709. Striving to Be Better via Vision, Action and Belief

Mikael Dia

“Coming from the depths of Africa to actually becoming the first black senior vice president of any major banking company in the country, is pretty impressive. So I grew up idolizing my Dad. And the fact that he was able to allow his kids to reach this top level, that meant for me that I had a chance to start at the top level.”

Mikael Dia is a digital marketing expert and founder of Funnelytics, a software company helping entrepreneurs and marketers convert traffic into profit. A serial entrepreneur who scaled several businesses to seven figures and beyond, he is passionate about helping entrepreneurs understand their numbers so that they can get better results from their marketing efforts.

How Did You Start Using Your Talents?

Mikael and a few friends started a tee-shirt company, and out of necessity, he had to learn how to build an actual website. “We did not end up making much money—it was more like a hobby. But that website and that experience was a tipping point within my journey. Now I had even more belief and I started taking even more action. Now I was all in with this!”

The Most Impactful Turning Point?

“I graduated with a civil engineering degree, and in my first job I’d sit behind my computer the entire day creating architectural drawings of roads and where the sewer systems are—mapping it all out. I hated it so much that after 6 months I realized there was no way I was doing this for another 20 years! My two buddies and I decided that we were going to start a t-shirt company. So I went and Googled how to sell online, and that took me through a big rabbit hole of everything related to online marketing and building websites.”

The Most Powerful Lessons Learned?

“My dad was a massive influence in my life. He told me that I can accomplish absolutely anything I want as long as I have three core things: (1) Absolute clarity of my vision of what I want—in full detail, (2) Take daily action toward those goals, and (3) Have full belief in myself that it will happen. Now it may not happen the exact way I want it to, or planned, but if I have that vision and take action daily, then no matter what obstacles come my way, I’ll overcome them and there’s nothing that can stop me from achieving them. I have lived my life with this mindset and it has served me well.”

Steps to Success from Mikael Dia

Look at all of your different opportunities that arise and start weighing them across the following 4 boxes. If you can answer “yes” to three or more, then you will know how to make your decision.

1. Learn: If you can learn something new every day, you’ll have a certain sense of fulfillment.

2. Build: Turn something on a piece of paper into an actual physical thing that you can see, along with understanding the steps required, in order, for it to get to that stage.

3. Advise: Be able to chat with someone on a deeper level about business, life, philosophy, whatever, and to see them have that epiphany moment can get you really pumped up.

4. Freedom: Live your life the way you want. Choose your own path, instead of just listening to what you are told to do.