It is during times of great adversity that your false friends fall by the wayside and our true enemies show their face.  As a Rhino you need to remember the path to success in any venture, business, school, or life will have its peaks and valleys.  You will have times when you are on your "A" game and it appears you can do no wrong. People will cheer you on, friends will surround you and people will sing your praises.  Then there will be times when you hit a valley, a bad cycle or a few bumps in the road.  It is then that your true friends and supporters will show themselves.

It's tough being a Rhino

As a Rhino you need to remember that you will experience success and failures as your charge towards the things that are important to you.  You will be leading with new thoughts, new actions and new beliefs. This will make you stand out from the crowd.  At times you will have a team of Rhinos around you and at times you will be standing all alone.  You will be the only one willing to fight the fight, the only one committed to achieving your goal no matter what and the only one willing lose it all.  Everyone around you may have lost faith in you--your friends, your family, your colleagues, your bankers, your boss, and they will lose faith in your vision.  But you are a Rhino! You can charge and achieve your goals regardless of the negative people, circumstances and cycles.  When the going gets tough you will look around and often see nobody there to support you.  They lack the commitment, the strength, the will to perservere during the difficult times.  But you, Rhino, must charge on!  Success in any venture or project is based on your ability to persist and believe in yourself even when everyone else has abandoned you.

Cows in Rhinos clothes

Be careful of the Cows in Rhinos clothes.  It's easy for people to ride your coattails and pat you on the back when you are winning. When you are experiencing success, making progress and winning key victories there will be lots of "rhinos" there singing the company line and "committed" to the big vision!  But when the failures start, when the road gets difficult, and when total failure seems possible, the fear will set in.  They will get frazzled, lose their commitment and start to disappear one by one.  Their strong "Rhino" attitude will give way to the cow tendencies of doubt, blame and pity.  Soon, the very Rhino they followed and praised will be the "cause" of all their problems.  The decisions they supported in the past when everything was going well will now be the "bad" decisions of the Rhino leader they encouraged.  They will eventually fade away from the company, the project, or your life.  And yes, they will blame you, the Leader Rhino, for the hell their life has become. They will not accept personal responsibility, nor understand that success has its ups and downs and will try to tear you down.

The Good News...

The good news is that it is during times of great turmoil that the true Rhinos rise to the occasion.  Just when the cows are ganging up on you…just as you start to feel alone in the world… and just as your dreams seem to be vanishing in front of you, a miraculous thing will happen.  New true Rhinos will appear.  They will admire your persistence, your courage and your willingness to charge full steam ahead even when the world is closing in around you.  As the cows in your life drop like flies because success is too hard, because they fear failure and because they have lost faith, new energetic Rhinos will appear.  They will be there during the rough times to help you, they will add experience, they will fill you with new energy and they will revitalize your dream.

The good news is that without failures, you will never know who your false friends are. You will never know who is really committed to your vision and dream until the road becomes difficult. Then and only then will people show their true colors.  It is then that the cows take off their Rhino costume and show their real traits. It is then that fear becomes the motivator rather than faith. It is then from out of nowhere new Rhinos will arrive on the scene and help create the next success.  Some of these new Rhinos have been there all along and because the cows have disappeared they can now move up the company ladder or team.  Some of these new Rhinos come to your aid because they see the tremendous potential of your vision if the right people were on the bus.

From Failure to Success
These new Rhinos will take you from a valley of failure to a peak of success…and they will deserve to share in the glory. They had the vision, the persistence and the thick Rhino skin to support you when nobody else would and to see a path to success when everyone else saw only failure.

The Real World
The true value of Rhino Living is that every email comes from a combination of academic knowledge and real world knowledge.  This email is dedicated to all my true Rhino friends that have stood by me and my visions during the difficult times often with great personal sacrifice. This email is also dedicated to the new Rhinos who have come on board to help lead the charge to the next level of success.


"The definition of success--To laugh much; to win respect of intelligent persons and the affections of children; to earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give one's self; to leave the world a little better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition.; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm, and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived--this is to have succeeded."  -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Failure Is All In Your Head!

"To try and fail is at least to learn. To fail to try is to suffer the loss of what might have been."
-- Benjamin Franklin, statesman

Most people fail before they take the first step. They believe they will fail so they don't even try. They fear criticism so they don't charge boldly in the direction of their dreams. Most failure is the failure of a person to take the risk and the challenge to create something better. If you are a Rhino (and we all have a little Rhino in us), you need to understand that living a cow life standing in the field of safety and mediocrity is no way to live. Giving up your life in exchange for safety, and security is to not live at all. Do you fear failure? If so, why? What is there to fear?

Change Your Perspective!

"Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway" is a great motto and a great book which I highly recommend. You need to change your perspective about failure. Remember, life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it. Simply changing how you view "failure" can change your life.

Failure is a very positive thing. It teaches you how to do it better next time, increases your skills, increases your knowledge and improves your perspective. Failures give you wisdom, the wisdom to make better, more efficient decisions in the future. Many people look at failure as some permanent state that will forever define who they are. The fear of failure at work, in sports, at home or in the public eye prevent most people from living their dreams.

Change your perspective from seeing failure as a permanent destructive force to a positive learning experience that is essential on the path to success. You will not be a perfect success at everything you attempt. Success in any field comes from doing some things right and doing some things wrong. The final product is success created by the ups and downs, the positives and negatives and the modified actions created by small hurdles ("failures") along the way.

What Will People Say if I Fail?

Who cares?? Seriously, do you really care what the cows will say about you while they stand in the field criticizing you for taking a chance? Remember, the cows are scared to leave the herd and live their dreams. You are creating the life YOU desire, the life YOU want to live. Not a life justified by the cows! If you fail it is a very good sign; it means you are moving forward, you are challenging your intelligence and you are taking chances. If you fail, it means you are not standing still in the pasture with the cows! People will always remember your success more than your failures. And people that constantly hang on to your failures are doing it justify their own lack of action.

I AM A GIANT 6,000 POUND FAILURE!

Guess what? I am a giant rhino sized failure! I have failed thousands of times and I expect to fail a million more times in this adventure called life. You are reading this and becoming a Rhino because of my failures. I have faced adversity and I continue to charge, I have taken failure and made it a positive and I have gained tremendous knowledge to help you achieve success faster because of the information I learned through my own failures.

When I was a chiropractor, I would convert 3 out of 10 new patients to a lifetime patient. Essentially, if I had a cow outlook, I failed to convert 7 out of 10 patients to become my ideal patient. But by converting 3 patients per week to lifetime care, I built the largest practice in Pennsylvania. 3 wins a week was all it took to see 800 patients a week and build a very successful practice.

In the restaurant business, I have opened 10 restaurants and closed 3. What did I learn in closing 3 locations? When you have a bad location, close it quickly and don't spend time, money and energy trying to save the wrong spot. These restaurant failures taught me how to better investigate locations, obtain better financing options, perform better staff training and most of all, that it was okay to admit you picked a bad spot or the wrong staff and let it go. The biggest lesson in this experience was to let the losers go, to stop pouring time, energy, money and emotion into a sinking ship.

Pride, embarrassment, and fear of public failure kept some of these locations open a year too long. When you have failed at a project, a dream or a goal, and you know it’s time to move on and try something else, do it! Follow your gut. If it is a temporary setback, a lesson, or hurdle, keep charging. If you know in your heart something is over don't worry about the public, and don't worry about the cows -- do what is right in your heart and your gut.

"Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open."
-- Alexander Graham Bell, Inventor

You Must Fail to Succeed

As a Rhino, you need to embrace failure and learn from it. It is an important element of success and you cannot succeed without it. With every goal you set, you will encounter failure along the way. Expect it, welcome it and learn from it. Share the knowledge you gain from failures and help other Rhinos bravely face the failures in their life.

Action steps:
1. Change your perspective. Remember, failure is part of the game and every failure holds the seed to an equal or larger positive.

2. Get out of the pasture. Mental blocks about failure are preventing you from living your dreams. Get out there and live your dreams. You will not regret it!

To win big in life you need to take big risks, which means you will encounter some big failures. Just keep charging, rhinos, and you will succeed! 

You have this one life to live, this one chance to live your dreams, this one chance to make a BIG impact on the world! So what are you waiting for? Get out there and do it!  Remember, you are a GIANT thick-skinned rhino and when you are passionately charging towards your life's dreams nothing can stop you!

The only limitations that exist are the limitations in your own mind! The restrictions in your mind were put there by your friends, parents, co-workers, and even by your own negative self-talk.  When you follow your passions and do what feels right for you, all of these limitations will begin to disappear.  All the garbage in your head and all the negative beliefs you hold have prevented you from following your passions and living an inspired life!

Overnight, all of the thoughts and actions that hold you back from following your passions can begin to go away.  Years of fear, negative self-talk and negative external cow talk can begin to hold less power over you if you simply start to believe in yourself, your passions and your gut.  You don't need to justify your passions to anyone.  What inspires you, motivates you and excites you is what makes you unique!

If your passion is to start the next Microsoft, do it! If your passion is to help end Malaria in Africa, go do it!  If you want to open a business you are passionate about....charge!

Be safe, be practical!
I know you have been told, "be practical, be safe, take the stable job." You have also been told to "start your 401k, get good health benefits, and stay long enough to get a pension." I’m not asking you to be irresponsible but you need to ask yourself if living a boring, non-passionate, "safe" life is better then grabbing life by the horns and charging through this great adventure called life!  Sure taking the passionate rhino path will be bumpy at times, you will encounter failure and defeat, but you will not now the taste of regret! Every failure will make you stronger and more powerful.  You have to ask yourself if giving up on your dreams is worth health benefits, a 401k and gold watch when you retire!

Show me the Money!
You can monetize your dream!  An amazing thing happens when you follow your passion; the money follows too.  When you live a life inspired by your dreams, the financial aspects of your life seem to miraculously fall into place.  Essentially if you are truly passionate, truly on fire about achieving your dreams, the money will follow!  Even if your dream is to have a non-profit organization to help the homeless, you can access millions in donations to make your organization grow.  When you have a dream, you will find a way to make it profitable.  Follow your passions and the rest of the pieces will begin to fall into place.

Whether your dream is to own a restaurant, start a charter school, become a rock star, run for political office, be any accountant, or raise a family, it doesn't matter. If it is your passion go for it and put everything into the charge! The Universe will begin to provide you with the tools you need to monetize your dream!

ACTION STEPS:
1. List your dreams, your passions: What would you do tomorrow if you won the lottery? If you could work like you didn't need the money, what would your ideal job be?

2. Cow forces:  What internal and external cow forces in your life are holding you back from following your passions?