Advanced Secret of Success -- Be a Contrarian

It is extremely rare to achieve financial success as an employee. Salaried folk, unless you are the starting shortstop for the New York Yankees, will not get rich. You can say some Microsoft employees got exceedingly rich but their wealth came through ownership, not through salaries. Basically you have to own something that appreciates majorly to realize great wealth.

Probably the best way to do that is to build a business. One thing that distinguishes super successful entrepreneurs from the run-of-the-mill is a contrarian mindset. Super successful entrepreneurs start out not liking the status quo. They have a low regard for the conventional. Their enterprises express their contrarian views in any number of ways. They can deviate markedly from the norm in terms of quality or price or service or features or marketing or customer relationships or employee treatment or technological advantage or cultural convention or tradition or you name it or all of the above.

These contrarian guys and gals are NOT driven by the desire to amass great wealth. Instead they are driven by passion. Wealth just happens as a by-product of their passion. One of their passions inevitably is a higher purpose, a sense of social responsibility. They see themselves as part of a bigger picture and functioning to bring about change to that big picture.

As a result, they thrive financially and live fulfilled lives.

To be successful, you must either become one of these contrarian-types by nurturing the rebel within you OR you have to team up with one.

He who embraces the status quo is destined to punch a time clock until he can punch no more.

In my next post (whenever I get around to it), I will discuss how to identify the passion(s) that will bring you your greatest success.

Cheers,
Fred
www.lazyway.net

Comments

[Marcus]

To be successful, you must either become one of these contrarian-types by nurturing the rebel within you OR you have to team up with one.

I really appreciated this bit of wisdom. Could you further reflect on this idea and maybe explain how one could go about forming this type of partnership from either end of the spectrum?

[Rachel]

Hey Marcus,

What better place than this blog to attract a work partner prospect? People are drawn here for the same reason.

In your next post, think about including your e mail (using [at] instead of @ to avoid spam dragnets) if your're looking for a like minded team.

[Ben]

I have no doubt that passion leads to prosperity, sooner or later.

Recognizing that passion though is really difficult. A couple of times I thought I "had it" but I didn't. Or maybe I found it but fear stopped me to follow it further. I haven't figured it out yet, but I'm working on it.

Looking forward to your next post :)

[David]

I understand that having a passion for what you do it the way to go. And yes, I know that figuring out what one's passion is can be one of those never-ending quests.

It's kinda like figuring out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop.

There are the lucky ones we all know who seem to know what they were to be since they were in the crib. The rest of us go on and on searching for whatever that may be.

While I keep searching for myself, I have come to believe that it almost always goes back to something we began years before. It may not go all the way back when we were a child, but it may very well be what we first had an interest in around high school where we saw that it could amount to something bigger later on.

[Tom McKay]

I agree that passion is important. But the world is filled with starving actors, singers, writers, etc. who LOVE what they do. It's just that no one will pay them to do it!

So don't forget to look for that elusive intersection, where what you're passionate about intersects with what the world is hungry for. THAT'S where you'll find great success.

Or so they tell me... ;-)

Tom(at)MaineCreative.com

[Fred]

You have to visit my next post. You can't just go with one passion like the proverbial starving artist. You need to find an activity that is served by several passions.

[Tom McKay]

You're right, Fred. That's what I get for posting a comment before reading all the posts on a given topic. (D'oh!) Anyway, I really enjoy your attitude and your blog, Fred. Glad to see you're back posting again -- we missed you!

"The world is too much with us, late and soon.
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.
Little we see in Nature that is ours
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon
(Wordsworth)

Tom

[Belstaff Jacken Damen]

Very, very nicely done!