The Greatness Guide: One of the World's Most Successful Coaches Shares His Secrets for Personal and Business Mastery (11 page)

Pleasure is great—but it doesn’t last. Pleasure comes from your five senses. From a great meal, a nice glass of wine and a new car. Nothing wrong with these things—they make the experience of life better. But they are fleeting.

Happiness, well, that’s a different story. Happiness is the DNA of pleasure. My point is simply this: Pleasure comes from something on the outside. Happiness comes from within. It’s a state you create by choice. It’s a decision. It’s an act of will.

People can be happy when they are going through great pain and adversity. There’s no pleasure evident in their external lives and yet they are content on the inside. And, conversely, tons of people are surrounded by pleasure (fast cars, nice homes, great clothes) but there’s no joy within. So choose to be happy. You can’t control life on the outside. Hard stuff will happen. But you can control what goes on inside. And those who do become great.

Never a dull moment in my life. I just got back from lunch. I went out to pick up a sub sandwich from my usual place. Get this: When I checked my receipt after swiping my debit card, the bill said $577.89. They sell great sandwiches, but that was a bit rich for my blood.

A couple of leadership lessons I want to offer you from this little escapade:

OAD.
Great businesses are remarkably detail oriented. I love what Stephen Jay Gould once said: “Details are all that matters; God dwells in these and you never get to see Him if you don’t struggle to get them right.” At our company, we talk about OAD: Obsessive Attention to Detail. The best organizations I’ve worked with sweat the small stuff. They understand that customers notice every little detail. The woman behind the counter was not being present in the moment. She should have punched in $5.77. Big boo-boo. And her boss was standing next to her. Oops. I was gracious and helped her save face. Many wouldn’t have.

T
AKE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
(and do it fast). When I checked the bill and saw the (outrageous) error, I mentioned it to the
woman politely. Her reply was classic: “Didn’t you check before you okayed the amount?” No one wants to take responsibility for things anymore. We blame everyone else. After a few minutes, she got her wisdom back and apologized profusely. I know she just got scared when she saw what she’d done. And most of us, when we get scared, blame others to avoid the pain of owning the mistake we’ve made.

P
AY ATTENTION
.
Glad I checked my bill. Sometimes I don’t because my mind is up in the clouds, dreaming about how to change the world. But world-class leaders are attentive. They reside in the moment.

I’ll go back to this place. The owner gave me the sub for free and they all felt bad. But their credibility has been seriously undermined and they’ll need to earn my trust back. I pray they will because they make really good sandwiches.

Here’s a simple idea that will have a fantastic impact on your organization (and your career) once you act on it: People want to work for a good company—one that is not only well-run but that does its part to build a better world. Being a good business is good for business. That’s not some cheesy slogan I just came up with—that’s what I’ve observed, having worked with real people at real companies around the world. The best companies have a noble purpose and a clear intent to treat their people and their customers well. Great companies also understand that while it’s mission-critical to be hugely profitable, it’s also mission-critical to be socially responsible. Many of our clients have set up programs to help the disadvantaged or to make communities better. I admire them more than they will ever know.

Pride is something that doesn’t get talked about much in business circles. Too bad. What I’ve discovered is that people want to go to work each day with pride in their hearts. They want to feel good about the company they work for. They want to know that their company—and the work they do—
elevates lives and makes a difference. Business philosopher Peter Koestenbaum expressed it so well in his excellent book
Leadership: The Inner Side of Greatness:
“Business is above all a vehicle for achieving personal and organization greatness. It is for accomplishing something worthy and noble. Business is an institution that can enable you to make significant contributions to society.”

As I’ve suggested throughout this book, we all can lead without title. We all have an impact. We all can do good, at work—and in our communities. So become a volunteer. Give money to charities. Start to tithe (the word actually means one-tenth, or 10%) your income to good causes. And as an organization, engage in projects that help communities in need (by setting up a foundation or by supporting important initiatives). Become dedicated to making a greater contribution. Stand for social responsibility as well as remarkable profitability. Not only will you retain your top talent and attract even more, but your customers will respect you. Good business really is good for business. And giving really does begin the receiving process.

Yesterday, on my way in to work, I pulled up next to one of those big new Mercedes sedans. The man driving it had his windows rolled down a bit so I heard the song blaring through his stereo system: Queen’s “We Are the Champions.” Made me think of a CEO who attended one of the leadership summits we run a couple of times a year. He operates a major company. Wanted to improve his organization along with his life. Told me he listens to AC/DC’s “Back in Black” full blast before his big sales calls. Interesting.

What practices get you to your best? What rituals throw you into your best game mode? What tactics inspire you to really get going to let your bright light shine? We all need what I call Success Structures scheduled into our weeks to ensure we stay at our highest. We all need systems installed into our days to ensure consistency of results, order and superb outcomes. The best companies have systems to ensure quality control—so should you. Get serious about building systems and you’ll show you’re serious about success. Things that work for me, as I’ve suggested, include lots of exercise, high-energy music, reading great books, weekly meetings—even if for only 15 minutes on the phone—with inspirational friends and writing in my
journal. They get built into my week just like my most important meetings (and time with my kids).

Success doesn’t just occur. It’s a project that is worked on each day. You need to swim out to it. You need to make it happen (along with letting it happen—once you’ve given your best). As Václav Havel once observed: “Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up to the step; we must step up the stairs.” So what will you do today to jump-start yourself? Don’t postpone your greatness. Your time is now. And if not now, then when?

Big idea: Why wait to get old to become experienced? I want the experience of an old man while I’m still young. And I think I’ve figured out a way to get it: Collapse the timeline. Most people don’t take that many risks or have that many new conversations or read that many new books or take that many new travels. By engaging in these and other experience-building pursuits at a dramatically accelerated rate, I figure I could get 10 years’ worth of learning and lessons in a quarter of the time. Just collapse the timeline by doing more important stuff faster and sooner. Just stay focused and committed. Just put more living into each of my days.

We all get the same allotment of time. Each of us gets 24 hours each day. The sad fact is that too many among us spend too much time doing unimportant things. Living reactive lives. Saying “yes” to activities they should be saying “no” to. Drifting like a piece of wood in a river, moving in whatever direction the current happens to be moving on that particular day. All because they did not make the time to think. About
their priorities. About their dreams and goals. And to note what they want to make of their lives. People have lost 20 good years this way. Seriously.

By getting clear on what you want out of life, you heighten your awareness around what’s most important. With better awareness comes better choices. And with better choices you’ll see better results. Clarity breeds success.

So don’t wait until the end of your life to become experienced. Collapse the timeline. Get clear on what you need to experience to have a fulfilling life—and then start doing it now. Meet cool people. Visit neat places. Read deep books. Seize opportunities. Fail often—it reflects an increase in your reach and risk-taking. Who cares if you win or lose, so long as you get another experience to add to the inventory. Even the saddest of times make your life richer. Benjamin Zander, the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, shared the following line from his teacher, the great cellist Gaspar Cassadó, in his wonderful book
The Art of Possibility:
“I’m so sorry for you; your lives have been so easy. You can’t play great music unless your heart’s been broken.”

The more experiences, the better the life. The person who experiences most wins.

This morning just after I woke up, I chilled out. Listened to some Coltrane, a dose of Sade and then played some music by Diddy (the artist formerly known as Puff Daddy then P. Diddy; my name seems so boring now). I needed something to jumpstart my day (and wake up the kids). Reflecting on him and the business empire he’s built got me thinking. About brands.

To win in your marketspace, your organization needs to develop a magnificently cherished and superbly respected brand. (I mentioned Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, in an earlier chapter; he doesn’t even use the term “brand” anymore, preferring “lovemark.” Nice.) And for you to get to professional greatness, I suggest that you work on, polish and protect your personal brand: your good name. (It could take you 30 years to build a great reputation—and 30 seconds to lose it, with one act of poor judgment.)

Everyone’s into brand-building these days. Law firms. Accounting enterprises. Retail organizations. Paris Hilton recently said: “I’m a brand.”

This raises the question: “How can we get our brand from where it now is to where we want it to be?” My answer is simple: Model Diddy.

Sure you can read the books out there (lots of excellent ones, such as Seth Godin’s
Purple Cow
and
The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding
by Al Ries and his daughter Laura Ries). And sure you can invest in getting your brand managers to world class (every company should have brand managers). But I’ll save you some money with a simple suggestion: Study hip hop artists like Diddy and 50 Cent and Jay-Z (whom
Fortune
recently called “America’s Hippest CEO”). You’ll learn all you need to learn about taking a brand to the top of the mountain. These guys are amazing. Constantly reinventing. Relentlessly innovating. Endlessly improving. They have one hit record that drives their name—their brand, sorry—into the public consciousness and then extend their line into clothes, books, movies, colognes, etc. Study the way they build community, cement loyalty and tattoo what they stand for onto people’s brain cells.

“I cursed the fact I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.” Comes from a Persian proverb. That line sends shivers down my spine. Whoever wrote that really gets it. It’s easy to fall into the very human trap of focusing on what we don’t have rather than being grateful for what we do have. I’ll bet you have more blessings in your life than you are noticing.

A billion children went to sleep hungry last night. People in the world lost family members yesterday whom they adored. There are people in your own community dying of cancer and AIDS. I just read about a little girl who was born without a face. Just two eyes and a mouth. And we worry about traffic being heavy on the way to work.

Here’s a word to think about: perspective. Travel to more countries and you’ll get greater perspective on our world. Talk to people you’ve never talked to and you’ll get a new perspective on what life can be. And celebrate the blessings in your life and you’ll reconnect with how fortunate you are. It’s human nature not to appreciate all we have until it’s lost. Fight that urge.