The Secret Thoughts of the Effective CEO

People often ask me why do some skyrocket towards success and others flounder? Why are some people highly confident and effective at their jobs, only to discover intense fear when creating their own businesses? I recently had the opportunity to work with two different CEOs. One of which has a seven-figure company and the other one has a nine-figure company. The two were as different as different can be. The CEO with the seven-figure company was conservative, dressed formally and soft-spoken. The CEO with the nine-figure company was dressed casually in loose fitting linen clothing, Hawaiian shirts and did not feel comfortable wearing shoes. If you saw him on the street, with his long hair and scraggly beard, you may wonder if he was working at all, let alone running a major company. The nine-figure CEO looks as if he would be more at home lounging on the beach, rather than in the boardroom.

As a coach who works with executives in enhancing their effectiveness, I hold a particular interest in discovering what is the common thread that has lead these two radically different individuals to be incredibly effective as thought leaders.

As I explored these two relationships, I noticed that the seven-figure CEO had the desire to become a black belt. What was of particular interest to me was not his desire to become a black belt, but how he chose to achieve his goal. The typical person enrolls in a martial arts school, and starts at white belt level. They work their way up through the ranks, and achieve a black belt in good time. He opted to engage a different strategy.

Since his goal was to become a black belt, he literally followed a black belt around, and trained diligently, until he too could pass the black belt test. Some of you may be thinking that this is “cheating”. And, if that is what you are thinking, you are revealing how you think. The working class mindset is that you have to work your way up through the ranks. Most of us have the working class mindset running in the background of our consciousness like an old Windows 3.1 operating system. Everything that we think is weighed against the background of a work-your-way-up mindset that was created in most of us as children. This incremental-achievement mindset is then reinforced by our environment, school, peers, friends and family.

The nine-figure CEO wanted to run a marathon. He did not train; he just got up in the morning and ran a marathon in under four hours.

Our two CEOs engaged a level of quantum thinking. They engage this level of thinking in all aspects of their lives. When operating on this level, there is little toleration for “working one’s way through”. Both of these individuals maintain extremely high standards for their lives, and don’t dawdle on achieving them. When I work with individuals, we examine how they think, not just what they think about. In doing so, opportunities, that were previously invisible, appear, and quantum results manifest.

Dr. Ken Barrett has been coaching entrepreneurs, CEOs and professionals for the past seven years using a synthesis of techniques from his experience as a business coach, combined with his background in psychology and the medical field. This well-rounded outlook leaves his clients with the necessary tools to continue to create their own success stories.