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Virtuoso Tips

Daily Mastery Tools to Think Bigger, Act Smarter & Live Boldly

What do the world’s top performers do differently? In Virtuoso Tips, Mike Rayburn distills proven mindset strategies, performance hacks, and success habits into actionable insights for anyone ready to play at the next level.

Latest Insights From Mike Rayburn
General Updates
Mike Rayburn

Offended? I Hope You’re Offended. It’s YOUR Freedom

“Being offended” is how politicians, universities and others are trying to limit free speech. There is nothing in our bill of rights giving anyone the right not to be offended. In fact, freedom of speech requires the possibility of being offended. And that’s a good thing… almost every important improvement in the world was offensive at first. Love your enemies. All men are created equal. The Emancipation Proclamation. Women’s suffrage, property rights, equal pay…

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November 2, 2016
General Updates
Mike Rayburn

Ideas Mean Nothing. The Measure of Your Success Is the Measure of Your Ability To ________?

I’ll answer this at the bottom. Don’t skip ahead, read all of it, it’s good. Why in the world would I, a guy who teaches innovation, say ideas mean nothing? To try and disrupt the all-too-common belief that innovation, transformation, and profit are all about ideas. I’ve heard it said that “We live in an idea economy.” Bull. If that’s true, I should own a small country.

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September 8, 2016
General Updates
Mike Rayburn

Make Better Financial Decisions By Asking This One Question

I was once in a guitar store with a friend named Mike who was trying out a Taylor T-5. He loved it. It was $1,100. It came down to decision time. The salesman watched Mike and he was not sure. He asked me, “What do you think?” I said, “Well you tell me, is buying this guitar the BEST use of $1100 in your life right now?” It was like the lights went on… NO! He had other family necessities.

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August 24, 2016
General Updates
Mike Rayburn

The most powerful motivational force is not power money, sex, or fame…

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?

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August 2, 2016
General Updates
Mike Rayburn

Failure and Rejection Need To Be Your Policy

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.

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July 29, 2016
General Updates
Mike Rayburn

Is Your Life Worth Reliving? The Art of Action, and the Action of Art

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…

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July 12, 2016
General Updates
Mike Rayburn

Who Packs Your Parachute? The Power Of Serving Without Expectation

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.

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June 28, 2016
General Updates
Mike Rayburn

You’ve Heard This But Tell The Truth, Do You Surround Yourself With Greatness?

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.

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June 22, 2016
General Updates
Mike Rayburn

The Customer Is NOT Always Right Part 2: What I Love About Uber Is Not What You Think

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.

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June 18, 2016