Lessons Learned
Are You Building Your Foundation of Success ?
ED SYKES
Ed Sykes is a world-class , award-winning motivational speaker , as well as dynamic success coach , educator , and author . Based in Virginia , U . S . A , this engaging professional speaker has over twenty-five years of experience in motivating people to reach the next levels of success . Sykes has been featured in various publications including The New York Times , Black Enterprise , Dairy Queen International , The Virginian Pilot , Newsday , USA Today , and Toastmasters Magazine . To know more about the author , please visit www . thesykesgrp . com .
Are you creating your foundation of success ? Are you motivated to take on challenges that others are not willing to do ? The following is a story of someone who did and achieved great success in his life and how you can , too !
There once was a young man who grew up in Crawford , Mississippi . His father worked as a brick mason building home foundations . Everyday after school and during the summers , this young man would help his father build foundations . It ' s not the most glamorous job by any stretch of the imagination , but it ' s an honest , backbreaking , and low paying job that put food on the table and paid the bills . The father would start by throwing bricks towards the son in the area where they would build a housing foundation . Under the hot , sweltering Mississippi sun , his son would catch brick after brick with his hands , day after day . While most other kids were enjoying their summers or working in less strenuous jobs , this young man was motivated to work long and hard with his father , while catching those bricks and building a foundation for success in more ways than one .
You see , each time that young man caught bricks , he was not only making his hands stronger , he was building character and the foundation for success in his later years . With each brick he caught , he was even more determined to be successful in life . When he wasn ’ t helping his father and going to school , he was pushing himself through football workouts to be better than any other American football player . You see the young man ' s name is Jerry Rice , and he went on to become the most successful NFL All-Pro wide receiver of all time with the San Francisco 49ers .
The following are the six success secrets that Jerry Rice used that can easily motivate you to achieve success in any aspect of your business , career , and life :
1 . Motivate Yourself to See Opportunities in Every Challenge
Jerry could have looked at the job of catching bricks as a chore that was a waste of his time . But he saw the big picture and made the chore more enjoyable by developing games out of the activities . Many times in life , we are thrown bricks and complain and miss the opportunity it presents to us . The person who can find solutions in the challenges they are faced with can write their own ticket for success . When you take on a challenge , it ’ s preparing you for an opportunity in the future . You may not know when the opportunity is coming , how it is coming , or what the opportunity will look like , but it is coming ; and will you be prepared ? Embrace your challenges so you will be prepared .
2 . Motivate Yourself to See That It ’ s Normal to Experience a Little Pain
As Jerry was experiencing the pain of catching bricks each day , this pain was actually building him to becoming a stronger person . Each brick was fueling Jerry ’ s internal desire to be successful . Think of some situation at work , in business , or in life that was painful . Your pain may be an embarrassing moment , it may be a learning experience , and it may be a setback . How can you use this setback to motivate you to become more successful ? We achieve success in our businesses , careers , and life when we develop the success tools of using our “ pains ” as a learning experience and a springboard to success .
3 . Motivate Yourself to Take on Unpopular Tasks
Catching bricks all day is not the most glamorous job in the world . Many times we are thrown bricks in life and avoid them like the plague . Volunteer to catch these bricks while others decline . This will allow people
30 PEOPLE MANAGER I January 2013