If you don’t become a master of what I call: Show up! Ready!, you will miss many opportunities to improve your personal and business relationships, your work and the amount of stress you feel.

To a fearless leader, every situation requires a slightly different mindset to optimize success. There are two aspects of this:

1. Having an aligned mind
2. Having great preparation physically, technically and emotionally.

Physical preparation

In sports and in the military, physical preparation is obvious because you need a highly trained body. But how does physical preparation affect your abilities as a leader, as a manager, a sales person, an entrepreneur, a humanitarian or even as a parent leading your children?

The physical aspects of being great of being your best in these situations is much less obvious, but equally important.

The ability to succeed depends on how well one’s mind and emotions are developed. Optimizing the use of your mind involves several elements:

• the quantity and quality of your sleep;
• your fitness level;
• your nutrition;
• the amount of water you drink (hydration);
• the amount of time you spend in quiet meditation or contemplation; and
• the amount of positive and negative input you receive from media, the people around you and the environment you are in.

Technical preparation

One of the most popular articles that I and my co-author on the book “Fearless Leaders” have written was “The Warren Buffett/Peyton Manning Secret Success Strategy.” Warren Buffett, possibly the best stock market investor of all time, and Peyton Manning, one of the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time were both masters of preparation and opportunity exploitation.

They both research, study and find ways to exploit opportunities that others don’t find.

In 1984 speech Warren Buffett gave at Columbia University, “The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville,” he said that his success strategy for choosing companies to invest in was to “…search for discrepancies between the value of a business and the price of small pieces of that business in the market…exploit those discrepancies without the efficient market theorist’s concern as to whether it is January or July, etc.”

Similarly, Peyton Manning breaks down National Football League defenses not simply by looking for the basic opportunity to exploit in using an offensive play versus different defensive formations, but also by finding opportunities at the individual defensive player level relative to different offensive formations and players.

Like Buffett, Manning is a master of study and preparation and finds very specific opportunities to exploit at the individual level. Jim Mora, who coached Manning for four years, said what makes Manning great was his preparation. “That’s it in a word: preparation. He prepares himself mentally, physically and emotionally to be the best he can be. Now everyone wants to be the best. But Peyton does what it takes to be the best. There’s a difference.”

How might a business leader use this strategy? It’s different for each business and for each leader, just as it’s different for Buffett and Manning. Here’s how one local, and soon to be superstar, entrepreneur has used it. Let’s call him John.

John identified a niche Microsoft software product that was growing market shares and sales quickly. He also discovered that for every $10,000 spent on the software, there was a $100,000 consulting/training opportunity to install and train employees on the use of the software.

John’s high-tech consulting firm was a perfect fit to be the consulting/training partner for this niche software. After a couple of years, it is now on its way to becoming the largest consulting/training firm in this space. He identified the opportunity, prepared for it and capitalized on it. And he found great success.

So, how can you use the Payton Manning / Warren Buffett success strategy?

That’s the subject of the next blog.

Stay tuned.

For questions about this post or for information on becoming a fearless leader, contact Dr. Cathy Greenberg and The Fearless Leader Group at (888) 320-1299 or by email at hello@fearlessequalsfreedom.com.