17: Why You're Always One Idea From Success

On today's episode we have on Clarity Coach, Emad Aldajani and we are talking all about having a positive mindset. Having a positive mindset will indicate if you will sink or swim in your entrepreneurship and resiliency will guarantee success. 

In this episode we cover:

• What all successful entrepreneurs have in common
• How to bounce back in the hard times as an entrepreneur
• What should be your #1 skill you learn first as an entrepreneur?
• Our top positive mindset books

To connect with Emad:
www.emadaldajani.com

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Chapters

• 1:54 How Emad Found Clarity In His Life
• 7:44 Most Powerful Saying That Influenced Emad
• 12:06 Emad's Regrets In His Early Years Of Business
• 13:56 Learn To Bounce Back
• 15:08 Advice To His Younger Self

Transcript

 [00:00:00] [00:01:00] Hello guys, welcome back to Behind Their Success podcast. I am Paden Squires, the host. And today on the podcast, we have Emad Aldeljani. he is a clarity coach who specializes in supporting overwhelmed and confused startup entrepreneurs. He's been on a journey since 2005 and had a significant turning point in 2023, which can provide all of us some unique insights and lessons in success and entrepreneurship.

Paden Squires: Thanks Imad for coming on the podcast. Welcome.

Paden Squires: you say you're a Clarity Coach, tell me a little bit about that or give us a little bit about your background.

Emad Aldajani: Yeah. So,I started in 2005, where it was just a goal to change [00:02:00] my personal life. I was struggling. I was struggling with a single question, which is that life is pointless. Because I was seeing people around me going through the same stages in life where you go to school, you graduate, and then you work, have family, and it's the same stages, and to me that was pointless, so if I don't have a sense of purpose, I feel really frustrated.

Emad Aldajani: So that was the beginning of my journey. Because that feeling of pointlessness, it's, it's painful and I was suffering from it. So I started to work with my emotions for years. I started to learn personal development skills until around 2010, I believe. And that's where I started my coaching journey, with only emotions.

Emad Aldajani: But along, My journey, what I found is when I work with people, they want more than just emotions. So I will start with emotions, but then what I discover is sometimes we have to discuss relationships. [00:03:00] Sometimes we have to discuss money. Sometimes we have a belief system. So I started to build upon what I've already learned until 2023 where I said, okay, now I can put it all together.

Emad Aldajani: I have that kind of holistic approach. And at the same time, I have that sense of purpose where that sense of fulfillment, I said, okay, now I am ready. And that's the short version of my story. 

Paden Squires: So, you know, you say you, you were fighting like the sense of hopelessness or I guess, pointlessness,and I think we all get that feeling, certainly from time to time,tell us a little bit, You know on your journey, or how you navigated that yourself, or how you turned that corner, I remember the first book I ever read, that, that book, it was The Power of Your Subconscious Mind. That was the first book I ever read. I read and I started, it didn't make that sense to me because there is no logic, but I said, okay, let me try to practice it.

Emad Aldajani: So I tried it and I started to [00:04:00] feel a huge shift in my emotions in my life as well. So that was the beginning of my journey. Then I started to meet people who can teach me. I started to read books, attending seminars. But then I came to a certain point where, What I was learning wasn't enough.

Emad Aldajani: So I went to a solitude where I was just obsessed with reading, reading, reading, and nothing made any sense. Literally speaking, that sense of pointlessness continued to be there until something changed, which is this. When I go into meditation, a state of silence. The sense of pointlessness disappears.

Emad Aldajani: But then when I connect with the world again, the sense of pointlessness comes back again. I start to feel it. So there is something missing. There is a point where I know I can detach from it, but then it comes back later on. But then I learned sales. Once I learned sales, it changed everything.

Emad Aldajani: That's where the sense of pointlessness disappears. [00:05:00] Because now. I can go into solitude, into meditation where I am just with myself and I'm also able to connect with people through sales, through communication. And that's where there is, for whatever reason, that pointlessness disappears once I integrate meditation and sales.

Paden Squires: Very cool. So yeah, you know, it, I would say I have a little bit of a similar journey where You know, when I started learning a lot of this type of stuff, whether, training your subconscious mind or, the biggest book, at least here in the United States is think and grow rich, which is all about training your subconscious mind.

Paden Squires: And it's the number one selling personal development book by far, in the United States, 10 times more sales than the second book. but learning how to train your subconsciousness and realize that, you can do that, right? you can train through repetition and getting really clear and specific on what you actually want.

Paden Squires: You can train your brain to then go out and actually start looking for [00:06:00] those things. 

Emad Aldajani: Mhm. Definitely. That was a turning point where I shifted from there being no way out to probably I can do something about it. That was the turning point. 

Paden Squires: It's also where we're also where I'd say I have a similar story. I started down this same type of journey. I read a lot, spent a lot of time listening to podcasts, reading books, taking in all this information.

Paden Squires: And it took probably years before I ever really started to do anything with the information, right? As in, I was just taking it all in and that's all good. And it's all good to get that knowledge and whatnot, but nothing really happens until you start implementing some of this stuff.

Emad Aldajani: Definitely. As a matter of fact, let me add this. I wasn't really able to do anything with what I learned until I start to learn about entrepreneurship. Because that's where implementation starts to happen. When now, what? I learned, but what to do with it? [00:07:00] So it's, you learn what to do with this information, how to put it together, how to organize it.

Emad Aldajani: That's, it becomes actionable. And 

Paden Squires: you know, we've,we've said on this podcast and other episodes, it's like entrepreneurship, I believe is the number one self development tool. It's really cool because, you're interacting with customers, you're doing different things and You know how you feel about things are going doesn't really matter like the market Just tells you if you're doing well or not, and it's this constant feedback loop You know you're getting constant honest feedback from the market Telling you what you're doing, right and what you're doing wrong and what you're not You might need to change.

Paden Squires: So tell us, you've been on this bit of the journey. What would you say is your best skill or your skill that leads to your success?

Emad Aldajani: I was in a seminar. It was about communication. It was by far one of my best seminars. The presenter said something very powerful. And since then I memorized it and I started to apply it into my life.

Emad Aldajani: He said, never end your thought with a negative thought. And the [00:08:00] question is, what do you mean? And he said, always remember, end your negative thought with, but, I will figure it out. And that's resourcefulness. That sentence, in itself, is basically, when you're struggling in life, when you look for answers, when you feel like you are stuck, always remember, you can think, but always remind yourself, I will figure it out.

Emad Aldajani: Or I don't know, but I'll figure it out. So my strongest skills or my best skill so far is resourcefulness. I love it because it doesn't matter where you are standing in life. You can be resourceful. actually resourcefulness. I feel it's related to even creativity. You can find something that you can do and apply in your life.

Emad Aldajani: Always. There is a way out. Always. There is something to be done for 

Paden Squires: sure. And one thing, I personally have my own visualization that I read every single morning. it's a 8. 5 by 11 page, normal piece of paper. And, it's front and back has [00:09:00] everything that I want to accomplish in the next three months and how I'm going to do it. And I read that every single morning. I've been doing that for a couple of months now, and I can really tell the difference in my positivity, my negative thoughts around a lot of this stuff, a lot of that is starting to fade away.

Paden Squires: But one thing in that visualization that's related to this is that I say to myself every day, it's like, when I think a negative thought, I immediately trigger a grateful thought to replace it. and for people like me, even 10 years ago, I don't think I would have, or even five years ago, would have really understood that.

Paden Squires: yes, I understand that somewhat intellectually, but I don't know that I really would have believed that, if that makes sense. 

Paden Squires: what would you say is the best decision you've ever made? When it comes to entrepreneurship and all this, all this stuff

Emad Aldajani: to never give up one of the hardest things for me to do is to give up. Even if I decide to give up, my belief system will not allow it. There is a certain point in my life where [00:10:00] I'm tired. I'm stuck. There is nothing I can do. But the next day I'll find myself going to the library, buying new books, looking and finding seminars because always the idea, well, what if it's only one more book?

Emad Aldajani: What if it's only one more seminar? What if it's only one more sentence? it's that idea, is, I don't need to give up 

Paden Squires: We're all like one idea away from, accomplishing whatever we want.

Paden Squires: it's just a lack of ideas and being able to expose yourself and, you know, and we all get there, where we have bad days or, I'm in the middle of tax season where every day is just hectic and crazy and busy and There's moments every day where I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is insane.

Paden Squires: I'm overwhelmed. I just want to walk away. But you got to realize that's really just your emotions talking there in the moment. And that if you can take a step, separate yourself from it, man, you'll start feeling a lot better quickly.

Emad Aldajani: another. [00:11:00] an important decision I made. So I wouldn't say one. The second one is this, which is, I believe, even more powerful, which is this. when things didn't make that sense to me, I started to come up with my personal conclusion. So if I learn something and it doesn't make sense to me and it doesn't give me the outcome I start to come up with my personal conclusion, regardless of.

Emad Aldajani: the writer or the speaker if it doesn't work that i'm dealing with reality I'm dealing with facts if it works. it doesn't I wouldn't blame myself. I'll come up with another conclusion That makes sense to me and gives me the outcome. I am. Yeah, 

Paden Squires: Absolutely Yeah, and it's important, you go to seminars you read different books and learn from different people It's important that you don't just take all that in without Thought like You want to learn from everybody?

Paden Squires: You don't really want to be a follower of any certain person But you want to take what works from them and what makes sense to you in your life and some of it just doesn't make sense and you need to [00:12:00] reject that but it's important to think through a lot of that stuff. we asked you what's one of the best decisions you make?

Paden Squires: what do you think is one of one of the bigger mistakes you've made?

Emad Aldajani: two big mistakes. Number one, impatience. And number two, not learning about money earlier. These are my biggest mistakes where when I started, I didn't have that, that much patience. So I wanted to, but I was in a hurry. I was looking, I want things fast, fast. That was one of my biggest mistakes because anything we want in life, it will take time.

Emad Aldajani: And usually it's more time than what we expect, more effort than what we expect. It's always more than what we already planned for. That held me back. 

Paden Squires: that point there of more work and more,yeah, everything, everything's going to take longer than you probably think it is because you don't know what you're even getting yourself into when you start.

Paden Squires: And so being aware of that, the things are going to take more work, more effort, [00:13:00] more energy than you really even realize. But the flip side of that is even though it takes more effort, it's going to be worth it more than you even realize, right? It's good. It's going to take away more effort and it's going to be worth it.

Emad Aldajani: that's where I came up with the idea of, before starting your entrepreneurship journey, you have to know the journey before you start because it will be more than what you expect in terms of time, energy, effort, money, it's almost always more and you're going to 

Paden Squires: run into all kinds of bumps on the road.

Paden Squires: You're going to do something stupid, lose a bunch of money. you're going to do all that stuff. and if you knew all that beforehand, you probably would have never started.

Emad Aldajani: Actually, there is a point in my life where I thought of it. If I know the journey will be this challenging. I wouldn't start in the beginning,but as a matter of fact, I have found a way around it, which is this. Learning to bounce back is more important than success [00:14:00] itself. So once, once I learned that I can bounce back now, it doesn't matter what challenges I am facing because at the end of the day, I'll bounce back.

Emad Aldajani: It's so powerful. It's the fear of the challenge, the fear of suddenly disappearing just with the idea that I can bounce back and I will bounce back. And 

Paden Squires: that's, that's, you'd see the common thread and most successful people are the fastest to get back up off the floor. they get knocked down and the most successful people get knocked down more than anybody else because they're running in the most stuff because they're doing the most stuff.

Paden Squires: But what separates them from everybody else is that, you know, you're going to get knocked down in life, but if it takes you a week To deal with that and start again, you're going to be a whole lot, you're going to be a lot further behind than the person that it just takes an hour for them to get over it and start moving on.

Paden Squires: It's really resiliency.

Paden Squires: So I'm going back to your younger self, right? Going back to say 2005 or when you started, [00:15:00] really exploring all these topics. Now that you are, further down the road, What's one piece of advice you'd give your younger self might speed along the process. So if you go back and tell yourself one thing, what would it be?

Emad Aldajani: If you can learn about money earlier, if you can't, I'm so happy with you. I'm so happy that you made these decisions. 

Paden Squires: Yeah. You know, money's a, money's an interesting thing and it's, I know a lot of very skilled entrepreneurs that maybe aren't skilled with money. And there's a big difference in skill set: there's a skill set of making money and then there's a skill set of keeping money and growing and investing money.

Paden Squires: And those are not necessarily the same skill sets. And, I, as a person that works deeply in those areas with a lot of different entrepreneurs and. it's tough to watch, right? Sometimes where they just don't understand the concepts and haven't spent the time learning about those things. And to be honest with you, money affects every area of your life, right? there's no area of your life that money [00:16:00] does not touch. 

Emad Aldajani: It’'s a huge subject when I am sometimes sitting and analyzing myself or sometimes when I'm working with people, I can't find the resistance to the rejection of money. And always I was looking for how to bypass these, this. These beliefs of rejecting it off of resisting it. And actually, I found a great idea, which is this.

Emad Aldajani: that you understand that money Equals sales. This is number one. If there is no sales, there is no money. You have to understand it. And then once you understand that when you learn sales, you will learn reciprocity in your relationships.

Emad Aldajani: You will learn how to care and how to receive care. You will learn communication. You will learn leadership. You will learn decision making. There are so many skills you will have To learn before you really learn how to sell. So once I found that idea that I can link money to sales and then sales to what's [00:17:00] important to us, which is relationships, which is to some extent care and love.

Emad Aldajani: It's so powerful and a lot of the resistance or rejection of money starts to disappear. That's so 

Paden Squires: important. the skill of sales, that's something that, I think I've gotten really good at in the last few years. and really how I got good at that is working on myself, It had nothing to do with anything external.

Paden Squires: I've spent years and years. Trying to make myself better and to learn and to understand how to communicate with people, how to influence people in a positive way, not to take advantage of them or mislead them or anything, but to influence them, to help them reach whatever goals they say they have. So yeah, the skill of sales, sales, they say, you know, sales solves all problems, doesn't solve all problems, but it certainly gives you the fuel to go to have the money and the resources to go solve other problems, in your business. So yeah, the [00:18:00] ability to sell and communicate with people, everything in the world's relationships.

Emad Aldajani: Yeah, this is, if I start my journey now, I would say sales will be the first skill to develop. Everything else comes later. First learn sales because many of the skills you will learn while you are learning sales. So start there, 

Emad Aldajani: One of the hardest subjects I have come across by far because when I started the journey of entrepreneurship, when you are moving from a traditional way of thinking or traditional way of living your life.

Emad Aldajani: Now, the question is how will you deal with your current relationships? What are you going to do? How will you build your relationships? How will you connect with them? So it's like to some extent, it's stuck, where you want to build new relationships, at the same time you have relationships that are sometimes holding you back.

Emad Aldajani: you have to learn to deal with them, because, honestly, I don't believe in the complete sacrifice of all my relationships. there are certain relationships, [00:19:00] although, We are not on the same journey. We are not on the same path, but still worth having. So the idea of just leaving everyone behind just because we are not the same, from the beginning of my journey, I refused to accept this idea because it's too much to handle.

Emad Aldajani: And honestly, it doesn't make that much sense to me. So That's one of the subjects that I feel as an entrepreneur, you have to learn this balance. not the first thing, but in the beginning, because you will meet these challenges in terms of relationships, especially if you are, let's say, if you have family, or if you have children, you, it's, you have to make that balance.

Emad Aldajani: And always remember that you can make that balance. It's not necessary to let go of everyone who are different. Yeah. Yeah. And that's 

Paden Squires: important. Yeah. So it's important that my advice around that subject would be to evaluate all your relationships, right?

Paden Squires: just spend time evaluating. Is this a positive relationship? Is this a negative relationship for what I'm trying to [00:20:00] achieve and the goal and the journey that I'm on? And is this a net positive relationship or not? Yeah. Yeah. Interesting stuff. Yeah. That's good.

Paden Squires: So Aman, what's the best way people can connect with you? Is there a way to reach out to you or figure out more about what you do? 

Emad Aldajani: Yeah, definitely. you can find me on my website www.emadaldajani. com E M A D A L D A J A N I. com. also you can reach me out actually through WhatsApp.

If they are interested, I have a free, a free guide to, for a predictable future to get into my newsletter.

Emad Aldajani: So if people are interested, I'd be happy to have them there as 

Paden Squires: well. I appreciate you coming on, man. I appreciate connecting with you and,coming in, you're zooming in here all the way from New Zealand, right? [00:21:00] Is that correct? Yeah. Yeah. But originally from Saudi Arabia, right? yeah, man. It was really good connecting with you. And I appreciate you coming on the podcast guys. Check out him on, obviously a guy that's done a lot of internal work and is ready to help share that with the world. So thanks guys. Thanks for listening. Tune in next time.

Paden Squires: Thank 

Emad Aldajani: you.

Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you found it valuable, please rate, review, and share it. That is the best way to help us build this and reach more people as we're trying to accomplish our goal of helping create more healthy, wealthy, and wise entrepreneurs. You can follow us on social media by searching for me, Paden Squires, or going to www.padensquires.com

com. On the website and social media, we're always sharing tips of personal growth, and there we can actually interact. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks guys.