Talking Motivation With Stanley Henry

In this edition of Man on the Street, we quiz Stanley Henry, Managing Director of The Attention Seeker, motivation, success and his best piece of advice.

What advice would you give your 20 year-old self?

You are awesome sober! You don’t need to be the party guy who is always drunk. People love you for you, and you don’t need to be drunk to convince them otherwise. So, either stop drinking or drink sparingly. As they say, it isn’t the alcohol; it’s how we are drinking it.

What is your main motivation?

My partner Claire, I really don’t want to let her down. Whenever I asked her to do anything crazy, she has said yes and has put a lot of trust in me. Be it move to NSW, Japan, Melbourne, or quit our great jobs and start our own businesses in NZ.

She has stood by me, trusted me and let me be me. In return, I need not let her down. I don’t need to have massive financial success, but I do need to give everything my best shot.

What is the secret to success?

Self-awareness and not giving a f**k what people think. Self-awareness because it gives you the ability to question and answer your WHY, so you know what success for you actually is in the first place.

Not giving a f**k because worrying about what other people think stops you from acting on your dreams. The happiness that comes from not caring about other people’s opinions is indescribable.

What is your advice for people to fund their dream?

Save money, don’t rely on anyone else. Have at least 12 months running costs in the bank before you start.

Don’t look up to the tiny percent of people who got lucky and built huge businesses really quickly. For every one of them, there are 1,000 business owners who failed miserably because they rushed in.

I didn’t start until I had 10+ years of senior leadership experience under my belt and 18 months running costs saved. Fund it yourself with your hard-earned money. Be patient and do the work. Any dream worth chasing should be hard to attain.

What is the best bit of advice, or quote, that resonates with you?

This was said to me by one of my brothers early on in my life about starting off with a new business idea.

The success of any business idea you have is inversely proportional to how many other people you need to help you.

 

Learn more about Stanley Henry and his work with the Nesian Network when they spoke at our recent M2 Summit.