3 Essential Skills for CEOs, Leaders and Entrepreneurs

My entire career is based on three skills. This is how I went from peon to CEO.

I don’t mean to demean anyone else’s job–just my own. My first job was work that didn’t matter to me and probably didn’t matter to anyone else. At that job, I mostly spent my days reading the internet and playing fantasy sports. My current job matters a lot to me (and hopefully to you).

I think these skills can all be learned and all have a permanent impact on what’s possible in your career:

• Writing is the art of clear communication.
• Coding gives you the “means of production.” You can build anything.
• Meditation puts you in (more) control of yourself. I call this mental pushups because a stronger mind makes everything else in your life easier.

In 2005, I was struggling to get hired by a hot startup in San Francisco. The CEO was interviewing people who were much, much more experienced than me. So, midway through the interview process, I wrote him a letter.

This letter explained in clear and direct terms how I would manage the engineering teams. Every other candidate was saying some variation of “look at my resume and trust me.” I’m the only one who could actually explain exactly why I was the best candidate. This startup spawned Twitter and years later, my boss invested in Coach.me.

In 2007, I wanted to start my own company. But truth be told, I didn’t have much of a product track record. And I certainly did not understand all the necessary elements required to run a successful business such as Payroll, bookkeeping, or product research. So, rather than listen to investors tell me I wasn’t good enough, I just built the product I wanted to build.

Three years later, that product was profitable, and I was living bi-coastally in New York and San Francisco while only working one day per week. Knowing how to code meant nobody could tell me no.

Now, I’m running Coach.me, a company that I think is my life’s work. It’s also the hardest work I’ve ever done. Every day, I’m beset by fear, anxiety and doubt. We’re walking a tightrope and I place all of the pressure for the success of the company on myself.

The only reason this works is because I started meditating two years ago. All my personal growth since then is based on the strength that comes from a meditation practice. People explain this strength differently–for me it manifests as becoming aware of my own emotional and cognitive biases and then being able to focus on what truly matters.

All three skills have turned me into a better and more effective leader.

Today, I’m giving you a $15 coaching credit for a free week of coaching in one of these three skills to help you become a better leader, too. Once you build a skill, you’ll have it forever. Use the promo code SKILL to claim your $15 credit.

Achieve great things,
Tony, Founder/CEO of Coach.me

WRITE EVERY DAY with Coach Cecily Kellogg

“Without being able to press that Send Message every day, I am certain I would not have come as far with my writing. The positive comments motivated me to continue. I’m so grateful, because with that momentum I managed to write 500 Words nearly every day, started a blog, and am still going. It’s been only 3 months, and I feel like a new person. I am so grateful to Coach.me and for the opportunity to have an accountability coach. I am certain that this experience has transformed my life.” –Alina