Being a total fuck-up is a horrible overall strategy for success. However, when used selectively, it can actually save you time and make you more successful.

To show you how, let’s start with the most important ingredient for success:

Enthusiasm

More than Intelligence, more than ability, more than good looks, more than anything . . . it’s enthusiasm that separates the winners from the losers in this world.

“Enthusiasm is by far the highest paid quality on earth, probably because it is one of the rarest; yet, it is one of the most contagious.” – Frank Bettger, How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling

Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm. It was enthusiasm that enabled Napoleon to make a campaign in two weeks that would have taken another a year to accomplish. It is the secret and harmonious spirit that hovers over the production of genius. If you want to experience flow, you need enthusiasm.

When you’re pumped-up and enthusiastic:

• You take action

• You devour new information

• You set and accomplish goals

• You get things done.

Enthusiasm is the guiding principal behind one of the most popular posts of all time on this blog: Do it Fucking Now.

However, there are times in life when enthusiasm can be a burden; times when that gusto will come back to bite you in the ass. That’s why you have to learn to Pick your battles.

Avoid the Pyrrhic Victory

A Pyrrhic Victory is victory that is offset by staggering losses. The term comes from King Pyrrhus of Epirus’s victory over the romans at Heraclea in 280 BC.

“If we win another such battle against the Romans, we will be completely lost.” – Pyrrhus

You don’t want to win the battle only to lose the war. Your enthusiasm is your greatest weapon. But if your constantly calling on it to do things that are counterproductive, your energy will be sapped for when you need it most.

When Being a Fuck-Up Worked for Me as a Salesman

9 Years Ago I was the top sales person in the office at a Fortune 50 company. I loved meeting with clients and getting them to sign on the dotted line and I was damn good at it.

But at a big company like that, there are always tasks to do that won’t make you any money and waste your time. One of those tasks was meticulously entering CRM (customer relationship management) data into a tracking system. Another was detailing every step of every prospect in a sales funnel. There were also sales team meetings and other internal reports.

Calling customers, generating leads, finding the DM, presenting solutions and getting customers to sign on the dotted line made you money. CRM, funnel management, internal reports and sales meetings didn’t.

So what did I do? I was a total fuck up when it came to all the bullshit, but a super-star when it came to results. I would schedule customer meetings over our team meetings. I never entered anything into that CRM tool, and if I ever did an internal report, it wasn’t even half assed – it was more like . . . 1/16 assed.

The other members of the team said it wasn’t fair that they had to do the work when I didn’t. Managers and directors complained a little – but what were they really gonna do? Fire me? I was consistently closing and 300% above quota.

Had my manager really pushed me to do all the bullshit, he may have won, but it would have been a Pyrrhic Victory. He demonstrated targeted enthusiasm for my results and was a fuck-up at getting me to do the stuff that didn’t make either of us money.

What about that Chocolate Cake for Breakfast?

This morning I kicked over an ashtray that was on the floor. After bringing the broom and dustpan to the scene of the crime, I tried to hand off both with a smile. The female response was obvious, “you made the mess, you clean it up!”

I then proceeded to hold the broom like a total fuck up and push the dustpan around on the floor. If fucking-up the cleaning of a mess were an Olympic Sport, I would have gotten a gold medal. After only 10 seconds both the broom and dustpan were snatched from my incompetent hands and was promptly shown the “the right way to do it.”

Here’s Bill Cosby doing the same thing with Chocolate Cake for Breakfast:

When to be a Total Fuck-Up

Here’s a little cheat-sheet to help figure out whether you’re being the right or wrong kind of total fuck-up.

Wrong Kind of Total Fuck-Up:

• Procrastinating things that will make you money by wasting time on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Digg, Reddit . . . etc..

• Not Testing Offers, Landing Pages, Keywords or Things that will Make you money.

• Not Delivering on your promises.

• Not showing enthusiasm for the things that are important to you.

Right Kind of Total Fuck-Up:

• Fucking-up a household tasks (like Cooking or cleaning) or Menial Office tasks so that someone else deems you too incompetent to do it yourself and does it for you.

• Taking a Personal Day, Week or Month where you Do Nothing Productive to recharge your batteries and enjoy life.

• Blowing off little things that others think Important but really don’t matter.

Get pumped up and enthusiastic for the things that matter. Blow off the things that don’t.

Add Your Own

Tell us in the comment section when being a total fuckup has been a good thing for your success.