You’ve had mentors to help guide you in your path. How do mentors play into the “crazy and fearless†pursuit of success?
From Ray Kennedy [founder, president and CEO at American Product Distributors] to [businessman] Richard Griffin, who gave me the first office I could work out of for my business, to my father, who was in the insurance and investment game for over 30 years—their efforts were very instrumental. With mentors, you must look at what they do, understand how they do it, and move forward. It’s  essential to have them. Some you may know personally and some you may model after by example. You have to have these mentors to look at the steps they took toward their success and also learning from their failures.
When does crazy and fearless go too far in business?
When you go after a crazy idea with no plan of attack. It’s no good when you’re not looking at your vision and fleshing it out or you neglect to make sure you understand the process and create a business or life plan accordingly. You need to analyze and look at things, from short-term to mid-term to long-term goals. If you’re not doing those things, I think it’s stupid. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s okay to say, “Hey I want to get to the moon.†Many people would say that’s ‘crazy,’ but if you have a game plan for getting there, that’s success.
How does one go about thinking outside of the box to achieve the “crazy and fearless†success?
First understand, I didn’t even know there WAS a box. There is no box, and you can’t think out of something that is not there. Don’t limit yourself. You must create and innovate, as many of the successful people mentioned in my book have done.
Check us out tomorrow Wylie’s six “crazy and fearless” steps to career success, and a chance to win Arthur Wylie’s book Only the Crazy and Fearless Win BIG! The Surprising Secrets to Success in Business and in Life.