Ford Saeks' Oct. 25 Club Industry keynote address—"Superpower Success: Unleashing Your Inner Superhero!"—explored ways in which fitness industry professionals can minimize weaknesses, maximize skills and ultimately find their true potential in both business and life.
Saeks, an author, entrepreneur and the CEO of Kansas-based Prime Concepts Group, was adamant that someone's past does not define their future. He cited his own upbringing in the housing projects of north Minneapolis. He is an orphan with a 9th-grade education. His first business endeavors were challenging, and success did not come easily, he said.
"Your success will only grow as fast as you do," Saeks told a crowd of 300 attendees in the Chicago Hilton's International Ballroom North. "If you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough. If you 'don't have time' for something, then it's not a priority."
Interestingly, at the core of Saeks' message was a series of not-to-dos as opposed to to-dos. He outlined seven common self-limiting habits to avoid, underscored by the notion that a superhero faces enough adversity as it is. The superhero cannot afford self-defeat.
Ford Saek's seven self-limiting habits to vanquish:
- Avoid short-term thinking. (Your big-picture goals live in the long term.)
- Avoid negative thinking. (This is different than assessing risk and consequence.)
- Don't make excuses. ("You can either produce results or you can make excuses," Saeks said. "You can't do both.")
- Don't get caught up in solving insignificant problems. (Saeks calls this "approach avoidance." If you do this, you'll miss the big picture.)
- Don't over-analyze problems. (Saeks calls this "analysis paralysis." You can become so pre-occupied that you ironically make no key decisions at all.)
- Never procrastinate. (Tomorrow's challenges will become even tougher if they are stacked on top of today's unfinished business.)
- Never seek perfection. ("Done is better than perfect," Saeks said of tasks and work assignments.)
Saek's keynote was sponsored by ABC Financial.