Feel Like An Underdog? Do This To Become A Champion In Minutes

 

Reframing can change your perspective on a situation. It can also change the way you view your life. Imagine this: You are dyslexic. Despite this seeming disadvantage, you end up being very successful in business. Are you successful in spite of your condition? Or are you successful because of it? In this episode, April tells the inspiring story of such a man. Despite his dyslexia, he was able to start and sell two very successful computer companies. He turned his “disadvantage” into a powerful advantage. In this episode of The Winning Mindset Mastery Podcast, April shares two more stories of people who achieved great success despite their seeming disadvantages. As you listen, you’ll think about your own disadvantages. You’ll begin to reframe them and start to believe they are actually powerful advantages you wouldn’t trade in a million years! So tune in now!

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Feel Like An Underdog? Do This To Become A Champion In Minutes

Thank you for joining me. What I love about reframing things is how looking at something from a different angle not only changes your perspective but can change the entire way you view your life, and it can be incredibly powerful. I’ve got a couple of reframes for you on that. One is something a gentleman said to me. He was talking about, “I had dyslexia. I barely graduated high school, but I did all right. I had two computer companies that I started. I was able to sell both of them. I still did okay.”

I could still hear the way that he felt about his different way of learning and viewing the world because when he went through the school system, it wasn’t seen as a good way to look at the world and see things as other folks who learned in a more standard way. What I find so interesting about it is time has told us over the years that’s an antiquated way of looking at things. Folks who have dyslexia or learn in a different way tend to have more creative minds. They see things differently.

 

I shared with him, “What if it is exactly because you had dyslexia and because you saw the world in a different way, and your brain thought more creatively that you were able to start those two computer companies that you were able to sell? What if you didn’t succeed despite your disadvantages? What if you succeeded because of them? What if they became your advantage?”

I’ll give you another example. This one is a little shallower, but it’s also real. I was an ugly child. It is what it is. You can argue with me if you want because I ended up looking okay as an adult, but I went through an ugly childhood. I got teased, and the kids were mean to me. It was the best thing that could have happened to me because for so many years, being pretty was not something that I was good at. It mattered to me to be kind and smart and find ways that I could make an impact that had nothing to do with the way I looked.

I’ll be candid. I’m sure I was a better friend than a better person because I knew what it felt like to be teased or judged based on the way you looked. That “disadvantage” when I was younger made me a better person. I wouldn’t change it for anything. There are so many disadvantages that do that for us. It’s not just in our personal life. It’s also in business like the gentleman with the two computer companies.

A more well-known example is Ray Kroc. He was the Founder of McDonald’s. If you ever saw the movie, it’s a great movie. I don’t necessarily endorse his business practices. Some of the things he did were very shady, but it’s incredible to watch the story. There’s a lot you can learn if you like business and want to know how things happen. What I found incredible was he was someone who did a good job of turning a disadvantage into an advantage. He was one of those people that always had this new big thing and always had something that he was going to sell, and people didn’t believe much in him.

 

What was so neat about watching the McDonald’s story unfold is he drove so incredibly far from the middle of the US all the way out to California to sell a few milkshake makers because he was not an incredibly good salesperson. He got an order for three milkshake makers, and that would have been a big deal for him. He drove all the way out there.

He wasn’t a great salesperson. He had no choice but to drive all the way out there for an order because he needed that business. His disadvantage was that he wasn’t that great of a salesperson for that product yet his disadvantage of not being that great of a salesperson and not doing that well with his quota led him to see what the McDonald’s brothers had done with their business. That changed the entire course of his life. The fact that he had always had to fight so hard to make a sale and sell an idea gave him the grit that it took to get through franchising McDonald’s.

Doing a lot of things the wrong way is how a lot of us learn in business. Share on X

Doing a lot of things the wrong way is how a lot of us learn in business. You do it the wrong way first and then figure it out, but then happen on an idea that made it incredibly successful. I won’t ruin the movie for you, but understand that is another example of taking what many people would see as a disadvantage and using it as an advantage. That example as well as the first one is showing you how you can see a disadvantage but the struggle that you go through because of it makes you stronger, makes you better, and gives you a huge competitive advantage.

 

Here’s my challenge for you. The next time you feel like for some reason you are behind the power curve or you don’t have what it takes or the deck is stacked against you, I want you to think about these stories and what you are going to gain from the struggle or what you already have because of it. That is going to be your advantage that you wouldn’t trade in a million years because the moment you do that and reframe it that way, you’re going to be that much closer to experiencing a new incredible advantage. Here’s to your success.