One of the most amazing things about living where I do, in Malibu, California, is observing how well many people treat themselves and how seriously they take themselves.
I know numerous people who have the following:
• Personal trainers (to motivate them to workout hard)
• Nutritionists (to recommend diets)
• Chefs (to cook the food)
• Stylists (to take them shopping for clothes)
• Anti-aging doctors (to prescribe various hormones)
• Psychologists (to talk through problems with)
• Psychiatrists (to prescribe various mood altering drugs)
• Plastic surgeons (to make sure they look good as they age)
• Personal yoga instructors (to help them stretch and relax)
• Rabbi’s, priests, Indian gurus, spiritual advisors and so forth (to work on their spirit)
• Acupuncturists (for healing and chi management)
• Reiki therapists (for energy balancing)
• Massage therapists (for massage)
• Assistants (to plan days)
• Psychics (to advise about the future)
• Personal coaches (to help with goal setting and accountability)
• Hypnotherapists (to work on their subconscious mind)
• Feng Shui Masters (to organize their living and work environments for maximum effectiveness)
In fact, I can think of at least ten people who have several of these things. And you know what? For the most part, all of these people are quite successful and happy.
People who are “average” or below average and leading unfulfilled lives generally look upon this sort of stuff as complete nonsense – something that is a waste of time or that crazy people do. I can tell you it is not. It is something that the most successful people do. Ronald Reagan had a psychic while he was the President of the United States and consulted with him regularly. Bill Clinton received ongoing coaching from Anthony Robbins while in the White House. Most famous and well-known actors use nutritionists, personal chefs, stylists and personal trainers.
Why do people go to such great lengths to take care of themselves? Is it insecurity, a desire to improve…? What motivates people to do so much?
I am not sure why, but I am an astute observer of celebrities. Since these people are in the public limelight so much, I like to observe their habits and how they conduct themselves. There is generally a huge streak of self-improvement that runs through them. They are doing several of the things I mentioned above, and they do these things because they are constantly trying to grow and become better people. They want to be the best they can- because they are products.
It is the same with people who become billionaires and others who reach great heights of success in athletics and other fields: they are constantly improving themselves because they realize they too are products.
When you start thinking about yourself as a product, you realize that you need to do everything within your power to be a quality product. A quality product:
• Does not sit in bed all day depressed about life.
• Stays in shape.
• Maintains a healthy diet.
• Takes care of themselves psychologically.
• Makes sure he/she feels good inside.
• Tries to always do the right thing ethically.
• Tries as hard as he/she can in their work.
• Builds relationships with people so that he/she is supported.
When it comes right down to it, the key to being great at anything is being a quality product. Being a quality product is something that you need to concentrate on. Greatness and success is based on being a quality product.
Do you think a company like Starbucks set out to create “average” coffee when they started out? They realized that to be the best they needed a quality product.
How do you know if something is a quality product?
1. How Well Do You Treat Your Product?
You know something is a quality product by how well you treat your product.
Have you ever known someone who owned a Ferrari or a Rolls Royce? People who own Ferrari’s rarely drive them. Find someone who owns a Ferrari that is 10 or 15 years old. The odds are that this Ferrari has less than 5,000 miles on it. They never drive it. In fact, most Ferrari owners have probably spent more time waxing their Ferraris than they have driving them.
People behave this way with expensive jewelry, clothing and all sorts of things. If something is a quality product you treat it with care. You think highly of it and look up to it.
You need to treat your product well. Treating your product well means exercising, improving yourself, avoiding substances which are bad for you, making sure you are well rested, and watching your diet. If you consider yourself a quality product, you should be doing these sorts of things naturally and without much thought at all. This is how people treat quality products.
It is very sad reading stories about celebrities and others who die of drug overdoses, or have heart attacks at a young age due to being incredibly heavy. These people were all “quality products” but did not treat themselves like quality products. You do not shoot heroin into your arm if you feel you are a quality product. You do not eat yourself into morbid obesity if you feel you are a quality product.
You know who you are – but if you are not treating yourself like a quality product, FIX IT! Please fix it. Not treating yourself like a quality product is a huge mistake. People who believe in themselves treat themselves like total quality products and do everything they can to improve themselves and get better and better and better…
The happiest and most successful people are so fun to watch. They do everything they possibly can to treat themselves well because they believe they deserve it. They may take tons of different vitamins, drink all sorts of green drinks, jump on a trampoline to get their endorphins going each morning, get massages a few times a week, and more.
And why not be happy and treat yourself well?! Being happy, having fun, and loving life is a natural condition for people. Have you ever observed a young child? They know how to naturally be happy – it is only when they start listening to negative messages in the world that they start learning how to be unhappy. You need to take care of yourself – your health, emotions, relationships and everything you can.
Everyone is going to die. You could die tomorrow – or you could die decades from now. With death being such a companion for all of us, you should ask yourself, “Do I have anything to gain by not taking care of myself and treating myself well?” The next time you contemplate not treating yourself well, ask yourself if it is worth it.
2. How Much Are You Investing in Your Product?
If you believe you have a good product, you invest a lot in it. This is what people do who have good products.
If someone owns a Ferrari, they do not take it to the local gas station for service – they take it to the best mechanic they can. If you feel you have a good product, you get the best education you can, and you work with the best coaches and others to be the best that you can be. The best products are treated well.
A few years ago I had a health scare. I had this giant lymph node grow to the size of a baseball on my neck and my local doctor did not know what it was. My wife was hysterical and ran into a famous actor she knows. He gave her a phone number and, within a few hours, I was ushered into an exclusive underworld of concierge medicine involving famous doctors who show up at your house, have offices without names on them in office buildings and do not take insurance.
It costs a lot of money to see these doctors.
This is how people who value themselves highly treat themselves. It was something I’ve never been exposed to, but it is how it works. When you value yourself you do the best you can to take care of yourself – whether it is the sort of doctors you see, the education you get, the clothes you wear and more.
I started taking acting lessons some time ago. Many of the people in these classes do things like work as security guards, waitresses and so forth. However, a great number of these people take themselves very seriously! They pay “stylists” a few thousand dollars for their time to take them shopping for the afternoon. They think nothing of dropping $700 on a dress shirt, or $1,000 for a pair of shoes. When you believe in your product, you are willing to invest a lot in it.
3. What Are You Surrounding Your Product With?
When you have a really good product, you only surround it with other really good products.
The Ferrari dealership does not sell its cars in the same dealership next to cheap Toyotas – instead, it may only sell them next to Maserati’s or other expensive cars like this. This is how it is with good products –they surround themselves only with other good products.
The best stores are only located in the best neighborhoods – and close to the other best stores. You are judged by the company you keep.
When my children are playing with other kids, I always want to make sure that they are only surrounded by the children of parents I know are good people. For example, someone in my neighborhood recently went to prison for some shady financial dealings, and it is well-known that the wife has been sleeping around in his absence. The children are a little wild, and I’m worried about my children associating with them.
When you have a good product, you surround it with other good products. This is why people try to go to the best colleges and universities. This is why many people try to work for the best employers. This is why people try to be the most popular and take this stuff seriously.
You need to be very careful with whom you associate and spend your time with. The people you are with will rub off on you and influence you. If you are around the best and most successful people, they will help you rise. If you are around people who are unsuccessful and do not have big plans for themselves, they will influence you in a similar way.
If you are a good product, you will surround yourself with the best people. You should always try and surround yourself with the best people to honor what a good product you are.
4. Is Your Quality Product Measuring Up to Stuff Today?
Your product needs to be good all the time. How many brands can you think of that no longer exist because of the fact they did not upgrade and stay current?
A Ferrari car is upgraded and gets better and better each year. It has to. You need to as well. You need to constantly be upgrading your skills and being the best product you can be.
Nothing is more common than people who plateau and then never feel the need to improve and get better. Whatever you did in the past becomes irrelevant after a time. You need to continually be upgrading your skills and abilities.
Your product needs to be good all the time and cannot slip. People will only invest in your product if it is good and gives the same result as it did before. If you do not keep pace, then you will die out.
I remember seeing an interview with the Founder of Amazon.com on 60 Minutes not too long ago. This interview showed how in the future, Amazon would use drone helicopters to deliver products to peoples’ homes within one hour, 24 hours a day, and was pretty amazing in all respects. The interview showed all sorts of amazing things the company was doing. This was not what was so interesting to me about the interview, though. What was most interesting was that Bezos stressed that one day his company would fail because something better would come along that would put it out of business.
This is how it works: Bezos will one day die and the company will eventually be overtaken by a competitor. The same sort of decline happens with every great company (and nation). Unless you keep pace with changes, you will be overtaken. The reason fortunes typically do not last more than few generations is because innovation and constant improvement are difficult to maintain.
Conclusions
What kind of product are you? You need to do treat yourself like a quality product. Doing this will bring you huge success and can change your life. Whatever it is you want out of life can be yours, but you first need to treat yourself like a quality product.
About Harrison Barnes
Harrison Barnes is the Founder of BCG Attorney Search and a successful legal recruiter himself. Harrison is extremely committed to and passionate about the profession of legal placement. His firm BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys. BCG Attorney Search works with attorneys to dramatically improve their careers by leaving no stone unturned in a search and bringing out the very best in them. Harrison has placed the leaders of the nation’s top law firms, and countless associates who have gone on to lead the nation’s top law firms. There are very few firms Harrison has not made placements with. Harrison’s writings about attorney careers and placements attract millions of reads each year. He coaches and consults with law firms about how to dramatically improve their recruiting and retention efforts. His company LawCrossing has been ranked on the Inc. 500 twice. For more information, please visit Harrison Barnes’ bio.
About BCG Attorney Search
BCG Attorney Search matches attorneys and law firms with unparalleled expertise and drive that gets results. Known globally for its success in locating and placing attorneys in law firms of all sizes, BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys in law firms in thousands of different law firms around the country. Unlike other legal placement firms, BCG Attorney Search brings massive resources of over 150 employees to its placement efforts locating positions and opportunities that its competitors simply cannot. Every legal recruiter at BCG Attorney Search is a former successful attorney who attended a top law school, worked in top law firms and brought massive drive and commitment to their work. BCG Attorney Search legal recruiters take your legal career seriously and understand attorneys. For more information, please visit www.BCGSearch.com.