After receiving three inputs from the universe, I normally write it down somewhere, whether it be Homework for Life, my personal journal, or here. Over the past few days the concept of “belief” has peaked up in a few instances that makes one register their level of belief in their life and story.
The first example is in this 3 minute interview with one of Atlanta’s preeminent developers, John Dewberry. In the conversation he states during the final portion:
“and what my father was really teaching me was really that you need, inside, to feel like you deserve to win, and it blocks out all the insecurities.”
The second example is from Sam Altman blog post titled, “How to Invest in Startups.” Often times the best advice is direct and simple. While Sam makes some excellent insights including identifying future greatness, observing the rate of personal development, and predicting size of markets, the one that stood out most was his one line paragraph stating the following:
“Also, it sounds obvious, but the successful founders I’ve funded believe they are eventually certain to be successful.”
The third example was a blog post with a click bait title that worked: “Here’s Why Michael Jordan Could Fly.” The post describes how some of the world’s greatest athletes having surprisingly odd superstitions. For example, throughout Michael’s professional career, he wore two pairs of shorts. Obviously ones for the Bulls, but underneath, he wore his shorts from his college days at UNC. The articles concludes that his belief in those shorts, along with all of the other factors that made Jordan great, helped him believe he was able to fly. Similar comparisons for why Tiger Woods wears red on Sundays were also made in the story.
The researchers, at the University of Cologne, also note that extraordinary talent, hard work and physical conditioning were probably more important than his shorts.
What it all boils down to, according to four experiments the scientists conducted in Germany, is sometimes superstitions actually work. Not because they bring luck (either good or bad.) It’s because believing that a rabbit’s foot brings good luck can increase self confidence (luck is on his or her side) and thus the true believer performs better and sets higher goals.
After spending much of 2019 studying Winston Churchill, one unique ability he had was, as one writer stated was: “making people feel they are living their history.” Every day I work with people who have belief in a vision and story around the cathedral they are building for their life and the world we live in, and so much of it comes down to belief.