Excerpt
Introduction
How many would like more success?
How many would like more success faster?
Anybody not?
Well you have come to the right place. My name is Danny Lyon and the colour of my underwear is...........BLUE!
The name for this book came about from my own business experience and presentations to fellow business owners, groups & associations and individulas. Coming from a business owning family in a small town plus over 20 years in telecommunications, I have spent the last 13 years in my own business. Part of my business entails helping other people get into business for themselves and then supporting them in their business operations and growth. It has been an amazing learning experience for me and an honour and a privilege to see people from so many walks of life create such diverse levels of business success.
Some are flying full speed ahead right from the get-go. Some just don’t seem to get with the program or seem to be the right fit after they open for business and then they suddenly turn it around and become hugely successful. Some build it to a certain level of comfort and resist the extra effort to grow it any further. Still others, who have all of the tools and should be flying full speed ahead, don’t ever get out of the hangar or off the tarmac. Others fail just by giving up.
And the more I observed and learned from my business experiences, I realized the exact same parallels exist in people’s personal success as well. We all know people who are flying full speed ahead and others who have all of the talent in the world who don’t seem to ever get going or get it together. There are those that seem to resist progress, growth and new experiences past certain comfort levels; and we all probably know others that just give up.
As well, I have witnessed the exact same parallels in my years of long distance running and involvement with sports. Many of the most talented athletes are not the most successful. While other people who have every reason to give up, make the team or are out running marathons and inspiring those around them.
My discovery was that the more people were willing to open up and expose more of themselves and their business, i.e. willing to reveal the colour of their underwear (figuratively speaking of course), the more they opened themselves up to a whole range of opportunities for others to help them in their quest for personal, career or business success. It is an amazing phenomenon and holds true for the flip side as well - those that do not open up or expose more about themselves personally and with their business, tend to not receive much help from others nor do they seem to help others as much. This type of person appears to build an imaginary fence around themselves and their business if they have one, as if safe in their own self-imposed enclosure. It does not have to be. If people only knew that no matter how bad they seem to think things are, or how unattainable their goals are, all they need to do is pull down their pants (figuratively speaking again), expose the colour of their underwear, and help would come out of nowhere.
People that want to be helped get helped. If they tell someone.
Expose yourself and they will come.
Be honest with yourself and your situation and they will come.
Other people want to help you. They want to relate their life experiences and tell you about their peronal and business successes and give you their knowledge. They want to help because...they just do.
First and foremost, you are successful. Right now, today, you are successful. For some it might not feel like you are, but you are. It doesn’t matter how much money you have in the bank, how your marriage or relationships are working out, how the kids are doing in school, how much hair is left on your head, how much you weigh, what kind of shape you are in physically, who you owe money to, etc. All of us get to live through experiences riding the highs and suffering through the lows. It is not isolated. Don’t try to hog it for yourself whether it be a high or a low, or many highs and many lows. So many others have already experienced both – and usually higher highs and lower lows than you. Take a closer look and be honest with yourself.
No matter what is going on in your life right now, if you sat down and reviewed your successes over the last week, the last month, the last quarter, the last year, the last 5 years and beyond, I believe you would amaze yourself at just how much success you have experienced. How much good has happened to you. How much you have accomplished. How much good you have done for others. What brings a smile to your face and what brings a feeling of satisfaction?
Why might you be amazed at just how successful you have been? Because we tend to focus on what we didn’t do or don’t do; or didn’t accomplish or don’t accomplish; or didn’t have or don’t have. And we like to blame things and people for the “did not’s” and “do not’s”. We complain and we justify the situation or perceived predicament by making excuses. We rarely focus on all of the good things we have done or that have happened to us and the people who were influential in those successes. And with some focus on the latter, the people who were influential in those successes, I believe you will be amazed.
I learned to review successes quarterly through the business coaching of an amazing Master Certified Coach by the name of Andrew Barber-Starkey of ProCoach Success Systems. For years my partners and I have completed the same exercise with people we have helped get into business at our quarterly networking meetings. It is a great exercise and I highly recommend the success review for everyone. We go over it in detail in Chapter 2 and once you have completed the exercises, I believe that you will find as I did – that you have successes and lots of them to be proud of. Perhaps sometimes you are downright genius in the things you have accomplished or overcome. Most importantly, you will probably find that there are a whole pile of people who have contributed and are contributing to your successes. Your living environment is a contributor, and your own thoughts and actions are probably the main contributors (hard to help someone who won’t help themselves); but the people who influence and contribute to one’s success I find amazing. The kids you grew up with, the teachers, your doctor, your dentist, your chiropractor, your coaches, your parents, your siblings, relatives, in-laws, co-workers, friends, customers, business partners, business mentors, etc., etc. all have been influential in some way. Some want to help you so much they would do anything for you. Others perhaps don’t want you to succeed for whatever reason and they help you by giving you hard lessons on who to trust, who to associate with, who to seek advice from. The personal growth gurus will tell you how important it is to attract the “right” people to surround yourself with. It is good advice. If you are trying to become a millionaire would it make sense to spend most of your time with and take advice from people that have never been a millionaire? Or, if you are trying to drive a business to success would it make sense to spend most of your time with and take advice from people that have never been in business or have never had a successful business? Or, if you are trying to become a professional baseball player or excel at baseball would you be seeking out other successful ball players and coaches or would you be spending your time with and taking advice from people that have never played baseball or were not successful at the sport? We have all done it. We have all taken advice from someone we shouldn’t have. Sometimes we accepted the advice because they, the someone, took us off the hook and they told us what we wanted to hear to help justify our position. Sometimes because we didn’t know any better.
So attracting the “right” people is crucial and deserves ongoing focus. But let’s put that aside for a minute. Forget for a moment how and if you attracted the “right” people to this point in your life because, right or wrong, if you take the time to actually look closely, I believe you will find there are already a whole line-up of people that have indeed helped you and contributed all the way along to your successes. Some you recognize without needing to think about. Some you may have acknowledged in the past and others you acknowledge in the present. Some you give credit to because they pushed you to excel or succeed at something. Some because they showed, or they taught, or they advised, or they added input at the right time. Some because they tried to stop you or told you that you couldn’t do something so you proved them wrong. There were a lot of the “right” people. You attracted them and they have contributed all the way along.
My belief is that if you had exposed yourself more to these people, to the world and to yourself; who knows what more they and others could have helped you with. The best part is that it no longer needs to be in the past tense as they and others are ready and willing to help you with future successes.
The Colour of My Underwear is Blue is a book about the many people who were “all the way along” for me. Many that you will be able to relate to. My desire is that you will take a closer look at your successes plus the people who have contributed, and that you will take action to grow yourself even further by revealing your new found knowledge about yourself and where you want to go. My desire is that you will “Expose Yourself for Success” to all of those around you and let them help you attain every dream and desire. Because they do indeed want to help you; they just need to know the colour of your underwear.
At the same time that this is occurring, you will naturally be contributing back to them because, just like so many people have contributed to your successes, you influence and contribute to other people’s successes. You are not only, right here today, successful, you also are very influential. You have helped many people and you may not even know it. What makes their story so amazing is that YOU are in it. If they were to do the exercise in Chapter 2and write down their successes and the people who contributed, you would be on the list! Think about that for a moment. That is a huge success for you to start your own list off with. “One of my successes is that I contribute to other people’s success.” Who have you helped through the years – intentionally or otherwise? Whose list would you be on? And the more you help others, the direct reciprocal is true - the more help you will attract on your quest for a happy successful life.
So turn the pages and let’s get on with the “exposure”.
Give somebody a high five and say “Bring it on”!
To Your Success,
Danny Lyon