Why Your Biggest Mistake Is Actually Your Greatest Strength

Welcome to the Paul Vette podcast. I'm not going to talk about how it should be done, but mainly about who you need to be. I challenge you to become the owner of your true identity. Time for your breakthrough and pleasure in your business. Max Verstappen is not a world champion because of this one thing. And many conversations are about this. Max, two points away from being world champion. If he had two more points, he would be tied with... If they were tied, the number of victories would count. And Max has one more. And yet many conversations are about this one thing. Namely, in Spain, Max was in a battle with Russell and there was a moment where Max Verstappen, according to many, lost his coolness. So there he did something that resulted in him getting a time penalty, if I'm correct. And because of that, he lost positions and therefore points. And I find the conversation about that extremely interesting, because that's not where he lost his world championship. No, that's precisely what brought him so close to possibly still becoming world champion. But Paul, he lost points there. Yes, but what many people, including you and almost the whole world does, is look at what went wrong at what moment and how can we fix it? But listen, that moment shows what Max Verstappen's personality is. What lives deep inside him. And that moment shows exactly why Max has the qualities to even fight for the world title this season. So it's enormously important to see that probably the whole world falls... Not the whole world, but many people and especially haters, but also many people who support Max will say that's where he lost it. But I saw a quality in him there that actually makes him a winner. And that's what many entrepreneurs do too. They look at themselves, at their year, at their day, at their past. And then they say, that's where I dropped everything. But what if those points you're looking at, where you think that's where I dropped everything, that underneath that is actually your greatest strength. Because everyone falls for that. But that strength of Max Verstappen that came up then in a way that meant he indeed lost points in that race. That strength has ensured that he is a four-time world champion. It ensured that he ended up in Formula 1 at all. And it still ensures that he is respected in a certain way when he's racing. Because however you look at it, if you're going to race against Max, as a driver you're still careful. You handle an overtaking move differently than when someone else is driving in front of you. And that's Max's strength. And you know what's interesting? You can look at it that way too. And here you could say okay, here we're talking about layer 2 of identity. Max's emotions. So that's his strength in that area. I call it his strength. Many will say that's where he lost it. I say that's where he won it, because that's where he stayed true to himself. And the moment he had started dimming himself there, he would have been a shadow of who he was earlier for the rest of the season too. Look at Oscar Piastri. He was 104 points ahead of Max. And who became world champion? Lando Norris. Oscar Piastri took a hit somewhere in his identity. Max didn't, he was completely one with his emotions in that moment. The emotions that fit him, that belong to him, that belong to him as a winner. Layer 2 of identity. But what if you, in every layer of identity—there are five of them—your core beliefs. Layer 1, the innermost, the layer around it, the emotions, the layer around that, the story you tell yourself. The layer around that, your behavior, and the layer around that, your environment. What if you consult yourself in every layer of identity and think that you dropped the ball somewhere, which caused you to dampen your personality, which made you more cautious, which made you change your beliefs, which made you stop letting your emotions speak, which made you change the story you tell yourself into something that's not powerful but cautious. Which made you start curbing your behavior and just taking it a bit easier. Or the opposite, that's possible too. Which made you start adjusting your environment to how you think, yes, that's how it should be, instead of how do you want it? Yes, can you imagine what happens when you start adjusting yourself on every layer of identity? Then you've completely lost yourself. You lose your own drive, you lose your passion and fire, and you experience more stress because you're no longer walking your own path at all. And that's exactly what could have happened if Max hadn't shown that emotion back then in Spain. Because then I know for sure he would have been broken. That he would have said, forget the rest of the season. I'm going on sabbatical, let one of the juniors get promoted and they can finish the season. But that doesn't fit Max. Max just stays himself, even in that moment. And the rest of the season, that helped him. Because then you'll wonder, okay, what cost him the victory? What caused him not to become world champion? Very simple, Lando Norris had 2 more points. Over the entire season, Lando Norris had 2 more points. And you can scrutinize everywhere that Lando himself gained points on Max or lost points on Max or where Max gained points and lost points. But that doesn't matter. It's no longer relevant at all. The reality is Lando Norris has 2 more points and that's why Max is not world champion. It has nothing to do with what others are all talking about. Yes, in that race this, that race that, in that race this. No, because at the core, it's about Max staying himself. And that's why he could still fight for the world championship. Even though he didn't even believe in it himself anymore. But Max's mindset is this race, today, first corner I'll see when I get there. Tomorrow qualifying I'll see when I get there. Today is today, tomorrow is tomorrow. And I only worry about... You saw that beautifully in this last race, I thought. He only worries about wanting to be the best today. And for him, only today counts. Because at the end of the race he said, "I showed them again." We, the team Max, showed them again who's the boss. Even though he's not world champion, he still calls himself the boss. And I want you to search for that quality in yourself too. Where have you lost characteristics of yourself in your identity? Because others just think you dropped the ball there. While that was probably actually your strength too. So which core beliefs have you lost that used to serve you? Which emotions have you started blocking? Which stories in your head? Which voices in your head do you allow? And which ones would have helped you before? And what would you have said to yourself before that brought you further? What behavior do you no longer display while you could actually still display it because it does fit you? And which environment, which environment fits you so well that you will flourish. Not what people say, not what's normal or what should be, but what fits you. In which environment do you belong and create that environment for yourself. Because I know for sure that's where your strengths lie and not in what others tell you. Don't do that anymore, entrepreneur. No, because then it goes wrong. And I'm being a bit condescending, but that's how I see it, because then they belittle you. And I don't want people to belittle you. I don't want you to belittle yourself. I want you to focus on the highest achievable, on what you should be standing for, where you make the most impact and the most revenue. That's where you belong. And that's where you become world champion. Your growth has been further ignited. Ready to take full ownership? Then check the link in the show notes. --- This transcript has been translated from Dutch.