39 | The Secret Sauce: Mimic What Makes Your Heroes Great

Can the wisdom of Steve Jobs and Steve Martin really change the course of your career? Join me on the Annoyingly Optimistic Show as I explore how these iconic figures' perseverance and dedication can inspire and transform your professional journey. This season, we're all about “Voicemails to Tim,” where I leave daily messages brimming with motivation and practical advice for my friend Tim, who's facing challenges in his small business. Today's episode focuses on looking beyond the surface of our heroes to understand the qualities that make them extraordinary—not to become carbon copies, but to adopt traits like patience and relentless effort.

Discover how Steve Martin’s mantra, “Be so good they can't ignore you,” encapsulates the idea of building career capital through continuous improvement. Learn from his journey of becoming an overnight success after years of dedicated practice. By examining the admirable characteristics of people like Steve Jobs, we can find our own path to greatness. If Tim—and you—could use a burst of inspiration and some actionable insights, this episode promises to provide both. Tune in and get ready to reignite your drive and keep moving forward!

If you are self-employed or run a small business and feel more like you're self-annoyed then get in touch, visit the website www.theannoyinglyoptimisticshow.com where you can submit a question or problem and start your journey to becoming self-enjoyed! 

The majority of 'business advice' out there isn't aimed at self-employed or micro businesses, following it leaves you frustrated and chasing quick fixes. I specialise in tools, systems, techniques, inspiration and help specifically designed for YOU, the person who has to do it all, who doesn't have a team of people, unlimited resources or the time to spend months learning complicated techniques. 

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Hey there, listeners, it's your annoyingly optimistic host here bringing you another season of the Annoyingly Optimistic Show. Welcome to Season 2, voicemails to Tim. Now let's meet Tim. He's been running his own small business for almost three years now and let's just say he's hit a bit of a rough patch. You know how it is Sometimes you get so stuck, you make yourself busy and just avoid finding the real problems. Well, that's Tim. So, as a good friend, I decide to leave him a daily voicemail, if I can't get hold of him, filled with nuggets of inspiration, insight and wisdom and downright brilliant ideas to help get him unstuck Every day. In just under 10 minutes, I'll share some tips, tricks and a healthy dose of optimism to get Tim, and maybe even you, back on track, because, let's face it, we're all a little tired, in need of help and muddling through. So here we go. Oh wait, never mind Tim's being busy. Here's the voicemail I left him today Hi, tim, hope you're well. Sorry I missed you. I was trying to think of a different thing to say when I leave you one of these voicemails. You must get bored of me hearing me say that every time. But I do hope you're well and hope you're busy and we must catch up soon.

Speaker 1 1:10

I was struck today listening to a book which I might have mentioned recently, and the very title of the book kind of lends into this one, but it also talks about someone in the book. Now, you know, I've said it multiple times, I'm a big kind of steve jobs fan and, um, this book actually and I think I've mentioned this it's there's a quote on my wall which is be so good they can't ignore you, which is by the comedian steve martin, and this book is actually called based on that, that kind of quote. Um, and I won't delve into the specifics, but he talks about steve mart Martin in the book and he talks about Steve Jobs and you know there's lots of other inspirational people out there, but it was really interesting because certain people and Steve Jobs is one of them you know they become larger than life, they become this, this kind of figure, and you know, from the autobiographies and the films and and first-hand knowledge, you know you get a real understanding of a character. But the bit that gets remembered and talked about is is that tip of the iceberg bit and it, what kind of struck me was this, is that there's these different kind of people and it made me think about this with relation to, kind of, uh, steve jobs, and this is why I went oh, gotta me think about this with relation to kind of Steve Jobs, and this is why I went oh, gotta tell Tim about this.

Speaker 1 2:29

What we need to do is we need to look past the, the surface of the person we admire, and look at the, the characteristics, um, the. What do you admire about them? What is it that makes you want to find out more about them? What is it that interests you? Because it's those characteristics that are the things that invariably, you know I'm not ever going to emulate steve jobs, I'm not ever going to be steve jobs, I'm not going to be able to come up with things out of, out of thin air, but it's some of the ways that he, he deals with things and works with things. It's one of the attitudes.

Speaker 1 3:05

And there's a great um line where steve martin says about this, be so good they, they can't ignore you. And he talks about playing the banjo and he says and this is obviously for comedic effect, but the idea behind it, there is a truth there, uh of you know, he said, well, yeah, banjo is really hard to play, but if I play it every day for 40 years, I'm bound to be good after 40 years. You know, it's this kind of it's this patience and that's that's what summed up his career that be so good. They can't ignore you. It took him 10 years to become an overnight success by working a specific way and and just doing it and getting better and better and building up this kind of this idea of career capital so that it was so good they couldn't ignore it and built up a critical mass. And so it's looking at those qualities you admire.

Speaker 1 3:57

We can reel off billionaires and millionaires and famous people and things like that. But it's like, can you actually identify the? You know, yeah, you could, they've achieved success. They've achieved, you know, wealth as a indicator of success, but are there any actual characteristics that you really admire in them? Or are you just admiring them because they are this kind of wow, wouldn't that be amazing to be that person you know, um, and it's. It's things like there's all these research about how many books ceos read and how many books successful people read and things like that, and often it's thrown back kind of going well, yeah, because they've got so much money, they've got time to read, um, or you know rich people having weird, you know kind of outlying habits and things like that, and it's well, it's because they've got money, because they're eccentric, and actually, if you look into those people more, the eccentricities, the reading, the learning, the drive was there and that's what generated the money. Those things didn't spontaneously arrive. When the money did, it was very much, you know, cause and effect.

Speaker 1 5:03

So, yeah, you know some of the people that that you admire, what are the actual skills, the traits, the, the things that they do, the way they approach things. Look at those and look at people that have achieved things, but not their achievement, not who they are, but what did they do to achieve that. Because there are lots of similar things that come up time and time again. That it kind of it makes you sit back and take stock and kind of go okay, you know, these are the traits and there's lots of similar traits to very successful people, and those are the things we want to emulate. Those are the things that we want to aspire to and be, you know, inspired by, because they're the things that are going to help us achieve, they're the things that are going to drive us forward and that invariably gonna make us better in our own you know kind of businesses, you know. So it's that you know those different focus of those different people.

Speaker 1 5:59

So you know, next time you're reaching for a biography or you know those people that you admire, write them down but do a bit of research into them, see what actually made them tick, see what, how other people referred to them, and see what those techniques are and look for people who have achieved things in a certain way. You know, if there's something that you struggle with concentration or focus, then look for people who you know that's been one of their strong making or the processes you know, and look at what they do and how they did it. And that's the thing that we can really kind of gain from those people and you can, you know, invariably will gain a deeper admiration for them, because it's like god, that's a skill I wish I I had more of, or I wish I could emulate and then emulate it. You know, greatest form of flattery, you know, is to, basically, is to, is to copy, is to learn from these people. And their achievements didn't come out of thin air. Their achievements invariably didn't come out of some divine, you know right. Yes, they were in the right place at the right time and in the right environment. But they put themselves in the right environment, they put themselves around the right people and they had the determination and the characteristics to make those opportunities count and nurture those opportunities when they came about. So, yeah, I just wanted to kind of throw that one out there because it was. It was interesting, um, hearing in the book and hearing talk about kind of people and making me think, yeah, you know, there's certain people that there's actually bits of the bits of their personalities I really aspire to. The person itself I couldn't tell you much about and it just kind of got me thinking and why we need to look deeper into to what those people have done and how they've done it, as opposed to the people themselves. So I hope that helps tim, and I shall speak to you soon. Bye for now, and that's it for today.

Speaker 1 8:10

Episode of voicemails to tim on the annoyingly optimistic show. Now, remember, tim might be busy, but we're all in this together. Whether you're tired, in need of help or just muddling through, tim is here for you because, well, tim is you. Yes, you heard that right. Tim isn't just my friend, he's a reflection of all of us who are struggling to make it work. T-i-m stands for tired, in need of help and muddling through. So if you're feeling like a Tim, you're not alone For all those ambitious listeners. If you've got a burning business question, a quirky thought or just want to see if you can leave an even weirder voicemail, head over to the website voicemailstotimcom. Submit your question and maybe, just maybe, you'll hear your idea in a future voicemail to Tim. So until then, stay annoyingly optimistic, keep pushing forward and remember, if life gives you lemons, leave a voicemail about it.