10 beliefs that are holding you back from success
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Beliefs. You've acquired them through your interactions with society, whether it was through your childhood experiences, education, relationships, entertainment or work. They're engraved in your mind. And often difficult to change.
But are they holding you back from success? Chances are, the answer to that question is a resounding yes.
But what beliefs are holding you back and how does the world actually work?
I've been fortunate enough to speak to some professionals who have made significant progress in their careers. They provided me with some mind-expanding advice. And after reviewing their insights, I can understand exactly why each of them are in their current positions.
Avoid these 10 beliefs and do what these experts say instead:
1. If someone looks successful, they are successful.
I live in San Francisco. I've been here for a very long time. And in my town, it's often very hard to distinguish who is and isn't successful. Joseph Bradley, Vice President of IoT & Digital Services at Cisco, grew up close to where I live down in Mountain View. His first job, outside of his entrepreneurial ventures, was at Wells Fargo, where he worked as a bank teller.
He would see people come into the bank driving his dream car, and would think that they had money, but when he would pull up their information, he was able to see that the only had $100 in their account. Then when someone else came in with a t-shirt and jeans, the screen would flash VIP.
Bradley quickly began to realize that the people who looked successful weren't, because they spent all their money trying to impress others.
"Once I learned this lesson, I always give five minutes to people who reach out to me, no matter who they are, what they look like or what car they drive," Bradley says. "It doesn't matter where they reach out to me, whether it is in person or online, I will find five minutes for them."
Instead of judging others based on what they have or don't have, give them your time and learn how you can create a mutually beneficial relationship.
2. Fail fast.
I've been just as guilty as anyone in perpetuating this misbelief. And it's true, many an entrepreneur will tell you they learned tremendously from startups they founded that just never found success.
In Silicon Valley, failing has turned into a badge of honor. The more you fail, the more you are praised. It's kind of like an unusual victory where no one actually wins.
This mentality isn't contained to one region though. It has spread throughout the entire tech industry.
Bradley says, "Failing fast is a joke. Anybody who says they want to fail fast or fail slow doesn't understand it. You don't want to fail fast. You don't want to fail slow. You don't want to fail."
I've had my fair share of failures in the past, and I'm sure you have as well. If you have truly experienced failure, you would know that the last thing anyone would ever want to do is fail. So what's the alternative?
"To get ahead, you want to accelerate and improve your rate of learning on everything that you do," Bradley says.
By focusing on learning at an accelerated rate, you are able to process data quicker and navigate yourself out of sticky situations, before they turn into graveyards of broken dreams.
3. You have to know everything.
Have you ever met that person in the office who wanted to acquire all the data they could? Or the startup founder who read book after book after book?
Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with learning. But these people aren't going out there to learn. What they are doing is trying to learn every single thing possible about their industry, their competitors, their potential clients and so forth.
Data is powerful, but you don't need to know everything.
"It's not what you don't know that causes you to fail. It's what you believe to be true that will cause you to fail," Bradley pointed out.
It's what you believe to be true that will cause you to fail. How powerful is that? Every person has their own set of beliefs. And these beliefs are what shape our thoughts, actions and decisions. So how do you change your beliefs?
"You have to challenge your beliefs each and every day," Bradley explains. "The unknown isn't the issue. None of us know what is going to happen tomorrow. If you are able to challenge what you believe to be true, that ultimately will allow you to be successful as a leader."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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