Answer The Why Question
You need to ask the "why question"-sooner rather than later.
Here's why:
- All the success in the world will mean nothing without answering the why question.
- Clients feel uneasy with organizations and individuals who haven't answered the why question.
- Eventually the bloom fades, true beauty is rrevealed when the why question has been answered.
- Truth can be found in those who've answered the why question.
- Your organization will change the world when it answers the the why question.
- Answering the why question creates the right type of urgency.
- You'll find out if you're really an authentic leader, when you answer the why question.
Processed Leadership vs. Organic Leadership
The Power Of A Great Life
What’s Most Important
Doing The Right Thing
I read once that Nelson Mandela could have been released from that South African prison a lot earlier, if he would have sworn not to speak out about the evils of apartiheid once released.
Got me thinking…
Doing the right thing was never meant to be easy because of the following:
- Greatness only allows those who can do the right thing to enter.
- If it were easy, then…
- Like the fields, tilling is essential and it hurts.
- It needs to be built, and building implies pain.
- Life and order depend on it.
What would you add to the list?
The Case For Moving On To Breakthroughs
Are you stuck?
Are you in pain?
Are you frustrated?
I had a conversation with my chiropractic practitioner (his services are a part of my overall health plan) a couple of weeks ago that really stuck with me. If you're ever in my neck of the woods you should pay him a visit.
We got to talking about people in pain and the refusal to move on to healing/progress. His point was something like this:
You're in pain now and getting to your breakthrough means pain too. Sadly, most people are comfortable with the existing pain/state. This comfort paralyzes them from experiencing the pain associated with breakthroughs.
As a guide, I couldn't agree with him more.
Here are some simple acid tests to use as you move from talking about finding a breakthrough to acting on the solutions/cures:
- Make sure the person or organization offering you a solution is interested in you first and not what's in you bank account. I'm not saying that your solutions/cures should be free, I'm just talking about the order of things. If you're not sure what questions are best for finding out the motivation behind the marketing, then send me an email or comment through this post.
- Get settled about the pain that will be associated with moving on to breakthrough. Do this in front of a mirror-real or imagined.
- Remember, every breakthrough should lead to a new life habit. Life habits should stick.
It’s Almost Never About You
We're self-preservationists at heart. This works well if shipwrecked or lost in the jungle. In general, though, it's a dangerous mindset.
Where this really shows up is when we are trying use clients to get us to where we want to go, which is unethical. But it also shows up when we're honestly trying to help. Either way you need to stop and realize what's number one. As in, your client. No talking points, no radio spots, just authentic love.
If you've built your career/business model around "you first," then it will be painful to change. You may have already tuned me off if that last sentence applies.
The following outlines some ideas to consider as you seek to get it right with existing clients, and prospective one's too:
- Just like God, a client's time-frame may not be the same as yours. And if you're in the "service" business (we all are), then you don't get to make this call. You can be polite in persistence, but ultimately you're a servant.
- Stop marketing that you care, when your actions communicate something different. Washington, D.C. may have made us think that everyone has a price, but most clients desire authenticity.
- Be willing to risk loss. Those who have lost, even though they did there best, change the world and are wildly successful.
- Stand your ground in the face of critics and conformists. If memory serves, the word is courage.
- Your work is truly a motion picture. Make it the kind that people want to see over and over again.
Twisting Fate
I can't remember exactly how many times Thomas Edison failed as he tried to bring his light bulb idea to life. Was it a hundred failed experiments? Maybe it was a thousand. Regardless, he failed multiple times.
This post really isn't about overcoming failure, though that could be helpful. I really want to explore the mindset of having a willingness to stumble, a willingness to be the fool, the willingness to launch something most in the herd don't see nor understand.
I think we're way to willing to accept dime-store imitations (you fill in the blank here) when it comes to creative and inspiring leaders. And by the way, creative and inspiring leaders are the types of leaders with substance and reality backing them up. I'm not referring to a leader of a three-ring-circus or some executive who pulls out talking points from 5 years ago.
I'm not sure we recognize authentic when we see it.
Preserving your rep. at the expense of something given to you by heaven is foolish. Your mortgage, 401K, bonuses or a nice fat promotion won't be there for you in the long run. Those are temporary states that can change in a moment. We know this to be true, whether we're willing to admit it or not.
Could it be that Edison was not so special? What if everyone was supposed to pursue an end, even if it meant repeated failure? What separated Edison from his herd was his willingness to take the step of twisting fate even if he didn't know where it would ultimately lead. I define twisting fate as someone who acts on faith, realizing that the final product/outcome will resemble a mosaic more than a picture-perfect portrait.
This is hard work that many turn away from.
Yesterday Follows, As I Learn
Leadership means everything…ask Churchill, King, Jr., Jobs, Graham, Teresa.
I usually write with strong opinion and certainty. Not wavering here, but I hope those leaders mentioned would agree that yesterday's lessons only took root when they "learned." And isn't learning a vital part of influence?
It's a mysterious thing walking into a future. We need yesterday to be a follower. We need yesterday to be the threads of a tapestry called life.
If it doesn't matter, then why the smile and the pursuit. Certainly, we were made for more. Now I know that everything does matter…every dance, every embrace, every sip, every beautiful melody.
Bear with me as I try to understand what I have become.
"I'm crossing that bridge with lessons I've learned."
– Seal