THEY LIE! It's Easier To Repeat

Who said it’s harder to repeat?

The prevailing wisdom is that it’s harder to stay on top than it is to get to the top. When you win a championship it’s harder to repeat. If you are the leader in your industry, it's harder to stay on top than it was to work your way to the top. What a bunch of garbage. Yes, it’s hard, nothing is guaranteed but it’s nothing like the effort it takes to climb to the top and make the first breakthrough.

When you get on top you are not plagued by the doubts and insecurities of those who never made it. You have proven to yourself and everyone else you’re good enough. You’ve developed a proven championship team. The mentality of your organization has changed. The expectations of your organization have changed forever and people perform up to their level of expectations.

You’ve learned valuable lessons that only those very very few who’ve made it to the top know. You know pitfalls to avoid. You know ways to compress time frames. You know keys to look for to maintain momentum and which ones to avoid to get off track.  You have training and insight that all your competition lacks.  Of course, there can be some satisfaction and some let off in intensity due to having reached the top, but that’s a small challenge compared to all of the advantages you have. 

Who would you rather be?
If you’re running for president would you rather be Obama with no challengers soaking up all of the Democratic contributions, building your war chest, using the power, prestige, popularity that goes with being the incumbent? Or would you rather be a Republican challenger? If you were a country, would you rather be the United States, the clear cut #1 super power in the world—even in spite of our recent problems, or another country having to work your way up the ladder? Do you really think it’s harder for the US to stay #1 than it is for the other countries that are trying to grow and develop to this level?

If you’re a hamburger franchise would you rather be McDonald’s or Burger King? Somehow it doesn’t seem to be that hard for McDonald’s to stay #1 in their industry. The same can be said for Coca-Cola, Walmart, and a vast array of industry leaders.

The same goes in entertainment. Would you rather be Tom Cruise or one of the dozen or so other prominent leading men? If you were a professional sport would you rather be the NFL or would you rather be the NBA or the NHL? Who do you think has the better odds of holding on to the #1 position in professional sports, the NFL or maybe you think major league soccer can explode up the ranks to #1? Do you think maybe it’s easier? It’s easier for major league soccer to overcome the ranks of football because they don’t have the pressures and spotlight of #1 on them all the time? Most people would bet on the NFL.

It’s worth a million times more than you think

Until you get there you can’t imagine how great it is to be on top. There is no way you can appreciate the advantages, the momentum, and new possibilities and Rewards! There’s no way you can know the lessons that you will learn and the lessons you’ll teach yourself on your way to the top.  The effort of getting to the top will teach you things you could never learn any other way. From the top of the mountain you can see things that no one else can see.

You can see new opportunities. You can see clearly a variety of ways to improve.  You also have the advantage of knowing that you won in spite of not being even close to perfect. You have the benefits of the things that worked well that you can go to and use again but you also have the benefit of seeing the areas that you can improve and get more help from next time. Of course there are going to be challenges but you tell me, does it really seem like it’s harder for the top dog to stay on top than for the little dog to fight his way to the top. It’s worth the price because the view from the top, the benefits of being on top, are beyond your wildest dreams. Trust me.

Once you get to the top of the mountain you are not opening the door to a whole bigger nightmare of problems that you’ve ever faced before in your life. You’ll have problems, but nothing like you faced getting started.  

If you’ve got a chance to be #1 go for it with everything you’ve got.  The rewards will blow your mind!

Be You.

Young people moving up in life are attracted to winners.  

The people at the top of any profession always grab the attention of those on the way up and they're the role models. They’re the inspiration. They show how you can be successful. They give you a template, an example of success. 

One of the greatest ways to learn is by mimicking.  

In fact, that's how we learn as children; that's how we learn most of what we learned to walk, talk, interact with others, what's right, what's wrong. We learned from mimicking others. Now, that's a fantastic way to learn as long as you don't go overboard. The important point is to realize that although you can learn from others—you can copy techniques, ideas, mannerisms, phrases, words, ideas, concepts, schedules, thinking, planning from others but you can never be them.  

You can only be you.  

You are totally unique in the history of the world. Only you were born where you were born, at the time you were born, to the parents you were born to, with or without the brothers and sisters you have, with or without the aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. in your extended family. Only you grew up in the school system you grew up with and had the teachers you had, the church you went to, the friends you had and the experiences you had.  

All of these things have a tremendous impact on forming you.  

It starts with genetics. Only you have that unique DNA combination of genetics that came from your parents. There could be 20 children in the family yet they will all have their distinct unique personalities and views of the world. There is no one who has ever lived who is exactly like you. So what does that mean?  

That means no one knows what your potential is.  

No one knows what you could be great at.  No one knows how you could impact the world. No one knows what your possibilities are.  There's no way of knowing what level of success you can have in life because there's never in the history of the world been anyone exactly like you. Your joy, your opportunity, your privilege as you live your life is to find out exactly what the answers are to all of those questions.

Go and live your life to the fullness. Be you and find out what that you really is.