Michael Serwa gets paid up to $40,000 for his services, providing advice as executive and life coach to some of the world’s most successful individuals, ranging from presidential candidates and CEOs to NASA engineers and Google’s senior team.
He reveals the traits and mindsets of those high net worth individuals that allowed them to prosper in their respective industries.
Ultimate leadership is about taking ultimate responsibility: My successful clients make no excuses, blame no one and don’t look to find fault in people or situations. They take full responsibility for both successes and failures. This way, they have 100 percent control over what happens next. Who to hire or fire, what budgets to adjust, the focus of the next quarter and so on.
Strong decision-making is a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking: While it is useful to think about risks with precision, ie. where time and money is spent, it is important not to waste time on thinking itself. Intuition and experience soon take over. However, the successful are naturally analytical and intelligent, and are therefore acutely aware of changes in the market and industry climate. They have the ability to strike this balance of intuition and evidence decision making.
Curiosity keeps successful individuals alert: My clients are some of the most interesting personalities I have ever met, and this is because they are consistently curious. They have their eyes on the prize, they know their goals, but they are also forever looking outside the norm; they know technology, human behaviour and competition is always changing. What worked today won’t work for much longer; stay still and you’re already irrelevant. Genuine curiosity gives you an edge that cannot be bought or manufactured. If you’re lucky enough to have it, use it.
Be the expert, and the student: Successful individuals see their clients, employees and competition as excellent sources of knowledge. Without them, success doesn’t happen. One of my clients, who is running for president of his country in 2021, told me early on that you can’t run a country without trusting the expertise of others, while simultaneously being a good leader.
Relationships are the basis of business and success: It’s often called networking, but really it’s simply the art of relationships. Master relationships and you will master life. The clients I work with have already mastered this. Besides working with me for my expertise and results, they work with me because they like me. Sometimes, loyalty, brutal honesty, trustworthiness are more important than practical skills.
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