Latest / Daily Influence / 803. Beyond Achievement: Building Influence from Within with Mikael Avatar

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803. Beyond Achievement: Building Influence from Within with Mikael Avatar · Daily Influence

• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to Daily Influence, your daily dose of positive influence.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Brian Smith founder of IA Business Advisors and co-author of the Iain team series.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Each day we share stories and insights to help you find be and build your influence in a positive and responsible way.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm Greg Clino, partner at IA Business Advisors, and co-host of Daily Influence.
• 0:32
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• 0:38
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• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey everybody Brian Smith here with the iM team series and your daily influence and today I am joined by Michael avatar and Michael has a story that could very easily be told simply.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: as a story of overcoming adversity.
• 1:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was born with cerebral palsy face predictions about what he would never physically be able to do.
• 1:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: And ultimately became a Paralympic athlete setting a world record in the long jump at the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta.
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Funny enough, Michael, that's the same year that I started my company, I a business advisor.
• 1:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that's a great year.
• 1:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, but really interested me, Michael wasn't simply the world record.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's what happened afterwards, because achieving something extraordinary doesn't necessarily answer the questions we have about ourselves.
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes accomplishing the thing we've spent years pursuing actually creates an entirely new set of questions.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Michael has spent decades, exploring resilience, consistency, personal development, and what it means to build a grounded life beyond achievement.
• 2:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's where I think our conversation is going to get particularly interesting.
• 2:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: So Michael, welcome to Daily Influence.
• 2:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Brian.
• 2:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: I like that that your fee is freeing what happens after.
• 2:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: off to the magic.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: But if off to the magic that my magic started, I used to tell people.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so Michael, people, you know, when they told you that you would never walk normally and you eventually became a paralympic athlete and a world record holder.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Before we talk about leadership, can you take us back to that journey?
• 2:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: What drove you to continually challenge what other people believed was possible for you?
• 3:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think I was born like that because I was four years old.
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: I want to be a rock climber when I go out, and I might have told me, that's impossible.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: You can't make money on that.
• 3:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: He was diplomatic, but he was so low, good 20 years later, I was inclined by instructors.
• 3:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: When I had the passion, I go for it.
• 3:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: But when I grew up, the talk, many people were only told me a lot of things I couldn't do.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: But they didn't know me.
• 4:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: I used to eat.
• 4:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: I did ask permission.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: I used to eat.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: When I was 10 years old,
• 4:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: He was training for their Olympic, the normal Olympic.
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I went with him with a bicycle and he ran and then he stopped in there.
• 4:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I, he took the bike.
• 4:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I ran first timing my legs down here, up here, like 200 meters.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: And there was this Olympic opportunity from off-core, now in 18, I fell down, I was so tired, exhausted of this 200 meter.
• 4:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: He laughed, I took the bike, but it was there, I decided, I want to go to the Olympic.
• 5:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: In U.S. and, but he's friend when to the faniles, he took bronze medal in the year Berlin.
• 5:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I was in this group who were growing.
• 5:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I trained for 10 years after 10 years, they told me,
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: I was going to go there.
• 5:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: I was unstoppable.
• 5:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: I had this 9 set that many people are looking for.
• 5:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think I was born with that.
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: I didn't listen.
• 5:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: I hear what they were saying, but it didn't affect me.
• 6:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: So, a order special bicycle for me with two good extra wheels, it never come, so I learned how to bicycle by the neighbor's boy.
• 6:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: I used to do it, they didn't tell me I couldn't bicycle, they thought I couldn't buy a scooter.
• 6:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's a really different thing.
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: That was a long, awesome stuff, that's okay.
• 6:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: It really helps set, I think, the next question I have because what I hear is, is that you never give up, you set these goals, you achieve these goals, these goals sometimes come up on the spur of the moment out of situations.
• 7:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: One of the things that you talk about is the emptiness that followed you after achieving your world record and you know most people especially people in our audience would assume reaching that kind of a goal would be
• 7:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: One of the most fulfilling moments imaginable, but what did you discover when achievement didn't give you what you thought it would?
• 7:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: I get the question, how was it, how was it, and people are so disappointed when I don't keep them these glamorous also?
• 7:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: Because I don't have it, because it means...
• 7:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: I was looking for this sparkle, this magic moment, now I am good for the rest of my life.
• 7:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: I have done it and I was shaking, where is it?
• 8:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: It never came, there was nothing there, was I wanted in my head, it wasn't there.
• 8:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I had to go out search for some new thing, some new toilet pick, some new goal, but I got lost again.
• 8:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: So what is this?
• 8:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: So then I figured out that it's from within.
• 8:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: not from without.
• 8:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: So when I find out that, I started training in a different way, different perspectives.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: So when I do something now or small, big, big, big,
• 8:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: long goals, short goals.
• 9:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm frustrated with even I sparkle from the end, my stomach tingling, my eyes glowing.
• 9:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I don't care if people even know what I'm doing because I have it.
• 9:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: I know it for me.
• 9:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that affects people in a different way.
• 9:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: They call, or do you do in the time not do it?
• 9:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, how can you get so fired up?
• 9:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's my passion today.
• 9:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: When I did sport, I had a passion.
• 9:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: You could achieve a little bit world record without passion.
• 9:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I have now, you know, one thing I think that I noticed in reading about you and now through your answers to these is leaders do similar things in business.
• 10:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: They chase the next revenue number, the next acquisition, the next promotion, the next evaluation, whatever milestone or objective they have set their chasing that and they
• 10:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: How do you think leaders pursue excellence without allowing an achievement to become their identity?
• 10:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: What advice would you have for them?
• 10:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: So what is excellent excellence?
• 10:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: Excellence for me, excellence for you is so different.
• 10:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: So what I used to tell people is,
• 10:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: exactly now.
• 10:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: People don't know where they are.
• 11:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: People think they know where they are and they hire you where they know where they're going but they don't know what makes me smile.
• 11:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: and know you have in ten seconds a different perspective and that perspective is that you are making totally different action plan.
• 11:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's knowing yourself because if you're striving for excellence, you lose that perspective.
• 11:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: to do, I'm here now.
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: Now I'm talking to you, to you, Brian, this podcast, nothing else wrongly is in my life.
• 12:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm 100% focused, and if you're going for something, you're not here,
• 12:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's the kind of answer I would like to give.
• 12:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: I love that answer, Michael, I am a huge believer for a lack of a better term, Michael, no multi-tasking.
• 12:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have a whole chapter on multi-tasking in our books of work that when you multi-task, you don't focus and give a hundred percent of yourself to the moment.
• 12:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I can really appreciate that sentiment and that discipline that you have in being present
• 12:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, another thing that we're very aligned on that I picked up on in reading about you was, you talk quite a bit about small consistent changes, the one percent idea.
• 13:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I, too, am a big believer that sustained personal or organizational improvement comes through disciplined, repeatable behaviors, rather than occasional heroic efforts.
• 13:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: What does one percent improvement actually look like in a person's life?
• 13:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I know, as you just said, that that can be different for each of us, but could you give people something that they can grab onto to think about this one percent idea?
• 13:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: The 1% is the shame we action.
• 14:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: So you both thought something out of excellence, out of greed, out of money, out of gold setting.
• 14:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: I will not be happy.
• 14:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: But if I start something out of happiness,
• 14:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: or tingling in my stomach, or something like, see myself in the mirror, and my eyes properly.
• 14:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: Whatever I start at the point will start a positive change in your reaction.
• 14:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I will end up some completely other plaques.
• 14:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: complete example.
• 14:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: So, do you put your left shoe or your right shoe on first?
• 15:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: 99% they have your clue.
• 15:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's not interesting.
• 15:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: The interesting thing what happened if you
• 15:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's not even a 1% change.
• 15:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: Whatever change, but it creates this awareness that we talked about before.
• 15:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that's a new single action to completely different way.
• 15:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: You're having changed your life.
• 15:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: You're seeing one small thing in behavior that you are automatically clicking.
• 16:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: So one percent is kind of discover the honest awareness that you do every day and you're not really aware that you're not doing that.
• 16:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: a clear and extonation.
• 16:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Michael, I think it is.
• 16:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think, you know, myself and our audience can really appreciate your perspective and how you apply your perspective in your situations and you're giving us really some good contextual understanding how to actually do that.
• 16:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: for ourselves.
• 16:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, one thing I think I'd like to ask is for you to answer is, you know, for the leader listening today who looks successful from the outside, but might privately feel exhausted, disconnected or wonders, you know, is this really it?
• 17:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: What would you ask them to examine first to help them bring better clarity to their presence?
• 17:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, for me it's really simple.
• 17:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm happy.
• 17:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: And 99% they can't also.
• 17:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: So what makes you happy?
• 17:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: 99% they have no clue.
• 17:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: So do you want to find your
• 17:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: your way of seeing the world world that gives you whatever you think is missing.
• 17:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's an adventure and that adventure is in your life.
• 17:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: I can't give it to you, nobody can give it to you, but you can go on this adventure.
• 18:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: and discover small things that they change, everything, really everything.
• 18:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that means that you will change your leadership.
• 18:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: The best example I have of this was guy came to me this is a long time ago.
• 18:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: 3,500 employers under him, so he puts in a high-up situation.
• 18:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: He came with the suit, Chinese clothes, almost looked at me in my coat and said,
• 19:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: Since the world should be in the end, I conquered it, but after a while, when he booked me for half a year, or three months, I think I have used it.
• 19:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: about his old situation, and we find this button, physically button that he was angry because his son lighted up all the house and left the room, so I said tonight when you come home,
• 19:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: Before you hit the button, you take step back, breathes, and then you can hit the button as much as you like.
• 20:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: She went away three days later,
• 20:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's doable, big, whatever, and when he came in, he felt the same anger as he had by the lamp bottle, so he took a big, and then he started to observe everybody in the room
• 20:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: because you both are shaking everybody.
• 20:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: And they started to be nervous, and because they didn't act as in all of the teeth.
• 21:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: And then you listen to everybody in a different way and in the sighted, let's do like this.
• 21:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: The whole concern changed the whole way of the existence.
• 21:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: only because he could make his private life with his work life.
• 21:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: Many people don't notice, but if you hold work for our means, if you have control, you, how you think, how you think that affects everything.
• 21:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that will help our audience a lot, Michael, and I really appreciate sharing that story.
• 21:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I, you know, stories help us to contextualize our history or our experience to others so that they can,
• 22:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: use that information to apply it in their own life so I am always grateful and an audience is always grateful and our guests are able to build that bridge to their histories and to their experiences.
• 22:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: So Michael, can you share with our audience how they can get in contact with you?
• 22:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: I've been being here in New York, it's called
• 22:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: Michael Adler, Michael Adler.com, Michael will be decayed, Michael Adler.com, that's the most easiest, but if you search me, you will find me lean, lean, or whatever, so you can find lot of stuff.
• 22:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Awesome.
• 22:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's not just stuff, Michael.
• 22:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: I look forward to and myself and hope that our listeners and watchers will go and
• 23:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: see your work, see your experiences, take away from it what they can and apply them to their own individual areas of influence to help them and prove in any way that you might help them.
• 23:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I have to tell you, Michael, I really thank you for joining me today.
• 23:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: There is something important in your story that I hope people really take away from this conversation
• 23:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's that achievement matters, goals matter, discipline matters, but none of those things by themselves define who we are or determine the influence we're going to have.
• 23:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're influencing people every day in the way we respond to pressure and the consistency of our behaviors and the decisions that we make and in how we show up when nobody is handing us a medal for doing
• 24:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: the biggest challenge isn't reaching the next milestone.
• 24:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's understanding who we are once we get there and intentionally deciding what comes next.
• 24:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's part of finding your influence.
• 24:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: being intentional about your influence and ultimately building something through that influence that extends beyond ourselves.
• 24:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so Michael, thank you so much for sharing your story and your perspective with us today and to anyone listening, remember, your influence matters.
• 24:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: So make it count.
• 24:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks again, Michael.
• 24:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you very much.