 |
| The Effort Scale |
All too often we lose sight of the possibilities that are right in front of us. We spend so much time thinking about issues, challenges, and questions, in order words things we "can't do," that we seldom view our options, or things that we "can do." One of the things that we have at our disposal at any point in time is our effort. But how often are we fully aware of how much effort we are exerting, or could potentially put forth?
Prolific author Stephen King once wrote that “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”
But how much effort does one need to accomplish a goal that requires hard work?
The answer to that question, of course, depends on the situation. Rest assured that the degree of effort required is generally associated with the level of difficulty to answer the question. In short, easy questions require little effort. More difficult questions require a significant amount of effort.
An illustration such as the Effort Scale explains that your level of energy spans the spectrum from effortless on one end to maximum effort on the other. Anything we do in life has a level of effort associated with it.
In the adjacent video interview with successful entrepreneur and business mogul Mark Cuban, he believes that "The one constant you have control over is effort." Despite all of the distractions around you, the one constant you have control over is your effort. When large issues cloud your vision it is easy to forget that effort is still within your potential.
Directly linked to your level of effort is your physical and cerebral energy. If you are physically or mentally drained from some other situation that will have a negative impact on your level of energy. For example, if the situation requires you to put forth levels of very hard, extremely hard, or maximum strength effort, and you failed to get enough sleep the night before, it will be difficult, if not impossible to move forward with the requisite level of effort.
Additionally, if you are constantly reminding yourself of something that happened in the past, a situation that you have no control over, then such mental preoccupation can also have a negative impact on your ability to apply the level of effort required.
The application and management of effort is also directly related to your ability to maximize opportunities. Do you understand the relationship between your level of effort and personal or professional opportunities.
Inventor Thomas Edison understood that "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Work takes effort. To identify opportunities one needs to be prepared and work as hard as possible. Generating high degrees of effort will often result in creating more opportunities. It is also important to realize that the harder the work generally the more effort required.
To identify and take advantages of opportunities though, you must maintain a high level of effort. If your level of energy is at the low end of the spectrum, where you put almost no effort, very light, or light amounts of effort, then it will be very challenging to successfully navigate opportunities.
-----
Questions to Consider:
- Are you aware of the level of effort you are exerting compared to what is required of a specific situation?
- What are you doing to maintain a high level of energy in order to apply the level of effort required in a specific situation?
- How do you define hard work? Do you agree with author Stephen King that “what separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work?”
- Do you believe, as Mark Cuban observed, that “the one constant you have control over is effort?"
- Reflecting upon your life, have you noticed that you failed to identify or take advantage of an opportunity because your level of effort was too low?
American boxer Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus
Clay, Jr.) once said "“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by
small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given
than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a
fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare.
Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is
nothing.”
The life of Dietrich Mateschitz exemplifies Ali's quote. Born to school
teachers
in Austria in 1944, his parents divorced when he was young. After
taking ten years to graduate Vienna University of Economics, Mateschitz
went to work for Unilver marketing detergents. He subsequently moved to
Blendax, the German cosmetics company where he worked on the marketing
of Blendax toothpaste.
In 1982, as a 36 year-old toothpaste marketer who
suffered from jet lag in Thailand, Mateschitz discovered a local drink
Krating Daeng (Red Bull). Krating Daeng is a non-carbonated energy drink
popular in Thailand, based on the Japanese energy drink Lipovitan, and
South Korea's Bacchus-F, which were imported into the country. Its
ingredients include water, cane sugar, caffeine, taurine, inositol and
B-vitamins. In addition to Krating Daeng being a jet lag treatment, it
was also prized by locals for its ability to increase physical endurance
and mental concentration, making it popular with laborers and
long-distance truck drivers.
As a marketer Mateschitz believed it had a global appeal
and started negotiations with Chaleo Yoovidya, president of Krating
Daeng’s manufacturer TC Pharmaceuticals. In 1984 the two founded a new
company - Red Bull GmbH.
Before launching, Mateschitz hired a market research firm
to test Red Bull's acceptance. The result was a catastrophe. "People
didn't believe the taste, the logo, the brand name," he recalls now with
a smile. "I'd never before experienced such a disaster." Despite being
told it was impossible to sell Red Bull as he envisioned, he ignored
the recommendations, and went on with his project.
In 1987 the first can of Red Bull went on sale in
Austria. The main difference in the European and global formulation is
that unlike it Thai forerunner, it is carbonated and contains the amino
acid taurine. Two years later Red Bull went on sale in Hungary and
Slovenia
To help market Red Bull, Mateschitz came up with the idea
of a “Flugtag” (air show) in 1991. With Red Bull enthusiasts
demonstrating their innovative, yet not always successful, attempts at
flying, the tag line "It gives you wings," eventually helped Red Bull
spread around the globe.
In 1997 Red Bull entered the U.S. market. Whether it's
by sponsored air races, helicopters or extreme sports, Red Bull's brand
has become synonymous with going big and going fast. Red Bull's brand
message has been received well by young consumers around the world,
promising that if you drink Red Bull, you'll be seen as a
self-confident, unpredictable, edgy non-conformist. You become part of
the "counterculture."
As of 2012 was selling sells upwards of 4 billion cans
each year and dominates its main competitors Monster and Rockstar with a
40 percent market share. Red Bull now has a presence in more than 160
countries around the world and it employs around 8,000
And the one who was told it was impossible to sell Red
Bull around the globe...yea has an estimated net worth of $5 billion.
Not bad for someone who started out selling toothpaste, ignored the
experts, and figured out a way to launch a global brand.
-----
Questions:
- Has anyone ever told you something you wanted to do was impossible? If so, how did you respond?
- Why do you think some people tell others that something is impossible?
- Have you ever told someone that what they wanted to do was impossible? If so, why?
- What lessons can you apply from Mateschitz's story to your own life?
Resources:
- Kirn Bhasin, “How
Dietrich Mateschitz Ignored The Haters And Created The Top Energy Drink On The
Planet,” Business Insider, February 15, 2012.
- Ty Montague, How to Combine Story and Action to Transform Your Business (2013)
- Dietrich Mateschitz, Wikipedia
“One day, you will wake up and there won’t be any more
time, to do things you’ve always wanted. Do It Now!” It took him 40
years to write his first book and to "do what he always wanted to do,"
but best selling Brazilian author Paulo Coelho lived the quote he
preached.
Perhaps one of the
most well known authors of his generation, Paulo Coelho wrote his first
book at 40 years of age. Coelho has published 30 books. Sold more than
150 million books in over 150 countries and his works have been
translated into 80 languages. He is one of the best selling Portuguese
language authors.
1947 August 24 born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1963-1967 Sent to asylum three times (16-20 years of age) and released in 1967
1967-1968 went to law school but dropped out to become a hippy traveling through South America, North Africa, Mexico and Europe
Late 1960s-1970s - wrote lyrics for Raul Seixas, the Brazilian rock star
1974
– arrested for “subversive” activities by the ruling militia (bundled
into a car, taken to a secret headquarters, and tortured with electric
shock to his genitals) Joined Alternative Society, an organization that
defended the individual’s right to free expression and began publishing
a series of comic strips calling for more freedom.
1970s-1980s
– worked as an actor, journalist, and theatre director before pursuing
his writing career Between 1972 and 1982, Coelho penned scores of tunes
-- with Seixas and other Brazilian singers -- and made tons of money.
Hoping for some normalcy in his life, he went to work for Polygram
record company. And he met the woman who became his first wife. They
moved to London in 1977, but Coelho was unhappy and wanted to write
again. He went back to Brazil and they divorced. He married twice more
before settling down with an old friend, Christina Oiticica . "She is my
fourth wife," he says, "and last."
1982 – published his first book, Hell Archives – low sales
In
1982, Coelho and Oiticica visited Germany. While touring the
concentration camp at Dachau, Coelho had a vision. He says a man
appeared to him. A few weeks later, Coelho ran into the ghostly man
again at a cafe in Amsterdam. "You must close the circle," the man said
crypto-mystically. "You will see the image of God in everything from now
on." The man instructed Coelho to rediscover Catholicism and to take
the pilgrim's walk on the road to Santiago, between France and Spain.
1986 – at 39 years of age walked the 500 mile Road of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain – the turning point in his life. Also known as The Way of St. James
- one of the most important Christian pilgrimages during medieval
times, together with Rome and Jerusalem, and a pilgrimage route on which
a plenary indulgence could be earned
1987 – at 40 years of age published The Alchemist
through a small Brazilian publishing house who made an initial print
run of 900 copies and decided not to reprint. He found a bigger
publishing house, and with the publication of his next book Brida, The Alchemist became a Brazilian bestseller.
1990s - The Alchemist
attracted little attention at first until a French language translation
suddenly leaped onto the bestseller lists in France. New translations
followed and The Alchemist became a worldwide bestseller.
Early
2000s – upended the publishing industry by pirating his own work and
made it available online in countries where it was not easily found,
using the argument that ideas should be disseminated free.
Quotes from The Alchemist:
- “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
- “It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”
- “People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”
- “I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m
interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the
present, you’ll be a happy man. Life will be a party for you, a grand
festival, because life is the moment we’re living now.”
- “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
- “When we love, we always strive to become better than
we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around
us becomes better too."
- “Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse
than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it
goes in search of its dreams.”
- “There is only one way to learn. It’s through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey.”
- “What is the world’s greatest lie?” the little boy
asks. The old man replies, “It’s this: that at a certain point in our
lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become
controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie.”
- “The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.”
- “Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.”
- “The secret is here in the present. If you pay
attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve
on the present, what comes later will also be better.”
-----
Questions:
- Coelho took 40 years to write his first book. This
is a good reminder that age is not a factor and that you can start to
translate your dream into reality anytime. Are you waiting for that
perfect time to pursue your dream? How long will you wait? Why are you
waiting?
- The fear of failure paralyzes many people into inaction. Does fear stop you from trying new things?
- Coelho persevered through tremendously difficult
situations when he was young but it did not stop him from achieving his
dream. What difficult situations have you faced? Are they holding you
back from moving forward?
Resources:
- Julie Bosman, "Best Selling Author Gives Away His Work," The New York Times, September 26, 2011.
- Elizabeth Day, "A Mystery Even to Himself," The Telegraph, June 13, 2005.
- Paulo Coelho, Wikipedia
- Paulo Coelho, Biography
