There’s no doubt that as one of ABC’s Shark Tank investors, Daymond John knows what it takes to start a company from nothing and grow it into a massive success.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens by a single mom who worked three jobs to put food on the table, no one can say John had any special advantages as a kid. After his dad left when he was just 10 years old, John believed he had to step up and be the man of the house. To earn money, he’d hand out flyers for $2.25 an hour at a local mall, and when he returned home, he would save all the money he earned.

He decided he wanted to start his own clothing company, a goal that seemed like a pipe dream for a young, inexperienced, dyslexic, broke “wantra-preneur” like John. However, his tenacity and hard work paid off, and his clothing line, FUBU, grew to a $6 billion brand that has been worn by prominent artists from LL Cool J to *NSYNC.

Today, John is a three-time best-selling author, an investor, and the CEO of The Shark Group, a branding and consulting firm. His experiences have given him the expertise to identify integral components of long-term success in his life, career, and the years he’s spent growing as an entrepreneur and a person. John shared his five key S.H.A.R.K. points that serve as a template to keep you motivated, driven, and on track—just as John needed when he launched his global brand. “I had a lot of failures, but my hustle, my desire, my drive got me where I am,” John said. And these five principles guided that push.

S – SET A GOAL

As a teenager, John worked for small-business owners at the Coliseum Mall in Queens. These local entrepreneurs were his first examples of the people with the drive and hustle required to make a name for themselves. They weren’t the greedy, rude business owners who were being depicted on famous TV shows like Dallas or The Simpsons. The entrepreneurs John worked for were real people who worked tirelessly every day for their goals and valued the community where they had set those goals.

“They were the first to the office, the last to leave,” he recalled. “They thanked everyone for their success, but they blamed only themselves for their failures. They were mentors in the community. They were always educating themselves. They were amazing people.” In the same mall where John once handed out flyers, he learned what his own entrepreneurial aspirations could become.

While John had cultivated a sense of entrepreneurship from a young age, his sense of what he wanted to do crystallized at a 1986 concert at the Spectrum Theater in Philadelphia. As Run-DMC took the stage, John’s chief passions—business and hip-hop—fused together in his mind to provide a blueprint for the years to come. “In that split second, my life turned from black and white into Technicolor,” John said. “I understood, in that moment, that no matter what, I was going to live, die, and prosper in this world of hip-hop.”

As Run-DMC played, kids in the crowd were holding up pairs of their Adidas sneakers. John realized there was money to be made creating clothes specifically for the growing community of people who identified with hip-hop. He set 10 goals that night. Six of them expired in three months, while the others expired at two, five, 10, and 20 years. He thought about those goals every night and took a step toward one of them every day. It’s a practice he continues to this day. “You can’t hit a target you can’t see,” John said. “If you aren’t in control of the goals you set, you let other people set goals for you.”

H – HOMEWORK

John was already devoted to hip-hop. How could he not be, growing up in the city where the genre was born and living in the same neighborhood as some of its earliest heroes, like LL Cool J and Run-DMC. In a sense, John had been gathering data on his market demographic his entire life by immersing himself in hip-hop culture.

But John had to find a way to fit the lifestyle he and his friends were emulating in the streets of New York into that Technicolor vision he saw at Run-DMC’s concert. Hip-hop had found a way to create a culture from hundreds of people dancing all night with music blasting from speakers with stolen electricity into a movement that was now encapsulating thousands of people. Suddenly, John had people to look up to who weren’t the “pimps and drug dealers” driving fancy cars outside his doors. “Through this music, the kids were communicating about their hopes, their dreams, their loves, their aspirations,” he said. “Hip-hop wasn’t something that you just listened to; it was a way to live.”

He began broadening his understanding by studying the fashion brands adored by his peers but realized that many brands had unspoken disdain for the people who were buying their products. One of them, Timberland, even went so far as to put an ad in the New York Times declaring they didn’t sell or make their boots for “drug dealers.”

John was incensed. He was working two jobs, having picked up a second at Red Lobster, in order to buy things like Timberland boots because his homework told him those were the boots his hip-hop heroes wore. But those same boots on his feet were sold by a company that was calling him and his community criminals. “Who’s ever going to support, love, and value the customer who’s purchasing their goods?” he thought. Well, he was.

“I’m going to come up with a name; it’s going to be four letters,” he decided. “It’s not going to be about a color, because I’m not going to be [bigoted] the same way Timberland is; it’s going to be about a culture.” He went home and created a shirt and hat emblazoned with the letters BUFU: By Us, For Us. A few days later, John flipped the letters to FUBU, and a business was born.

John’s lifelong homework came in handy when it came to marketing FUBU on a shoestring budget, and his love for the business he was creating is what propelled it forward. He’d show up at video shoots and convince rappers to wear his FUBU clothing. He asked business owners in large cities if he could remove the graffiti on their storm gates and paint them white, slapping an “Authorized FUBU Dealer” stencil on them, making FUBU familiar to anyone who walked, drove, or rode by after hours. He harangued hip-hop’s biggest star, LL Cool J, for a promotional photo, making him the company’s first spokesperson. He found out about the MAGIC show, an industry event where he could launch FUBU on a wide scale. He and his partners didn’t even have a booth when they arrived, but they left with $300,000 in orders.

The thing is, he didn’t have $300,000 to spend on creating these orders. Instead, he turned to the woman who had been his business partner since he was 6 years old when he was selling pencils to the kids at school: his mom, or Ms. John as she likes to be known publicly. She was able to acquire a $100,000 loan against their $75,000 house, and John and his business partners funneled that loan and the money they had made at the trade show into creating a makeshift sewing operation in their home. They would sleep in sleeping bags on the ground, clothes were stacked to the ceiling, and by the end of it all, there was only $500 left in the bank.

Again, John had a problem. He was lacking the financial savvy he needed to get the clothes out the door before his money ran dry. And, again, his mom stepped up. She asked him to save $2,000 from his job at Red Lobster, and then she would help him out. When he handed her the $2,000, Ms. John placed an advertisement in the local newspaper that read, “$1 million in orders—need financing.” That ad generated 33 calls offering help. Three of them were legitimate, and one was Samsung’s textile’s division.

With backing from Samsung, FUBU sold $300 million worth of products in just three months. As FUBU continued to grow, John kept studying and fueling his passion. He learned about distribution, manufacturing, staffing, and everything else required for functioning as a multimillion-dollar brand. As FUBU took off, so did John’s celebrity in the rap industry. His homework was paying off.

A – AMORE

For John, sleeping in a sleeping bag next to a sewing machine didn’t feel like sacrifice. Learning new skills and doing his homework was never a problem. Waking up at 6 a.m., sewing, selling his shirts, working at Red Lobster until midnight, and sewing again until 2 a.m. never felt like work. All of the challenges he faced were surmountable because his passion never waned, and his brand grew because of it. “The single thing that every successful person I’ve ever met has in common is amore—love,” John said. “I would’ve dressed people for free for the rest of my life.”

No matter how big FUBU grew, John believed his love for the business would grow with it, and FUBU was on the cusp of booming. Years later, LL Cool J would covertly rap about FUBU in a Gap ad while wearing a FUBU hat. The company’s advertising team was targeting the market that LL and his hip-hop partners had built, but they never caught the subtle mention by LL before airing the advertisement.

The hip-hop community would flock to Gap stores because they believed LL was telling them they could purchase FUBU clothing at Gap, only to leave without purchasing anything in search of FUBU elsewhere, John explained.

After Gap’s fiasco, FUBU would grow even larger than it had after Samsung’s backing. Suddenly, John had made it big time, and his personal celebrity star was rising. He wasn’t just this up-and-coming kid from Queens in the hip-hop world anymore. He was Daymond John, and he was living in Asia for six months, Europe the next six, and partying every day with rappers in between—rappers who weren’t even wearing FUBU anymore. (Ironically, they were wearing another clothing brand John owned.)

But this didn’t matter to his family. Fast forward a few years, and John was married with two little girls, Yasmeen and Destiny. Yet, the family rarely saw him. Instead, he was turning into the father who had left him at 10. His wife was stuck taking care of the family’s eight houses and two daughters with nobody to talk to. Eventually, she had enough and filed for divorce.

“I remember my ex-wife calling me up and saying, ‘I didn’t leave because I don’t love you; I left because I do love you,’” John said. He had a stark realization that he had lost himself and the love FUBU was built on. The guiding principles he believed in were no longer a part of his life, and the love he had for his business had turned toxic. His ex-wife insisted he stop his self-destructive actions and instead talk to other entrepreneurs and funnel that passion and desire that was once so bright into something that was useful beyond FUBU. “She kicked me in my ass,” he said.

John discovered that his focus was on the celebrity his brand was creating for him, and his initial love was getting lost in the shuffle. As his daughters grew, he was parenting them over the phone half a world away, dazed and hungover from a night of partying. His love had shifted from the goals and passion he had years prior as a young adult, and this time, John took his ex-wife’s harsh reminder to heart.

“You’re not setting goals,” he told himself. “You’re out drinking and partying; that’s not setting goals. You’re not doing your homework. A hot fashion brand lasts 5–7 years. And amore, love—do you love not seeing your daughters?”

R – REMEMBER, YOU ARE THE BRAND

In redefining himself and discovering a new path, John learned that the way he was living his FUBU lifestyle wasn’t representative of who he needed to be. Sure, the hip-hop stars who were wearing his clothes were partying until 6 a.m. In fact, FUBU stood for “For Us, By Us,” and he was living the lifestyle that the movement, which began in the streets, had developed. But that’s where his growth stopped, and while the movement grew into new clothing and styles, John was stuck repeating the “work hard, party harder” lifestyle.

He took the tough love from his ex-wife, shifted his focus, and began working on a better version of himself to transform his life. The rap stars he once partied with were replaced with morning TV hosts and entrepreneurs working through the early vision of their business. When reality TV show producer Mark Burnett saw John speaking on networks like CNBC, he thought John would be a good fit for a little show he was developing called Shark Tank.

By the time he joined the Shark Tank team, John had learned a valuable lesson on vision. Instead of investing his lifestyle and work into the moment, John learned how he could influence the future, and it started with the budding business owners he met on Shark Tank. “We don’t invest in brands,” he said of his experience on Shark Tank. “We invest in people. That’s the most important thing.”

John proposed that people should brand themselves with just 2–5 words. Those words will shape who you are and your goals at that moment. And as he was discovering what his personal brand was again and the value of investing in people on Shark Tank, he was living by the motto, “I’m on a quest.” Those four words rang true for John as he was hustling at a higher level than ever before. This time, as his success grew, he expanded into industries he never even thought about before. His quest was partnering with real people, becoming synonymous with success, and celebrating the achievements of those he mentored.

With his newest sense of who he was and who he could be, John understood that he could communicate his value, and he began looking at others that same way. “Any time you take a picture or post a selfie, your brand is being represented, and those 2–5 words are in there,” John said. His brand was rising and getting stronger by the day. Nothing could stop him.

K – KEEP SWIMMING

On Good Friday 2017, something almost did bring John’s latest growth to a halt, and John’s definition of his life would be boiled down into a new set of 2–5 words. That morning, he was admitted to the hospital for a simple hourlong procedure to remove a growth on his thyroid. Before being put under, the anesthesiologist asked John to think about what true success means to him. If he could think about his future, including his new daughter, the doctor told him, he would win before the surgery even began.

That surgery turned into a three-hour ordeal in which doctors removed a stage-2 cancerous growth that was set to overtake his lymph nodes and his brain.

That day, his 2–5-word motto turned from “I’m on a quest” to “My health is first,” John said. “When I was under, I knew I was going to beat this thing because I was going to be here to be around my fellow sharks and walk my three beautiful girls down the aisle. Because you know what we do as sharks?” he asked. “We always just keep swimming.”

John’s life has been a series of obstacles that could have prevented him from building his empire. He didn’t let his father’s absence, nor his dwindling bank account, nor his spiraling while FUBU soared stop him from achieving the goals that kid at the Run-DMC concert set out to do. And on that operating table, John was facing another obstacle that threatened to sink him.

Instead, John kept swimming.

Business and life are full of hurdles, and there are times when we want to pack it up and call it a day. We can’t. If we want to reach new heights, we must have persistence, determination, and a ceaseless attitude of progress. We may not all be sharks on TV, but we can all learn to swim like one.

In 2004, Ramadi, Iraq, became the center of control for the Middle Eastern terrorist group al-Qaeda. Two-year battles ensued over the city of 500,000 people, during which the rule of law was nonexistent, bloodshed was constant, and devastation was unrelenting. US forces posted battle stations within the city and managed to keep al-Qaeda at bay until everything came to a head in March 2006.

The United States’ position was threatened, and sensing urgency and rising tensions, the US Marines, Army, and Navy partnered to steamroll al-Qaeda and take back control centers in a pivotal location in the Iraq War. The result was a near-complete toppling of the once-powerful terrorist stronghold in the Iraqi city.

None of this would have been possible without military leadership having its boots on the ground and executing, supporting, and pushing these teams through power moves deployed by the intensifying US forces in the Middle East.

Today, one of those leaders is sharing his secrets with business leaders: Navy SEAL team officer Jocko Willink, a guest speaker at the 2020 Technology Marketing Toolkit IT Sales and Marketing Boot Camp.

A lifelong devotion to becoming a commando led Jocko to military service at the age of 18. Over a 20-year military career, Jocko served as a leader in the Navy SEALS, trained fellow SEALs on the complexities of combat in the Middle East, and earned multiple military honors. Today, Jocko is a New York Times best-selling author, host of the leadership podcast Jocko Podcast, and cofounder of Echelon Front, an organization devoted to preparing and training business leaders. And, like so many of us, this soldier’s start began in his backyard.

THE ORIGINS OF A LEADER

As a kid, Jocko was painting mud on his face and preparing for an imaginary war he had created. Battle lines were drawn in the dirt of his yard, while every piece of wood or stick he could find became a toy gun. There was nothing but his own backyard shadowing his mission, but that didn’t matter. He was going to lead his men to victory.

When the East Coast-grown boy discovered Navy SEALs, the image of what his future could be like as a commando started to unfold. Jocko enlisted in the Navy at 18 years old and was immediately stripped of his freedoms. This wasn’t his backyard anymore; he was becoming a soldier. Jocko trained with real machinery, underwent intensive boot camp operations, and prepared for real combat. Eventually, Jocko worked his way through the ranks of the Navy to earn that additional freedom and become the soldier he always dreamed he could be.

Jocko trained as a Navy SEAL and was ultimately named an officer. Jocko’s distinguished 20-year career saw him deployed to Iraq, where he led Navy SEAL Team Three’s Task Unit Bruiser through the Battle of Ramadi. Leading alongside Colonel Sean MacFarland, Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Clark, and Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Neary, Jocko’s Navy SEAL team joined the US Army, US Marines, and Iraqi Special Forces to resecure war-torn Ramadi during the nine-month battle.

Together, multiple branches of the US military and Iraqi Special Forces were able to restore their presence and apply pressure over al-Qaeda to attempt to rebuild peace in this turbulent and war-devastated region of the Middle East.

For his service, Jocko was awarded the Silver Star and Bronze Star, and Unit Bruiser was the most decorated Special Operations Unit during the Iraq War. After his deployment, Jocko served as the officer in charge of training for all West Coast SEAL Teams.

“It was the best job ever,” Jocko says. “Being on the SEAL teams is awesome. You’re working with a bunch of people and have awesome missions. Your job is very fun day to day if you like being outside and diving out of airplanes and diving into the water.”

THE ORIGINS OF A LEADER

As Jocko neared the end of a lustrous career, the lifelong Navy SEAL was prompted with an interesting proposition. The CEO of a company approached him about speaking to their team about the value and qualities of leadership. This CEO was a friend, and while public speaking wasn’t exactly in the career military man’s job description, Jocko knew he had lessons to share.

When Jocko finished the presentation, his friend had another favor to ask. They asked Jocko to present his lessons and expertise to every division of the company. Even better, the CEO was going to pay him. It was a done deal, and off Jocko went.

That’s where a little bit of fate intervened. The CEO of the parent company happened to be sitting in the audience at one of those divisional speaking engagements and was so impressed with what Jocko had to say that the CEO requested Jocko speak to every CEO in the company. Once Jocko finished speaking to those 40–45 CEOs, the requests for more presentations flooded in.

What was once an unclear path after retirement was crystalizing. There was a need for the leadership values and lessons Jocko had gleaned from a career in the military, and rather than sit on these lessons, Jocko saw an opportunity to lead through the battlefield of the boardroom.

“There was a high demand for it,” Jocko says. “What we realized is that in any organization’s leadership, leadership training is a big thing. There are a lot of civilian companies that don’t have leadership training, and they don’t learn that on the job if you don’t have good leaders to learn from. There’s a demand for leadership training.

THE ORIGINS OF A LEADER

In 2015, Jocko partnered with fellow US Navy SEAL Officer Leif Babin to co-author the New York Times best-selling book Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win. The book pushes leaders to evaluate the ways in which they lead and challenges them to become better for their teams and in their personal lives. Together, Leif and Jocko provide readers with a thorough military-grade guide to navigating the nuances and landmines of leadership to become the best versions of themselves for their team and mission.

But the pursuit of education didn’t stop there. Jocko and Leif once again partnered to found Echelon Front to address the need for effective leadership training for organizations at all levels. The company now deploys 10 experts to teach leadership skills and styles the military ingrains in soldiers like Jocko and Leif before trusting them to lead a group of men and women into intense combat zones.

Building off the lessons Jocko and Leif compiled in Extreme Ownership, the team engages business leaders across the nation to create a culture of pride in work while fully accepting responsibility for the actions and results of their leadership. To encourage finding the balance between pushing hard and being compassionate about a team’s success, Jocko, Leif, and the Echelon Front team deploy the Extreme Ownership Principles to serve their lesson.

They’re the very same tactics Jocko and Leif were taught in SEAL training, and while the war zone is vastly different than the boardroom, these tactics are still vital, Jocko says. These Extreme Ownership Principles give leaders a guide to that everyday battle.

Cover and Move: Just like the military teams that weave and advance toward an enemy target, your team has to be coordinated in the goals of your mission and the steps you are taking to get there. As Jocko often explains, if you have a sales team that is underselling what the manufacturing floor can create, then your sales team is failing your company and the manufacturing team. They are leaving the team dead in the water. Likewise, a manufacturing team that cannot produce the quality materials a sales team is pushing is failing the sales team. Sales will plummet, and you will lose customers.
Simple: This one is easy. Keep it simple. There’s no need for added complexities in your fight toward optimal company culture and production. Find the easiest, most effective, and most powerful way to get there and deploy it—simply.
Prioritize and Execute: Does this sound familiar? You settle into work on Monday morning, field 20 emails, prepare for the big meeting in an hour, manage a complaint from the floor, and overhear of a budding problem in your shipping area, among dozens of other matters that pull your attention away. How do you manage this? Where many untrained leaders fail is in their inability to prioritize the biggest problems ahead of them and focus on what they can accomplish rather than everything they want to accomplish.
Decentralize Command: When Jocko was leading a team of trained Navy SEALs into combat, he wasn’t taking the brunt of the responsibility of the tasks simply because of his rank. He was relying on the leadership capabilities of every member of Unit Bruiser. He recognized that other members of his team had skills that went beyond his own capacities, and he capitalized on them. A successful business leader does the same.

DISCIPLINED TO SUCCEED

Becoming a great leader doesn’t happen overnight. It takes discipline, courage, and the foresight to understand where you need to grow and how you can get there. When Jocko spent his childhood days fighting his backyard war, he didn’t let each day pass hoping opportunity would land in his lap. Instead, he remained dedicated to his dream, enlisted, and climbed a ladder that many struggle to climb. All it took was that first step and a willingness to work.

“I’m not a big believer in motivation,” Jocko says. “. . . To think that every morning I feel like a spring chicken to go lift weights and go for a run . . . I’m not motivated. It’s because I demand unmitigated discipline.”

Emmitt Smith is best known as the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, a Pro Football Hall of Famer, and a “Dancing with the Stars” champion. But he’s also a respected entrepreneur, sought-after speaker, bestselling author, and one of the most valuable personal brands in the sports-entertainment field. As chairman of E. Smith Legacy Holdings, a successful real estate development firm that is recognized as a leading bridge builder in Texas, he oversees real estate, construction, development, and investments. He also leads a team of talented individuals who oversee other ventures including authentication technology, a marketing firm, a nonprofit, and an entertainment platform.

Read on to discover the principles this world-famous NFL Hall of Fame running back and serial entrepreneur revealed, the secrets he attributes to his success, and what drives him as an entrepreneur and a human being.

1. Dare To Dream And Turn Those Dreams Into Goals.

When Emmitt was just 7 years old, he watched a Dallas Cowboys football game with his father. That day, he turned to his father and said, “Pop, one day, I’m going to play professional football, and I’m going to play for the Dallas Cowboys.” He also dreamed of one day living in a home very different from where he grew up and building homes for people so they could have nice homes, too. Those early visions were the catalysts that fueled his dreams. But Emmitt stressed, “A dream is only a dream until you write it down. Then it’s a goal. Goal setting is important because it helps you map out your life.”

2. Don’t Let Fear Cripple You.

As entrepreneurs, we all experience fear, especially the first time something happens. Don’t let it paralyze you. Get back up IMMEDIATELY, be courageous, and meet your fear head-on. Emmitt recalled when he was 10, during his first day of practice, playing up with kids who were two years older than him. The kids were bigger, faster, and stronger and hit a lot harder. During his first drill, he was hit so hard by a kid named Billy that he was in pain and afraid to continue. He said to his coach, “No, Coach. I don’t want to do it again. I’m thinking about quitting.” But his coach wouldn’t allow him to sit in fear, telling him to do it again. By immediately getting back in the saddle, he was able to make a course correction, which allowed him to have a better experience the next time and avoid getting hit.

“I reluctantly got back in line, and over there, Billy is smiling at me,” Emmitt recalled. “My lips started to quiver a little bit. Fear overcame me for the first time in my life. I’d never been hit that hard before. As young entrepreneurs, sometimes we step into things we’ve never experienced before, and if we don’t have that type of experience or know someone who has that experience, guess what? We’re still on the sideline. We find ourselves at the back of the line trying to avoid Billy because he hits very hard instead of facing Billy and facing your fears. Don’t ever let fear paralyze you.

The beautiful thing about getting back up and getting back in line right then and there, I didn’t have a whole lot of time to think about it, and so I was able to learn a valuable lesson — to avoid all contact.”

3. Adapt And Change.

During his career, he had to overcome adversity and learn to adapt. As a kid, everything he saw on television was about the quarterback, so he wanted to be a quarterback, but his coaches thought differently. “I went out for football when I turned 8 years old. My very first day of practice, I come out, and the coach says, what position do you want to play? I said, ‘I want to play quarterback.’ He said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘I want to be just like Roger Staubach. I want to wear number 12. A quarterback touches the ball more than everybody on the football field. He gets paid more than everybody on the football field, and all the ladies love the quarterback.’ The next year, another coach asked me the same question. I answered it the same way. He asked me this one thing. He said, ‘Have you ever thought about playing another position?’ I said, ‘No, why would I even think about playing another position? Did you not see me play quarterback last year?’ He said, ‘Yes, that’s the reason why I want to put you back here and let you run the football because you cannot throw.’ I learned the word change. Change is going to happen in everybody’s life. That was my first time being introduced to change. I could have resisted the change, but I was focused on just playing the game. I had my whole life ahead of me, so my mind was open to the possibility of something else.”

4. Build A Team Of Role Models, Mentors, And Coaches.

Never be afraid to seek guidance. Find people who are a level up from where you are now to help you through challenges. And seek out coaches to help you see what you can’t see yourself. One of Emmitt’s mentors is Roger Staubach, former quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, who started a real estate company during the off-season. Emmitt received guidance from Staubach about starting a business. “We want things to be natural and as easy as possible, but when faced with a challenge head-on, surround yourself with people who have experience of where you want to go,” he said. Emmitt credits his coach for helping him realize he was better suited to play running back. “I absolutely love coaches,” Emmitt said. “They see the best in all of us, even when we don’t see it in ourselves. When you have great coaches, they bring out the best in you.”

5. Seize Opportunities That Line Up With Your Passions And Principles.

When it comes to deciding which new business challenges to put his energy into, Emmitt said his main criteria are whether he’s passionate about it and whether there is an opportunity for him to effect change in the most positive way. “For me, it’s about what I’ve been called to do,” Emmitt said. “If there’s an opportunity to effect change in an area that’s lacking, that I’m passionate about, I absolutely go all-in on it. Because when you go all-in on something you’re passionate about, that means you go at it relentlessly, and at the first bit of challenge, you’re not going to let it push you down. You’re going to keep fighting. If I have the resources around me to address it, then I would attack it. If I don’t, then I’m going to wait and be patient until I do run across the resources. That’s why I say you just keep moving instead of being on the sideline. You keep doing what you’re doing and keep your eyes open and ears open to those types of opportunities.”

6. Take Responsibility And Stay Sharp.

To manage the intense pressure of having people depending on him, Emmitt focuses on creating quality habits. “To earn the trust of your teammates and your peers, that’s when it’s truly rewarding,” Emmitt said. “And the work you’re putting in pays off. You don’t stay out all night knowing others are counting on you. You make those personal sacrifices of yourself for the benefit of the entire team. That’s why the quarterbacks get the credit. When they win games, they get the credit. The bad part of it is when they don’t win, they also get the credit. Quarterbacks take on that responsibility. It is my job to do the same thing as a player and as a leader to make sure I’m doing my part and trying to help others do their part as well.”

7. Don’t Become Complacent. Stay Committed To Your Goals.

To maximize his potential, Emmitt never lets himself be satisfied. He stays focused on constantly improving himself and his performance. It’s this wholehearted commitment to his goals and performing consistently day after day that has made it possible for him to turn his dreams into reality. “When you win and you are successful at whatever it is you’re trying to do, you want to be selfish about it because you want to stay at the pinnacle,” Emmitt said. “You want to remain hungry because Dwight Thomas [his high school football coach] told us, ‘Never become satisfied with anything. Because the day you do, the growing stops.’ And that’s been my philosophy ever since. People asked me, ‘How did you become an all-time leading rusher?’ Well, you’ve got to be consistent. You’ve got to be available. You can’t be missing work. You can’t be cutting things and taking shortcuts. There aren’t any shortcuts in life. Either you’re going to get on the grind or you’re not. And before you know it, it’s no longer a grind. It becomes fun because you’re building things that are sustainable. The things I’m talking about right now were the building blocks to where my life was taking me without my even knowing it. They talk about 10,000 hours. Well, I have 10,000 hours in sports, and I’m working on another 20,000 hours in business. And I’m going to do it until I go into the grave because I’m going to maximize every ounce of talent I have to be the very best version of myself.”

8. Give Freely To Others.

As you grow more successful, share your success and knowledge with others. After being named the Gatorade National Football Player of the Year his senior year in high school, Emmitt was awarded an all-expense paid trip and two tickets to watch his first Super Bowl at the Rose Bowl in California. He took his best friend, Johnny Nichols. While at the game, he told Johnny that one day he was going to play at the Rose Bowl. Six years later, he played his first Super Bowl at the Rose Bowl, and his friend Johnny was in the stands watching him. “Success is there to be shared, not to be reserved for just you,” Emmitt said. “It’s enjoyable when you have others to share it with. Knowledge is to be shared, not just remain in your head, but to be taken out and given to others freely. The reason why is because what you know, the nuances, others might not get it. And what’s for you is for you. And what’s for someone else to do with that information is for them. They’ll figure it out. But to help another one move along their path is all we’ve been called to do.”

9. Maintain An Attitude Of Humility.

Remember your humble beginnings and, despite your success, never see yourself as better than others. Also, command attention and respect not by demanding it, but by earning it. “My mother always told me, ‘Son, treat people with respect and command respect at the same time,’” Emmitt said. “Humility is one thing I’ve been able to home in on throughout the entire process. I try not to project myself upon others and try to carry myself as a normal approachable person versus walking around with this halo. I allow people to treat me the way they want to treat me or the way they believe I should be treated. I don’t walk around with this expectation that someone is going to treat me special because of what I’ve done.”

10. Never Forget It Takes A Team To Be Successful.

No one becomes successful alone. Never forget the importance of recognizing your team. After a game in his freshman year in high school in which Emmitt had eight carries, rushed for 245 yards, and scored two touchdowns — all in the first half — his coach allowed him to speak to the press. As Emmitt answered the press’s questions about the game, his answers were all focused on what he had contributed to the game without mentioning his teammates. “Afterward, the coach put his arm around me, walked me back into the locker room, and he said, ‘Listen, son, every chance you get, you share the spotlight with those five guys up front. You didn’t block for yourself. You didn’t hand the ball to yourself. And you definitely didn’t throw the ball to yourself.’” The next practice, when Emmitt took off running to the line of scrimmage, his entire offensive line laid down and he got hit by the entire defensive line. “I got up saying, ‘Coach, I got it, I got it, I got it,’” Emmitt said. “It was a lesson in humility. No one, I repeat, no one becomes successful by themselves. It takes everybody to be successful in every organization. Even at home, nobody can shoulder all this weight by themselves. I could not have become the all-time leader in rushing without the great wall of Dallas in front of me … I don’t care what anybody says, no one is successful by themselves. The people who are not the most recognizable in the organization are the ones doing a lot of the grunt work behind the scenes to make you and me look good. Our marketing teams are taking the skill sets we offer and the service we offer and make it and prop it up and sell it to the community.”

11. Engage In Self-Reflection To Get Better.

To get to the level of success you want to get to, take time to analyze everything after losses, setbacks, or mistakes. Look at what is working and what isn’t working. Ask hard questions such as if you executed your game plan and whether your competition is in better shape than your organization. When Emmitt was a freshman in high school, he was one of two freshmen allowed to play varsity. On his first day of practice, when they handed him the ball, he fumbled three straight times in a row. The offense coordinator grabbed him by the face mask, shook his mask, and told him he would never amount to anything if he couldn’t take care of the football because the football was the most important thing on the field. “He made me feel small,” Emmitt said. “I was so mad and hot that the next time I ran through the cornerback so bad, I think I broke his collarbone. I was mad, but I was challenged to a level that made me start to focus on the things that were most important … If you want to become better at whatever it is you’re trying to do as an organization, you must do self-reflection. You have to be able to analyze not only the good but also the bad. As a team, as football players, and as business owners, when we win, everybody is excited, and everybody is giving high-fives. But when we lose, everybody’s disappointed. Are you taking time to analyze the things that cost the game?”

12. Design Your Environment To Dissuade Negativity.

Pessimists are all around you. Protect your environment from negativity by hanging around positive people. Avoid people who have not experienced the success you’re looking to achieve and don’t understand your journey. While everybody has an opinion, they don’t necessarily have a clue about what you’re experiencing in your business. Emmitt likened it to asking a high school coach who doesn’t have any experience with pro football. Instead, find someone who has achieved what you want to achieve and is willing to share their knowledge with you. “You are a product of your environment,” Emmitt said. “You absolutely must set up boundaries in every aspect of life. Positive-thinking people inspire others to be positive-thinking people, too. That’s not to say we all have to think the same, but if you challenge me on a thought so I can find revelation within that thought, and it works both ways, we are going to be cool all day, every day, because you have something to give me and I have something to give you instead of someone just sucking all the energy out of you. Also, find people who have gone places you have not gone and speak to those folks who understand what it’s like to go through that process. Naysayers are everywhere … Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook have naysayers all over them. If you really want someone who’s been there, done it, and got a T-shirt for it, you find that person and then you ask all the questions you want to ask. If they’re willing to share it, they’re willing to share. If they’re not, find somebody else who’s been there because someone on this planet has been where you are trying to go.”

These are principles Emmitt lives day in, day out. He says when you are doing things on a repetitive basis, it becomes ingrained in you. “Make whatever it is that you’re doing become your lifestyle. Make your habits, quality habits, not just any habit. And when you get done, you will look up and look back on your journey, and you will see the process and the things you put into becoming successful. As legendary coach Paul Bryant said, ‘If you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride, you will be a winner.’ The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards.”

To watch Emmitt’s compelling presentation at the 2022 IT Sales And Marketing Boot Camp, go to MSPsuccessMagazine.com/bootcamp-emmitt.

You Have To Be SOLD Before You Can SELL.

If you’re not excited and deeply passionate about what you sell, figure out how to get excited — or find another job. Talk to someone who is passionate about a hobby, and they’ll “sell” you on why it’s so exciting. They don’t need a script or clever closes. They sell because of their sheer passion for what they do. If you are not as convinced about what you do, then make it better so you can be passionate.

Always Be The Most Professional Person In The Room.

Dress modestly and professionally. Don’t get angry or defensive. Say “please” and “thank you.” If you say you’re going to do something, then do it. Be prepared, professional, and have a process. Too many salespeople are casual about their performance. They show up late, unprepared, and unscripted and are not ready to close. No pro would ever show up that way to their “game,” be it a professional athlete or actor.

True Sales Pros NEVER Wing It.

They follow a highly strategic, planned-out process. There aren’t 10, 20, or even two “best ways” to do something. Only one. Find it and repeat it.

Never Trash The Competition.

If you have to bad-mouth a specific competitor to win a sale instead of selling on your merits, you’re pitiful and unprofessional. We often get that from our competition at TMT. If someone has to sell you on their services by telling you how bad a competitor is, you should walk away. Sell on your merits … and if you don’t have any, get some.

Sending Emails And Connecting With People On Social Media Are NOT Productive Prospecting Activities.

You get zero points unless a call is tied to it. Outside salespeople are called “outside” salespeople for a reason. You’re supposed to get outside of the office to go meet with check writers. COVID-19 is over. Get out to networking events, meetings, and conferences. Network. Visit people. Conduct canvassing. That’s your job if you’re a hunter. NEVER leave a meeting with a prospect without a SCHEDULED next action. Don’t waste your time. If they aren’t interested, have a polite and professional way to find out — then walk away to find a better, more interested prospect who is ready to buy. You must maintain control of the process or you’ll waste your time.

Don’t Sell To People Who Only Have The Authority To Say ‘NO.’

It’s difficult enough to deal with willingness to buy; don’t handicap yourself with their inability to buy, too. How do you know if they have the authority to buy? Who influences their decisions? Who is truly calling the shots? Scripts and practice help, but you must have a willingness to ask tough questions. Are you the fool or the favorite? Ask, “Why do you want to do business with us?

ACTIVITIES Drive RESULTS, Period.

Don’t whine and complain about the competition, the market, your customers, the leads you’re getting, etc. IF you’re doing enough of the right activities, you will succeed. You have to make up in numbers what you lack in skill. Following from the above, the weaker and more underdeveloped your skills are, the more you’ll need to do. Repetition of correct fundamentals develops skill. If you’re not willing to put in the work and do the activities required to succeed, you shouldn’t be in sales.

Follow Up Fast On EVERY Lead.

The faster you respond, the better your chances are of getting the deal. Make sure you don’t give up on leads too quickly, and call at least 5–7 times in addition to emailing, mailing, and social messaging before you put them into drip marketing.

If you want to be successful in sales, you should workMORE than 9 to 5. You control your income — and your raise becomes effective the minute you work more. Also, as the saying goes, “Learners are earners.” What book are you reading? What method are you studying to be at the top of your game? If you see yourself as a professional, you are constantly sharpening your skills.

Have Something INTERESTING To Share

Why should someone take your call? Your meeting? If all you can offer is to pitch a product or talk to someone about their “IT needs,” you don’t deserve a callback or a meeting. Great salespeople are fountains of knowledge and true consultants. They know things others don’t. When you meet with a true professional who knows their industry, product, and client, they can tell you things that are truly valuable. Bottom line, if you want more prospects to meet with you, do a better job at selling them on what THEY will get from the meeting.

Invite The ‘No.’

Your job is not alchemy, turning a cold rock into a gold nugget. Instead, keep prospecting to find the ones who want what you’re selling. Endlessly following up on people who were too polite to tell you “no” to your face is a giant waste of time. Let your marketing do the drip marketing for you, and put your efforts into finding someone who is ready to buy now. Whining and complaining have never solved a problem, closed a sale, or accomplished anything productive. Grow up. Nobody is impressed by how good your excuses are.