Breakthrough is intentionally declaring that the glass is full and a half.
What is Breakthrough?
The Merriam Webster Dictionary says that Breakthrough is...
an offensive thrust that penetrates and carries beyond a defensive line in warfare
an act or instance of breaking through an obstacle
a sudden advance especially in knowledge or technique
a person's first notable success
Here's my personal definition:
Breakthrough is intentionally declaring that the glass is full and a half.
My declaration is an intellectual provocation to envision "what can be" and design your life beyond limitations. This is my chosen worldview and I intentionally focus on it. I'm the experiment: I have transformed my life several times and I intend to keep doing so for as long as I can.
I've stitched my life experiences in professional sports, business and the arts into a quilt of strategic skills that enables me to help ambitious individuals imagine their glass full and a half and lead from the future they design
Breakthrough Thinking is a critical skill in today's global economy, as most corporations focus on Repositioning, Redeveloping and Regenerating. The most enlightened among them are seeking ways to "leap beyond" the established concept of Capitalism to design a more innovative and sustainable business environment.
Breakthrough clears the path for your authentic achievement and leadership - as "going Beyond Personal Best" becomes your way of expressing your uniqueness, of creating new value, and of leaving a path for others to follow.
Key Markers of Breakthrough
Breakthrough implies transformation by purposely provoking discontinuity in the process of progressive improvement and reaching a new state, configuration or identity earlier than expected.
The Extraordinary Financial Breakthrough:
The multinational corporation organized a retreat at a luxury mountain resort, where a division leader faced his direct reports: "My boss just told me that we made $400 million last year. Next year, he expects us to make $600 million - but I'm telling you: we'll make $700 million. Carlos, tell us about Breakthrough performance." For about an hour, I described to the group the key factors of Peak Performance and how High Performance Teams operate under pressure. The retreat lasted two days and we explored four relevant areas: the current situation, what the future might look like, what changes could ensure a positive transformation and how to plan for it. The division made $800 million the following year by creating a compelling Vision, adjusting their Focus with SMART goals, training to become a collaborative and creative team, and replicating their formulas for success. Breakthrough.
Breakthrough is a choice of intentionally going beyond a set point to realize possibilities, to accelerate the realization of higher, more ambitious goals (at least 300% above your current, perceived limitations).
The International Social Entrepreneur Breakthrough:
The woman on the phone explained her situation in a calm and structured manner: "I'm an entrepreneur. I own my own company. I make six figures in the technology sector. I envision expanding my product line and doing well for some time. However, I want to become a social entrepreneur: I want to do something about improving literacy and numeracy in the developing world. I understand you are the Breakthrough expert, I think you can help me." My role was to help her design her personal Breakthrough Blueprint. She created a non-profit organization, leveraged her time and financial resources, and sought connections with global leaders in education. As a result, she forged collaborations that allowed her to implement effective programs in Third World countries. She then decided to form an international team of experts to compete in the Global Learning XPrize, reaching the semi-finals. Afterwards, she embarked on a crusade to bring literacy and numeracy through technology to impoverished regions of Africa, with the support of international organizations, under considerable risk and constraints, yet succeeding in her objectives and implementation.
Breakthrough is about "value design." It requires imagination, creative provocations and exploring alternatives to achieve stretch goals and deliver extraordinary results.
The Community Values Breakthrough:
Perhaps the most compelling insight I’ve gotten that Breakthrough Thinking is a critical leadership skill came from my interaction with Italian industrialists in Ancona after one of my Workshops, who told me: "We are the descendants of the “contadini,” the farmers who worked the land in this region for the wealthy landowning families. Our ancestors earned the right to own land overtime and had high expectations for their children. They wanted them to have an education. We went to schools and universities, something almost any of them could do. We became CEOs and company owners, some of them internationally recognized. During the global recession of 2008, we decided to keep the staff intact as much as possible. We cut all salaries, we eliminated all perks, and we focused on selling to better targets, in new markets as well. We changed before the things that matter most would deteriorate. Our goal was to protect the integrity of the nuclear family in our cities. Without the patronage of our companies, the families, the cities and the entire region would collapse. Political opportunists would make a mess out of the situation. We transformed our companies into "schools of thought," leaders in innovation and beacons of sustainability. Most of us operate now in the black and we didn't need to ask money to the state or the banks."
I had the opportunity to visit prominent family-owned companies such as Loccioni and iGuzzini in the Marche Region, where Ancona is the capital, and meet with their leaders. They have remade themselves into centers of creativity and innovation, although their business focuses on specialized services, projects and products. Family and legacy are at the core, while they invest in their communities, region and seek to leave the world better than they found it. I lectured at the Confindustria Marche, the regional industrial association, where I met other committed leaders following their example. Their philosophical and educational beacon is the ISTAO (Istituto Adriano Olivetti for economic and management studies), founded by Adriano Olivetti and Giorgi Fua and focused on developing entrepreneurs civilly and culturally engaged. ISTAO and their visionary executives, who forged a laboratory for innovative experiments that keeps a strong bond with enterprises and institutions in the region, hosted the first International Sircle. That's Breakthrough Leadership at its best: value, innovation, sustainability, legacy and organic growth.
Breakthrough is a future-based, self-directed and intentional change management process. We can always analyze the past - but we need to design the future (new value, new ways, new opportunities), or someone will do it for us.
The Resilient Survivor Breakthrough:
His family has known dramatic peaks and valleys in their trek through several continents. He grew up in Latin America, Europe and the USA, affected by constant change and financial hardship. Equipped with a high IQ, he cleverly figured out a way to get inside Mar-a-Lago (then just a private club) and jump ahead of other job applicants. He pulled a stunt with a play on words, which he disclosed once inside, making the executives laugh and winning them over instantly. The stunt became part of the folklore of the club and led him to meet Donald Trump personally and enjoy private conversations.
Later, he became a professional blackjack player making a fortune in Las Vegas and other sites. A college dropout, he continued to land entrepreneurial opportunities based on his charm and straightforward approach to business relationships. Yet, his emphasis on building an international career led to a divorce. He embarked on a yoga quest to India and sought enlightenment, hoping for a breakthrough and getting grounded. The journey did bring a life-changing spiritual breakthrough, but it came with the unexpected price and hard lessons from a string of tormented relationships with women on the same path, “seeking truth.” Afterwards, his understanding of systems facilitated his role as a consultant for young companies. The crisis of 2008 pummeled him financially, so he rented his apartment and lived with friends for a while and later in his car (a 2-seater) while waiting tables at a top restaurant catering mostly to executives.
As in the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” with Will Smith, he decided to figure out how to get a corporate job that would give him some semblance of security. He asked a Six Sigma trainer what he could do to pass the exam, so he could apply for a job at a prominent bank. He studied non-stop for several weeks and passed the exam. His first engagement was at one of the nine systemically important banks in the USA, in the crisis management team that would report to the Federal Reserve from worldwide data sources. It was a pool of sharks. He had no contract, just a salary, and his job could vanish at any time. His success after two years allowed him to move to a bigger bank, where he performed in a similar team but with a much higher threshold of competitiveness and stress. He decided to hire me to prevent burnout, to gain perspective on his life as whole and to figure out how to become a peak performer - a dolphin among sharks. He succeeded again in mind-numbing and risk-filled conditions.
Two more years went by, and he returned to his previous bank, where within 18 months he had such stellar results in implementing projects that he won the highest award, one given to the 1% of the 1% of peak performers. In addition to his assigned project (of critical importance to the bank), he coordinated the launch of two additional solutions in innovative ways. One included the use of artificial intelligence to solve the intricacies of his key project; the second one was the automation of processes to remove a gigantic load of manual entries across the world, streamlining future interactions.
The company leader’s statement on the global website read: “I hope you can feel all the pride and happiness surrounding you from the leadership team and your peers. The award is the most prestigious achievement at our bank, honoring the highest achieving employees. This achievement is attained through demonstrated excellence in service, performance, leadership, and risk. You are proof that hard work and dedication does not go unnoticed or unrewarded.” From survivor to achiever through dedication and resilience - and from playing the odds to understanding how to play the game of life, one step at a time. His Breakthrough represents the power of the individual to make decisions through the Imagine, Improve, Inspire and Ignite stages, transforming himself to become a value contributor recognized as a powerful force for positive change.
Breakthrough is a thinking framework centered on understanding how to overcome risk and limitations to fulfill your growth objectives. It requires the ability to shift perspectives, to change behaviors, to be in the world and constantly create the reality you want.
The Grand Slam Tennis Champion Breakthrough:
On a beautiful, sunny afternoon on September 8, 1990, Gabriela Sabatini won the U.S. Open Tennis Championships in New York, fulfilling her lifetime dream before an audience of millions. From the players’ box, I watched her crush the match point and leap towards the sky pumping her clenched fist. She had beaten Steffi Graf, her nemesis and the best player in the world. However, just five months before, Gabriela had told me she wanted to quit tennis for good, despite her #3 world ranking. After a series of bad losses, she was disheartened and felt no joy whatsoever.
At her father’s request, Dr. Jim Loehr, the world’s leading sport psychologist, and I focused on untangling Gabriela’s emotional world. Her recovery involved recognizing how her thinking influenced how she felt and how she acted. To break negative thought patterns, she started acting how she felt at her best, when she enjoyed challenges. Gradually, positive feelings poured out, transforming Gabriela from a joyless routine-addict into an engaged, resilient and resourceful thinker in the face of adversity. Gabriela realized that when we embrace who we want to be in the future, it’s helpful to start thinking, feeling and acting like that “future self” today, step-by-step, gradually. Her evident turnaround revitalized her stellar career and inspired thousands of people, especially young girls, to follow their dreams. Soon after retiring, she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
I believe Gabriela’s breakthrough points to the essence of leadership: we first must lead ourselves before we can lead others. Granted, tennis is not the whole of life, but, by requiring that one aligns their energy with their purpose to achieve excellence in performance, it ushers them to become whole and then radiates their energy outwards to others.
Breakthrough allows us to access the source of our true desire so we can express our deep identity through meaningful achievements and an enduring legacy. It's a way of feeling whole again, in the skin in which we were born, not the armor we used to hide our true desire and our deep identity… and the world around us is better for it.
The Indispensable World Championship Breakthrough:
In September 2017, I became the Mental Toughness Training coach of Pietro Fittipaldi. He was competing in the Formula Renault V8 3.5 Championship and was leading it with one race left in the calendar (Bahrain). Pietro’s main sponsor, Carlos Slim Domit (Chairman of Grupo Carso and Escuderia Telmex in Mexico) had told him he had to win the World Championship to continue receiving his sponsorship and continue his path to Formula 1.
We had six weeks before the last race in Bahrain, so we agreed on scheduling weekly face-to-face and online meetings, and followed a carefully monitored training schedule. The most important concept I suggested upfront was “You are the Champion, now. You are going to feel, think and act like the Champion, every day, in every detail, on cue and on purpose.” This meant that he was already what he wanted to be. What we needed to design were the strategy and the stepping-stones for his support team to understand how to sustain that envisioned reality. This is a cardinal concept in Mental Toughness Training.
Pietro is a disciplined, focused and determined athlete. He’s analytical, learns fast and thinks every issue through, which has endeared him with all racing engineers and teams, for he can assess vital information with clarity. Despite his hectic travel schedule, (he was doing TV commentary during F1 races and appearances), we kept a solid pace.
All along, we focused on designing his emotional strategy for the race weekend. Finishing second would give him enough points to be World Champion. Minimizing the risk (considering that three of his rivals would have to be more aggressive) was crucial. On the first race, one of the drivers who was not a candidate for the title had a great start and took the pole. Pietro applied all of his mental toughness skills to remain behind him, pulling away from the field together to end in P2 position and at the podium. In the second race, one of his main rivals’ car did not start and his teammate started strong to take the pole.
As the previous day, Pietro remained calm and pulled away, driving consistently, preserving the tires and ending again on P2 to become World Champion. Breakthrough is a design and designing his achievement worked wonders for Pietro. Today, Pietro is the Reserve and Test Driver for Formula One Team Haas.
The Four Fundamental Breakthrough Questions:
Take some time to explore the answers to these fundamental questions. They can give you a strong sense of direction towards your Breakthrough. Then, you can continue exploring the Breakthrough Design Questions to jump-start your planning.
What makes you anxious today that would motivate you to go beyond your comfort zone and envision a 300% level of success?
How would it feel "to be what you want" if you would get it today?
What provocative statement can you make today that would lead you to make a significant change towards your 300% vision of success?
What would you do with your success to improve the lives of those around you? How would you be "the best for the world?"
Take the Breakthrough Skills Test
What’s your Capacity for Breakthrough?
Click on the button to take a short Self-Evaluation on your Breakthrough Skills and how to enhance them through the content and the exercises in this book.
The Four Stages to Breakthrough
an olympic gold medal - a memory of breakthrough
The four stages or phases to design your Breakthrough Blueprint are IMAGINE, IMPROVE, INSPIRE and IGNITE.
The Breakthrough Wave
Our path to significant achievements follows The Breakthrough Wave:
In Stage 1 - IMAGINE, we envision a 300% goal (or higher) above our 100% perceived maximum capacity. We “go beyond personal best” and imagine the lifestyle and performance we want at that level.
In Stage 2 - IMPROVE, we improve our skills and adapt to a higher level of performance: we learn, we train, we adapt, we correct… We create the stepping-stones towards our compelling Vision (our Moonshot), improving at least 1% a day, as professional athletes do in training.
In Stage 3 - INSPIRE, we enter the Breakthrough Zone. We are becoming who we want to be. We see the results of our training and accelerate our transformation by tweaking and adapting with more agility. We are inspired by our approach and method to achieve Excellence.
In Stage 4 - IGNITE, we lead by example and create a new identity as Resilient Peak Performers that ignites others to continue designing new Breakthrough opportunities. We are now Breakthrough Performers.
Download the Summary of the Four Stages (PDF)
the summary of the four stages - the breakthrough manifesto
Stage One: IMAGINE
IMAGINE (FOCUS – VISION)
Definition:
Doing the Right Things - Define Your Worldview
Diagnose Aspirations – Align Values and Beliefs
Create your personal Vision of Achievement
Key Tasks:
Design your Ideal Future (Future Vision - Present Focus)
Define your Ideal Performance State (Think – Feel – Act) the way you want
Act as if (Connect the Present Moment to your Ideal Performance State, consistently, every day)
To design your Breakthrough, you want to define what you desire and start feeling today as if you are living your vision. That's your Focus: you already are what you want to be.
Make your vision Big, go beyond your personal best, extend your future at least 300% of what you envision today.
What the Breakthrough Workout will require:
Perspective: understand "what is"
Define your Purpose
Clarify your Mission
Focus on your Core Values
Identify your Passions
Align with your Fascination
Possibility: imagine "what can be"
Draft your Goals: Professional, Lifestyle, Contributions, Legacy
Seek Inspiration from multiple sources
Design Your Future in blocks of 5 years
Understand how you think and see the world
Identify and express your uniqueness (what makes you unique?)
Understand your and other people’s values (what motivates them?)
Discover strategies to solve challenges
Align your Purpose with your Vision (why do I want this Future?)
Stage Two: IMPROVE
IMPROVE (ENERGY – RESILIENCE)
Definition:
Doing Things Better - Stage Transformations
Embrace Challenges and conquer Resistance
Operate in your Ideal Performance State ("the zone")
Become Resilient (physically and mentally tough)
Key Tasks:
Embrace and provoke change
Manage energy, not time (love the challenge; train recovery)
Plan for incremental improvement (chunking; small wins)
Develop empowering habits and monitor your progress
Define the stepping-stones that will take you toward your Vision and train to get to operate in your Ideal Performance State (learn, improve, modify, adapt, shift, discard).
You also remove every obstacle or competing commitment to free your energy. You manage energy, not time as you transform yourself into a Visionary Leader.
What the Breakthrough Workout will require:
Provocation: provoke "what should be"
Your Training Plan to achieve your Vision
Manage Energy rather than Time to avoid Burnout
The phases of your Training Plan; it’s seasonality
How you are going to Monitor your progress
How you define Achievement and Fulfillment
What alternatives you envision if you encounter obstacles
What habits you need to develop and implement
The value that you add to your tasks and relationships
How you will operate in High Positive Energy daily
How you will sustain your Ideal Performance State under pressure
How you will train for life and for continuous improvement
Stage Three: INSPIRE
INSPIRE (BREAKTHROUGH – GROWTH)
Definition:
Doing Better Things - Accelerate Replication
Ensure Sustainable Growth through constant Improvement
Lead by Example – Inspire Emulation
Key Tasks:
Always look for alternatives to the status quo: from what is to what can be
Be versatile: Train to shift emotional states and thinking tactics
Create New Value: design and implement new ideas
At this stage, you are executing your Training and Transformation Plan consistently. You’ve had success and you can sustain it. If blocked, you shift approaches.
As you gain momentum and see yourself grow, you recruit others to help you join and build your Vision – you inspire others to design their own future and co-create with you.
You are what you want to be and you lead by example. You invite others to become fully engaged in the Vision for achievement.
What the Breakthrough Workout will require:
Positive Change: design "what will be"
Increase and practice your Creative Thinking
Seek Congruence: you walk the talk
You sense your New Identity: you are what you want
You understand Significance: your transformation inspires others to act
You are consistent and can sustain your progress overtime
You find Meaning in your daily success: your growth radiates to others like increasingly powerful waves and you get feedback from their own growth
Stage Four: IGNITE
IGNITE (LEGACY – TRANSCENDENCE)
Definition:
Doing Right for More - Act on your New Identity
Facilitate Enduring Success and help more people to change
Consolidate your Vision and Legacy
Key Tasks:
Resonate: Teach, share and co-create. Replicate your success in other ways
Ignite Movements: envision new challenges and strategic spin-offs
Transcend: Leave a path for others to follow
Once you get what you want, work to ensure you can replicate the process and leave a path for others to follow. Build a powerful legacy. Create a school of thought. Facilitate opportunities for more people, for a larger, more inclusive co-creative process.
You have followed the path of Achievement, Significance and Legacy and can now replicate your success by aiming for higher goals, larger contributions and bigger audiences.
What the Breakthrough Workout will require:
Seed the Future: empower "what shall be"
Design a Replication strategy as a template to teach and expand
Transcendence: what other audiences can you reach?
Legacy: how to build a path for others to follow you
Movement: will your followers take your torch and build something new?
Lead by example: build the framework for others to learn your approach
Seed and incubate your ideas: can you accelerate growth by incubating new ideas and projects?
Generate exponential growth: can your achievement build a school of thought, a way of being in the world, a new worldview?