What's The Big Idea: Rich Litvin: How To Avoid The Hidden Traps That Successful People Fall Into
“Success doesn't have to be an end point, it should be a start to what comes after.”
Today’s guest: Rich Litvin
His big idea: How to avoid the traps that successful people fall into.
Rich Litvin runs a leadership consultancy for world leaders, celebrities and the extremely successful people in Los Angeles and London. The methodology is deep coaching. Bespoke. Not time-based.
Ultra-successful people – people you would assume don’t need a coach – are the ones who call Rich. His clients include Olympic athletes, Presidential candidates, Hollywood film directors, Special Forces operatives and serial entrepreneurs.
Rich is also the author of a best-selling book on coaching and he runs a program for 40 of the world’s most successful consultants and coaches. In my opinion, he is the smartest voice out there on how to coach for maximum impact, while also maximizing your bottom line.
Listen to What’s The Big Idea on your preferred platform below:
Key insights Shared:
Success doesn't have to be an end point, it should be a start to what comes after.
Coaching used to be called leadership, great leaders know how to motivate and set strong goals and coaching is the same, listen to someone, be willing to challenge and lead.
The word listen has exactly the same letters as the word silent - this is at the heart of coaching.
The weird way to listen better as suggested by Rich - poke your tongue out of your mouth, and hold your tongue with your thumb and index finger. If you hold your tongue your not making the same micro movements that you typically do when you’re listening.
Coaches don't need to provide insight for the people at the top of their field, they make the space for the client to have the insights.
There are a lot of traps on the way to success. We cover 4 main ones:
Isolation trap: as you become more successful you outgrow your old community and it’s hard to let them go. It’s tempting to surround yourself by people who follow you but it’s ultimately unhealthy.
Emptiness Trap: Successful people will keep pushing themselves hoping to be satisfied once they reach some certain goal only to find that money or recognition wont satisfy them alone. In reality, money or general success will not lead to fulfillment and the result is a feeling of emptiness.
Impostor trap: the more success you have, the more of a fraud you feel. High achievers often feel like they’re not really doing very much they don’t deserve what they’ve created. They have this feeling like they might be “found out” as an impostor who somehow created this success for themselves. Sometimes they feel lazy like their success is coming to easy.
Zone of genius: This is one of Rich’s explanation for feeling like an impostor when you’re successful. When you’re doing on a few things where you make the biggest impact but it can often feel like you’re not working very hard.It’s a fraudulent paradox, because its a sign that you’re performing at a high level.
The busyness trap: Driven people see their productivity as an asset and often they feel great when they’re grinding and constantly being recognized for their hard work. But there’s a limit to how long you can push yourself.
Put your oxygen mask on first: As a leader you sometimes need to take care of yourself first. If you don’t make the conscious decision to take care of yourself, you’ll burn out and the people underneath you will internalize these negative traits as well.
If you find that you’re the most interesting person in the room. Then you’re in the wrong room.
The way out: find and create communities of fascinating people who continue to inspire and challenge you.
Everyone needs a place where they can be proud of what they achieved, even the highest performers. You need a space where you can brag about what you’ve achieved and be around people who understand the pressures and successes you’ve experienced.
There is often a loneliness to being a leader. they feel like they can’t be honest about their fears to a board of directors, to peers, even to your partner. It’s important for successful people like this to find a place to voice their concerns and check in with people at the same station of life.
The problem with being a visionary is you’re always looking forward and you’re not looking back and appreciating what you’ve accomplished.
Write your own obituary, if you passed away right now what would you be know for? If you lived until you’re 90’s, whats the impact that you want to have on the planet. It’s a classic exercise that still holds a lot of power for Rich when working with clients.
to learn more about Rich and his work:
Rich’s podcast: One insight