I’ll bet that once he heard them his reaction wasn’t an excited one, and he continued to seek easier answers that would require less time, less work and less effort. Laziness.

I see it all the time in helping people lose weight. I can give them all the answers to get the weight off, but it’s not what they want to hear. They want we to tell them to take a pill, sit on the couch and the weight will just fall off you.

The worst part is that those same people are the very first to complain about the situation they are in. Overweight, failing business, whatever the goal is.

One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is self belief. Let me share something with you that will illustrate the point.

I have started several businesses. One or two are even still limping along and I earn my living from an entrepreneurial business my father founded and I now own and run.

Self belief, self esteem, self confidence, call it what you will but this is a key ingredient. I grew up in a stable family, but in war torn Rhodesia at the height of the conflict (born in ’69 and left in ’80).

My father was a domineering, critical man that thought he was helping his children by criticizing their weaknesses and pointing out their faults so that they could “work on improving”.

What he did was take potential (my siblings and I are intelligent and capable) and create timid people with little self belief.

So, while I have started my own businesses I have not had the confidence to take the radical steps necessary to ensure massive success. Steps like you took Jonathan, or ‘Lisa’, jumping into a difficult market with large challenges, and despite naysayers, believing you could make it work.

There are many things I have wanted to do in my businesses. Lead like Ricardo Semler, build radically different cultures, buck the trend. The things that make true entrepreneurs like Richard Branson successful. They believe they will succeed no matter what the odds and that ensures they take the radical approaches that separate them from the crowd and ensure success.

But that takes huge self belief.

I could go on, but I’ll spare you. Some day soon I am going to create a blog on this very subject.

Regards from darkest Africa
Richard

Think about this:

The NBA are full of super-elite athletes, men with less than 10% fat, lean, mean muscle tissue, stamina beyond us mere mortals, etc.

So why was there only one Michael Jordan? After all, the two-guard/swingman position is easily the most common. Lots of NBA players are 6’6″ 210-220 lbs.

Michael had the drive, the commitment, the sheer will and determination to make the best of the physical gifts he was given.

He had the mental part to go with the physical.

Perhaps he even had the spirit.

That’s what your friend Lisa obviously has, and what Jack lacks (ooh, I made a rhyme).

Thanks for the thought-provoking post!

When you’re hungry you eat!

Maarvin

Great post and even better discussion.

WARNING: A MARKETING JOKE AHEAD

Contrary to the popular opinion, I think the reason Jack failed and Lisa Succeeded isn’t fear of success or failure it’s because Lisa was reading the Wall Street Journal and JAck wasn’t (or was it the Economist)

Those who never start, or who stop at the first roadblock, are the ones who can never achieve success … although they may never know great failure either.

As to me personally, I was always one of those who ‘succeeded’, so fear of failure would be stronger to me, but how I reacted to that fear would depend on whether I thought, deep down, I could complete the task.
So for me, the lack of motivation to succeed would mean that I felt I couldn’t complete the task in the first place, which is not quite the same as being put off by fear of failure as I know I can succeeed at other tasks.