Catalin Costea

Most of the times we associate successful people with the ones who have their office in one of the best business centers in town, who own some of the best cars in the parking lot, have some of the best cloths and who are always busy. We can’t picture a successful person who is not busy all the time, who isn’t always talking on the phone or working late at night, on weekends and even on holidays.

On the other hand we live in a society focused on efficiency and productivity. A society which is always looking to maximize the output and minimize the costs. Costs are not represented only by the resources used in the process of obtaining the product but also by the time spent in order to obtain that product.

Thus real success has nothing to do with how busy you are. The secret is to maximize success while trying to minimize the costs and the impact on your free time. Efficiency and productivity are the true keys to a successful balanced life.

I am certain that you have heard about the “think outside the box” expression when talking about creativity.  People use this expression to define new perspectives, unconventional thinking and creativity.

The problem that arises when going outside the box is that it will make you lose focus on what is really important and that’s the people in the box which are your target. Whatever you create, design or build will eventually be addressed to the people inside the box since outside the box there isn’t really an audience or market.

It’s difficult to market something from outside the box that people can’t relate to and even more difficult to convince someone to follow you from there. What you can do is be at the edge of the box and try to push the limit with everything you do. By doing this people will find it easier to embrace your ideas and you will still be able to push the limits of conventional thinking. You don’t need to be outside the box to be memorable and push the limits.

Fear used to be all about self-preservation. This is what kept us alive during our evolution.  Seeing a tiger or bear in front of you meant you had to make no sounds and avoid being seen because if it did see you it would lead to a fight or flee situation where, in both cases, you would have been in serious disadvantage.

Now things have changed. There is hardly any chance that any of us will be in such a situation. But our fear is still present deep in our brain making us scared of all sorts of things that never threaten our life. People are more afraid of speaking in public than they are of death.

As long as it’s not a life threatening situation, which in most cases isn’t, fear is standing between you and your dreams. Go out there and do things that scare you, that’s the only way you will stand out of the crowd and become memorable.