When I was a young kid I barely made to the honor’s list not because I was dull but because I was too lazy to study.

This changed through a simple advice given by the school year’s valedictorian. During my freshman high school year a senior valedictorian candidate ran for President of the student council. He was so intelligent judging by the way he spoke, answered questions and debated on a lof of issues.

He kind of became my school role model. One day I happen to walk along side of him in the hallway. We chatted a little and towards the end of the conversation I asked him for advice how to be like him.

His answer was simple. Laziness is all in the mind. Teach your mind to be strong enough to tell your body to start things off.

That was a surprise to me on how simple it was supposed to be. From that day onwards whenever I feel lazy to start something I tell myself—“Laziness is only in your mind Milo, laziness is only in your mind Milo!”

From that day onwards, I ranked number 3 in our entire batch in my technical subjects, have consistently made it to top students academically and have won lots of medals from various competitions. Fours years after I even ran for student council President (hmm, that’s a different story to tell).

Even now, 14 years after that advice was given to me, I have not let laziness get in my way. Of course there are times that you just don’t feel doing something. But still the world is moving too fast to let up. So I say the magic words—“It’s all in the mind…”.

The Power of Intention

Often times when people reach certain milestones or goals; their efforts begin to dwindle down. They become relax and start maintaining status quo. This new found complacency presents itself as stable and firm ground by which we stand. This on the other hand posts risks up font like waning skill set, getting their knowledge stack obsolete making their relevant position off track which makes people highly dispensable.

In this fast growing generation it is important to stay relevant, continously improve, and grow both in professional and personal aspects of life.

How do we remain on top?

My father taught me while growing up that there will be times in life that I shall need to take 2 steps backwards in order to take 5 steps forward. Success does not come easy and sometimes we find ourselves making mistakes only realizing them towards the end of our decision. For us to move forward and be the best we could be; we sometimes need move back or be the worst we can ever be.

Taking a step back is difficult because this forces us out of our usual comfort zone. We hesitate from the start and even after making the decision doubt will be there along the way until we regain the step back and move forward a series of steps ahead.

When I was starting my career I was fortunate enough to work in a company that paid me 3 times of the normal wage. Considering I was fresh out of college this was a big thing for me. But as I started to work I felt growth was nowhere in sight. I started to get bored and realized I would never achieve anything. Yes, by all standards my salary was way ahead of everyone else but it was just a matter of time when my peers caught up with me while I remained stuck and worse degrade in the foreseeable future.

Have you ever worked with a leader that pushes you so hard to win? The leader exemplifies high standards for performance? Someone who doesn’t know how to lose?

I have worked with a number of leaders who are like this. They seem to be everywhere in information technology probably because it is a necessity in our profession to be like that given the amount of pressure and level of competition there is right now.

Most people though dislike leaders who are like this; because leaders who work on becoming the best they could be expect their team to be like that. That doesn’t come easy because a lot of hours has to be put in and so much hard work is required.

Leaders of this type also criticize details relentlessly. Asking more from what is given.

There are a lot of skills required to rise above the rest let alone survive in this competitive environment. We will always find ourselves competing with people who are better than us in some way or the other. We may also find ourselves better than our peers.

But regardless of any situation we should always try to be a step ahead of everyone else to succeed. We need not step on other’s shoes and definitely we should never do that. “Don’t be Evil” as Google pointed out but at least beat them by absorbing their powers.

How do we do that then? Simple. Remember the beautiful Rogue from X-Men who absorb the power of others by touch? How she was able to defeat the powerful villain named Magneto?

That is the skill we are trying to teach here. The skill of getting people’s intellect, experiences, techniques, styles, resources, etc.

I have always believed that failure and success go hand in hand. The former always precedes the latter.

As Henry Ford would put it:

Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.

Every time you fail no matter how big it was; cheer up! You are better the next time around.