How does one become an influencer? Hard consistent work, that's the simple truth. By offering value, sharing it for free, you begin to build your pillars.
Why would people want to listen to you or become your follower? Because you have something to offer them. Sometimes things go viral, when you release information at the right moment in time, however this happens rarely.
First you must educate yourself. The best is to learn and become an expert in one or two fields.
"They say if you are a jack of all trades, you are a master of non." Artis Hicks.
Learn, and continuously improve. It takes learning from experiences to build an internal database. No one knows it all but you can bring a ton of insight into things people don't know yet.
You will be received by people who don't understand as a genius and by people who know what your talking about as just an ordinary individual.
Don't get too fixed on the rewards you will gain by sharing your value, if that is your primary focus then you have lost and your climb to become an influencer just became that much harder. Fuck it. I am going to be bold and say that at this day and time where you can find any information you seek to find, you will not become an influencer if your putting a price on the value you have to offer.
Definition of influencers; a person or a group that has the ability to influence the behavior or opinions of others. They have developed a set of skills and talent and their able to share it through a megaphone with anyone who is willing to gain the wisdom.
I would love to become an influencer. However right there I am thinking about it all wrong, remember when I said 2 paragraphs ago not to worry about the reward, so this is where I check myself and get my focus back on track.
Educating myself by paying attention to my influencers, which I will get to in a moment, how they have impacted my life. Reading, writing, observing, living, working, there is no specific order to this, all are valuable in building the set of skills I need to be able to offer value to whoever wants to hear it.
Stepping to a side note here, an insight came to me last night. I thought to myself what do all these non-fiction personal advancement books I read have in common. The one thing they have in common is that every author regurgitates ideas in their own words that they find in various other books on the same subject.
They are no smarter than you are I. Same goes to every single person out there that is successful and that is an influencer. They are no better, they attained this wisdom by studying their field and working deliberately hard at understanding every pillar.
Let's examine the people who have influenced my life. I will give you the names and how they have influenced my life.
Will start with authors.
Simon Sinek; "Why" an age old principle shed to light by this amazing author. Understanding and applying the question I discover the core principle and it gave me revelations to my business, relationships, and practice.
Ryan Holiday; "Stoicism" I am not perfect and I can change the outcome by changing my reaction. Philosophy is a part of who we are, how we think about, and the kind of action we take in solving problems.
Stepping outside the authorship and going into my personal life. Will keep it short for the sake of this post. At the start of every mention it begins with My...
Parents; Discipline
Girlfriend; Weaknesses
Sister; Parenting
Mentors; Guidance
Who else?
Bill gates; The importance of charity
Warren Buffet; Timeless investment advice
Gary Vaynerchuk; Hard work
Richard Branson; Creativity, turning a disadvantage into leverage.
This is not a tribute, this is my foundation on which I build upon.
What is it that you love to do? Better yet what are you wishing you were doing besides what you are doing now?
If you answered these questions by saying that you are doing what you love and you don't wish to be doing anything else, as Gary Vaynerchuk would say "then you have won". When you do what you love this esteem is present in you. When this happens people trust and believe in you. When this happens you are able to become an influencer.
"Believe in yourself, so that others can believe in you too."
Of course we will always have that feeling that there is something we want to do that we have not done. There is nothing wrong in feeling this way. We have been hard wired to think like this. Thinking like this is living in the future mindset. What I ask is for you to live in the present.
Who influences you will change over time, this has happens to me, and I am sure it happens to you. How could it not? There will always be new and emerging influencers.
Last two things I want to say about influencers is, it is rare that influencers stop having an influence over people, this happens usually when they commit a crime or do something society deems immoral or unethical. The last thing I want to say about influencers is the ones who have passed away influence us still because of the major impact they have had on our lives and the world.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. To be continued....
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