Real-Life Success Skills
We're featuring an article from the Huffington Post and Medium.com by James Altucher. In it, Altucher asserts that “college is part of the script that society gives you” and that, instead of blindly following the crowd, young adults should give serious thought to creating their own lives and unfollowing the rules.
Highlights from the Article
The skills that are absolutely necessary for any kind of real-life success are not taught in college.
These skills are more important than a college degree, they can be learned and they will put you way ahead of any competition. You will be in a category all your own.
Schools have lulled us into a form of complacency where getting an “A” is what’s expected and anything below it is considered unhealthy. And it has arguably become too easy to get A’s.
What happened to the idea that a 40% success rate made someone the best baseball player in the history of the world? Or the idea that if only 50% of your business decisions are correct, you’ll have a billion dollar business. Or the idea that, in the hands of an artist, even the wrong note can be turned into beautiful music?
Life is improv. Not a fact test. College does not equip most graduates with the ability to master the art of improvisation that’s needed in an increasingly unpredictable world.
Here are a few essential life skills that are not taught in school:
The 1% Rule - Every week, try to get better 1% physically, mentally, and emotionally
Reinvention - Which will happen repeatedly throughout life.
Mastery - You can’t learn this in school with each ‘field’ being regimented into equal 50 minute periods. Mastery begins when formal education ends. Find the topic that sets your heart on fire. Then combust.
Finding a Signal in the Noise - News, advice books, etc. Find the signal outside of the noise everyone else marches to.
Themes > Goals - Goals will break your heart. Have a theme. You can build your days around your themes. In the short blink that thins out your life, when you reach the point where goals matter no more, the themes of your life will shine bright.
Creativity - Write down a list of ideas every day.
Failure - Learn how to fail so that failure turns into a beginning.
Give and You Will Receive - Give constantly to the people in your network. The value of your network increases linearly if you get to know more people, but exponentially if the people you know get to know and help each other.
Read the full article here.
The Gifted Perspective
At Gifted Leaders, we feel compelled to rouse our clients from complacency and conformity and to inspire them to “unfollow the rules,” be Enlightened Rebels, and see how they can act to make a difference. The skills that James Altucher outlines in his article are closely related to the Mindset Required for Gifted Leadership that we believe is essential for success in the 21st century workplace. Most importantly, this mindset and related skills can be learned regardless of our age or stage of life.
Are you ready to be challenged to bring out your full potential and your ability to make an impact? Do you want to go beyond what you learned in school and master the art of improvisation that’s needed in an increasingly unpredictable world?
Contact us today about individual leadership coaching or our Teams That Talk™ coaching approach! Be an #EnlightenedRebel.
