Seneca's Providence, Donald Trump's Relentless Persistence and Keith Richards is Still Here: How to Feed Off Adversity and Fuel Your Success!

Today I'm going to draw lessons on pushing through adversity to succeed from a trio of the best in the game, Roman Stoic Philosopher Seneca the Younger, real estate mogul and United States Presidential candidate Donald Trump, and enduring rock and roll great of The Rolling Stones, Keith Richards.

To begin, you can always count on the great Stoic philosopher SENECA to lay it out for you and get you motivated again:

Check out these TIGER ZINGERS from Seneca's essay, On Providence:

"Evils are not punishment, but paternal correctives like exercise to the athlete or medicine for the sick"

"God does does not treat a good man as a toy, he tries him, he hardens him, and readies him for himself"

"The assaults of adversity do not affect the spirit of a stalwart man"

"A victory devoid of adversity is a victory devoid of glory"

-Seneca the Younger 4 BC - 65 AD

That's just a sampling of dozens of fantastic motivating lines in that work. It's a no-fail slump-buster to read if you ever find yourself in self-pity mode! The big take-away is that God (or whatever you want to call "it") doesn't hate you, it's trying to toughen you up so you can have a great life!

Built to last, It's the OTHER 2000 year old writing to draw massive inspiration from!

And to follow... DONALD J. TRUMP. Anyone who can be Billions in debt, turn it around to be WORTH Billions, then run for President on his own terms has got the kind of drive we all should want.

There's a great line in Donald Trump's 1987 classic book, The Art of the Deal:

"I was relentless, even in the face of the total lack of encouragement, because much more often than you'd think, sheer persistence is the difference between success and failure" -Donald Trump

Trump was describing the effort it took to get the holder of the Manhattan site at 5th Avenue and East 57th Street to sell so that he could build his Trump Tower.

Obviously, he eventually bought the site and built Trump tower. I've walked up 5th Avenue in New York City to see for myself and remember feeling how the with-my-own eyes sight of the physical evidence of Donald Trump's relentless persistence hit home. Anything is possible!

Remember that one of the perks of having your name on the door is the show doesn't start until you arrive.

Finally, KEITH RICHARDS! When you have played guitar for the greatest rock band in the world for more decades than we can count on one hand, you begin to boil it down to something even more pure and simple.

There's a section in a book I love, What Would Keith Richards Do? by Jessica Pallington West. Where West puts Keith quotes up against the great Philosophers, this is my favorite:

"What does not kill me makes me stronger" - Friedrich Nietzsche
"I'm still here" - Keith Richards

Thrive on adversity. When an effort goes horribly wrong or just takes a lot of elbow grease,  drink that resistance like FUEL for your eventual success!

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Extending the Play: Cam Newton, Napoleon and Peter Drucker's Straight Jacket... Why flexibility is critical.

Steinbeck said that "The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry" .... But they don't have to if you are F L E X I B L E !

 A football play is definitely a plan, the X's and O's all have lines that go somewhere... Sometimes there are "forks" in the lines, options... But what about the BROKEN play? When the ball is snapped and it slips out of your hands and is bouncing about the backfield... Most likely whatever the X's and O's said to do is now out the window. TIME TO IMPROVISE.

This is where raw athletic ability and instinct come into play, we see it happen on Sunday when a slippery QB evades the rush to run for the first or hit a receiver downfield. Not the play as designed, but the jazz version. Sandlot style. 

Develop your life's equivalent of that athletic ability and instinct, so when you're faced with a broken play in life, you can react and still convert the first. This can be done pay paying attention to your health and mental skillsets. If all you are capable of is doing what your know what to do by blind habit, or your "plan", you may be lost when things fall into chaos. The relentless entropy of the universe guarantees this to be inevitable... Develop the tools to check the blitz, MIND, BODY & SOUL. 

Do not fail to plan, plans are important. But they often have to be changed, and that's okay. The great French leader Napoleon Bonaparte said, "Be audacious and cunning in your plans, firm and persevering in their execution, determined to find a glorious end.", but has also said, "The greatest battles I have won did not go by plan".

Five star general and 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower's take was, "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."

Have a plan for anything important in your life, but always be re-assessing the value proposition and risk-reward from the current point in time to the end of the "operation". Don't blindly follow your plan to the death if it's not panning out. 

The legendary business author Peter F. Drucker said it best, "Don't make your plan a straight-jacket"!

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Leverage STAR POWER to accelerate your progress to success!

The following will explain how progress in the various facets of your life feed success in all other areas, creating exponential personal growth!

I divide this wheel or star into five categories:

1. CH  - Chemical. How's your brain chemistry? Are their drugs you need to get off or manage better (alcohol, caffeine, narcotics)? Are there drugs you should be on (prescribed anti-depressants, etc)?

2. PM - Physical and mental fitness. These are all the attributes you can develop with 'sets and reps'. How well you eat, exercise and self-educate yourself. Eating a salad, walking for 60min or reading a quality non-fiction book will raise this bar.

3. PG - Play the game. Action + Execution = Momentum. Are you taking your physical health and knowledge and putting it to use? Do you feel like you are moving forward, or is lack of initiative holding you back?

4. RS - Rockstar! Social, Family, Love, Mating. How are your personal relationships? Do you have quality relationships with friends and family? Are you having success with romance?

5. IW - Independent Wealth - How's your career, personal finance, entrepreneurial efforts, security, bling? Where you want to be yet?

Laid out in wheel around star it looks like this:

 

You can see that the strong links are in order clockwise from the top:

You can't be physically or mentally healthy to your potential with a drug problem.

You can't take action and execute like a boss to your potential with poor mental or physical health.

You can't have great social relationships if you're inactive and stuck in neutral.

You can't build a stellar business or career alone. 

Now, the interesting thing is that progress in ANY of these areas help the other four to some extent (the legs of the star)!

If your brain chemistry is in order, you will be better able to:
Be healthy and knowledgable
Take courageous actions to move your life forward
Have satisfying (and productive) social interactions
Take your career or business where you want to go

If you are healthy and knowledgeable, you will be better able to:
Keep your brain chemistry in order
Take courageous actions to move your life forward
Have satisfying (and productive) social interactions
Take your career or business where you want to go

If you take courageous actions to move your life forward, you will be better able to:
Keep your brain chemistry in order
Be healthy and knowledgeable
Have satisfying (and productive) social interactions
Take your career or business where you want to go

If you have satisfying (and productive) social interactions, you will be better able to:
Keep your brain chemistry in order
Be healthy and knowledgable
Take courageous actions to move your life forward
Take your career or business where you want to go

If you take your career business where you want to go, you will be better able to:
Keep your brain chemistry in order 
Be healthy and knowledgable
Take courageous actions to move your life forward
Have satisfying (and productive) social interactions

So, if you find yourself in a rut (it happens) in any of the areas of Chemistry, Fitness, Action, Social or Money ... Do what you can to gain whatever ground you can in any other of the areas!!! The resultant inch forward you gain in your problem area may jump-start new progress! 

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