End of Year Wisdom from Brian Tracy
Let’s take a ride on Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine (any audience members remember Mr. Peabody?) and go back to those great, inspirational, indispensable thought leaders from the ‘80s and ‘90s. Zig Ziglar, Dennis Waitley, and, in this case, Brian Tracy were unbelievably popular in those days – well before the internet – due to their public appearances, books, and cassette recordings. While you might think it trite and corny to hear that Wayne eagerly consumed these cassettes as he motored throughout the Carolinas and Virginia, they were instrumental in shaping his worldview as well as the business and personal philosophies of millions of other business people around the world.
This week, Wayne will quickly review 14 of Brian Tracy’s life and work tips. Please let us know what you think: who are/were your greatest influencers when you were in your formative years? Share with us in the comments. And please have a safe and happy Christmas and New Year holiday!
The Dallas class of The Contractor Business Boot Camp starts on Feb 22-23, 2024. This is a great opportunity for your rising high-potential leaders to learn the business of running a successful construction from industry experts and peers alike. Enroll them to this career development program NOW (before we run out of seats!). In addition to Dallas, we are coming to Denver and Raleigh in 2024. Please contact Charlotte at ckopp@familybusinessinstitute.com for more information.
Hi everyone. This is Wayne Rivers at FBI, where We Build Better Contractors.
Please excuse my voice. I went to my peer group meeting last week and received a, well, lots of information, but also a
cold from one of our peers. So that's a thing. That time of the year, right? So, this is our last vlog for '23, almost. I think
there's one more coming next week. But I wanted to give you something from the archive, something from way, way back.
And this is wisdom from Brian Tracy from, who knows, the 1980s or '90s or something like that.
Now, when I started my first job that led me to eventually starting FBI in 1995, or something like that, my manager handed
me a bunch of cassettes to listen to in the car. Because back then, sales calls were in person. You'd pick up the phone,
you'd call a contractor, you'd get in the car and go see them. And it was kind of regionally like Durham, Greensboro,
Charlotte, something drivable in one day, and you had a lot of windshield time, so we listened to these tapes. And he
handed me these things and I rolled my eyes. I thought that was the corniest thing I'd ever seen in my whole life. They
absolutely unequivocally changed my life. Oh man, Zig Ziglar, Earl Nightingale, Brian Tracy, Denis Waitley. All that wisdom
that they had accumulated from their own successes as well as others. It was really amazing.
Now, what about this is important to you? Why am I bringing you this ancient, practically, information? Well, because it's
lonely at the top. That's why we have our peer groups. But sometimes in all the complexity and the hustle and bustle of
the modern world, we forget to do that basic blocking and tackling that we have to do to be successful as people and also
in business. I think about two very different sports, but two great people, and they both had the same advice. When things
aren't going right for you, you go back to the basics. So Pete Rose, the all-time baseball hits leader, and Billie Jean King,
clearly one of the all-time greats in tennis, both had the same advice. When things aren't going great for you, make it
simple and just hit the ball down the middle.
That was their advice, and I think it's great advice. So, this Brian Tracy information I'm going to bring you is basic blocking
and tackling. It's hitting the ball down the middle. It's timeless wisdom that I think we can all subscribe to. So just a quick
tally of about 14 points from Brian Tracy.
Love what you do. Wow, that's a great place to start.
Commit yourself to excellence. Excellence isn't something that you do from 8:00 to 5:00 every day, or whenever.
Excellence is how you live as a human being. So, it's excellence at home, excellence at work, excellence in, oh, I don't
know, keeping your truck clean. I don't know what it is, but excellence is a thing. It's a full-time thing, not an off and on
switch that you have.
Accept complete responsibility for your actions. I think we live in an era where people spin. The people on television spin
all the time. You see one thing happening before your very eyes, and they tell you that something a little bit different
might be happening. Accept complete responsibility for your actions. It seems too rare in today's world.
Focus on your talents and abilities. There are some things that you're great at. Do those. The things that you're good at,
okay maybe. The things that you're not good at, delegate, hire, find somebody else, get a virtual assistant. Do some of
these things that free up your time to do what you're really, really great at. And that goes back to number one, love what
you do. And if you do those two things, you're going to be successful.
Work only with people you like. Man, I agree with that. Life is too short to put up with you know what.
Be teachable. Here I am, 62 years old. I go to my peer group meeting. It's amazing. I took how many pages of notes, I can't
even remember. Tons of notes. Be teachable. Be willing to learn. Be like a sponge and soak it up.
Accept the peaks and valleys in life. Inevitable. What can you do? Just no choice there.
Dedicate yourself to continuous personal and professional development. Go to your peer group meetings, read, listen,
experience new things in life and in business.
Read 30 to 60 minutes a day. It's tough to do in today's world when you're so jam-packed, your schedule is so jam-packed.
But airplanes, if you're taking a trip every once in a while, airplanes are great places to read. I got through a couple or
maybe three books on my trip last week.
Be an eternal optimist. Be a happy person. I didn't know that you could do this. I didn't know this was a choice until I
started listening to Brian Tracy and Zig and all these other people. It is absolutely a choice. Things happen. Bad things
happen to you. You can't avoid that. That's life. What you can control is how you react. You can choose to be happy. You
can choose to be optimistic. You can't be perfect, 100% happy and optimistic every single day. That's, again, not real life.
But you can choose how you react to the misadventures that occur to us in life.
Dedicate yourself to serving others. Zig Ziglar said, "If you want to get everything in life you want, first help other people
get what they want in life, and you'll do it." And that's wonderful advice.
Be impeccably honest with yourself and others. Absolutely. I guess I don't want to say brutal honesty is the rule of the day
here at FBI, but we want to be completely transparent at all times here.
And the 14th and final thing, and this is terrific advice. Be persistent. You're not going to win every day. Pete Rose didn't
get a hit every day. Billie Jean King didn't win Grand Slams every year. Be persistent. Dedicate yourself to excellence.
These 14 tips are things you can take to your families, your grandchildren, whatever, and they're just wonderful lifetime
learning tips. So, I hope you enjoy these and hope you finish out 2023 really strong. Don't forget bootcamp in '24. We've
got Denver, Raleigh, and Dallas coming up next year. So get your high potential folks signed up and we will see you after
the turn of the calendar page.
This is Wayne Rivers at FBI, where We Build Better Contractors.
