Is Covid Like Alcohol; Steve Sims

Hey, how you doing? This is kind of a weird conversation I was having with someone the other day, and we were talking about the impact that we’ve had with COVID. Because let’s be honest, over the last two years, and there’s no sign of it kind of going away anytime soon, we’ve had to change the way we interact. We’ve had to change the relationships we’ve had. And there’s been a number of things that have happened to us or for us. You see that was the classic Sean Stephenson. He always used to say, “This was done for me and not to me.” And COVID came along and a lot of people was like, “Ah, I don’t know what to do.” And they rejected back to binge-watching Netflix.

You see, we were given the opportunity. We were given the chance. Is this done for us? Or is this done to us? And here’s the daft thing. I actually equate COVID to alcohol. You see, here’s the weird thing. When you are really happy and you have a few drinks, what does it do to your mood? It amplifies that mood. Yet if you are really miserable and you have a few drinks, what does it do? It sends you down. You see COVID is an amplifier of the mood, the situation that you are in. If you had a bad relationship at home, hell, being stuck indoor for two days, that’s amplified how terrible that is, and you probably can’t wait to get divorced. If you’ve got a business that’s a bit rocky, online, marketing, whatever, it’s revealed the cracks. It’s revealed the shortcomings.

Now, there’s some situations where my example doesn’t work. If you own a hotel, hey, good hotel, bad hotel, you haven’t had a choice. But overall, I believe COVID has amplified the situation that you are in. Now amplifying it is one thing, but in order for it to amplify it, you’ve got to put yourself in that situation to start with. You’ve got to be the one that goes, “Hey, this is a good time for me,” or, “This is a bad time for me.” Just that simple shift of mentality is going to tell you whether or not you’re going to create greatness or whether or not you’re going to wallow in it and just binge watch shit.

Now here’s a funny fact. I actually wondered, I thought about it the other day, I wonder how many millionaires have actually come out of COVID. People that have actually gone, “Hey, this is a great thing. Let’s benefit from it,” and choosing that opportunity have actually become millionaires. And I was given that information and I actually went, “No. That can’t be right. That can’t be real. There’s no way that’s accurate. Go away, come back, check it again for me.” And they did. And here’s the shocking information. Between 2019 and 2020, 2,251,000 new millionaires were registered. Over two million new millionaires in a world, in a society, where most people are wallowing and bitching that they can’t get on with their life.

Over two million people decided, “Hey, there’s something here. There’s a problem.” And what do entrepreneurs do with problems? We solve them. And then we sell that solution as someone else for the exchange of a checkbook. The bottom line of it is, an entrepreneur finds the solution to your problem. During COVID over two million entrepreneurs found something that you wanted, that you could benefit from, and they sold it to you. They monetized that solution. Over two million people decided that this was a good opportunity for them.

Now I’m full of metaphors. They fall out of me left, right and center. But I talk about one quite frequently, the yellow car syndrome. This is a situation where someone drives over to your house and go, “Hey, Steve, look at my yellow car.” And you’ve never seen a yellow car like that. You’re looking at this thing going, “Oh my God, I’ve never seen that shade of yellow.” And then you’re driving down the road the following day, and what’s the only thing on the road? A yellow car. You see, that’s the exact same thing with opportunity. When your mind is opened up to that color, it’s the only thing you can see. When your mind is opened up to making things work for you rather than to you, your mind reacts differently.

And I noticed through all of my years, when I was speaking to hugely successful, powerful people, the one thing that came up as their attribute, their unicorn, their special trait, was that they were open to opportunity. Therefore, what did they see every day? Pure opportunity. And I often used to wonder how they had their mind switched on. And I asked them, “How do you always keep open? How are you so successful? How does your mind work? How do you train your mind?” And they said, “We do things differently.” You want big biceps. You want muscles. You want to learn a language. You have to practice. You have to exercise that thing.

So how do you exercise your mind to be open to new things? Well, that’s easy. You try new things. Now I practiced this. I actually practiced what I learned from those. What kind of moron would I be to get all this information from wonderful, powerful people and just bloody ignore it? One of the things they said was constantly practice doing things differently. I listen to different radio stations from across the globe. Some of them are absolutely atrocious, but I try them. The other week, I listened to Norwegian EDM music. Now I was listening to this like two o’clock in the afternoon. So it was well past midnight in Norway. And I was listening for one hour to Norwegian EDM, electronic dance music. And I can tell you wholeheartedly because I listened to it for an hour, worst music ever created. But I wouldn’t have known that had I not tried it.

And then I tried some other. I tried folk. I tried Western. I tried rock. I tried French. It doesn’t cost me anything just to move that dial on my computer radio station to listen to new radio. When you go to a restaurant, don’t have the usual appetizers, try something new. When you’re going home, don’t go straight, turn right. Go a different direction. Listen to a different podcast. Listen to a different show. Try things differently and your mind’s going to go, “All right, hang on a minute. We’re open to new things.” And when the mind opens, it looks, it scouts. And that’s when you start noticing so many yellow cars.

You see, COVID, I don’t know if it’s going to go anywhere. Hey, we haven’t ever found a cure for the flu. That’s still kicking around. Maybe we’ll just have a vaccine for COVID every couple years. Who knows? I’m not a doctor. But I do know I’m not going to sit on my ass binge-watching Netflix. In fact, I prided myself that that has not been the situation. And I’m very, very thrilled to be able to know some of those two million people that have actually decided, “Hey, I’m going to make this work for me and not to me.” Are you doing the same? And it’s not too late.

You see, we don’t know if we’re in here for another couple of weeks. We don’t know if we’re in here for another couple of months. But screw the timeframe. Just imagine if I said to you, “On June the 1st it’s gone, never hear from it again. It’s gone.” What would you do between now and June the 1st that’s different? How would you change? Would you go, “Well, great, I’ve got six months. I’m going to do XYZ.” Act as if. Try it. You don’t know if it’s going to end next week. You don’t know if it’s going to end next year. You don’t know if this is a five year stretch. You have no idea.

But you are in control of what you receive and what you action on. You are in control of the momentum that you can create by being open to opportunity and trying things differently. If over two million people can become millionaires in what a lot of people are bitching is the worst recession that most of them have ever known through their life, and we’ve never been around. Most of us weren’t around for the big recession, but this one, this was shocking. This one actually affected us all. Some people, it affected very well. Over two million people, it affected them very well. Change your mindset. Change your perspective. Change what you do normally to be open to opportunity.

Be the receptive person for opportunity and take chance of it. And then let me know it worked for you. Okay? I really want the best for you. But in this world that we’re in now, I don’t want you wasting it. One of the other big things I learned from very, very successful people is they can create more impact, they can create more relationships. But they cannot ever create more time. Value it. Value it. Value it. Value it. I can’t overstate it. Tomorrow you’re going to be dead. Now, I pray I’m wrong, but prepare. Don’t waste today. You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. As they always say, “Tomorrow is a gift. Treat it accordingly.” I wish you all the best. This is Steve Sims. Chat with you soon. Bye.

Well, I hope you enjoyed another episode of The Art of Making Things Happen with me, Steve Sims. And just imagine if you were in a room with these people, some of the listeners, some of the guests, some of my friends. Well, you can be if you attend a Speakeasy. Just head on over to simsspeakeasy.com and you’ll find out all about the details of our next event, location, city that we’re in. And quite simply, they’re there to make you smarter and more impactful. If that’s the kind of thing you want to do, you know where to go, simsspeakeasy.com. I’ll see you there or speak with you soon on the next episode. Bye.