2 Key lessons for your success

Here at The Greatness hub, few things get us ticking like seeing young South African people use their youth not only to have fun but to build awesome lives. I recently had the pleasure of sitting with Jaun-Claude Pienaar, who is the founder of ApexMedia and is an Associate Director of FleishmanHillard South Africa, the South African Large Agency of the Year as  voted by PRISA.

Here is what makes this young man so phenomenal: He is only 24 years old, doesn’t have a University degree nor a matric certificate to his name. He dropped out of High school by choice and yes his parents allowed it, but he had a plan. The plan wasn’t to drop out and do nothing but rather it was to study music and open a studio. This quickly turned into Media Company with the aim of helping people and businesses to communicate better. Now, his company, ApexMedia has merged with FleishmanHillard a global media agency with a branch in South Africa.

We sat and talked for close to 2 hours and trust me, I left that boardroom with plenty of golden nuggets that would help    young people achieve success in the careers as employees and as entrepreneurs. Here are just 2 of those nuggets:

• “Fail quickly, iterate and try again”

Failure is not bad; in fact it is closely related to producing great work. There are people who are extremely scared of failing to the point that it causes them to achieve mediocrity. Being scared of failure confines you to producing acceptable or average work. In contrast to that, producing work which is above the norm; work that wows clients and people around you, comes with the possibility of failure and criticism.

John D. Rockerfeller, America’ first billionaire, summed it up pretty well when he said, “It is not the critic who counts; not the person who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasm, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement , and WHO AT THE WORST, IF HE FAILS, AT LEAST FAILS WHILE DARING GREATLY, SO THAT HIS PLACE SHALL NEVER BE WITH THOSE COLD AND TIMID SOULS WHO NEITHER KNOW VICTORY NOR DEFEAT.

At ApexMedia, they welcomed failure. This culture within the company encouraged innovation and creativity and led to some loses but also to big wins. So, don’t be scared to fail and if you do fail, change strategy and try again. In many cases, failure is just an indicator to change the strategy that you used to get there. Thomas Edison, the creator of the first light bulb, is said to have failed 10,000 times but after all those failed attempts and tweaking his approach, he finally got it right.

You may have failed dozens of times but what is that one thing that will cause you to push through your failures and carry on even in the toughest times.

• Passion

For the past few decades we have totally misunderstood the complete meaning of passion. Passion is not only the love, vibrant and joyful energy that someone feels or exhibits towards something or someone. It is also the willingness to struggle and persevere until that which you desire has reached its ULTIMATE completeness. Notice the choice of words: “Ultimate Completeness”, in other words: Passion causes you to dig deep and pull the best of yourself in your work and life.

Multiple half hearted attempts are easily ignored but multiple passionate attempts open doors. Although you may have failed multiple times, passion will cause you to persevere with the same energy and optimism; it will fuel you and get you recognised above those who are doing the exact same thing that you are doing.

In Jaun’s own words “know what you are good at and become excellent at it” and “always surround yourself with people who are pulling towards a single common goal. If they’re smarter than you then that’s a bonus too.”

@Tshiamo_tj

@Greatnes_hub