Inspired Leaders Have GRIT
On October 10, 2014 I was blessed to be a host for L2:Learn-Lead, the new annual leadership simulcast produced by the John Maxwell Company. In the last post, I shared the opening keynote by John C. Maxwell to initiate this series. Today, I want to share some of the thoughts from Linda Kaplan Thaler.
About Linda
Linda is the co-founder and head of Publicis Kaplan Thaler, a marketing and advertising firm. She is definitely a leader within her industry; creative and innovative. She knows how to get things done. Among the many claims to fame she has is the creation of the Kodak Moment, the AFLAC Duck, and the Toys R Us Kid jingle. She is also co-author of a few books, including The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness.GRIT Creates Extraordinary
Linda spoke on GRIT: How Ordinary People Become Extraordinary. GRIT is an acronym for Guts, Resilience, Industriousness, and Tenacity. Here are some of Linda’s thoughts from her talk:
- 98% of highly successful people were considered average.
- Walt Disney was fired from his first job for being “uncreative”
- General Colin Powell was a C- student
- Michael Jordan wasn’t good enough to make his high school varsity basketball team
- What makes the difference is their GRIT.
[snaptweet]Anyone with perseverance and pluck can go from ordinary to extraordinary. -Linda Kaplan Thaler[/snaptweet]
- If you are brave enough, stop dreaming and start doing!
[snaptweet]I never spent one minute dreaming about success. I worked for it. -Estee Lauder[/snaptweet]
- Overprepare and outwork everyone else
- We get easily distracted and need to refocus on where we are going.
Four Keys to Help Stay on Track
- SOLVE SMALL PROBLEMS – when you resolve the small problems that pop up regularly, it prepares you to solve the big problems.
- MAKE YOUR BED – Military recruits are taught early on how to make their bed first thing every morning and to make it neat and precise. Part of the reason is discipline but a good deal of it is that you accomplished something immediately. If you accomplish nothing else that day, you made your bed.
- FINISH WHAT YOU START – With busy schedules and competing priorities, it’s easy to jump from one thing to another and not really finish anything. Successful people finish.
- FORGET WILLPOWER – No one has enough willpower to stay the course consistently simply based on their will. Develop habits and create situations that take willpower out of the equation.
Next post will cover Tim Sanders thoughts from L2:Learn-Lead.
Action Items:
- How will you apply this to your life?
- What do you need to change?
- What should you share or teach to others?