Tag: success

Why it’s so important to protect your Golden Eggs.

Our creative team at The Weaponry meets once a week to talk about our Golden Eggs. Yes, Golden Eggs. I realize that sounds like something from a fairytale. Or maybe something you use to make a McMuffin at the Golden Arches.

At The Weaponry, our Golden Eggs are our great creative opportunities.

The name Golden Eggs is important.

First, the opportunities are golden. They are valuable. Special and rare. Like Rose, Blanche, Dorothy and Sophia.

But they are also eggs. Which means they are fragile. And easily destroyed. Especially if they sit on a wall and have a great fall.

We Must Protect These Eggs!

At The Weaponry we realize that we need to protect the Golden Eggs. We need to keep a watchful eye on them. Guard them. Defend them. We need to focus on them. And treat them as if they are special and fragile. Because if we don’t, they will crack, splat or spoil.

Paying special attention is the only way to ensure that your valuable opportunities transform into valuable results. Because success is like a manufacturing line. At the beginning of the line, you have raw opportunity. Then you run that opportunity down the line, through a process to transform that opportunity into a successful result.

But you need to start with an opportunity.

Everyone Has Golden Eggs

You have Golden Eggs too. Yes, you. These are your great opportunities. The ones that you need to protect, defend, and guard to make sure your opportunity is not lost, wasted or destroyed.

Your opportunities may be related to your work or your career. But Golden Eggs can also be that special person that walks into your life. They could be free time with your children. A date with your spouse or main squeeze. Golden Eggs can be that book you should read. The opportunity to exercise, converse, or learn. Golden Eggs come in many shapes and sizes. So don’t be surprised if your Golden Egg is not actually shaped like an egg.

Key Takeaway

Learn to identify your Golden Eggs. Protect them. Give them the special attention, focus and energy they require. That is how you ensure that you get the valuable gold from them.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

All successful results are a product of these 2 simple factors.

I have competed all my life. As an athlete. As a businessman. And as a coach. I have seen how some teams and businesses always generate great results, while others never do. (Coughing: Cleveland Browns.)

I have learned what it takes to achieve great results. And like Bennifer, Hall & Oates, and Gin n’ Juice, successful results are a product of two things.

The System and The Subject.

The System is the way of doing things.

It is the process. The expectations. The values. The technique. It is the school of thought. The philosophies. It is the declared purpose and priorities. It is the tolerances permitted. It is the culture. It is the rituals and norms. And the people with other names besides Norm.

The Subject is the person being coached, led or taught.

Subjects vary in skills, talent, commitment, attitude, experience, determination, resolve and grit. They vary in natural ability and capacity. They vary in tolerance for pain and suffering. They vary in height, weight and speed. And subjects vary in loyalty, royalty, and the price they are willing to pay.

What This Means.

The system will determine how much you can get out of the subject.

The subject will determine how much you can get out of the system.

A better system will generate better results for a subject.

A better subject will generate better results within a system.

Key Takeaway

For the team to create the greatest results, continuously improve your system, and attract better subjects. For the individual to achieve the greatest results, find the greatest system.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

One of the keys to accomplishing a lot is lazy time.

Like Morris Day, I am trying to make the most of my time.

So I try to stay busy and do a lot of stuff.

  • I am an entrepreneur. (TheWeaponry.com)
  • I write a blog and publish 3 new posts every week. (adamalbrecht.blog)
  • I have published 2 books and am working on a third. (You can find them here.)
  • I travel the country as a professional speaker. (That is still awesomely weird to write.) 
  • I coach youth football in the fall.
  • I coach high school track in the spring.
  • I have 3 kids that I try to parent right.
  • And I have a great wife that I love spending time with, and that I really want to keep.
  • Plus I try to work out at least 4 times per week.
  • And I am trying to read 3 books every month.

During my talks I am often asked how I get so much done.

Ironically, one of the keys to doing a lot is rest. (Although, like Alanis Morissette, I may have used ironic incorrectly here. Maybe it’s a paradox. Or maybe even 3 dox.)

Rest

Rest means getting good sleep at night.

It means taking quick naps in the afternoon or evening when I can.

And it means enjoying downtime. 

Sometimes downtime means a lazy few minutes, or a few lazy hours. 

Sometimes it means a lazy day.

Or a vacation.

Regular rest allows you to sustain your efforts over a longer time. It helps you avoid burnout, Spicoli. And it helps you look forward to getting back to work.

I plan to take some lazy time this weekend to rest, recharge and prepare for a strong push to the end of the year. I encourage you to too. And if Bono and The Edge are reading this, I encourage U2 to too. 

Key Takeaway

Rest is an important part of any success program. It may be counterintuitive, but rest allows you to maintain a stronger, faster and more sustainable pace.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

Why your talent alone is never enough to be successful.

There are talented people everywhere.

There is talent in the richest neighborhoods.

And in dirty tent villages.

There is talent in the best schools.

And in maximum security prisons.

Don’t ask me how I know…

Talent is not a rare gem.

It is as common as stone. Just ask Cold Steve Austin.

The great rarity is the will to invest time and energy to develop your talent.

The will to work, sacrifice, and stay the course over a prolonged period makes all the difference. It transforms your talent into valuable skills and desired results. It is that investment that separates the masses from the wildly successful.

Key Takeaway

Everyone has talent. It is what you are willing to invest to develop your talent that makes all the difference.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

Here’s the very best way to get revenge on your enemies, legally.

I don’t need everyone to like me.

And neither do you.

When I was a kid I recognized that there were people with whom I got along well, and others who were like a downer to my upper. Or oil to my water. Or plumbers crack to my suspenders. In other words, we just couldn’t exist in the same space.

As an adult, I am fortunate to have a lot of friends. But I still have people that don’t like me. I bet you have people who don’t like you too. It’s a sign that you are doing things the right way. Or that you are a psychopath. (If you are a psychopath none of the rest of this lesson applies to you.)

I have found that the people that clearly don’t like me have a different value system than me. For example, I think people should be honest and kind. While I find that most people I don’t get along with don’t value honesty and kindness. And neither do their feral children.

While I tend to make friends quickly, I make enemies just as fast. I don’t attempt to convert my enemies into friends. Instead, I think about getting revenge. And the best way to get revenge on your enemies is to constantly disappoint them.

How I disappoint my enemies:

I disappoint my enemies with my successes.

I disappoint my enemies with my continuous improvement.

I disappoint my enemies with my resilience to setbacks.

I disappoint my enemies by not responding to their invitations to stoop to their level.

I disappoint my enemies by amassing more friends who align with my values.

I disappoint my enemies with my indifference to them.

I disappoint my enemies by smiling, laughing, and enjoying every day, especially in front of them and their feral children.

Key Takeaway

Use your enemies to your advantage. They are excellent sources of motivation. Disappoint your enemies with your successes. It’s the sweetest form of revenge.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

How many times do you need to succeed to know your approach works?

When I started my career as an advertising copywriter I learned about the power of a campaign. While it is relatively easy to come up with a single idea to promote your client’s offerings, it is much more difficult to come up with a campaign.

To determine if an idea was campaignable, you had to come up with at least 3 executions based on the same conceptual idea that would allow you to broadly extend the advertising message. Think of the Got Milk? campaign, Allstate’s Mayhem campaign, or the way KFC recently reintroduced Colonel Sanders without the use of CGI, AI, or a mortician.

The campaignability of an idea is the difference between having a one-hit wonder, like Chumbawamba, and having something bigger and more useful, like Taylor Swift’s 44-song Eras Tour. (It’s funny that the Tubthumpers, who admitted to getting knocked down but claimed to get right back up again, only had one hit. Maybe it was the Whiskey drink, or the Vodka drink, or the Lager drink, or the Cider drink that did them in.)

The Rule of 3s

The campaignability rule of 3s is a great rule to apply to other areas of life as well. Because until you have had success in a specific area 3 different times you don’t have proof that you have a repeatable process for success.

For example:

Investors don’t know if they have a valid investment strategy until they have applied it successfully 3 times and gained the targeted rate of return on their money invested.

A coach doesn’t know whether their system truly works until they have had 3 teams or 3 athletes achieve great success following their process.

An artist doesn’t know how to create commercially viable or critically acclaimed art until they do it at least 3 times, without their parents buying their work.

A blogger can’t claim to have proof for their theory of 3s unless they can provide 3 examples, like the 3 I’ve listed above.

What Success 3 Times Means

Once you have had success with an undertaking 3 times, you have proven that you have a repeatable process. Once you have proof that your way works, your opinion carries more weight. You become a credible authority on that subject. In discussions and debates, your perspective has more value because it has been validated by your track record of success.

Investing

As an investor, I have had success buying stock in great companies in industries that have run into bad times. My first success was buying banking stocks during the housing crisis of 2008. I repeated that success with oil stocks in 2020. Then cruise line stocks in 2021. All of these have proven to be great investments. Which provides me with a validated approach that I could share with you.

Coaching

As a track coach all 3 of the girls who I have coached for 3 years have improved their discus throws by at least 45 feet. So I am confident in telling any young athlete I work with that wherever they start out, we will be able to improve at least 45 feet if they follow my system.

Advertising

In advertising, the approach that my team uses for developing brands has proven effective and helped drive business for our clients over and over and over again. So we are confident that our process can be applied to virtually any brand to help drive growth through marketing.

Key Takeaway

If you can achieve success in an area 3 times you have a proven process. Your experience is valuable and transferrable. Remember that you should only take qualified advice from someone who has successfully implemented the advice they are sharing with you at least 3 times. This indicates credibility and a high probability of future success. Anyone can get lucky once. But luck is not a safe bet.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

The great power in pounding away at your goals every day.

In 2016 my family and I moved from Atlanta to Milwaukee. While Atlanta is a great city, it also has its not-so-great parts. By that I mean the ridiculous traffic problem. One of the things I love about living in Milwaukee is the lack of traffic. That and cheese curds 24/7.

However, right now, the 17 miles of I-43 that I drive on my commute to work every day are all under construction. They are adding another lane to the interstate in both directions over that entire stretch. Which means they also have to tear down and rebuild every bridge that crosses over the interstate to accommodate the wider freeway. I haven’t seen this much bridge destruction and rebuilding since I stopped watching The Real Housewives or Orange County.

One of the upsides of the slow-moving traffic is that there is plenty to look at. My favorite piece of equipment that I pass is the massive pile driver near Nicolet High School in Glendale. Every day I see and hear it pounding away in the median between the north and southbound lanes. It’s driving pilings for a new bridge support deep into the bedrock like Fred and Barney would do.

A non-WWE style pile driver, like the one I see on my commute.

A Role Model For Success

As I slowly drive by the loud, methodical bang, bang, banging of the pile driver and watch it make its mind-numbingly slow progress, I find myself inspired. Because that machine shows you exactly how you drive results in anything.

You just keep hammering away.

• Life has taught me that if you want to get stronger, you have to hit the weights, day after day, after day after day.

• If you want to create a successful business you have to keep pounding away at the fundamentals of business development, customer delivery, and employee support, day after day after day.

• To be a good parent you have to share the importance of good habits and good morals day after day for a minimum of 18 years. You also have to remind yourself not to run away and leave those children behind every day.

• To read a book you have to read word after word after word for days, weeks or months. There is no other way.

• If you want to write a 50,000-word book you have to write word after word after word. And then rewrite the book over and over again, like Nelly and Tim McGraw said.

• If you want a successful and happy marriage you have to work at it day after day after day until one of you dies.

• Athletic success requires you to put in the practice and training day after day for years and years.

• You become wealthy by steadily saving and investing your money and letting that interest compound day after day after day. (And if you accumulate too much you can always share it with me.)

Key Takeaway

Keep pounding. Success doesn’t come easy. Results don’t come overnight. The outcome you are after is built through a slow and steady accumulation of effort. Be patient. Be persistent. And just don’t stop. That is the simple yet proven formula for all great accomplishments.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

The best thing to do when you don’t feel ready to face a daunting task.

Earlier this week my daughter Ava and I were at the gym lifting weights. She is hyper-focused on smashing her high school’s 44-year-old discus record next spring. (She was only 2 feet off the record as a junior.) I was in the gym because I don’t want Hans and Frans to pick on me.

Ava had a leg day workout, and she had reached the most challenging part of her training week. She had already done 3 sets of power cleans and had finished 2 sets of squats. Which meant that her last and heaviest set of squats was next. If you are the type to throw up while working out, this is a good time to have a garbage can within spewing distance.

At this point in your leg day workout, you are as tired as you ever feel in the gym. Yet you still have one more set to go. It’s the toughest part of the day. The toughest part of the week. It’s when you search your music playlist for your most Eye-Of-The-Tigerish song to help you Rocky up.

I asked Ava, ‘Are you ready for your last set?’

She shot back, ‘No, but I’m going to do it anyway.’

As Ava’s Dad-Coach, I swelled with pride. Because that comment, those 8 simple words, demonstrate that Ava has the mindset required for great success.

Go Anyway

Life does not often present ideal conditions. And when you’re trying to do hard things, you often put yourself in positions where you feel not yet ready for the next task. But to be successful you have to go anyway.

I know that mindset. I had to rely on it in athletics when I entered major competitions after a rough week of practice. When I was fatigued, sore or mentally drained.

I have tapped into that mindset at work after promotions that stretched my skills and abilities. And when I was about to undertake a daunting Blair Witch-type project.

I embraced that mindset when I wrote my first book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? Because I didn’t know anything about writing books, or how to get a tiny printer inside a fortune cookie.

And I certainly adopted the not-ready-but-I’m-going-to-do-it-anyway mindset when I launched The Weaponry, the adverting and ideas agency I started in 2016. Because the key to entrepreneurship is taking action even when you don’t feel ready to entre or preneur.

The secret to success is not to be fully prepared. It is to be fully prepared to go anyway. To go when you don’t feel good, informed or ready.

Simply stepping into the arena, conference room, or squat rack will force you to focus and summon your best effort.

Remember, it isn’t always Ready, Set, Go. Sometimes it is Set, Go, Ready.

Oh, and not only did Ava crush her last set of squats, she added extra reps too. Because big goals and strong desires are great fuel. Especially when you are running on fumes.

Key Takeaway

You won’t always feel totally ready for the challenge in front of you. Go anyway. The challenge of the moment will often ready you as you go.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

3 ways to make it easy for opportunities and people to find you.

Great opportunities are created through your interactions with other people. This means that your engagement with other humans is core to your experience on the planet, and presumably on the international space station.

However, before you can develop new friends, partners, collaborators, employers, employees or supporters you need to be discoverable. Like a Bluetooth device. And the easier you are to be found the easier it is for opportunities to find you.

The best way to be found is to do the opposite of what you would do if you were on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. Or Sasquatch. Or Olivia Newton John’s ex-husband. Because to be discovered by others, you must do things that raise your profile so that you ping on other people’s radars.

You can be discovered in a few simple ways.

  1. Show up. Be visible in the real world. Go to events. Be seen in public. Meeting people for meals or beverages isn’t just about showing up for the person you are meeting with. It is also about raising your visibility to everyone else at those establishments. This creates both a higher level of awareness and chance encounters. It increases your level of familiarity with others. That is where real relationships start. It’s also why the Loch Ness Monster never gets invited to birthday parties.

2. Share messages. Create and share your messages with the world. Make them easy to find. This includes blog posts, columns, letters to the editor, news releases, message board posts, podcasts, and video content. You can share social posts on any and all social media. Comments in those same places too. This makes it easier for people to see your name, your ideas and your personality. By sharing your messages you are reaching many people at the same time. This could be dozens, hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people simultaneously. Which is much easier and more scaleable than sharing your message one-on-one, like Hall and Oates.

3. Talk Value. This happens when you do something good, interesting, surprising, or noteworthy, and others start to talk about you when you are not around. This means that others are amplifying your message for you. When others share messages about you, recommend you, promote you, wonder about you, ask about you, or admire you aloud, your message spreads far beyond your ability to share on your own. This is how people like the Kardashians, Mother Teresa, and Santa got famous.

Key Takeaway

Great things happen as a result of awareness. Make sure you are being seen, heard, and talked about for the good things you do. That’s how great people and great opportunities discover you.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

How to present an award in a more rewarding way.

The end of the school year is award season. There are awards for academics, music, sports, volunteering, spirit, and my personal favorite, attendance. I love rewarding great achievement, attitude, and general showing-upness.

But we can present the awards in a better way.

There is a common practice of awarding Nancy Drew-style. In this practice, we present the person without a name, and everyone in attendance has to guess who the mystery achiever is. The Nancy Drew-style presentation goes something like this:

This year’s recipient is an exceptional kid who has worked extremely hard. They are funny like Kevin Hart, caring like Mother Theresa, and more importantly, have had perfect attendance. They are one of my favorite kids ever. They will probably become the President of the United States, win a Nobel Prize, or even better, become a You-Tuber.

In this practice, we don’t reveal the name of the winner until after we have said all the great things about them. Then, after all the praise and credentials are announced, the mystery is revealed, and we clap for a few seconds as they walk up and receive their certificate.

Let’s flip this practice.

Let’s announce the award recipient first. Let’s get them in front of the audience right away. Let’s share all of the accolades and appreciation while they are basking in the spotlight. This way, all of the good things we say shine on the winner in real-time. Which means you can also film the moment and share it on the socials. Then you can enjoy watching the moment over and over. Or at least until the format you captured the video on is no longer supported by Apple devices.

My son Johann just won his Wisconsin state piano competition. That dude can really play!

This practice serves as an amazing way to introduce the award winner to people they haven’t met. It enhances the winner’s personal brand. And it provides a praise experience they will never forget. Which, in the long run, is more valuable than the award itself.

Key Takeaway

When you present an award, announce the winner first. Shine the spotlight on them as you share their successes. Connect a name and face with the achievement. Because that time in the adoration spotlight is the greatest gift of all.

If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.