Stay connected with Mike Rayburn through his General Updates – a series of powerful reflections, mindset shifts, and practical insights designed to inspire growth, resilience, and creative leadership.
It’s a sense of purpose. Something bigger than ourselves. Two insurance agents are walking down the street. A man sees them and asks, “Hey, what do you guys do for a living?” The first agent says, “I sell insurance” The other one looks a little sideways at that answer, turns back and says, “I take care of your family when you can’t. Which one would you want to work with?
Last week I shared that the reason we need to be free to fail and be rejected is that we will fail, we will be rejected, and that these are integral to success. Picking up there, successful people actually fail more than unsuccessful people. The difference is unsuccessful people stop at failure. Successful people keep failing until they succeed. The same is true for rejection; the more successful you are, the more often you’ll be rejected.
Sometimes the best tips are not so much answers as questions. I read a great one this week: “If you were doomed to live the same life over and over again for eternity, would you choose the life you are living now?” Would you? If so, keep doing what you’re doing. If not, what are you doing to change that? I think most of us would want to relive some things but rather not relive others…
Meet Captain Charlie Plumb, a man I am proud to call my friend and mentor. He’s one of the most amazing men I have ever known. Charlie was a fighter pilot in Vietnam, flying 74 successful missions. On his 75th mission, his last before going home to his new wife, Charlie was shot down, parachuted into enemy hands and spent the next six years in a North Vietnamese prison camp being tortured, beaten and isolated in an 8’X8’ cell.
For the past seven years I have presented my “What If?” Keynote Experience for the Youth Citizenship Seminar at Pepperdine University. 250 high school juniors spend a week living on campus experiencing speakers and activities in a life-changing event. Captain Charlie Plumb, George Foreman, Ben Stein, Darren Kavinoky, Marilyn Sherman, Scott McKain, Tommy Lasorda, and others donate their time and even pay their own travel.
What we haven’t seen before is, the Uber driver gets to rate you! Your conduct as a customer is ranked by the driver from one to five stars and every other driver gets to see it. Aha. I LOVE this! Soon-to-be-gone are the days of being a snotty customer, treating service providers like slaves. It’s not in every business yet but I predict this will soon spread to other businesses.
The Customer is NOT Always Right. A Radical Way To Create Raving Fans I was so disgusted… On the plane a man behind me was just berating a
Many of you know my “What IF…?” keynote is all about becoming more innovative by asking the question, “What if?” When you come up against the impossible instead of backing down, instead ask, “Hey, what if we could do this, how would it happen?”
Worldwide this message has resonated and exploded with great results.
Fail Faster, Fail Often Do you want to succeed faster? Then you need to fail faster. By now you certainly know that failure is an
You have the same 24 hours per day that Bill Gates, Stephen Curry, Oprah, Bruno Mars, and Elon Musk have. What will you do with them? Look, “someday” sucks, and all “buts” stink.
But that’s exactly what organizations are doing. Their cultural fear of being wrong is killing the very spirit of innovation they say they need. You, your teams, and your entire organization must learn that being wrong isn’t wrong. Not learning and growing from being wrong is wrong.
The Foundation of All Innovation, Problem-Solving and Growth… Is Simple My “What If…?” Keynote Explained As a ponderer and thinker of thoughts, I recently stumbled
