Helplessness vs Success

“When somebody believes they have no control over their environment, they become helpless. It is how we explain something to ourselves when something happens that will determine whether you will be successful or not….The formula for success is ABC — Attitude will drive your behavior, & your behavior will drive your consequences.” ~ Victor Antonio

So, I had the opportunity to listen to Victor Antonio for the first time recently via my cousin’s podcast, I Won’t Stop Until I Win. Now, my cousin, Jose Flores sounded a little more excited than normal to have Victor on his podcast. When I began listening, I immediately knew why.

Being born and raised in The Bronx, I’m an “Ol’ Skool” Hip Hop head (old school for the grammar enforcers), and my favorite Hip Hop artists were not only great lyricists, but they were also great storytellers — Big Pun, Biggie, Tupac — to name a few of MY favorites.

Victor immediately caught my attention because he is an awesome storyteller. He doesn’t only tell a story for the sake of telling a story — there is always meaning and purpose behind the stories. Victor mentioned having a short documentary on one of the streaming services. So, when I got home the same night, I searched for Victor’s name on Amazon Prime, and I did find a short documentary entitled, “Beyond the Stage with Victor Antonio”. It is short, and I HIGHLY recommend watching it if you have Amazon Prime. At first, my plan was to just watch to “see what this guy’s all about”. But, almost immediately, I was pausing it, getting up to look for my journal (yes — I keep a journal & you should too), grabbing a favorite pen, and jotting down notes & quotes.

Shameless Plug:

If you don't already have a journal, you should check out my guided personal development journal, Always Play to Win | Siempre Pa' lante.

In just a few days, I had listened to about 40 of Victor’s podcast episodes. I typically listen in reverse. What I mean by that is that I start with the most recent episode, and then work backwards — until a new episode is released. When a new episode is released, I listen to that one, then I go back to listening in reverse. The great thing about Victor’s podcast is that the episodes are relatively short, but packed full of tactical and actionable recommendations.

So, the quote above is from the documentary. Actually, it’s two separate quotes that I wrote down from different parts of the documentary. I highly recommend you look up Victor Antonio on your preferred social media platform(s). He’s an awesome guy with a really interesting story where he came up from, the successes he’s had in the corporate world, and now he travels the globe helping people. His main focus is on sales skills, leadership, and success, but the things that he speaks about and the lessons that he teaches, and the thought process and the mindset can be applied to everyday life across the board.

Again, this is one of the main things that stood out to me from the documentary. “When somebody believes they have no control over their environment, they become helpless. It is how we explain something to ourselves when something happens that will determine whether you will be successful or not….”, and Victor has a very simple formula for success. It’s ABC, and no — it’s not “Always Be Closing” — because I know several of you have heard that before, and that is another great acronym, but that’s not where Victor went with this. His formula for success is, ABC. That is Attitude will drive your Behavior. Think about it. Whatever attitude you approach life with, whatever attitude you approach different situations with, that will drive your behavior. And, your Behavior will drive your Consequences.

Alright — so whatever attitude you approach life, experiences, situations with — that is going to drive your behavior, and your behavior is going to drive your consequences. Now, some of those consequences may be negative, and some of those consequences may be positive. This is very much in line with some of the stuff I share on my IG. So, if you need to go and check some of those posts, reels, and/or videos, go ahead and do that, but this message is in line with it. It’s all about how we view the world around us. It’s that lens.

It’s two sides of the same coin. On one side you’re going to have negative consequences — on the other side, you’re going to have positive consequences. Because, on one side you have positive behavior — on the other side you have negative behavior to how you react to various things. You have positive attitudes — you have negative attitudes. Again, it’s all about how you view things. It’s about the lens that we choose to use to look at stuff.

And, look — this is not just stuff that I’m making up on the fly here. It’s not just stuff that Victor is saying. These are success principles that have been around since the dawn of time. From the moment the timeline started — whenever that was. These are success principles, period — they stand the test of time. This is how you determine success; whatever that is for YOU. This goes back to the whole — being prepared to take advantage of an opportunity when it presents itself. It begins with us; with you.

It’s that attitude that you choose to have. If you have a negative attitude because you’re allowing …. Allow me to pause here, and go back to the beginning of Victor’s quote. When you believe you have no control over your environment — that’s a choice that you’re believing.

Again, I really believe you should look into Victor Antonio, and check him out. Check out his background and where he came from — the environment where he grew up. He could have used that as an excuse to not achieve success. He could have just been another statistic. But, he made a conscious decision. His attitude became a positive one that lead to better behaviors that, then, lead to better consequences.

When I was teaching and coaching at the high school level, I used a lot of Eric Thomas videos. He has an interesting background, as well. He also could have used his situation as an excuse to not succeed, but he didn’t. If you don’t know who Eric Thomas is, go look him up too: Eric Thomas or ET The Hip Hop Preacher — go check him out . But, right now, I’m focusing on Victor Antonio.

So, how we react to whatever situation we experience … How we react … THAT is what is going to determine whether or not we are successful.

ABC — Remember that!

Attitude, Behavior, Consequences. It is that simple — that’s the lowest common denominator.

ABC — Attitude, Behavior, Consequences.
Your attitude determines your behavior.
Your behavior determines your consequences.

You are in control whether or not that is a positive experience, or a negative experience.

Coach Pabon — Out!