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Keith Ferrazzi’s Top 10 Rules For Success (@ferrazzi)


once I started to generously serve my
product got better as an entrepreneur
how many of you have a people plan C
that’s the greatest opportunity and why
my company exists because the last time
I met you I don’t think I was my
authentic self I don’t think I was Keith
Ferrazzi to me mentorship is a very
misunderstood idea leadership is about
earning permission to influence and the
role doesn’t give you permission to
influence how many times have you backed
down from what you knew you needed to do
because you’re afraid to ask most
intimate critical relationships lie to
each other and they shouldn’t small
doses of incremental positive
experiences change mindsets so you
change the behavior to change the
mindset the key is we recognize that
inside of all of us I think is greatness
I think extraordinary things and we need
other people to pull them out if you
take nothing away from the time that
we’re gonna spend together going forward
if you do nothing else but just remember
this he’s an American author and founder
and CEO of Ferrazzi greenlight his first
book never eat alone was published in
2005 and became a best-seller he’s been
described as a master networker
he’s Keith Ferrazzi and here’s my take
on his top ten rules for success you
know in retrospect in my life I spent
way too much time early on as an
entrepreneur pushing selling as opposed
to generously serving and once I started
to generously serve my product got
better as an entrepreneur so even in
that area of professional currency
people who believe that their job is to
sell stuff versus serve a community
actually don’t do as well now how many
of you in this room have a have a to-do
list
raise your hands of course you do
because productivity is important isn’t
it how many of you have a people plan
see that’s the greatest opportunity and
why my company exists because if
relationships are so crucially important
to your success in so many ways why is
it that you have not asked yourself a
simple question every year who are the
25 most important people to my success
and how do I deepen those relationships
authentically and genuinely
extraordinary book who’s got your back
you write about the courage to be
vulnerable I guess that should give me
an an give me an example I’ll give you
one right now and I’ll do it I’m sitting
here sweating a little bit because you
don’t see it I feel it because the last
time I met you I don’t think I was my
authentic self I don’t think I was Keith
Ferrazzi I think I was some guy trying
to impress I met you to dinner you may
not even remember it long ago in Chicago
we were being interviewed on stage and I
was so excited to meet you you know
obviously the platform that you have the
the potential that if we actually
clicked and you know I believe in this
stuff and and I want to create a
movement of people connecting with other
people more authentically and seriously
and when I get nervous I get bigger and
sometimes I brag and I and I and I
perform and other people get quiet and
turn in but I go out and I did that at
dinner and I just felt myself going
further and further away from you which
I somebody I admired and want to get
closer to to me mentorship is a very
misunderstood idea most people think of
mentors is you know let’s find a guy
like Luis here who we look up to and
would like to aspire to be and please
you know allow me to to learn everything
at your feet right that’s kind of bull
um well I don’t know if it works or not
but the bottom line is you are mentor
that the lunch that we had together you
coming up to my house what I learned
from your podcasts from your work
teaches me something and if I can’t find
I need to find a group of people in my
life constantly that I’m learning from
they are my mentors yeah I don’t I don’t
try to rest too much weight in any one
individual our job is to create a set a
roadmap of individuals in our lives
through whom we learn mmm right and and
I just started a new I was just chatting
with you about a second ago I started a
new high-tech mobile enterprise software
company
yes right I am so out of my element but
you know I’m raising money I’m hiring
individuals I’m coming up with strategy
I’m building a sales force I’m doing a
lot of the stuff I know how to do a lot
of I don’t know how to do
I am finding mentors yeah left and right
it’s survival you are yeah so mentorship
to me is about relational learning and
if you think about it that way then you
then you don’t have a mentor you have
many mentors what about your learning
roadmap leadership is about earning
permission to influence and the role
doesn’t give you permission to influence
most people think that the role does I
mean it’s so you know you don’t I
conversations with names that you would
know who are CEOs of large corporations
we laugh together on how the world
thinks that all they have to do is say
what they want and people will comply
right
nobody complies nobody complies people
will do what they want to do they might
do enough not to get fired or not to be
you know openly disrespectful but deep
down inside they’ll do what they want to
do sir and leadership has to work their
ass off
vulnerable intimately f empathetically
generously you use the word generosity
sir generously to earn the right to ask
someone to change and that’s a full-time
job if any of you lead people if you’re
not spending 30 percent of your time 30
percent of your time making each of your
employees 30 percent better right you’re
not doing your job as leader as opposed
to most of your time being in meetings
and dictating that’s a big shift like if
I’m not just gonna tell my employer to
do something today I gotta make them 30%
better crap that’s a big investment a
big investment
now I come in and say okay now how do I
do that well the first thing you got to
do is you got to earn permission to if I
gain vulnerability empathy sympathy care
now I’m working with gravity right and
so you got to open up gravity pour
yourself as leadership and then it
becomes joyful right then if then you
start experiencing happiness because
it’s two people in a relationship caring
about each other moving an objective
forward celebrating victory
celebration becomes that the currency
for momentum and this is happiness this
is happiness then you’re getting in the
groove and you’re in the flywheel of
mutual support and giving a damn and
people around you that care I mean
that’s that’s happiness so here we were
sitting along the side of the road is
November
Christmas is coming up and along the
side of the road few yards in front of
the car is a pallet trash and in that
pile of trash there was a toy I don’t
know if you know what a big wheel is
like a three-wheeled plastic toy thing
sticking out dad sees it he’s like wait
I know he’s gonna go do he’s gonna go
get me that big wheel it’s November we
had been unemployed for literally six
months at that time and back then when
you were unemployed for six months you
lost all of your pension when my pop
died we didn’t have a pension we didn’t
have any savings and we had a five
thousand dollar life insurance policy
that wasn’t enough to bury him right and
you know we had to accept gifts to be
able to bury my pop so there we were and
Here I am afraid that my friends from my
snooty school are gonna see us picking
up trash so I’m hiding in the back of
the car what do you think it takes for a
proud 55 year old steel worker to walk
up and get up a piece of trash with the
Sun still in the car Sun visibly
embarrassed piece of trash for sons
Christmas present because that’s all he
could do you know what my dad didn’t
care my dad wanted to make sure that he
had something for his family and that’s
what mattered and he always said the
same thing to me Akif don’t ever be
afraid to ask
worst anybody could ever say is no the
first of two very important lessons in
this story to all of us how many times
have you backed down from what you knew
you needed to do because you’re afraid
to ask
I really hope you’d send this message to
your kids and grandkids because there
were so many times that I didn’t think I
deserve to be in that room so many times
that I didn’t think that those rich
people would accept me
that I just plowed through a push
through because my dad would always his
voice would always come up don’t ever be
afraid to ask the worst anybody could
ever say is no to challenge I see with
most people is that they don’t have a
support group or an accountability group
or mastermind or whatever you wanna call
it so how does someone want first find
that and figure out who the right people
are that aren’t gonna suck the energy
from them but they’re also gonna give
and take it look it’s trial and error
when ya
when I wrote who’s got your back there’s
a chapter in it that talks about the
long slow dinner and you know I think by
the time we’re done here in a short
period of time I want everybody who’s
watching us to have a relationship
action plan so you know as we’re sitting
here scribble down your goals and next
to every goal start writing three to
five people’s names critical to
achieving those goals right that’s the
opportunity group then I want you to ask
yourself who to achieve my goal do I
want to learn from write those names
down then start imagining who the people
that I could trust around four core or
four core characteristics of the
lifeline relationship and frankly all
relationships but the but the tightest
ones have to have four things number one
is intimacy to the point of
vulnerability mm can I tell you when you
know I’m really feeling weak can I tell
you when I’m up against the wall
intimacy to the point of vulnerability
second is generosity do I really want to
help you and do you really want to help
me do we care enough to help generosity
candor will you tell me the truth right
most intimate critical relationships lie
to each other and they shouldn’t candor
and conflict avoidance is horrible why
do they lot of exhibit because they just
don’t make each other feel bad vacation
they think that that’s their role to
make each other feel good look I mean I
think a lot of it is the people don’t
realize that relationships need to be
leaned on the relationships aren’t
scarce that they’re a lot of people are
conflict avoidant out of psychological
fear of abandonment I mean there’s a lot
of insecurities and fear that drive our
relational behaviors and the that I have
to say that conflict avoidance has to be
one of the most erosive the Roosevelts
of organization on humans
right so the the fourth is
accountability hmm right
but candor and accountability together
make a high-performing relationship what
I would do is I would list three people
that you have a strong enough
relationship with now you and I frankly
you and I have a perfectly reasonable
and strong enough relationship I call it
a level 2 relationship okay right
maybe we’re bordering on a three but
certainly two to three and three is a
strong relationship if if you want to go
to a lifeline which like in my world of
three plus uh-huh what you’re gonna do
is you’re gonna go out and have a long
slow dinner you’re gonna take your armor
off and you’re gonna say look here’s
what I want to do here’s what I’m afraid
of
and here’s how I think I’m gonna get
there what do you think hmm and see how
the person responds do they respond with
candor do they a spawned respond with
intimacy did they let their guards down
do they respond with accountability at
the end of the the dinner are they
saying to you dude let’s talk next week
because I think you should do these two
or three things and I’m gonna hold you
accountable for them damn it
now if after the dinner they don’t call
you the following week then maybe
they’re not the right person to be your
life lamb right right I know that was a
very circuitous way to get to the answer
your question that’s great what do most
people do wrong when they approach the
relationships and networks and your
experience it’s a mindset and it’s a
mindset of what’s in it for me right
that’s the first thing it’s a mindset of
what’s in it for me and it stinks on
their suit a mile away what’s in it for
me it needs to be a values based
judgment of how you’re gonna live your
life and and you’ve got a nun by the way
I mean there’s an a a slogan called fake
it to you make it so you know the point
is that little by little by little
you’ve got to be able to recondition
your brain and that’s one of the things
about human behavior change human
behavior change doesn’t happen through
knowledge if it happened through
knowledge then nobody on a diet would
eat a piece of cake right I mean the the
the bottom line is we need to experience
behavior change small doses of
incremental experiences positive
experiences not even negative
experiences small doses of incremental
positive experiences
mindsets so you change the behavior to
change the mindset we unfortunately have
addictions and I used the word addiction
and I follow things like 12-step
programs and other mechanisms to shift
behavioral addictions because everybody
who’s watching this has an addiction
there’s not a single person that isn’t
addicted to feeling less than in a room
procrastination you know some behavioral
addiction that holds us back that you
know being too shy being too insecure
being too whatever
tempers all these things are nothing
more than addictive behaviors that we
practice even though they don’t serve us
well right so little tiny doses of new
behaviors pushing yourself incrementally
will will be the way in which we change
those behaviors why do we mean someone
to have our back you know these
difficult times in this economy there
are too many people that are under
living whose dreams and aspirations
aren’t being things that they’re parking
them off to the side just in case of
just having survival the key is we
recognize that inside of all of us I
think is greatness
I think extraordinary things and we need
other people to pull them out I don’t
know if you ever heard the story of gene
nitish who founded Weight Watchers and
I’ve heard George Noory well what she
realized was she was just out there
dieting like the rest of them that
wasn’t about knowing that that she had
to eat less or exercise a little bit
more but was when she started doing it
with her girlfriends that they started
holding each other accountable for the
things they wanted to do that’s that
that’s the point story is as a friend of
mine calls it emotional transportation
you know somebody says you know what are
you really passionate about oh my kids
great
you don’t really care it’s like you just
check the box but get them to tell you
their story tell me tell me about that
tell me why you’re so passionate about
your children tell me a story tell me
about their last birthday tell me about
the last holiday that you experienced
with them tell me what they did in the
last couple of weeks that made you proud
or scared or interested tell me a story
what you’re doing and what I want all of
us to do in this world and this will
transform your life if you do nothing
you take nothing away from the time that
we’re gonna spend together going forward
if you do nothing else but just remember
this your jobs in life are to walk
around the world creating an environment
around yourself that invites people in
to want to have a better relationship
with you your job in this world is to
walk around the world creating an
environment that invites people in to
want to have a better relationship with
you
god I just look out on this couple of
thousand people and I just realize that
if every one of you in this room or to
begin to do that the the impact and the
touch that would have on on your worlds
and our society for that matter our
churches aren’t as full as they used to
be our community centers aren’t as full
as they used to be people don’t join
clubs they go into gyms they put iPods
on and they isolate themselves where is
our community naturally as human animals
and we’re animals we are hardwired and
designed to work in community back in
the olden days they were called tribes
in the way olden days when it was like
70,000 years ago when there were only 12
of those tribes in Africa and those
groups if they didn’t connect
come together they wouldn’t survive as a
result as humans we are hard-wired to
our DNA to our core to connect to serve
to to help each other be successful
because if we didn’t we were thrown out
we’d be eaten by mountain lions by
ourselves so we got to connect and we
long for it when you do connect that’s
your that’s your time that I say you
feel an exhale and somebody actually
makes you feel like you belong thank you
so much for watching I made this video
because b2 asked me to so there’s a
famous entrepreneur that you I’ve made a
profile next leave it in the comments
below and I’ll see what I can do I also
love to know which of Keith’s
top 10 rules had the biggest impact on
you and why leave it in the comments and
I’ll join the discussion thank you so
much for watching continue to believe
and I’ll see you soon
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