Rob Fazio - Simple Is the New Smart: 26 Success Strategies to Build Confidence, Inspire Yourself, and Reach Your Ultimate Potential

SIMPLE IS THE NEW SMART

26 Success Strategies to Build Confidence, Inspire Yourself, and Reach Your Ultimate Potential

Rob Fazio, PhD

Foreword by Neil Cavuto

Copyright 2016 by Rob Fazio

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.

SIMPLE IS THE NEW SMART

EDITED BY ROGER SHEETY

TYPESET BY PERFECTYPE, NASHVILLE, TN

Cover design by Howard Grossman/12E Design

Cover image by Auris/iStock

Printed in the U.S.A.

To order this title, please call toll-free 1-800-CAREER-1 (NJ and Canada: 201-848-0310) to order using VISA or MasterCard, or for further information on books from Career Press.

The Career Press, Inc.

12 Parish Drive

Wayne, NJ 07470

www.careerpress.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

CIP Data Available Upon Request.

DEDICATION

To Dad.

If you were around today, youd be the second

person in line to buy a copy.

The first person would be the one that got ahead

because you were kind enough to Hold the Door.

Thank you. 143

ACKNOWLEDEGMENTS

The simple part I got, the smart part, I needed a lot of help with. Saying this book wouldnt be possible without the years of dedication and hard work of my sister Lauren Fazio in an awesome understatement. Thank you for balancing my love for rhymes and acronyms with your love for detail and accuracy. Also, thank you to my favorite communications professor and loving wife, Dr. Keli Fazio, a woman who has a gift for being so honest with so much heart. This book wouldnt have been possible without my in-laws Geri and Dave Steuber for being supportive, patient, and providing a little wine along the way.

Thank you to my literary agent, Leticia Gomez for her expertise, counsel, and focus. Jackie Klee, I appreciate the years of inspiration, encouragement, and gentle and genuine reminders get the book done. Thank you to my friends Cathy Swody (Thrive Leadership), Sacha Lindekens, Jeff Graddy, John Gates, and Steve Williams (Avion Consulting), for furthering my thinking and supporting my drive for all things practical, positive, and simple. Id also like to thank Todd Alexander for his consistent mentoring and confidence in my path. Thank you to Maritza Caro-ODonnell for her positive energy, and willingness to help me throw my passion into the book, while making it practical.

To the clients that continue to work with me, thank you. You drive me to learn and be ready for the range of challenges that we find solutions for. Becca Goldstein, although we didnt find all the answers we were looking for on our first trip to that literary workshop at UPenn, we eventually got it! Thanks for the smarts and smiles as I wrote this with your support.

Thank you to the most well read man I know, JP Mantey, for his willingness to follow his passion and to help others in the process. A special thank you to the rising star, Cait McNair for her research, insights, and eagerness to excel.

I am consistently inspired by the enthusiasm, warmth, and positive energy of Joy and Lee Zaben, it kept me focused on writing the right stuff. Thanks to my long time buddy Mike VanBuskirk for showing me what priorities and resilience are all about.

And finally a thanks to my mom, Janet, who has likely already proudly promoted this book more than any marketing firm could ever do. Dreams do come true!

by Neil Cavuto

O f all the tragic stories of September 11, 2001, perhaps none hit home or hit my gut quite like that of one Ronald Fazio. When the first plane hit the first tower, Ron was on the 99th floor of the South Tower and chose to lead the charge and hold the door for others scrambling out from that building.

They survived. Ron did not. But that one selfless courageous act inspired a nonprofit in his honor, appropriately named Hold the Door for Others. For Rons son Rob, it was his way of not only recognizing his fathers heroic act, but making something good out of such a senseless tragedy.

Without fail, for as long as Ive covered the 9/11 anniversaries, Ive always sought out Rob to put perspective on the day unlike any other. I dont think Ive ever finished a single interview with a dry eye or without a lump in my throat. With warmth and even good humor, Rob would recount his fathers meaningful life, down to his love of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. Apparently, the story goes that when Rob and his family were waiting out the long and torturous days for any news on their dad, theyd leave his favorite snack on posters and leaflets to urge him home. They wrote on his flyer, If found, please feed Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. He never returned, but to this day, Ronald Fazios engraved name at the old South Tower site often includes a Peanut Butter Cup atop it. Nothing stops me more in my tracks than that simple act of lovea poignant and sweet reminder of a robust and bigger-than-life soul lost forever.

I once asked Rob if the anniversaries ever get easier, or whether seeing the terrorists planes hitting those buildings, and their subsequent collapse, ever gets to be too much. Although we all lose loved ones, rarely is their passingtheir murdercued up each year for the world to see, again and again. He shrugged his shoulders and simply said, I dont see it that way. I see it as a way to remember and share my dad.

Frankly, I dont know how he and his family stay so composed or so focused. Then I stepped back to see that was Rob. That was his family. That was their collective DNA. It was and is as if theyre all genetically wired not to whine, complain, or make excuses. So they would hold their grief and focus on the lasting image of a dad holding a door.

Thats where this uplifting and actionable book on success comes in. Its sort of like Hold the Door 2.0. Or maybe I should say, Hold the Doortimes 26. Because unlike the selfless single act of one individual that inspired a foundation, this book details 26 key strategies that take that undertaking to a whole newand variedlevel. And who better to write it than a guy like Rob, who has walked the talk, and lived and grown to tell about it. Its that perspective gained through pain that painfully reminds us all: life is short, so maybe we should go long. Maybe in our personal lives and our professional lives we should stop making excuses and start making a lasting difference.

Rather than succumb to the personal and professional issues that can often hold us back, Rob reminds us they are the stuff of which character is made and, ultimately, how a life is defined and many a successful career is built. I like the way Rob characterizes his approach: We will all fail. If you fail, I want you to fail forward and see a failure as feedback, a moment, not a permanent barrier.