The Formula for Success II: Show me the Quan

Posted by zerosum79

I was not planning on turning the formula for success into a series of blogs but a lot of my students have responded to me about this blog post and I wanted to write a little more about it.

I was listening to sports radio last night on the way home from work and I am a big Redskins fan. For those of you who don't know, in a cleaning house type move, the Redskins released a lot of players yesterday. The sports program I was listening to is the Lavar Arrington/Chad Dukes show on 106.7 the fan. Lavar is one of my favorite former skins and he was chatting with another of my favorite skin that just got cut Rock Cartwright.

Rock is a guy who was the epitome of a team player. He did everything that the redskins asked him to do. He was well known for being a hard worker and before the interview ended Lavar said "Don't worry man, there is always a silver lining, and good things come to people who work hard." I thought to myself, "Lavar, thats just not true, you also need positive mental attitude."

This got me thinking about the movie Jerry McGuire. In this movie Rod Tidwell (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a very talented player with no heart. He is driven by the desire for a bigger contract and more money. The organization he plays for knows he is talented but is not using him to his full ability because he is a pain to deal with and all around negative guy. He is missing the positive mental attitude.

In the life altering moment of the movie, Rod is involved in a very tough tackle that looks like it might be a career ending injury. He is knocked unconscious and when he awakens he realizes how happy he is to be alive and how lucky he is to have all the gifts of talent and a fantastic family. The change in his attitude is instantaneous and the affect that it has on his old goals are also instantaneous. He no longer is consumed with the drive for money, but the PMA allows him to have more than he ever dreamed of.

I have no doubt that Rock will do well in the future if he also adds to his hard work a positive mental attitude. But the question is what will he do well at? In the next blog I am going to discuss the real step that you need to take if you want to succeed. Its easy and magical but for some reason everyone I work with that has trouble setting goals has difficulty with this one simple thing.

Good Luck at the tables,
Greg

Series: The Formula for Success (all parts including power of PMA)

Posted by zerosum79

“A positive mental attitude is the starting point of all riches, whether they be riches of a material nature or intangible riches.“
- Napoleon Hill

I grew up in a fairly negative environment. However, I always noticed that when I really focused on and pictured a positive outcome, things just clicked. Usually they clicked almost effortlessly. I walked around all day with a negative outlook on life and the few times where I really wanted something, I focused and it showed up.

Later in life I read a bunch of stuff which I think is new age garbage. Although most people think of books like the Secret as garbage there is one book that I really love. Its called "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. This guy was the pioneer of self help books and most other books that have become popular since focus on a few of the topics that he discovered.

The story goes that Andrew Carnegie (yes the really, really rich Andrew Carnegie) commissioned Mr. Hill to study what it is that was common to people who were able to achieve massive wealth. After many years of research Mr. Hill published a book that details the common "Laws of success" that people have used to become rich. I am going to give you the short version.

Positive Mental Attitude + Hard work = Success.

Books like the secret totally downplay the Hard Work aspect but this is all that it takes to succeed in anything. For some people the PMA is the hard part. It certainly is for my parents, who are both hard workers but I believe never achieved their true potential. For some people the Hard Work is the hard part since many people who dream of riches are lazy and want everything to be handed to them for just having a positive attitude.

I attribute everything that I am proud of in life to a combination of these two factors and when I look at the things I would like to achieve but have not yet achieved, I can see a deficiency in one of these two areas.

If you are struggling with success in some aspect of your life, take a look at this formula and be honest with yourself. At the top of the page write concisely what you want to achieve. Next write a list of realistic goals that will detail how you will address the deficient area. Committing your goals to paper is an extremely important exercise.

If you read this paper every day day and work on one goal every day you will find that you can do almost anything in a short time.

Try it... you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Good Luck at the tables
Greg

Thinking about goals

Posted by zerosum79

Its time AMIRITE? Here's to hoping not to run into a variance nightmare.

zero

Information Overload IV: Conclusion

Posted by zerosum79

This thread is dedicated to the discussion of this series.

Mostly I find it fascinating that throughout a whole human lifetime people are so out of touch with the way they make decisions. But as poker players we constantly analyze the minutia of every possible outcome so understanding our decision making process becomes critical.

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zerosum79 Going to AC Friday for some MTT Action

Posted by zerosum79

Anybody going to be up at the end of the week on Friday? I am going to be playing MTTs at either the Borg or Harrahs.

Give me a shout out if you are going to be up.

zero

Information Overload III: Going with your gut

Posted by zerosum79

Discuss this blog here.

Information Overload II: Algorithmic Thinking

Posted by zerosum79

Algorithmic thinking can sometimes cut through the noise of what is and is not important when making a decision. Discuss here...

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Information Overload I

Posted by zerosum79

This is the thread dedicated to discussing my blog series information overload.

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