The Fear of Failure Drives Success?

As I have studied the greatest achievers I have found more and more that many of them are largely motivated by fear. Many times their fears are so great that it actually motives them to the extreme of success. For example Jeff Henley, Chairman of Oracle and billionaire grew up in extreme poverty. He was nervous of being poor that he focused on building enough financial security to mitigate his fear. He never had plans to be rich or the desire to have ungodly sums of money but his fear of being without money gave him habits, practices and ambitions that lead (to his surprise) to the accumulation of great wealth.

I interviewed him in one of the nicest mansions I have ever been in (oceanfront, immaculate and beautiful). Listen to what he tells me during my interview:

PAIGE: "I have a question a question, what motivated you to be such a hard worker?"

JEFF HENLEY: "Fear. I'm serious. That's it, fear. I never had a lot of money. My dad died when I was young. I was mowing lawns since I was six, seven years old. I remember I bought my own car, bought my own insurance. I worked my way -- my mother's a peach, but she -- you know, she just didn't have any money. And so, you know, I always felt financially insecure. And so when you set out to sort of try to cure that, there's still a lot of fear. And a lot of very successful people, and CEOs in particular I think, are very deep down insecure. And that drives them. Some of those insecurities drive them. I don't mean I'm a psychotic or just crazy, but I mean you -- you know, I think a healthy amount of fear is not bad. Keeps people motivated, you know? I'm sure there's a lot of successful coaches that are afraid. Successful star quarterbacks, some of those guys, they -- they channel that fear in a very positive way to, you know, perform -- give better performance and stuff like that. So the only thing that kept me working hard for a long time -- and I certainly don't work as hard now as I used to -- was fear".

Similarly, we asked Lance Armstrong what motivated him and he said not the desire to lose but the desire to avoid the pains of failure. This too the fear of failure Listen to what he says:

LANCE ARMSTRONG: "Well, the fear of losing was the biggest fear I had. I mean I had a desire to win, but more than that I had a fear of losing, a fear of letting down my team, my sponsors, my fans and friends and -- that was a big fear. And I lived with that fear for seven years. I trained hard every day, not necessarily to win but probably more just to ensure that I didn't lose".

I can identify with the fear of failure. When I went away to college, I was terrified that I wasn't bright enough to compete with the rest of my college students. So to avoid any failure, I studied hard. To my surprise I continually would set the curve and graduated with only two B's in my academic career. But the main motivation driving me was the fear of failing.

It is due to this principle that I encourage you if you have something you want to accomplish to tell others about your ambitions because when the going get tough and you feel like quitting, you’re more likely to persevere because you told others you would and you don’t want be seen as a failure in others eyes.

Challenge To You Today: What are your fears and how can you channel them to be used to your benefit?

Interview Scheduled with Gloria Estefan!

Great News!

I just got invited by a big time producer to go to his event in Toronto and interview Gloria Estefan on June 6, 2006.

My co-author, Jonathan Wygant asked the conference producer on my behalf and he said yes! So on June 6, 2006 I will be backstage getting interviews with this awesome woman.

Check out the conference here: http://www.powerwithin.com/

Who hoo! I am stoked. It is all happening!

What Does It Take To Be A Legend?

Few people will make an impact in the world like Nelson Mandela. He will go down in history books as a legend. Mandela is a man whose life made a difference in the life of many.

But how does how does Mandela view his life? How did he live with such strength & perseverance?

I found this amazing video clip (conducted by another legend: Oprah) that allows us to up close and personal with this living legend and answers these questions.

*** CLICK HERE TO WATCH AN AMAZING VIDEO OF NELSON MANDELA ****

If you knew your life was being recorded, for people generations to come to read about, how would you live differently? What is stopping you from living more heroically?

Live With Courage. Live Heroically.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu Says, "You Have To Find Your Place To Soar"

I had the unique pleasure of meeting the civil rights activist and Noble Laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu when he came to Santa Barbara. Archbishop Tutu is an activist who rose to worldwide fame as an opponent of apartheid in South Africa.

In order to meet him, I attended a sponsorship dinner for UCSB Arts & Lecture Series. I was the only one in the room under the age of 50. I felt like I stood out like a sore thumb. (Hey, it can be awkward being a celebrity stalker on a mission).

Anyways, in person I found the Archbishop to be quite casual, relaxed and funny! He was cracking jokes at the dinner and had the whole group laughing. He seemed younger than his grey hair or stiff body revealed.

He shared a story that I found to be really meaningful, particularly because his life stood for people who were labled as "funny chickens" instead of "eagles" (see below). I thought I would share with you for your mutual benefit.

Here is the story he told: " Did you hear of the story of the farmer who in his back yard had a number of chickens? He had many chickens but among them was a very strange looking chicken. I mean, it did the things that other chickens do, pecking away, scurrying and such. But no, there was something strange about this chicken.

And then one day, along came a man who knew about these things. The farmer pointed out the strange chicken to the smart man. The man took a good look and says to the farmer, “no, no, no sir, that is not a chicken. That is an eagle”.

And the farmer gruffs, “Baloney!”

And the man says, “Here, give it to me”. So the farmer hands over the strange looking chicken.

The man takes the strange looking chicken and goes up to a tall mountain. He waits for the sun to rise. And when the sun rises, he holds up the strange looking chicken. Facing to the rising sun with his hands extended, the man whispers to the small creature in his hands, “fly… eagle… fly!”

And the strange looking chicken stretches out its wings, shakes himself and leaps off from the safety of the man’s hands. It takes off! The beautiful eagle soars and soars. It flies way away in the horizon.


Do you know what God says to us? He says, “Hey, you’re no chicken. You’re an eagle. Fly…. Eagle… fly”. God wants us to stretch out our wings, shake ourselves and then take off. And soar and soar.

We are made for goodness. We are made for laughter. We are made for joy. We are made for caring. We are made for transcendence. We are made for compassion.

Don’t let yourself be mislabeled.

Fly eagle fly!"

It's Easy To Spot Americans Abroad

This blog is dedicated to success and factors that lead people to be successful in a global community. After visiting Europe, I must confess that I am really concerned about the future competitiveness of our nation. Not until I went to Europe and went two weeks without seeing any fat people did I realize how fat Americans really are. Even our pets are fat! (see picture below)

A recent study confirmed this observation. A study that followed Americans for three decades suggests that over the long haul, 9 out of 10 men and 7 out of 10 women will become overweight. (Even if you are one of the lucky few who made it to middle age without getting fat, don’t congratulate yourself — keep watching that waistline. Half of the men and women in the study who had made it well into adulthood without a weight problem ultimately became overweight. A third of those women and a quarter of the men became obese). Source = http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1496369/posts

If Americans are declining in physical health, I think that it is safe to assume that we are also declining in mental, spiritual, emotional and social health as well. Getting fat as a society is something that is really concerning to our future competitiveness.

Last week, in his New York Times column, Paul Krugman wrote about a study from the Journal of the American Medical Association that is relevant to my own observations about American being much unhealthier as a nation compared to the UK.

The study is fascinating. It was conducted by a group of epidemiologists at University College London. The point was to compare the health of the United States and the United Kingdom.

The first conclusion is that Americans are really, really sick compared to the British. In every socio-economic group, for instance, the prevalence of diabetes is roughly double in the United States than it is in the United Kingdom. Rates of hypertension, heart disease, heart attacks, stroke, lung disease and cancer are also all higher in the United States. And not just a little big higher. Much higher. So, for example, 2.3 percent of the English have had a stroke, versus 3.8 percent of the Americans. Americans are much more likely to be obese (31.3 versus 23 percent). But then 30 percent of the British were heavy drinkers, versus 14.4 percent of Americans. (One of the curious facts in the study: in both the United States and the United Kingdom, the more money you make and the more education you have, the more you drink. There are roughly twice as many heavy drinkers in the best educated English cohort as there are in the least educated English cohort.)

Krugman argues that this is evidence of how much more stressful living in America is than living in England. I do agree that it is "one more nail in the coffin" but I think that our lack of physical activity, high preservatives foods and high work hours are also other “nails” that add to the deteriorating health of America.

I believe our health is not to be underestimated as a function of the broader society in which we live--the pressures, foods available, conditions and environments in which we find ourselves.

If we want our children's generation to be healthier that we are, we are going to have to take a stand and change things at a government and corporate level.

Until then, I think we have to look at our own habits.

My husband and I decided to make the following changes in our habits after visiting Europe, 1. eat more organic, less processed food 2. walk to close locations whenever possible instead of driving even if it takes several minutes longer.

We can learn from our European friends on how to achieve greater health as a nation.

I would love to hear if you are as concerned as I am about the degrading health of America.

Having Fun!

In our wedding, Deyl and I vowed to each other that we would always have fun together and that is exactly what we did in Europe!

To see a slide show from our incredible trip, click below.

**WATCH OUR SLIDE SHOW HERE ***

My awesome and talented husband, Deyl put it together using the remarkable David Jay software !

Getting Outside of You

"If there is any one secret to success," said Henry Ford, "it is the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own".

One of the best ways to learn about yourself and others is to travel. Traveling allows us to become more aware of the influences in our lives that creates us to be who we are.

For the last 16 days, I have neglected my blog, my computer and all my other usual practices and escaped to France & Italy with my husband. We fell in love all over again in Paris, Lake Como, Bologna, Florence, Venice and Rome.

Each city gave us the gift of learning more about the people who lived there...a better idea of their values, their goals and what makes them tick.

Understanding how the rest of the world operates is becoming more fundamental to our everyday success.

Ciao Bella!