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Health & Fitness

Shadowing the Best

I was having breakfast with Emmit Smith last week, and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones came up in conversation.

Emmit said: “One of the smartest things I did after being drafted was to ask Jerry if I could just hang out in his office and listen to him all day – all the conversations he’d have. It was the best thing I ever did.”

See, to be successful in business – and in life – you have to learn from people that you’re not normally accustomed to being around.

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Here’s Emmit Smith, a first-round NFL draft pick, a 21-year-old kid, who had the wherewithal to think, “I know this game of football, I have that down. But making money, and business deals, and things like that, I don’t know. So I’m going to latch onto someone who does.”

This was a classic example of “dig the well before you’re thirsty.”

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Everyone’s so busy all the time with their current problems that they don’t think to solve future problems before they come up.

Shadowing someone who’s traveled the path you want to travel – using them as a mentor – is a very good way to do that.

So – Who do you want to be like?

And have you started shadowing them? 

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