Ask yourself: why does anyone have followers? It’s because they own it. Good leaders let their passion for what they do sweat out of them. You see this flicker in their eyes and you know they have something special about them. They live, breathe and sleep it. You get excited just hearing them talk about it, because they reek of passion. If you want to get somewhere, you also must own it. If you aren’t ecstatic about what you do, why would anyone else be? If you want others to get it, you better let it seep out of your pores.
You must take ownership of your passion.
When you are so excited about something that you can’t sleep, that’s when you know you have passion for what you do. I have had a hard time sleeping lately. My mind just won’t shut off and let me rest at night. It’s constantly racing thinking of how I can make my company better, faster and stronger. 
Magicians never tell the secrets to their tricks. Once they do, the magic and wonder disappears, and the magician is no longer valid to anyone anymore. He can get replaced by someone cheaper or younger. In business, you can learn a lot from them. To someone that lacks your skill, your knowledge is extremely valuable. They will constantly try to pick and prod it out of you and if you let them, you lose your leverage and power. A lot of people want your knowledge, but they don’t want to do what it takes to get to that point. They want you to do the research, spend the time and test it out first then just give it to them. I wrote about this in 
value and they will take your ideas, use it for themselves and forget you ever helped them. I’ve had to learn that the hard way. When I first started, I would give away too much. Pretty quickly I created competition for myself. You give man a fire, and he’ll burn everything down. I found out that if you create a titan, they will forget they were once merely human with you. 
We grow up in a world that is constantly asking for permission to do the things we want to do. In order to drive, you’ll need a license, in order to get a top paying job, we need the education and qualifications. We are constantly needing “permission” to succeed and do what we want. However, to do anything revolutionary, you can’t think like this. If you wait around always seeking permission, you can never do anything great and rarely get much accomplished. You’ll spend months or even years waiting on others to say yes to you. 
Recently, I learned that bugs can hinder your success. The other day I was driving down the road headed to Louisville for a meeting and a bug splattered across my windshield. It was this little splatter but it was right in my direct line of sight and I couldn’t help but notice it there glaring at me. It was hard to pay attention to anything else. So I hit the windshield wipers to knock it off, which only made it ten times worse and smeared it further. I couldn’t focus on driving or where I was going. I literally had to pull over on the side of the road and clean it off so I could see what was in front of me. I soon realized that I had missed my exit and driven for ten minutes past it because I was focused on that little bug rather than where I was going. 
A lot of people can’t stand waiting to fulfill their desires. They want it now, and they want it delivered. We have groomed ourselves to be this way. We live in fast food nation, where you place a call and get a hot pizza in 20 minutes delivered right to your door. The problem is that instant gratification rarely ever leads to outstanding results. You are never going to get 5 star steak delivered to your door in twenty minutes and it taste like it does at the restaurant. 
Undoubtedly, you realize you have competition in your business. There is always someone else trying to out do you and take your customers away. It’s important to know what they are doing with their businesses, but you shouldn’t structure your business around them. A lot of businesses battle each other and are constantly reacting to the competition. When one business offers a special the other runs out and tries to beat it with a better offer. When one company offers a new product or service, another runs out, throws on a new coat of paint, and puts their version out there too. The problem with this is that you start focusing solely on the competition and responding to them rather than doing what matters. Instead of innovating, you start imitating. Real growth and incredible change doesn’t occur when you are constantly responding to the competition. You’ll never do anything revolutionary by creating the the same or a little better than everyone else. Copying leads to mediocre results. Innovation can lead to big wins. When you don’t do things different, there isn’t anything that stands out about you amongst the herd out there. You just blend in with everyone else. Stand above the herd and create something something new. Do something different. 
The other day, I attended a seminar where the speaker, multimillionaire Blake Mallen, said: 
