Good morning. I’m Stephen Woessner, the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of our daily podcast for business owners called Onward Nation.

I hope you’ve had a wonderful week.

Yesterday, we had the incredible Jim Harshaw Jr. on Onward Nation. If you don’t know Jim from his incredible podcast, Wrestling with Success, let me introduce you to him.

Jim was a Division I All-American and won three ACC Championships for the University of Virginia, trained at the Olympic Training Center, and competed overseas for Team USA. He is now a professional speaker, executive coach, and host of the aforementioned Wrestling with Success podcast.

Jim brought his insights and talents from a truly incredible career into an episode of Onward Nation that was so, so awesome. I know you hear me say this often — but if you implement the strategies Jim gave in this episode — you will push your business onward to that proverbial next level.

As I do with all of our guests — I asked Jim to share the most influential lesson that a mentor ever shared with him — and Jim’s experience in athletics gave him access to a coach that shaped his entire life from that point forward.

One day after a wrestling practice at the University of Virginia had just ended, everyone had cleared out except for Jim and one of the assistant coaches — the most recent All-American. Jim had just finished an extra 10 minutes on a stationary bike, and he was feeling a little frustrated that he wasn’t progressing the way that he wanted to. So, he decided to have a little conversation with his coach, hoping that his mentor would be able to pass off some sage motivational advice onto him.

“Mike — how do I get there? How do I do it?” Jim asked his coach.

And his coach didn’t sugarcoat it.

“You’ve got to work harder.”

“But Mike,” Jim responded, “I work really hard. I’m among the hardest workers on the team!”

And his coach said something really, really important.

“You can’t be among the hardest workers. You have to be THE hardest worker. You’re not competing with everyone in this room. You’re competing with everyone in America. Everyone that does what you do — you have to outwork them.”

And, of course, his coach was right. You can’t be a really hard worker. You have to be THE hardest worker, if you want to be the best.

Do you think Michael Jordan became the greatest basketball player of all-time by working really hard? Do you think Steve Jobs built Apple into one of the greatest companies in the world because he worked really hard? Do you think Disney produces billion dollar movies every year because Walt Disney worked really hard? If you want to be the best if sport, in business, or even at what you do, you have to be THE hardest worker among the hardest workers.

They all worked harder than anyone else. They were THE hardest workers.

Thanks for reading.

Onward with gusto!

 

This week on Onward Nation

 

Episode 241: Get back into the fight, with Dennis Brown — can be found here.

Episode 242: Persistence beats intelligence, with John Dwyer — can be found here.

Episode 243: An Oscar-winning Strategy, with Stephen Woessner — can be found here.

Episode 244: Your 4-step blueprint to success, with Jim Harshaw, Jr. — can be found here.

Episode 245: From fired to $1 million in revenue in 15-months, with Caitlin Pyle — can be found here.