Most people learn the lessons that their parents and teachers believe are the keys to success in this world. People are taught to think in certain patterns and are told that these will help them be successful. In Dr. John Eliot’s book “The Maverick Mindset,” this well-known leadership and self-improvement expert challenges those precepts and uses examples from the lives of the most successful people of this era to back up his points.
While almost anyone can point to Tiger Woods and Ted Williams and say that they have an incredible ability to focus and block out anything but the most important things of the moment, very few people can claim to have figured out how they do it. “The Maverick Mindset” takes aim at these incredibly successful figures and clearly describes how they achieve such a unique approach. Furthermore, this translates into a business mindset that almost anyone can use.
Dr. John Elliot points to the most successful achievers and draws correlations between what they do, how they think, and what they accomplish. According to his book “The Maverick Mindset”, all of these exceptional achievers share one thing in common, and that is an unwillingness to accept “common wisdom” just because it was what they were taught. Instead, he points out that each of them has followed his own path and, at times, even gone against accepted wisdom.
While a businessman may be extremely well qualified in his field and highly knowledgeable, the book “The Maverick Mindset” points out that qualifications do not guarantee success. Although you need to know your business well and have the education or experience to get the job done, the other half of the equation is mindset. It may not be possible to get results in the traditional way.
Dr. John Eliot’s book points out that the most successful businessmen refused to take the road most traveled and refused to listen “you can’t do that.” While a businessman may not necessarily want to be a professional golfer, he can take the lessons learned from highly successful athletes and apply them to his business to focus only on what is essential and will make money.
The book “The Maverick Mindset” describes not only the similarities between successful businessmen, such as the CEOs of major corporations, but also the traits they share that are completely different. For these individuals, the norm is no more acceptable than failure is acceptable. Dr. Eliot believes this can be taught to make others more successful in business and in life in general.
Success in a chosen Endeavor is not always a direct result of careful planning, a refusal to take risks or follow a set plan, not for the most successful businessmen. Instead, they seem to share the ability to know when they need to take risks, when plans are impractical, unnecessary, or too cumbersome, and when goal setting can get in the way of the goal. Some people are born with this knowledge, while others can learn it, according to Dr. Eliot.