You may know Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as a huge global movie celebrity and wrestling star, but did you also know that he runs his own Hollywood production company with Dany Garcia, Seven Bucks Productions?
Johnson’s career has continued to grow and branch out at an exponential rate since he benched his dreams of becoming an NFL legend at the age of 22 to pursue wrestling. It’s obvious that he hasn’t moved from wrestling champion to Hollywood’s highest paid actor in 2016, and onwards to be worth an estimated USD $220 million, without picking up a few lessons in business along the way. His success is due to an immensely committed work ethic, and a simple, yet strategic and incredibly empowering outlook on career progression. Here are a few things we can all learn from The Rock himself about reaching success.
PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR AUDIENCE
Johnson has always been advocated as an excellent listener. He’s incredibly tuned in when it comes to what his audience wants. He says that this is something he picked up early in his wrestling career:
“The greatest lesson I learnt in wrestling was the importance of listening to the audience. The moment I get in the ring, whether I am wrestling in a barn in front of 35 people or in a stadium with 100,000 people, I listen. Are they buzzing? If they are not where they should be, you do something to get them there. I built a career on giving the audience what they want.”
Johnson has over 13.2 million followers on Twitter, 132 million followers on Instagram and 57 million followers on Facebook. These figures do not even begin to encompass the extent of his adoring fans. He continually communicates with his fans, peers and various stakeholders in his career to determine what they want. We can all take a leaf out of Johnson’s book when it comes to achieving the integral balance between communicating with our audience, whether it be customers seeking our services or product, and listening to what they want.
WORK HARD, CONSISTENTLY
Hard work shouldn’t come in irregular spurts, advises Johnson, it should be carried out consistently, with a determined level of commitment.
“Success isn’t always about ‘Greatness’, it’s about consistency. Consistent, hard work gains success. Greatness will come.”
Consistently working hard means sustaining this ethic rather than overdoing it in short spurts and leaving yourself to crash and burn. Once again, it’s about balance. The balance between striving every day to reach your goals like a total boss, but giving yourself that much-needed downtime to recuperate and start the next morning fresh. How does Johnson do this? By carefully managing work, working out and family time.
GRAB OPPORTUNITIES
You aren’t going to grasp success by sitting back and watching opportunities pass you by. The reason why Johnson has dappled in so many different industries and taken on so many roles; wrestler, actor, producer and business owner, is because he grabbed opportunities as they arose.
“When you walk up to opportunity’s door: don’t knock on it. Kick that bitch in, smile and introduce yourself.”
Harness the confidence of The Rock when you are networking. If you want something, go and get it politely, yet assertively.
BE YOUR OWN ADVOCATE
This point flows directly on from the previous in terms of networking, selling yourself and promoting your projects. Sometimes you need to be your biggest fan, without acting like a total knob. If you aren’t sure how to do this; take a look at how Johnson achieves it with finesse. When he’s involved in a new production, he knows how to talk it up on his social media platforms and connect with his fans without tooting his own horn. It’s about making genuine connections and allowing your passion for your project to shine through so that people can’t help but catch your enthusiasm.
HAVE A GROWTH MINDSET
A growth mindset is when you believe that you can achieve something through hard work and dedication. Your talents are not set in stone; they can be learned and improved upon. You can reach higher and push yourself further. But to have a growth mindset, you must always be striving for more; for greater success, improved sales figures, wider customer parameters etc. The Rock says that part of what drives him is a hunger for more:
“I’ll never, ever be full. I’ll always be hungry. Obviously, I’m not talking about food. Growing up, I had nothing for such a long time. Someone told me a long time ago, and I’ve never forgotten it, ’Once you’ve ever been hungry, really, really hungry, then you’ll never, ever be full.’”
Find your drive and use it to propel you towards greater determination, solid commitment and success.
