Want to hear some of Lionel Messi’s success lessons?

One of my favorite inspirations is Lionel Messi, the world famous professional football player.

Messi is considered one of the best football players of all time. He’s won a lot of awards in the past proving just how good he is, including number #1 football player in the world.

Lionel Messi’s Success Lessons

Like most extraordinary people, Lionel Messi’s remarkable success did not come from pure luck or accident. In fact, he worked extremely hard and trained almost every single day to become who he is today.

Here’s 10 of Lionel Messi‘s success lessons:

1. Fight For What You Believe In

If you have a dream, you have to work hard to achieve it. Success will not come easy. There’s a price to pay and you must be willing to pay it.

Most people are not successful because they are not willing to do what it takes to produce the extraordinary results.

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is the little ‘extra’. Extra means you must do more; go the extra mile, put in more effort, wake up earlier and stay later to produce more for what you truly desire to achieve in life.

“You have to fight to reach your dream. You have to sacrifice and work hard for it.” – Lionel Messi

2. Success Takes Time

This is one of my favorite quotes from Messi. It reminds me that success is a long-term process and it is not something that you can achieve overnight. So stop looking for shortcuts or get-rich-quick schemes.

Rome was not built in a day and Steve Jobs did not start Apple in just one night. It is going to take a lot of effort and consistency to produce amazing results.

Therefore, commit to working hard on your dream and never give up. The journey may not be easy, but the reward will be well worth it.

“It took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success.” – Lionel Messi

3. Just Do What You Love

Does this ring a bell to you? Great people are able to produce great results because they love what they do.

And when you love what you do, you will do great work. Michael Jordan would never have excelled in basketball if he didn’t have love for the sport. Warren Buffett made billions through investing because he has an intense passion for doing just that.

Jack Ma can’t stop himself from thinking and talking about his business because it is in his blood. He sleeps, drinks, talks, walks and dreams his business at all times.

You have to be the same if you want to create something amazing in life. Love what you do and live your life with passion.

“What I do is play soccer, which is what I like.” – Lionel Messi

4. Improvement is Always Possible

You have to focus on improvement every day. If you are in business, you need to improve your business knowledge and skills. If you are a writer, you need to improve your writing skills every day.

As Tony Robbins, one of the best life coaches worldwide has coined it, commit to CANI or Constant-And-Never-Ending-Improvement.

The only way to become better in what you do is to commit to improvement every day.

So do something that will make you better every day. Read a book to improve your knowledge, level up your skills, write more, seek help from a mentor, etc.

“The day you think there are no improvements to be made is a sad one for any player.” – Lionel Messis

5. Give Your Team the Credit they Deserve

No one can succeed alone in this world. In fact, there’s no such thing as a real ‘self-made’ millionaire or billionaire. You need your clients and customers to support you. You need your staff and your partners to help you.

Walt Disney had Roy Disney, and Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak, to help build their business empires. What about you?

“I’m lucky to be part of a team who helps to make me look good, and they deserve as much of the credit for my success as I do for the hard work we have all put in on the training ground.” – Lionel Messi

6. Don’t Ever Chase the Money

Stop chasing the money. Money is just the score from living your dream. It is a byproduct from your achievements.

The real winning comes from your progress. As long as you are moving forward every day, you will eventually reach your goals.

And stop chasing for the next shiny object. You do not have to compare yourself with others. Just be yourself and do what you are supposed to do.

“Money is not a motivating factor. Money doesn’t thrill me or make me play better because there are benefits to being wealthy. I’m just happy with a ball at my feet. My motivation comes from playing the game I love. If I wasn’t paid to be a professional footballer I would willingly play for nothing.” – Lionel Messi

7. Don’t Forget What’s Most Important to You

Sometimes we over obsess with something, and we neglect other more important things in life. I have seen people who chase money and they start to completely ignore their family members.

Never let this happen to you. Yes, winning is important, but you cannot win all the time and winning is not the only thing you have in life.

Always be grateful for what you have and appreciate those who are around you.

“There are more important things in life than winning or losing a game.” – Lionel Messi

8. Remember That It’s Not All About You

Always focus on winning as a team, instead of it being a one man show. Elon Musk, the guy behind Tesla, said this, “I don’t create companies for the sake of creating companies, but to get things done.”

You are in a team, regardless of whether you are in business or in sports, so work as a team.

Put your main priority on your team’s objectives rather than your own personal mission. This is how your team can grow and move forward.

“When the year starts the objective is to win it all with the team, personal records are secondary.” – Lionel Messi

9. Always Give Everything You’ve Got

You have to trust yourself and believe in your dream. When you have doubts, you will never put in your 100%.

People who truly believe in their dreams are willing to do whatever it takes because they know that their dreams will come true somehow. And this makes them pour in their 100% and give it their best effort.

Are you putting in 100% and do you believe in yourself and your dreams?

“There’s no doubt. It’s certain that I will be 100 percent.” – Lionel Messi

10. Learn to Accept Your Failures

Nobody can win all the time. Sometimes you make more progress and learn more from losing and experiencing failure.

You don’t have to feel frustrated or upset when you fail. It is just part of the cycle. You cannot have the sunshine every day.

Sometimes it will rain, sometimes it will be cloudy and sometimes the sun will shine up high. Things will come and go. So appreciate what you have right now and enjoy every moment, whether you are winning or losing.

When you win, work hard and continue to move forward. When you lose, work even harder and learn from your mistakes.

“Sometimes you have to accept you can’t win all the time.” – Lionel Messi

Summary

Here’s a quick recap on Lionel Messi’s success lessons:

1. Fight for what you believe in
2. Success takes time
3. Just do what you love
4. Improvement is always possible
5. Give your team the credit they deserve
6. Don’t ever chase the money
7. Don’t forget what’s most important to you
8. Remember that it’s not all about you
9. Always give everything you’ve got
10. Learn to accept your failures

These are my favorite lessons from Lionel Messi that inspired me to go further in life.

How many of Lionel Messi’s success lessons do you resonate with? Leave a comment below.

Want to hear some of Kobe Bryant’s success lessons?

Kobe Bryant is a beast;

I remember reading a story where he was called up his trainer at 4am to come and help him practice, and 20 minutes later when his trainer arrived, Kobe was already drenched in sweat.

They trained for a few hours on court and in the weight room, until his trainer went back to get some practice before the team practice at 11am.

When he came back, Kobe was on the other side of court practicing jump shots. He’d only just finished his morning training, right before team practice. Kobe had been there for at least 7 hours before the team training had even begun.

Kobe Bryant’s Success Lessons

There are many success lessons we can learn from Kobe Bryant and his sickening work ethic. And I’m not just talking about within basketball, but within life itself. Here are 5 of Kobe Bryant’s success lessons.

1. Reach Out to People in Different Areas

Besides the obvious ritual of reaching out and connecting with people in the same industry as you, something we can learn from Kobe Bryant is reaching out to those in different areas.

It would be foolish to narrow down the people you listen and learn from to just those on the same career path as you. Whether you’re an athlete, entrepreneur etc.

Since Kobe’s NBA career may be coming to an end within the next couple of years, he’s been reaching out to the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Arianna Huffington. In order to find out more about what they do, why they do it and how they became successful in their fields.

Kobe Bryant’s continuing his learning process and planning his future after the NBA by reaching out to others for great inspiration. Which brings me onto my next point, after his official quotes on the subject.

“I cold call people and pick their brain about stuff. Some of the questions I ask seem really really simple and some of them seem stupid, quite honestly, for them. But if I don’t know, I don’t know. I have to ask. I’ll just do that and ask questions. I want to learn more about how they build their business and how they run their companies and how they see the world.” – Kobe Bryant

2. You Can Always Learn More

It doesn’t matter how good you become at your chosen skill or craft, there is always potential for more learning and development. Many successful people might let their achievements go to their head, and make them think there’s nothing they can improve upon.

This really isn’t true; there’s always room for people to improve and learn more, which is exactly why Kobe Bryant and many other people have continued to grow year by year. It’s all about being hungry to learn more, always.

“It’s really about wanting to learn and feeling like your cup is always empty, because there’s always more that you can fill it with. That’s really the important thing and just continuing to learn, learn, learn.” – Kobe Bryant

3. Respect People Close to You

Earlier on in Kobe’s career, he was very aggressive towards his team mates, and would often give them plenty of orders that they didn’t seem to happy about, because he knew the game and knew what had to be done.

However, as he progressed through his career and got older, he realized it was more about respecting his team mates and communicating better. Not only to produce better results, but also to have happy relationships with everyone else.

“Oh, God. I was barking orders left and right. And these grown men are looking at me, like “Who the hell are you?” But I had studied the game so much. As I got older, I started understanding it’s not just about the game. People carry emotions with them. They have lives off the court. That helped me communicate better.” – Kobe Bryant

4. Where There’s Challenge, There’s Opportunity

A challenge is your opportunity to show the world what you can do, and that you can overcome any obstacles in your way. Where there’s a challenge, there’s a chance to prove people wrong.

Not only that, but it means your constantly bettering yourself and giving yourself more opportunities in the future. When you overcome challenges you grow stronger as a person, and that can only be a good thing.

In Kobe’s case, the strongest example of this was when he came back from his Achilles tendon injury, proving everybody wrong. Kobe had the confidence and belief that he could come back from the injury, and he did just that.

The fact that the chances of coming back after such an injury were low, made the challenge even more exciting, said Kobe.

“I have moments and I have days where I doubt myself. But to me, that’s the exciting part of the challenge.That’s when I realize this is a great opportunity to come out and show everybody this is how you bounce back. This is how you respond to a challenge.” – Kobe Bryant

5. Break Your Problems Down Into Smaller Pieces

If you have an incredibly big problem that looks too large to be solved, chop it down into smaller pieces. This way, it allows you to focus on specific issues individually which gives you a better chance of fixing them.

As Kobe explains below, this is what he did back in 2003, after all the endorsements he had dropped him and told him the situation couldn’t be fixed.

And this problem also relates back to the “where there’s challenge, there’s opportunity” success lesson. This was a big challenge for Kobe to overcome, but he did it and proved people wrong.

“In 2003, I was going through the Colorado situation, and it was very tough. I had to ask myself what I wanted to accomplish. I want to keep my family together. Have to focus on that. I’m a good basketball player: I want more championships. Focus on that. Every endorsement I had, they dropped me. Every marketing person said, “You can’t be fixed.” So I start chopping the problem into smaller pieces, and I focus on them. What else are you going to do?” – Kobe Bryant

Summary

Here’s a quick recap of Kobe Bryant’s success lessons:

1. Reach out to people in different areas
2. You can always learn more
3. Respect people that are close to you
4. Where there’s challenge, there’s opportunity
5. Break your problems down into smaller pieces

How many of Kobe Bryant’s success lessons do you agree with? Leave a comment below.

Want to hear some of Jay-Z’s success lessons?

Unlike many fellow music artists; who will spend all of their money on fancy houses, cars and nights out, Jay-Z has invested the money he’s earned from the music business back into himself in the form of building his own businesses.

Don’t get me wrong, he has all of the above, but over the years he’s been smart with his money and has become both a truly successful entrepreneur and music artist.

Jay-Z’s Success Lessons

Jay-Z now has an estimated net worth of over $710 million to his name.

Whilst I’m not entirely sure how much of this has come from the business side of things; it’s safe to say that it’s a hell of a lot, with Jay-Z owning companies such as Rocawear & Roc-A-Fella Records.

Here are 10 of Jay-Z’s success lessons:

1. Hustle

Jay-Z, as a young child didn’t really have many opportunities going for him when he was growing up. He grew up in Brooklyn, living with his mum who had to support their family on her own.

When he was old enough to start wanting to go out and make his own money, the only real option he had where he lived was to go out and deal drugs.

Even when he was dealing, he showed true talent as a hustler, and as he started to work hard towards his ultimate goal of becoming a rapper, it wasn’t long before his talents started to grow.

2. Have an ‘Empire State of Mind’

When you think of a hip-hop artist, wealth is something that springs to mind very quickly. Although, there’s a big reason why Jay-Z’s wealth exceeds far beyond most other hip-hop artists.

He sees music as his passion and an excellent way to express himself, but his overall mentality is towards building an empire. He’s owned restaurants, clothing companies, bars record labels and much more. This is a state of mind that every entrepreneur should have.

3. Don’t Wait Until You Have The Tools

Many people seem to get stuck in the mindset that they should wait until they have everything they need before they begin on a venture.

This is not the natural order of things. Work leads to growth, which leads to income, which leads to investment in the correct equipment, which then leads to more growth and so on.

Jay-Z didn’t start by expressing all his rhythms using instruments, oh no, he started by simply using his hands on a table to create beats.

It’s the exact same story for when he first started Roc-A-Fella Records. There were no fancy computers, not even a desk. He started from the bottom and worked his way to the top.

4. Have a Plan

Jay Z is a serious entrepreneur. He didn’t just start a business and take it from there. He created a proper and official business plan to make sure he knew exactly what the plan was before jumping into things.

A lot of people think that they might have a pretty good memory, so they don’t need a hard copy plan. But the reality is, that once you have everything written down in front of you, certain things appear much clearer than they would in your mind.

5. An Idea Could Strike at Any Time

You never know when another idea could pop into your head. Funnily enough, when you move about from place to place in your daily lives, a sudden change in the environment around you could easily give a new idea.

Jay-Z was prepared for this. Whenever he used to wonder around with his friends, he would always carry a pad around in case something triggered any new lyrics to come about. He’d then stop and write down anything that came to mind before moving on.

The same can be applied to whatever business venture you’re a part of.

6. Don’t Run Your Mouth

It’s pretty easy for people to get persuaded by others. Whether it be their friends or family. If you start pouring out your dreams and goals to them, you may not get the right response and support you were looking for.

So instead of gossiping to them all about your dreams straight away, try and refrain from it. Them not knowing will allow you to focus on your work and heading towards your goals.

7. Skills Can be Transferred

Jay-Z doesn’t have a fancy degree or diploma in business. Far from it. He learnt most of his skills from when he was growing up, dealing on the streets.

Even though we don’t really think of drug dealing first as being a great skill set user, Jay-Z gained a lot of knowledge about sales and management from this and transferred it into his later real, legit and professional businesses.

8. Ignore Trends

Trends, most noticeably in fashion, don’t last for very long. So if you end up copying a trend in your business, the chances are you won’t last very long. Auto tune was a very trendy element in the music industry as Jay-Z grew as a music artist.

T-Pain is the most notorious for using this in his songs, but Jay-Z stayed clear and kept on doing his own thing. He made a wise choice.

9. Don’t Take Your Eyes off the Prize

Sometimes when you’re working so hard at something and you finally start to get a little taste of what success is like, you automatically think you’ve made it; Start to spend more money than you can afford and so on. Try to resist this temptation.

10. Start a Blog

Might seem slightly strange that a hip hop artist who’s also trying hard to build an empire, has time to regularly blog. However, Jay-Z saw it as a good way to write down his feelings and to be able to communicate them with the rest of the world.

Summary

Thanks for checking out this article. Jay-Z is a truly successful hip hop artist and entrepreneur, and there’s a lot we can learn from him.

Here’s a quick recap of Jay-Z’s success lessons:

1. Hustle
2. Have an empire state of mind
3. Don’t wait until you have the tools
4. Have a plan
5. An idea could strike at any time
6. Don’t run your mouth
7. Skills can be transferred
8. Ignore trends
9. Don’t take your eyes off the prize
10. Start a blog

How many of Jay-Z’s success lessons do you agree with? Leave a comment below.