I have been very fortunate and have had the benefit of being mentored and coached by some of the best coaches and mentors around. All these wonderful people have guided me around world strategy and advised, supported and helped me through the challenging path of successfully starting and growing a number of entrepreneurial endeavours.
I can attest to the fact that the time and resources, which I have invested with these individuals, has been worth every cent. These people have helped me to grow as a businessman, leader and as a person. Their accusative efforts have over the years helped me to clarify my vision, create the goals I needed to support me to travel the path towards living my vision and they have taught me how to remain inspired and have the patience and tenacity I needed to support me to take the action I needed to take daily to succeed.
I have travelled full circle and now I find myself in a position, where I now mentor, train and support other people to unlock their unlimited possibility. I want to reflect back on some of the wisdom they have shared with me over the years and hope that it will help you too. I have been so fortunate to have been touched by so many incredible people, who have shared so much valuable wisdom with me.
1. Who do you Know?
andrewhorton.co.za /sales-training-courses-know
I have been very fortunate and have had the benefit of being mentored and coached by some of the best coaches
and mentors around. All these wonderful people have guided me around world strategy and advised, supported and
helped me through the challenging path of successfully starting and growing a number of entrepreneurial
endeavours.
I can attest to the fact that the time and resources, which I have invested with these individuals, has been worth every
cent. These people have helped me to grow as a businessman, leader and as a person. Their accusative efforts
have over the years helped me to clarify my vision, create the goals I needed to support me to travel the path
towards living my vision and they have taught me how to remain inspired and have the patience and tenacity I
needed to support me to take the action I needed to take daily to succeed.
I have travelled full circle and now I find myself in a position, where I now mentor, train and support other people to
unlock their unlimited possibility. I want to reflect back on some of the wisdom they have shared with me over the
years and hope that it will help you too. I have been so fortunate to have been touched by so many incredible
people, who have shared so much valuable wisdom with me.
Mutually Beneficial Relationships
As you can imagine there is so much I want to share with you, which I will do over the next few days and weeks.
Today I want to share the one piece of advice, which stands out the most for me, far above any other wisdom they
all shared with me. This is the most profound advice I have received. It literally changed the trajectory of my life and
put me on the path to super achievement.
“
2. Success is all about, who you invest the time with, to build mutually beneficial relationships”.
Relationships make the world go round
I guess you are sitting there thinking, that is not so profound, I have heard the adage “
It is not what you know, but who you know” that really makes the difference in your life. Well in many ways, it is
about who you know and what you know. The challenge is that just knowing someone is not really going to make
any difference at all. People will only be inclined to support you or really help you if a mutually beneficial relationship
exists. In other words, getting to know the right people is just the first step. The next and most crucial step is to
connect with these right people, working to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with them, in a modality of fair
exchange.
Law of Reciprocity
It is a well-known fact that people want to reciprocate and support, help or do something for you, when you have
done something for them. Remove the thought from your mind that people owe you something for nothing. Too many
people sit back waiting for other people, the government or their employers, to do things for them, because they feel
that they deserve it. This must be the greatest mistake people make. No-one owes you anything. If anything
remarkable is going to happen in your life, you need to set up the conditions to allow it to happen first. “
If it is to be then it is up to me”.
Action Idea” I know this may sound cavalier and clinical, but believe me, if you truly want to be successful and you
were not born knowing the right people or they have not miraculously crossed your path by accident. You need to
look around your world and identify the right people, who can support you to create the success you want. Once you
have identified them, the next step is to find innovative ways to connect with them and develop mutually beneficial
relationships with them.
Mr Pickersgill
The first time I received this advice was, when I was in my teens and I went to visit one of my school friends at his
very opulent home in Bedfordview. His father owned one of the largest bearing supply companies in Africa. I came
from a home, which was filled with love, but one, which did not have very much money at all. I was determined to not
live the same financially depraved life as an adult, so seeing someone, who was living the life I wanted. I asked
David’s father, the most obvious question. “How do you do so well in Life”?
Davids dad was a little taken aback by the bluntness of my question, hesitated for only a moment, before he
answered. “Son he said, it is all about connecting with and building win-win relationships, with the right
people” In my naïve way I thought wow, a man who has enjoyed such incredible success, can surely share greater
wisdom with me than that simplistic answer, so I pressed him a little further, hoping that if I brought the question closer
to home, I would get a more profound answer.
Mr Pickersgill, I continued. “You have such a beautiful home and a really fantastic lifestyle. What advice
have you got for me, so that I can achieve similar results in my life”? He laughed a little as he re-
emphasised his point. “If you want to be successful and build success in every area of your life, you must
identify the right people, who you can support and who can support you and then you must invest
sufficient time into developing, a win-win relationship with them”
Still not quite convinced that Mr Pickersgill had shared any real wisdom with me, yet, I once again broached the
subject at dinner. In my own naïve way, I thought I was asking the question in a very different way, when I said “Mr
Pickersgill, “What is your secret to such incredible success? Mr pickersgill was quite curt in his response, as I
although I thought I was quite clever in the way I posed my question, I had effectively asked him the same question
three times.
His answer this time was a little more detailed, this what he said.
“Success is all about relationships, but it is not just about knowing the right people, it is about
connecting with them, building mutually beneficial relationships with them and finding innovative ways
of supporting them in return”.
“Success is about how you show up and how people see you, how they effectively describe you to
3. other people. The story they are willing to tell others about you, must be a supportive one, a trust
building one and one where they willingly edify you with other people”.
“The story you tell and create around yourself, through the actions you take or fail to take, the
empathy you show to others, the authentic self you project to the world and the integrity you show at
all times, is reflected in the relationships you build”
“The story your life tells the people around you is effectively the reason people want to connect with
you and develop long term mutually beneficial relationships”
Although I never got invited back to the PIckersgill home for dinner ever again, the advice I received that night has
stood me in great stead throughout my life. Success is all about building relationships with the right people, by
always being authentic, honest and finding ways to create an atmosphere of fair exchange and success is
inevitable. Become a person of substance, who others can depend on and I have no doubt that there will be plenty
of people, who will be willing to support you and who can depend upon, What is your story telling the world? Are you
looking for a hand-out or are you looking to develop mutually beneficial relationships, where there are only winners
in the relationship?
Andrew Horton
Get Your Team to Consistently Exceed your Sales Targets
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