Stop Being So Selfish

Late Saturday afternoon, at the end of the awesome 2nd Turbulence Training Summit, I hung around for an hour to chat with the attendees.

One young woman that had moved to California from Japan about five years ago, came up to me and admitted that fear was holding her back from going “bigger” in her business and from trying to help more people.

This is a common problem, although few people have the courage – as she did – to admit it and to ask for help.

My response to her was a little imagery that you might have heard me talk about before. It goes like this…

The next time you let fear stop you from releasing a product, or writing an email, or filming a video, or doing a small seminar (or large one like the TT Summit), think of this…

Every time you do that, dozens, if not hundreds or even thousands of people, continue to sit at home hurting because you are holding back the solution to their problem.

By being selfish about protecting yourself, they are the ones who get hurt.

Those good people – that have a big problem that you could solve with your knowledge – continue to struggle.

They cry themselves to sleep…

…but at least you’re safe, right?

You’re safe from the cowardly critics that would anonymously say that “u suk!” in the comments section of your Youtube vidoes…or that would post a nasty blog comment while leaving a fake email address.

Whew…at least you’re safe from that stress.

Better that someone else cries themself to sleep than you get a little stressed out by a 14 year old (or an adult with that level of maturity) who criticizes you over the Internet.

Are you beginning to see how pointless it is to let fear hold you back?

Listen, it doesn’t matter what business you’re in, you have the knowledge to help people.

For example…

If you know how to make a great pie, someone wants to know that. They want your recipe so that they can be the hero in their family…so that they can finally get their mother-in- law to shut her pie hole about how they can’t do anything right. Sure, that’s a simple example, but it’s true.

Look at all of the success stories in the world, they lay it on the line every day while the Internet critics hate.

Here’s another example...go on youtube, watch a big rock band’s video (i.e. U2), and you’ll find a bunch of anonymous critics posting, “U2 sucks!”

Really? The biggest rock band in the world sucks?

Well thank you, anonymous Internet critic, I really value your opinion. *sarcasm*

That goes on all day…but you know what, I’m sure U2 got over that a long time ago…because they focus on making things better for their fans, not the cowards.

As my conversation with the young female trainer continued, I asked her if she knew who Mother Theresa was.

“Of course,” the trainer replied.

Well, if you Google Mother Theresa (that sounds so sinful!), you’ll find “hate websites” devoted to calling Mother Theresa a fraud.

Really? Really?

So if a Saint gets criticism, you will too.

We’ll never be perfect. Our products will never be perfect. Our seminars, training sessions, and even our apple pies will never, ever, ever, ever be perfect.

Big deal.

But they’ll be more than good enough to change someone’s life.

To stop the tears from falling down their cheeks.

To give them hope.

To make them a hero.

As I tried to strengthen my argument to the fearful young trainer, I pointed out the other speakers who shared their stories over the weekend at my TT seminar…

My best Armenian friend Bedros, who came to America at age 6 from a Communist country, his family broke, and him unable to speak English, and he’s gone on to build multiple 7-figure businesses and help over 50,000 personal trainers around the world…(even after going broke again from his first business that left him living out of his pick-up truck).

My best Scottish friend, wee Alwyn Cosgrove who beat stage IV cancer twice, through years of hard work and imperfect action has built the life of his dreams and a gym that serves hundreds of members every month (in fact, he has the most profitable gym per square foot in America).

And then there was Cara Eckerman (who was a nervous wreck before her amazing presentation) who shared how her and her husband John struggled and fought through the dips of their first bootcamp in Texas and how they built that up and now run the Fit Body Bootcamp University program and one of the most  successful FBBC franchises in America.

Cara felt the fear and did it anyway.

Alwyn beat the Big C and kept on pushing.

Bedros overcame all the obstacles in his way and never stopped when another setback came his way.

Listen, everyone screws up. Everyone struggles. Everyone gets hit by a knockdown punch in life that often comes completely out of the blue.

But the winners get back up, brush themselves off, and learn lessons from these life experiences (and don’t look at them as  mistakes – but rather valuable learning experiences).

So as I wrapped up my argument, I said to my friend, “Are you ready to put this fear aside and finally do something?”

And to her credit, she replied, “You’re right, I’m not going to be selfish anymore. I’m going to take big-time action.”

I can’t wait to see what she’s going to accomplish in the next 12 months.

But what about YOU?

What value can you add to the world?

What can you do to help?

But that you are NOT doing right now?

Don’t let yourself become an untapped gold mine, hidden deep inside the earth’s core, holding value all to yourself.

Instead, open yourself up to the world.

Look, the world is full of problems. FULL of them. Full of hurting people that need someone to lead them out of the wilderness and into a better life.

You know the way. You have the solution to their problem.

You have it.

Don’t let anything stop you from sharing it.

Don’t give in to that selfish desire to protect yourself from criticism.

Don’t choose to protect ONE person from a little criticism when you can help THOUSANDS of people solve their big problem.

Get your product done.

Start delivering your message.

Add value to someone’s life today.

Lay it on the line,

Craig Ballantyne

You must look at what could be, not what is. You can change and things can be different. It’s up to you. So much can be accomplished with a long-term vision and resilience to short- term setbacks.