Leverage your superpower to achieve success and fulfillment in your personal and professional life. Many people feel powerless over the decisions that shape their lives. This is even more common when they’re part of a marginalized group. It’s easy to embrace victimhood and blame everyone else for what’s happening to you when you have no control. But motivational speaker, Eric Thomas strongly disagrees. He turns that mentality on its head and implores you to take full responsibility for your circ*mstances. Why? Because you owe it to yourself to be independent, successful, and abundantly fulfilled. Now, this might sound daunting, so let’s put it in a more empowering way: your task is to crown yourself the CEO of your life. Take the time to understand your talents and apply them to fulfill your purpose. Taking this path will guide you to your why, that intrinsic, intangible thing in your life you value over everything else. Your why could be the satisfaction you get when you take care of your family, solve a puzzle, contribute new knowledge, or advance your community. Matched to your purpose, your talent and passion will lead you toward excellence. So, let’s get started! --- Become the CEO of your life. Long before becoming a regular guest inside NBA locker rooms, Eric Thomas was a troubled young man who’d left home to escape family trauma. Growing up, opportunities were rare. Segregation, preceded by slavery, had locked Black people into particular neighborhoods and jobs. The most people in his community could hope for was a job on the car assembly lines in Detroit. But, Thomas’s story changed when he became the boss of his own life. Based on his own story, Thomas advises the following to take control of your own life. The first step is to shed your victim mentality. Nobody owes you anything. Playing victim undermines your ability to act. Be courageous enough to take responsibility for your shortcomings. In many ways, you can be your own strongest adversary. Here are some practical tips which build on this idea and help you shed victimhood. To begin, own your decisions, including your mistakes, and be accountable for them. Once you’ve decided you’re the author of your own fate, set goals and standards to give you direction. Next, don’t be a loose cannon. Clarity and direction will help you decide what series of activities you need to complete each task. Build a structure, a regime, and follow it strictly. Third, once you have standards, you should have no excuse for not sticking to them. Finally, before deciding you’re in it alone, take a look around. Find the people who want to see you succeed and reach out to them for help, advice, and leads. Learn to accept help and lean on the experience and knowledge of kind people. Don’t be too quick to assume people want to see you fail.
Shedding victimhood is the crowning act that makes you the CEO of your life. When you get here, you’re ready to wear your cape and discover your superpower!
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Use your superpower to walk in your purpose.
Now that your future depends on you, how do you pick the most important tool you’ll need along the journey? In other words, what is your superpower?
Finding your superpower isn’t just about picking what you’re good at. It’s an active process. So here’s how to find it.
Write down the things that give you wings when you do them. Your superpower should energize you and put you in the zone. It’s that activity you’re naturally drawn to and can lose yourself in for hours.
For example, as a kid growing up, Thomas was drawn to the eloquence of luminaries like Barbara Walters, James Earl Jones, and Maya Angelou. He didn’t know it at the time, but he was drawn to speaking. That was his potential superpower.
The logical step after identifying what your superpower might be is to try it out.
Practice and see where you can improve. Keep honing your skills to the point where these talents consume you. Fall in love with doing it and initiate an intimate, daily obsession with your superpower.
This is all progress but it’s not enough. We can all agree that you need more than just having power. You need to be able to use it to make an impact. To do this, you need to find your why – that intrinsic, intangible thing in your life you value over everything else.
So, shut out the noise and take time to evaluate those things that matter the most to you. Ask yourself: What do you value most?
Is it independence, freedom, intellectual curiosity, family, a cause, or the deep desire to advance your community?
Knowing what you value and focusing on it will give you the intensity that is needed to elevate your work and take it to the next level.
The best thing about finding your superpower is that it leads you naturally to your purpose. Your purpose is the area where you’re making the most of your gifts and living to your fullest potential.
To do this: Build a plan and a structure that permits you to use your superpower every single day. Find places where you can hone your skills – it doesn’t matter if that’s a job or volunteering. Know what you’re good at, understand where you can improve, and research what others in your field are doing.
This is the kind of laser focus that puts you in miracle territory! And we’re going to talk about that in the next section.
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Put yourself in miracle territory.
When Thomas was asked to introduce the famous African-American psychologist Dr. Na'im Akbar at a conference, he didn’t go there for a paycheck.
The passion he put into the work, however, drew the the attention of Murray Edwards and Rodney Patterson who admired his delivery. The two men were leaders of the Black Male Initiative, a program that offered support to Black men in the majority-white Michigan State University.
Thomas got a job advising young Black students. While at Michigan State, he got offered a fellowship and then went on to get his master’s and PhD.
So how did all this happen?
From the surface, it looks like luck, but Thomas had been grinding for years and taking advantage of every opportunity to showcase his talent. He’d show up uninvited at events and talk his way into seeing the main speaker.
When he preached in churches, helped students pass their GED, or suffered friction in personal relationships, he kept working, learning, and meeting people who eventually became business partners, mentors, and collaborators.
Along the way, these people introduced him to bigger opportunities and then he went corporate.
A few things stand out here.
First, these free gigs were opportunities to practice and hone his skills. The gigs went on to become networking opportunities. When the kids he inspired became successful, they started inviting him to their locker rooms to talk to their NBA, NFL, and corporate mates. Some even paid Thomas out of their own pocket.
When the teams and corporations understood his value, then they started inviting him to talk to them and paid him more.
With endless practice, connections, and the ability to visualize what success looks like, you’ll be well-equipped to pounce on opportunities when you place yourself in miracle territory.
The point here is that miracles are intentional!
As unlikely as that sounds, they’re born of the will to practice your gifts daily and with intention up to the point where things start to happen. And then you do some more.
That’s how you place yourself in miracle territory.
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Become a triple threat.
When you’ve placed yourself in miracle territory, you need to elevate your game to maximize opportunities. To become a potent force for your convictions you must become what Thomas calls “a triple threat.”
A triple threat is a professional who combines mastery in their field with the ability to perform and express themselves with supreme clarity.
How do you become one?
First, you have to embrace knowledge. Knowledge is the new money. Knowledge is an ATM machine inside your head.
Learning doesn’t always involve going back to school. Read as much as you can about your craft, theories, structures, and the people who excel at it. Attend events, talk to people, and take advantage of free resources on the internet. Also, study yourself and your family to avoid recurring patterns that can stand in your way.
One key element of education is the ability to understand the language of your trade. Every trade has a code. Lawyers should be familiar with the technical terms that are encoded into legalese. People in finance use terms that are understood in their circles. Industries, neighborhoods, and cultures all have language that is particular to them.
Your peers will welcome you when you’re fluent in their code. They’ll also feel comfortable enough to share new knowledge with you.
Are you a newcomer in a field where people use language you can’t understand?
Don’t fret!
Find translators, people who’re comfortable with the code of your domain to translate for you. This will open up opportunities you never knew existed.
Understanding the code doesn’t mean you ditch your own unique style. Know the language in the room, understand what you’ve inherited from your background, and fuse these to forge your unique expression.
The second ability that will turn you into a triple threat is your performance. Whatever skills you possess, elevate them to the level where people get inspired by your excellence.
The third aspect is expression. Eloquence in speaking, writing, or any other form of communication will push you into the mainstream.
People will want to listen to you and understand what you’re explaining to them. Mastery of your subject and proficiency will elevate you to new domains.
Let’s recap: to become a triple threat, gain new knowledge, become a top performer, and bring clarity and proficiency into your expression.
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Transform yourself into a business.
When Thomas started getting paid for his speaking, he approached it from a point of gratitude. When a company paid him $140,000 plus perks for 14 engagements a year, he thought he’d made it!
A mentor advised him to demand more. To his surprise, he found people were willing to pay. He’d transformed himself into a business!
Not everyone wants to make money from their superpower and that’s okay. But even if you’re trying to advance a cause, you’d need to make a minimum to sustain it.
This requires you to think like a business person.
Here’s what you need to do.
First, be available. In today’s world, that means having an online presence, being seen, and showing up. You need people to be able to find you and do business with you.
Next, remember that perception is everything. Tell the world who you are and what you’re about. Stick to that narrative. The world will see you the way you want to be seen as you walk in your purpose.
Of course, there are no perfect conditions. Start where you are with the resources you have. The path will become clearer as you move forward. When experiments work, deconstruct your success and build models until you have a template.
The next tip is to study what’s out there, evaluate if you add any value, and tailor the solutions to your needs. Thomas and his team sold 300,000 copies of their books without a publishing contract! They did this out of the trunk of their cars and using the mailing services that were available to them.
Finally, how much you’re worth. Keep tabs on the market rate, but know your own rate and ask for it. Continue to raise your rate as you gain more skills and experience.
There are positives to being different. You bring something new into the room and everyone wants to learn from that. Take advantage of being the left-handed pitcher in a right-handed game!
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Nobody owes you anything. You owe you.
When you become the CEO of your life, you shed victimhood and eliminate your disadvantages. Take time to discover your superpower, that unique talent you can improve with practice and dedication.
Applying your skill will open up room for your purpose. When you operate in this domain, you can make the most of your opportunities and thrive as a performer who understands their value in society and on the market. Understand your worth, gain knowledge, become a top performer, and express yourself in ways that will transform you into a triple threat.
You’ll then be operating in miracle territory where you’ll become a viable business. More than anything else, you’ll be doing fulfilling work that will elevate the experience of everyone you come across.
