Ira Riklis Blog

“Practice as if you are the worst, perform as if you are the best.”

More about success from Ira Riklis.

How does one get to Carnegie Hall, or do anything great to mastery? Practice, Practice, and Practice.

But without the right teacher or mentor you’re practice will not lead you to mastery.  Ira should understand this because he didn’t get it right the first time. Or the next. In fact it took 20 years to find the right teacher to take him above advanced to EXPERT.

“I had a series of lessons, both group and private, with many different teachers over a period of about 20 years and was stuck in a rut of being an advanced skier. I was never going to be an expert skier. I could more or less handle any slope, but not with a high degree of confidence or elegance.”

Do you have the kind of perseverance to keep looking, keep practicing until you find this kind of coach? Or will you give up after 5 years? or 10?

It sometimes seems like your dream (whatever it may be), is so far off…

“I was gazing longingly at those on the slopes that could gracefully master any terrain, their movements so fluid and beautiful.  How I dreamed and wished that one day I would be able to do the same.  However, I had pretty well resigned myself to the fact of life that, as one of my friends once said after watching me ski, “fat, Jewish, kids from New York don’t ski like that.”

You must fight resignation where you have accepted that you cannot go further. Another businessman who teaches about self mastery is Mark O. Haroldsen. He writes:

Being smart or having a particular talent is certainly helpful, but the most successful people aren’t necessarily, or even usually, the smartest or most talented. They are the ones who put in the time and mastered the skills they needed to succeed.

Ira Riklis found his ski coach Mike Bartasuis and that made all of the difference. He’s now an expert skiier. Can you imagine the self-satisfaction now every time he skis? This is a key to success in anything you want to accomplish.