Tom Cruise was a great maverick in the movie, Top Gun. He was an independent thinker, someone who took risks, did the exceptional, experimented and won – most of the time. These are the traits of a great leader.
But even leaders must follow from time to time. There will always be others who are more successful. There will always be those who’ve uncovered the answers to some of life’s most perplexing questions. So even mavericks need leaders.
But to be a good leader, one must be a nonconformist. They must have a deep conviction about why they’re doing something.
I listened to one of my faraway mentors this morning, Darren Hardy, former publisher of Success Magazine, who’s off on another mission. You see, people like Darren Hardy don’t rest. In fact they’re restless. He teaches a great lesson to me every weekday (I don’t always get to them every day though!) This morning he talked about why people achieve mastery, BECAUSE they often failed. They were obsessed with success, but they weren’t afraid to experiment, fail, learn and improve.
They knew these were merely stepping stones to their goals.
For all his successes, Sir Richard Branson has MANY failures in his portfolio. Elon Musk is still perfecting his (exploding) rocket ships.
Darren asks how often you are stepping outside-of-the-box and daring to experiment and try out new ideas and failing FAST!
Watch the video:
With my own recent experiment with crowdfunding Hope For Millions With Brain Injury, I learned a lot. I did receive some generous donations, but it was well short of my original goal. But I know I would be filling a huge gap between what hodge-podge treatment there is now and the comprehensive online brain training course that I envision for these people who continue to suffer from Post Concussion Syndrome (PCS).
I am going to fill that chasm.
So with the money I’ve already raised I am going to build the course with people who would’ve been part of the research project. I am going to build this online brain training course with people who have PCS for people with PCS.
By the way, I haven’t given up the idea of a research project. It’s still alive, but in another iteration. Because, being a maverick, I stepped up and out into the challenge, into my dream, I’ve attracted others who are interested in funding the project. In one case, I have to EXPAND the dream.
So being a leader requires being a maverick, which consists of many of the things that make a leader:
- An independent thinker
- A rebel
- A visionary
- Taking a stand
- Unafraid or unaffected by temporary failure
- Quick decision maker based on what you already know
- Strong trust in oneself
- Humility AKA knowing when you need others’ help
- Never giving up
- Follow through until you reach your goal
Other wise people have popped into my life recently. When you haven’t reached your goal yet, it’s not because you won’t. It’s because you SHOULD NOT reach your goal until you have reached your goal. When you’ve got your goal, that’s the precise moment that it should happen.
Read that line a few times.
In another life, I wouldn’t have been brave enough to initiate this crowdfunding campaign. If I had, I would’ve been SO embarrassed by the lack of success. I would’ve in the end, given up!
Not this time.
I rewound the recording many times until I finally understood what he was saying. So I am NOT giving up on my dream to make a comprehensive treatment in the form of an online brain course specifically designed for people with Post Concussion Syndrome die. I now understand what an obvious maverick like Thomas Edison went through in his 10,000 iterations to get the electric light bulb to work. I know that my experience with the crowdfunding campaign was an experiment in itself. I’m passing the tests and taking on larger challenges. But I want God and the universe to know, that Hope For Millions With Brain Injury is coming. And it’s already real.
Dr. Joanny Liu, TCMD, RAc, P.Eng, “Best Selling Author and founder of Extraordinary Sports Medicine, where we help athletes reverse injury, get back in the game they love and improve their quality of life.”
P.S. Watch Tina’s Post concussion story: https://youtu.be/aGRulxdU9Fo
P.S.S. Watch Timmy’s Post concussion story story: https://youtu.be/9zQrHwaShSk
