David Meltzer

Our greatest lessons in life are often found in our greatest challenges. For me, declaring bankruptcy and losing over $100,000,000 has turned into one of the most pivotal moments in my life so far. That experience taught me countless lessons, including the five keys below:

Surround yourself with the right people and the right ideas
As the old saying goes, “Your friends are your future.” We need to ensure that we are surrounding ourselves with the people and ideas that are adding to our lives, not those who are diminishing us. If they feed you, then feed them. If they are bleeding you, then let those people and ideas fall away from you or cut them out of your life entirely.

Live in the world of “more than enough”
It’s important to operate from a place of abundance, rather than scarcity. Our perception is our reality, so if we perceive that we’re living in a world of “not enough” or “just enough”, that will be our truth. Choosing to live in a world where there is more than enough to make everyone happy will not only help us to create a more positive perspective, but it will also attract people who believe the same.

Ask for help
Seek out someone who is in the situation you want to be in and ask them for assistance. The right mentors can help us avoid the mistakes they’ve made, what I call paying the “dummy tax”. When we are intentional about selecting our mentors and humble enough to ask for help, they will accelerate our growth and assist us in getting closer to our potential.

Money can’t buy love or happiness
Happiness is the consistent and persistent pursuit of our potential and is not something that can be purchased. Money is an energy and what it does is it empowers us to shop. If we shop for the right things and invest that money wisely, it is a powerful tool for the pursuit of our potential and can even help us to empower more people along the way.

Our values are our foundation
Our core values are what help us to remain grounded when the unexpected occurs in life or business. Applying values like gratitude, empathy, accountability, and effective communication to a situation can help us to remember that we are being protected and promoted, rather than being punished. These values are meant to remind us of the truth of who we are and what we hold most dear.

I had the pleasure of learning from Rick Macci, featured in the movie King Richard, awarded United States Professional Tennis Association National Coach of the Year (seven times), and trained five number one ranked tennis players: Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Andy Roddick, Jennifer Capriati, and Maria Sharapova.

How to master the art of coaching and connection  

Being a master of coaching doesn’t mean that we have the best pupils, it means that we are able to meet our students where they are at in their journey. When we are truly present as an instructor, our students can feel it.

The best coaches know how to connect with the individuals they are instructing, as well as the best ways to motivate and inspire them. They consistently and persistently pursue progress, rather than perfection.

How teachers can help their students shift their mindset and change their life for the better

As coaches, we need to push the limitations of our student’s challenges, rather than trying to limit the challenges they experience. When we are able to do that, we empower our students to believe in themselves and their capabilities instead of doubting them. During his feature in the movie King Richard, Rick shared a story about having to motivate Serena Williams with a bribe of a t-shirt and candy.

Being able to forget is an essential characteristic of personal growth  

Holding onto mistakes only creates more resistance for ourselves, which makes forgetting a huge key to progress. We need to have a mistake response that focuses on taking action in the present, rather than dwelling on the past. The most positive people tend to be the ones who excel the most in business and in sports.

“Keep score with yourself” in business

As Rick says, “If you’re not getting better today, you’re getting worse.” We need to constantly be motivating ourselves to learn, grow, and progress in any aspect that we choose. If we aren’t keeping score with ourselves, there is a tendency to slack off or end up in a rut, so we must push ourselves to be our best.

These 5 steps will help you sell anything:

 1. Stimulate Interest
Stimulate interest for availability first, meaning practice getting people to respond to your calls, texts, emails, and social media messages. Then, focus on stimulating interest for your business or services.

2. Transition the Interest
Emotionally connect with who you’re targeting. Then, transition their interest through professional collateral and a clear explanation of true value. Use the 100/20 Rule: be able to articulate that your customers will receive $100 of value for every $20 they spend.

3. Share the Vision
Share the vision of true value. You want to demonstrate the value you’ll be providing in relation to the customer’s personal values, experiential values, giving and receiving values. Make them see the win-win situation in doing business together.

4. Manage and Develop the Vision
Manage and develop a vision by providing the value that you promised. Don’t oversell, rather help them manage and develop their expectations.

5. Thrive
When you’ve done all four previous steps correctly, consistently, and persistently, you thrive. Thrivation is, in essence, getting your customers or other people outside of your organization to sell your product or service for you. This means that you make a lot of money, help a lot of people, and have a lot of fun!

The drawbacks of complacency for high achievers

Resting on our laurels and not continuing to push ourselves towards progress can lead to boredom and discontent. It’s important to strike a balance between being grateful for what we have and not becoming complacent. Seek out sources of inspiration in order to keep moving towards the milestones that we want to surpass in life or business.

Grant’s daily process for goal setting and how that serves to inspire his actions

One of the best ways to set our intentions is to quickly write goals down every morning and every night. Make sure that these are our biggest goals, not those that can be accomplished in a day, week, or month. Don’t focus on the strategy or mechanics needed to reach these goals, simply just write out “destinations” that intrigue us and that we are enthusiastic to pursue.

How our mentors can teach us what to do, as well as what to avoid

Mentors have some of the greatest influence in our lives and set examples for us to follow. What’s equally valuable is learning what not to do from our mentors, helping to avoid the same mistakes and pitfalls they experienced. Watching and observing others can teach us many lessons, so that we do not have to pay the “dummy tax” ourselves.

Balancing giving and receiving as an entrepreneur 

Take an abundant approach to business, be transparent about our successes and show others what is working for us, so that they can thrive. Don’t be afraid to share the tools or strategies that will help others find the confidence to succeed. And remember that we need to first figure out the receiving portion of the equation, because we cannot give something to others unless we have it for ourselves. 

Our past does not define us, it refines us

We give the past inflection points in our lives meaning, so we must not let ourselves become victims of the past. It’s important to shift our mindset to see that our toughest challenges in life are also our greatest lessons. When we take accountability for learning and progressing from our past, our future becomes brighter than ever,

We cannot grow if we spend all of our time in the comfort zone

It is impossible for us to know our true capabilities without pushing ourselves. Spend as much time in the learning zone as possible, to pursue our higher self consistently and persistently. It is only then that we can overcome the limitations that we’ve placed on ourselves, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

Few things are worse than living as a “tube”

Taking stock in our approach to life (and business) is essential if we want to set and achieve goals that others may deem as “crazy”. When we analyze the areas where we are going through the motions, rather than placing attention and intention on our actions, we can make positive changes to our routines that will help us to plateau and grow.

Our words have immense power

The stories that we tell ourselves have a massive impact on our mindset, heartset, and handset. Adding or changing one word in a sentence can instantly change our perspective to one that is more favorable to our success. It can be empowering to tell ourselves something as simple as we “get to” do a task, rather than we’ve “got to” do it.

It’s important to focus on education with concussions and protocols

The biggest action we can take towards treating concussions right now is prevention, as there are 3.8 million concussions occur every year. That’s just the concussions that we know about, but there are countless others that go undiagnosed. The truth is that we’re not going to prevent concussions, but raising awareness through education will only serve to help those dealing with brain injuries

Expert opinions can help shift our perspective

In a discussion with Dr. Bennet Omalu, who was featured in the movie and book Concussion, Brett initially thought of only 3 instances where he lost track of time or blacked out for a period of time due to a concussion. What he eventually learned was that each time he hit his head on the turf, got tackled, or fell to the floor and saw fireworks or stars, heard ringing in his ears, or felt a little woozy, he had experienced a concussion. Seeking out the opinion of an expert is a great way to help open our eyes to new perspectives on reality.

What Favre would look to see being done differently in the NFL

One of my favorite parts from this episode came when Brett was asked what changes he’d make if he took over as NFL Commissioner for Roger Goddell. Taking additional steps to protect the players and their safety, while also pushing for innovative concussion treatments could go a long way towards ensuring the long-term health of our athletes.

The human brain is sensitive and fragile

Our brain is not adapted to take concussive blows, such as animals like rams, oxen, or even woodpeckers. When we experience a severe impact to the head, our brain can rattle around in the skull, causing damage and bruising. Activities like contact sports (particularly for youth) can cause long-term physical issues if we are not protecting ourselves and our athletes.