💵😎 MY CONVERSATION WITH A FORTUNE 500 CEO

A Couple of weeks ago, I was in a closed virtual conference where we had an amazing speaker who is a Fortune 500 CEO and happens to be the Founder of the company too. He shared some really valuable thoughts with those of us that were present that day. I had to ask for his permission to share some of the thoughts with my audience with the hope that it will help someone out there become better and more successful. I am glad he agreed to my request but on the condition that I won’t include his name in the post. One thing I should say about him though is he founded a software business that presently serves millions of people. So he is not a novice in the game of success. He recommended some books as you will notice as you read, I have acquired them in audiobook format so that you can listen to each one at your pace. No download, no payment or shipping required, just click the link and listen to the book at your own pace. Let’s dive in baby

HIS CONVERSATION BEGINS

So let me get into what I wanna share with you guys, which I think I will title 10 Major Personality Traits that can help someone accomplish their major goals. These are really important qualities to becoming successful in anything you choose, whether in business, career, or finance. I have divided them into 2 key parts namely 5 personality competencies and 5 professional skills. By the way, when I talk about success, I mean a balance between spirituality, financial stability, good health, and happiness.

TOP PERSONALITY COMPETENCIES

These are sort of like the internal workings of a person’s personality which are not necessarily seen on the outside except you really study and observe that person closely. These competencies are like the foundation upon which all our professional skills get built on, so if you get these well integrated into your personality, you have a solid sub-structure to build on.

VISION FOCUS: Every great and successful person understands the importance of focusing on their clear vision. This is the ability for someone to focus on one major goal for as long as it takes to achieve it, regardless of factors like challenges, problems, distractions, or other external noise. At the same time, the same person is able to maintain an open mind for any possible opportunities that can move them closer to that major goal, kinda like bi-focal focusing. Here is a simple example story;

“Susan has always loved the beauty industry, in fact, her dream has always been to own a chain of beauty salons across the country, a place where ladies can walk in and get a makeover. So her plan is to save up $2k to open her first salon, then grow the business from that level. In order to create that cash flow, she decided to get a job that will enable her to save $2k (main capital) and an additional $1k to sustain herself after resigning from the job. While on the job, she continued to study materials about the beauty industry, at the same time, she keeps her mind open to financial opportunities that could help her hit her saving goals faster. Eventually, she hits her saving goal, resigns from the job, and starts her beauty salon. In 5 years, she has been able to build 10 thriving beauty salons across the country”.
This is a very simplistic scenario to explain the ability to have VISION FOCUS. In the real world, Susan would have faced some setbacks, challenges, discouragements, which could have made her give up on her dreams but because of her strong vision focus, she kept going towards her goal, and because of her persistence and focus, she eventually achieved her dreams. To understand this on a deeper level, I suggest you read the book: The Magic of Thinking Big by Dr. David Schwartz

BELIEF SYSTEM: As Human Beings, we are spiritual beings at our core, which means that we can only achieve our highest potentials through a fundamental understanding of our spiritual characteristics. With that in perspective, I think our individual belief system is the factor that has the most impact on our spiritual life, finance, emotions, and even our health. Like any system, our belief system is a set of principles and tenets that works together to either empower or dis-empower us. To stay afloat in our journey of life, we all need a set of ideologies that work together to empower us spiritually. For those of us that are Christians, a good example of this is our belief system as Christians, e.g THE GOD-FACTOR BELIEF which basically means that there is a supreme being called God who sent Jesus to redeem humans because of His love for them. This kind of belief system is important especially in challenging times, this belief system alone can sustain a person’s faith through their toughest times, and as entrepreneurs and professionals, there will be tough times. Having Faith that there is a supreme being called God that has our best interest at heart is such a powerful and potent source of strength to fuel our persistence. Every successful entrepreneur knows the importance of this factor for their individual success. Other empowering beliefs are faith, courage, humility, love, discipline, decisiveness, and many others. Examples of disempowering beliefs are fear, worry, timidity, bitterness, indecision, and others. There are several books about building an empowering belief system; I will suggest a book called As A Man Thinketh by James Allen

MIND MANAGEMENT: Mind Management or Mental State Management, which basically has to do with how an individual consistently maintains a high mental state at all times. This is a tough one for a lot of people because most people have issues managing their emotions.

Let me give another simplistic example to explain the idea. “John is an amazing Freelance Graphic Designer with a handful of clients, he has a dream to own a creative agency someday. But John gets angry easily, sometimes even with his clients and his anger often gets out of control. Most times he can’t snap out of it for a whole day and anytime he gets offended, his productivity drops because of his negative mental state.” Now, in my opinion, it will be very tough for John to achieve his dream, probably an impossible mission with such an attitude. However, if John begins working on his emotional discipline and manages his state regularly to the point that he seldom gets angry or offended and develops a pleasing personality, he will be able to maintain consistently high productivity. That will then leads to him having more clients, working well with other people, and expanding his operation, all these will then consistently move him closer to achieving his dream of owning a creative agency. With the right strategies and persistence, John could own a thriving agency in a few years’ time.

Managing our mind and emotional state is super important to ensure that we keep moving closer to our goals with little or no resistance. I will suggest you read this book: The Power of Your Mind by Dr. Chris Oyahkilome

HIGH PERSONAL STANDARD: Having a high personal standard has a direct connection with our self-image and can be a result of our upbringing, environment, and association. Someone with a high-quality self-image will definitely have high standards. Developing high standards in our work, relationships and finance can affect our goal setting, decision making, and results. Let me give a simplistic example to explain this; “Kenny is a sales guy in a beverage drink company, his sales target per month is $5k in sales, but Kenny has never been able to achieve more than 50% of his sales target, to him, not being able to achieve his sales target is not a problem even when he knows that his colleagues are doing a lot better than him. Kenny definitely has low standards which is a result of his low-quality self-image. So Kenny’s Manager grew tired of his low performance and decided to scrutinize his results, this put Kenny under intense pressure, which led him to start getting dissatisfied with his results and performance. He began developing his sales skill, studying self-development materials, and improving his standards. In a couple of months’ time, Kenny not only reaches his sales target, he now surpasses it, and this has, in turn, boosted his self-esteem and made him earn more, now he is very appreciative of his Supervisor for pushing him to do better.”

This is an example of how someone can improve their personal standard by improving themselves, I will suggest you read How To Raise Your Own Salary by Napoleon Hill

TOP PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

In comparison to the previously listed competencies, these are skills that are more noticeable and obvious to people. They have to do with outward activities that make a person more successful in their endeavor.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS: If a business will grow and succeed, the drivers of the business need to hone this skill. This is a skill that has to do with the ability to take an idea and turn it into a business with paying customers. Or take a small business and scale it into a medium-scale business and eventually grow that into a multinational organization. The rules at different levels are different but the principles are pretty much the same. If a person understands the rules, the person can grow any business and make it profitable. Remember the first day we met, the first questions I asked you? That question was designed to help me to know what level you are at in your entrepreneurial journey. Guys, study and make sure you hone this skill. Please read The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

MARKETING SKILLS: Having a good understanding of how to communicate the value of a business, product, or service to potential customers or clients, through multiple channels is super important. Attracting people into the business’ funnel is such a profitable skill. Even if you are not a marketer, having a basic understanding of this skill will stand your business out as a business owner and give you an edge among your colleagues if you are an employee. Please read this post, I spoke about this briefly here.

SALES AND PERSUASION SKILLS: After attracting potential customers using marketing, you need a sales system to convert them to paying customers. Sales and Persuasion is some of the most important skills you can have in your toolkit. Selling is deeply engrained in human activities and is applicable to every area of life, not just business. People erroneously assume that sales skill is just for people that sell for a living, not knowing that everybody has to sell. If you have ever convinced anyone to do what you want by persuading them, then that is selling. We all convince our parents, spouses, relatives, friends, colleagues every day to do something they wouldn’t have done otherwise. That is basically what selling is, sales and persuasion is one of the most important skillsets one can develop and it could be the difference between success and failure in business, career, or even your family life. Please read this book to get a deeper understanding of this skill. How Sell Your Way Through Life by Napoleon Hill

NETWORKING SKILLS: This is another very important skill set because it is a skill that helps you to connect with people. No one is an island, we all need someone to become our next employee, employer, customer, investor, partner, wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, etc. Honing your networking skill will give you the ability to skillfully bypass the rational mind of people and subconsciously imprint yourself in their “mental good books”. It is a powerful concept when you understand it and because the people you will be dealing with have different personalities, honing this skill at a high level will enable you to perceive people’s personality types and connect with them on their own frequency. I don’t have a book to suggest to you to read for this but I will suggest you do your research and study the skill. I think a good book around this will be How to Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie

MULTIPLE STREAMS OF INCOME: Understanding how to build MSIs is probably the most financially profitable skill one can have. This skill is about acquiring and building assets that help you accumulate money from multiple streams without exchanging your time for it. Examples of these are;
– Businesses that don’t require your presence to generate income
– Stocks
– Bonds
– Income Generating Real Estate
– IOU or Notes
– Patents or Royalties
– Digital Assets (eg. Ebooks, Online Courses, Cryptocurrency, NFTs, Youtube Channels, Website, Ad Space, etc.)
Please read Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki to understand this on a deeper level.

If you will keep developing yourself in these things, I think you will be able to accomplish any of your set goals in your business or career life.

HIS CONVERSATION ENDS

Thank you so much for reading this to the end, I hope you learnt a few things from what he shared. Please feel free to let me know what you learnt below. Wishing you a beautiful weekend, Chao