Simon Sinek explains that to become an "infinite-minded" leader you must first genuinely want to be a leader. He uses anecdotes (e.g., Marine Corps training) and an extended analogy to getting in shape to show that adopting an infinite mindset is a difficult, long-term lifestyle change with delayed benefits and occasional short-term setbacks.
Chapters
There's an old joke. You know how many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? One. But the light bulb has to really want to change.
You'll get it later.
The number one, my friend George Flynn, who's a three star retired general in the Marine Corps, he says it best. He says the most important criterion if you want to be a leader is you have to want to be one. Right. If you. Any Marines in the audience? No. So if you enlist in the Marine Corps and you go to Parris island or San Diego, if you go to boot camp, I don't care how much you hate it, you can't drop out of the Marine Corps like you signed a contract. You're in for whatever your, your three, four years is. That's it. Too bad. Haha. Right. If you go to ocs, if you go to Officer Candidates Office School because you want to be an officer in the Marine Corps, one of the leaders in the Marine Corps, out of the 10 week program.
You have to do the first four weeks, but then for the next six weeks, at any point, at any time, for any reason, if you want to drop out, you can. And the reason is because the Marine Corps only wants people in leadership positions who want to be leaders. If you don't want to be a leader, they don't want you. Right? It's the same here. If you're a finite player and you want to be an infinite player, that's like saying I want to get into shape. It's a completely new lifestyle. You're gonna have to live. You're gonna have to give up bread, you're gonna have to give up sugar, you have to go to the gym on a regular basis, which by the way, just like this journey, there's no daily indicator. You can't go to the gym and then come home and look in the mirror, you'll see nothing.
You'll go to the next day because your friends say this gym thing is like all the rage. And you'll come back and you'll look in the mirror and you'll see nothing and you'll be in pain.
And so you'll quit because you don't see any short term results. The same is true for the journey I'm talking about. You will not see anything on a daily basis. You will not see it and you might actually suffer short term liability. You actually might see the short term numbers go down or stress go up. It's because you're changing the way you approach your problems. You're changing the way you approach your business and there's going to be some bumpiness. But like the gym, if you stick with gets easier and you start to see results. The other problem is we all get in shape at different times. So when you say, how long does it take to become an infinite minded leader? The answer is I don't know. How long does it take to get into shape? I don't know. If you've been doing it for like five years and you see no results, you're doing something wrong.
It's a lifestyle. You're opting for an entirely new lifestyle, an entirely new way of viewing the world. An entirely new way of seeing the way business works and your role within it. And so the choice, the choice, the choice to become an infinite minded business person is your choice. It starts with your desire. Because it is really hard. Everything that I have told you today is unbelievably hard. It is much easier to be finite minded. You get positive reinforcement on a daily basis. You can turn one knob and you can see the numbers go up or down. I'm asking if you want to opt for an entirely new lifestyle, one that turns out happens to be a lot healthier.
