BONUS 245: 5 Steps to Getting a Head Start on Success

0:00Welcome to the 10 Minute Entrepreneur Podcast, intended to equip and encourage business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs taught by active business owner, best-selling author, and teacher, Sean Castrina. Alright, Sean Castrina with the 10 Minute Entrepreneur Podcast, teaching edition, and you know you already know I love those, so what I'm going to talk about today is how you can get a head start on success. I get a lot of Instagram DMs and a lot of questions constantly on Ask Sean and Kira about you know when you're younger how you can be successful. And I think there is more of a you know at my you know I remember when I was 15 to 20. It wasn't so much to be successful, it was like you just kind of you know you wanted to get out of high school, you know go to college, get a college education and somehow if you got a college education you would just be successful, like that was the natural evolution. And I since learned that that is not at all the case because I'm obviously doing something

1:04that I didn't go to college for, so I don't think a college education in and of itself will guarantee you success, like in my generation that would have been how you would have went about it. So how can you be successful because there's a lot of ways to be successful. My daughter is a college graduate and a teacher and my son. We didn't think him going to college, he wanted to be an entrepreneur, we didn't think that was the best way to go about it and we've gone about it through mentorships and internships and involving him with a few of my companies and help funding a startup for him. So there's a lot of different ways to get to the end, the end goal of being successful. So what are my secrets to getting a head start on success, okay? I think you've got to have these five things, okay, and then I'll stress which one more than the other or can you leave this one out and maybe get away without having it, but number one is you need to learn how to set measurable goals and take action on them daily.

2:05That's number one and I tie these two together because if you have a goal and you just write it down but you don't take action on it daily, it's kind of irrelevant. And I'll take it a step further, set goals and take massive action on it daily. I mean, if you take 365 steps towards an individual goal, that means you did one thing every single day towards this one goal, you're going to move that ball down the field. I mean, that goal is going to, it's going to get knocked over at some point, okay? So you know, it's great to set goals and I set goals every year. I typically set between five and seven and then I have one that's almost like a five year goal because it's going to take achieving a bunch of goals each year to knock down this massive one, but I take action on my goals every day.

3:05I mean, every day in my organize, my day planning system and I'm an older guy, so I write them down still, I schedule an action that I'm going to take on it. So I can move the ball further. So if you want to be successful, you need to set goals, but with that, you need to take action on them daily no matter what that goal is. If you think about it, if you're going to write a book, you're going to write a little bit every day, if you're going to lose weight, you're going to exercise a little bit. If you're going to get, you know, a graduate degree, well, you're going to, you know, sign up for the class and do your studies, okay? You can keep going down the line, okay? Number two is successful people manage their time and priorities well, okay? They know what they need to do and they schedule the time they put the discipline in to get it done. I am, you know, I have what's called like organized chaos. I may seem like some, it's funny, we have a college student who lives with us and I joke that you probably think some the laziest person in the world, but he knows at this point

4:07that's not true because I go in spurts. I know where my high energy periods of the day is and that's when I prioritize getting high level projects done and then I've got no problems sitting out on my porch and reading a book for two hours. Love doing it or just writing, okay? I manage my time and I manage my priorities. Each day I get up and I know what has to get done. Successful people do that. They don't get pulled through their week. They blueprint their week. Number three is they are a doer, not just a talker. We all know people that all they do is talk about what they're going to get done. They're always working on something. Always excited about something but don't ever get anything done. Every time you talk to them like three months later they've moved on to another project. You know, you got to be a doer. You want to have a reputation for being able to get things done. I think that I get offers in business just because people know that if I'm on the team

5:09they know we're going to get this thing done. I mean, I'm not just going to talk about it. I'm going to move the ball forward. I definitely take action. So again, don't just be a talker. Be a doer. Be somebody that your friends associate with getting things done. So again, don't just be a talker, okay? Be a doer. You need to discover your strengths, okay? We're not all gifted at everything. I mean, the older I get, I joke that my skill set just keeps getting narrower and narrower. But the few things that I'm good at, really, really, really good at. And you know, it's funny. You know when you're good at something because people compliment you on them. I never forget when I was at a sports banquet and I gave an impromptitude speech for some reason. It just came up and Sean here, you give it. And when I was done, everybody complimented me on it. And that kind of put in my brain and my mind, you know, you're a good communicator, Sean. And then when I got to college, I had opportunities to speak and to teach and, you know, to large

6:14audiences. And just, I kept developing and then I started getting involved in things where communication was important. So like, sales, communication and sales go well. And every, you know, position I ever had that, that had sales in it or any type of communication. I was really good at, you always hear like the Kukku Nive story. I had their record for 37 straight weeks of selling over 1,000 or more. And this is, you know, like 1991, okay? I was in graduate school. Anything that you could sell that I ever sold, I was really good at. Why I just, I knew what my strengths were, communication and the sales. I knew that was my skill set. I knew that's where I needed to be. And I always kind of align that up, you know, in my 20s and that presented great opportunities tremendous income opportunities. Okay. Number five is you develop strong leadership and communication skills. And I talked about my communication skills because it was one of my strengths, but I

7:14am convinced communication skills. It is just, it's so important. Your ability to communicate an idea, your ability to express yourself, your ability to teach, your ability to train people, your ability to share a vision, your ability to sell. That's all communication skills. It's so important. And then leadership, the people that make the most money in my organization are the people that lead a company. They have the ability to lead the company, they know the agenda, they know what we're trying to accomplish the ability to hire and lead people in our company. Leadership is just, is critical and it's something you need to have. So let's go over the, I believe these are, these are the five, you know, secrets to getting a head start. If you want to be successful, I think learn to start setting goals and to take action on them daily. Okay. So start being a goal setter.

8:14Number two, learn to manage your time and your pride as well. Just kind of lay out your week. That'd be a great first start. You know, on Sundays, blueprint your week, what needs to get done, you know, and what's the priority, what's the big, try to set a goal to knock one big domino down every week. If you're just starting this system, so you want to manage your time, you manage your priorities, what's the big thing you're going to get done this week? Okay. Be a do or not just a talker, okay, set some goals and let people know, I tell people goals that I've set. So when I knock them down, you know, I can say, remember, I set that, I set that. You know, yeah, I want my team to know that I set very audacious goals for our company. And we're going to knock them down, know your strengths and people will tell you what your strengths are. You saw, and I don't have any strengths. Know you do. Trust me. You have an amazing creator and you were given a strengths, but they're all different. So develop your strengths. Don't worry about what you're weak at. Nobody's going to pay you to be average in anything anyway, at least no good amount of money.

9:14But you know, what I think at, I don't try to be good at it. It's a waste of time. I'm good at three to four things and I'm probably stretching that. So let's say three things, but I've learned how to make, you know, a lot of money in my strengths. All right. Number five, develop your leadership and communications goals. If you're a teenager, just look for leadership opportunities, lead an organization in your school. Try to be a team captain if you're on a sports team. Try to be a person who communicates ideas within your classroom or just look for opportunities that allow you to lead and communicate. If you can develop leadership and communication, trust me when I tell you, it will pay dividends down the road. Okay. So again, what we shared today was the five secrets to getting a head start on your success. You're going to start setting measurable goals. You're going to take action on a daily, you're going to be better at managing your time and priorities. You're going to be known for being a do or not a talker, you're going to develop and

10:18understand what your strengths are. And then you're going to work on being a better leader and developing communication skills. And these are my super five. I hope that helps you. This is Sean Castorina with the 10 Minute Entrepreneur podcast. The podcast where we actually teach you how to become a entrepreneur, how to be a better business owner, how to be a startup founder. I love this opportunity, again, like the podcast, subscribe to it, rate it, share it with your friends. Again, I'm just so thankful that you're listening. We got some incredible guests coming up over the next month. I mean, massive players, many major players in the business community, very excited about those. So again, we will talk again very, very soon.