers asked him what he was looking at. Walt Disney replied “I am looking at my mountain.” Looking out, there was no mountain, just a flat piece of land. However he sat there looking at the land for hours and hours. So the worker began to write down what Walt Disney was saying. After Walt Disney died and Space Mountain was built, when they dedicated it, the speaker said that was a pity that Walt Disney never got to see it. Walt Disney’s wife stood up and corrected the speaker and said: “Walt already saw this mountain. You are the ones seeing it for the first time.”

The above story about Walt Disney illustrates that when we have a powerful vision, we can see what the outcome will look like as if it is real. I believe that vision without action is an illusion. Therefore, when you have a vision that is powerful, and it is something that you want to achieve, make sure you establish set goals to ensure that you take the necessary steps to turn the vision into a reality.

Many people confuse managing staff with fear as leadership. You can motivate people with fear by threatening their job or making pay cuts, but the results will be short-lived and the environment and culture will be unstable with limited respect.

Great leaders know how to earn respect, they know when to be firm and when to be fair. They know how to empower and grow others for greater leverage, they don’t micro manage.

Some leaders are just born leaders and can inspire and move people with little effort, but leadership is a skill and can be learned.

Leadership will be one of the most demanded skills in the next decade as companies and people lose their way with the myriad of complexities in today’s social and corporate structures.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I believe everyone deserves abundance and financial wealth in their lives, but my point is, what is your focus of achieving financial success, and is there an easier way? My response to the candidate was, “I will give you some advice that will ensure that you become successful and wealthy.” Take the same focus and energy about making money and being wealthy, and apply it to being the best…………… you can be. Then give your clients excellent service as well as give them the respect they deserve, I will guarantee you that you will be successful and wealthy. If you do achieve those things, clients will be knocking your door down to come onboard. This may sound all elementary, but many people and businesses have lost the real primary focus of what motivates and drives them every day.

The moral of this story is, put 100% effort and passion into your job, career or business, as well as aim to be the best in your chosen field, then combine that with providing excellent service and respect your clients, and you will become successful and wealthy. Very simply, becoming successful and wealthy will be the by-product of that effort and passion.

It’s essentially human nature to be guided by our fears, this inbuilt fear mechanism has ensured the survival of humankind for many millions of years. Without fear, we may not have survived to be who we are today, but this same inbuilt survival mechanism, can also limit our true potential in life for financial success, or to follow our dreams. Many of our fears are adopted during our childhood, or even later in life through our normal life experiences. The way we interpret and analyse these experiences and the emotional response we attach to these experiences, will determine how much fear prevents us from putting ourselves in the way of that situation again.

Overcoming fear in not easy, fear is a powerful and not a very pleasant emotion, but in our lives, too much fear will prevent us from not only trying new things, but may prevent us from trying again if things do not work out the way we would have liked the first time. In life, there is no failure or rejection, there is just feedback. If we try something new, and things do not work out the way we had hoped, we have not failed, we have just received some feedback on how to do it better next time.

One of the greatest tales of overcoming the fear of rejection and failure was the story of Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken. He was 65 years old and the only assets he had were his pension cheque of US$99, and his secret chicken recipe. Colonel Sanders was rejected and knocked back 1008 times when trying to sell his secret chicken recipe to restaurants for a small take of the sales. On the 1009th time, a restaurant accepted his offer. Today Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets are found all over the world. It’s only because Colonel Sanders overcame the fear of failure and fear of rejection, did he eventually change the way the world ate chicken.

Overcoming our fears will eventually open our possibilities for human potential, and allow us to follow our dreams both personally and financially.

Quote.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”

You could argue that these new communication methods that are not face to face are destroying our core skills of physical communication, and perhaps even destroying the relationships of those around us in our physical sphere.

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, be there, be present.

When you work, work. When you play, play. Don’t mix the two.

Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of attention. If you give the gift of attention, you will receive more attention in return.

On the way to work, concentrate on what you are doing – not the work.

Pay attention and give attention. Don’t just drift through the day with no direction with your thoughts going in all directions.

Great leaders know how to listen and to give people their attention.