Those who know me best know that I don’t look up to many people. I don’t look up to the normal people that most people look up. I consider politicians, sports figures, actors and actresses and other entertainers to be normal everyday average people deserving no more respect or admiration than the average person.
The fact is, you never want to put anyone on too high of a pedestal. They will eventually fall off. They’re only human.
I’ve been working closely with Mike Filsaime for the past few months on the release of a product about Facebook Social Ads. I traveled to his offices on Long Island, NY a few weeks ago.
It was pretty cool to get “behind the scenes” access to Mike’s world… and to a $10 million dollar business. I got to see how he handles problems. He brings his staff into what I have affectionately named the “War Room”. He talks about the problem and everyone chips in to try and solve it. He values everyone’s input.
He has setup a very casual work environment where having fun isn’t a sin. His staff works hard and plays hard. One of the nights I was there, everyone that was still at the office (it’s was probably 10pm) stopped and played Rockband for about an hour.
His staff doesn’t have a certain amount of vacation time or days off. They take vacations and days off when they need/want them. There are no scheduled working hours. Everyone comes and goes whenever they want to (for the most part). There’s almost always someone at the office. The people that work for Mike really love working for him. They’re super dedicated too. Corporate America should take a lesson from Mike Filsaime. I was always opposed to having employees and an office, but if I ever decide to go that route, I’ll definitely know how to run things.
While there, I realized that I’m not necessarily surrounding myself with the people that I need to be surrounding myself with to achieve my goals. My friends are great… don’t get me wrong. But I don’t have a single friend that I can “talk shop with.” A mastermind if you will.
I was in Perry Marshall’s Mastermind group a few years back. It was a pretty cool experience. I haven’t been in one since though. I’ve always been interested in applying for Maverick Business Adventures (it’s a mastermind group coupled with extreme adventures). You can find out more about it here: www.MaverickBusinessAdventures.com.
One of the trips I’m really excited about is visiting with Richard Branson on Necker Island for a week. Yanik Silver runs the program and he’s friends with Richard Branson. Pretty awesome. Trips planned for next year include Iceland, Uganda and Guyana for adventure activities.
So, I applied and did the phone interview. It was really wasn’t much of a phone interview. Jeff and I basically just talked shop. Apparently, Jeff has just gotten back from a Maverick trip to Costa Rica. He told me that was chatting with another member and my name up. The other member was telling Jeff that he had been following me for awhile. It’s really interesting to find out that people know who I am, when I have no idea who they are. 🙂
I was at a networking this a few months back. I started to talking to a guy and he asked what my name was and what I did. I told him and he said, “Oh… I know who you are. I’m on your list.” Weird stuff.
Back to the Maverick stuff. It sounds like I’m in but I told him I wanted to wait until after the launch to officially join up. Things are just too hectic right now.
Bottom line: Surround yourself with people that are where you want to be (or at the very least, have the same goals as you). You’ll find that things happen a lot quicker for you and things seem to fall into place effortlessly.