Blog / Leadership
Larry Winget, The Pit Bull of Personal Development
Larry Winget is not your typical motivational speaker. With his Oklahoman drawl, bald head, designer sunglasses and brightly coloured western shirts and boots, Mr Winget looks and sounds like a cowboy who could crush you with his bare hands. In fact, he is a best selling author and one of the highest paid motivational speakers in the USA because he cuts to the chase and tells it like it is.
Larry Winget’s into personal development in a way you’ve never heard before. He’s not into excuses, holding hands and making people feel good. Like a Pit Bull, he growls, snarls and barks. He shoots from the hip and says things that are unpopular. For example, he’s not a fan of teamwork. He said, “teams can be places where people can hide behind these superstar employees and they never really have to achieve.” He deplores mediocrity and throws down the gauntlet and challenges people to be responsible for their own success. He believes that many people have forgotten how to work hard, and it is only the mentally tough who succeed personally and in business.
Lazy People Fail
Mr Winget believes that most people fail because they are lazy and it is the ones who work hardest who reap the rewards. He said candidly, “I think primarily people are pretty lazy; they work just hard enough so they don’t get fired and that’s not really the attitude you need to go to work with. What you think about, talk about and then get off your arse and do something about - is what comes about.”
Success requires hard work
Like a General in an army, Larry Winget knows that success comes to those who strive for it. It is never handed over or given. Mr Winget believes if you wait for success you will fail. “You can’t sit back and think your way to success; you can’t happy your way to success. Wishful thinking is not a success strategy. It takes work. If you want to attract more business to you, you work for that business. If you want to attract more riches and income, you work for that.” Further, he thinks that as soon as people realise that businesses are not there to take care of them, the more valuable they are. “The only reason you exist at your company is to help your company be more profitable. When you help your company be more, you become a value to that company.”
Be yourself
Mr Winget sees harnessing those things that make you unique or authentic, as one of the keys to success. He said, “The most significant thing that I’ve done that has created my success is being who I really am. I mean you could call me at four in the morning and I’d give you the same answers; I believe what I have to say and I don’t care whether anybody else agrees with me or not: this is what I believe.”
Communication is vital
He also believes that saying what you want and need as being critical to success. He thinks it is imperative that every person in a workplace understands his or her role in the business. Mr Winget said business leaders must, “Communicate with everyone that works there how they play a part in the overall success in the profitability of the company. When people feel like they actually have a role that contributes and helps the company be profitable and they understand that the better they do their role, the more profitable the company can become, then they start to play together with a common goal and I hate the word ‘team’, but they play more as a team.”
Many leaders don't know how to communicate
Larry Winget thinks however, that the problem for many leaders is they don’t know how to communicate and cut through the management mumbo jumbo. His definition of successful communication is simple – words that are understood. He said, “I don’t care what the tools are. Any communication that is understood is effective and I don’t think that people are very effective these days at really making their point understood. It’s got to be communicated clearly.” He implored leaders to get away from all the “stupid business jargon and all the words that people don’t understand.”
Leaders have to lead
Explaining the role of a leader, Mr Winget said, “Leadership is getting out in front and giving somebody something good to follow and then communicating what that is and how people play a role in that. I see that as the primary role of leadership.” The problem though, as Mr Winget reads it, is that most leaders don’t have the mental toughness needed to actually lead. He believes that leadership is not for everybody. “I don’t think everybody has an entrepreneurial spirit or should go into business for themselves. In fact I think way too many people go into business for themselves when they ought to just get a job.”
Think about how you define success
While many of us may see success as having the flash car, a house with a magnificent view and millions in the bank, Larry Winget urges people to define success more broadly. He thinks people who are truly successful are those who seek balance. He said, “People think success is about financial success and if you’re financially successful and yet you’ve sacrificed your health along the way then you weren’t really all that successful. And if you’ve lost your family along the way you weren’t really all that successful. So success is being all you can be in every single area of your life without sacrificing any area of your life. And if you do that, I think that creates significance.”
Larry Winget will be in Australia in May as the keynote speaker of the Advanced Real Estate Learning (AREL) events in Sydney on 31 May and Melbourne on 1 June. For more information go to www.arelevents.com
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