Blog about Leadership

Quote for Leaders from Charles C. Noble:
“You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures.”

On this site, I’ve written before that dreams can come true through the implementation of incremental goals. For the sake of consistency, relate dreams as long-term goals and it starts to make sense. I’m not talking about dreams like winning the lottery, but rather realistic dreams like building a successful, multinational company – something that can be accomplished with effort, ingenuity, planning, and, then, a little good luck. Remember, of course, the famous quote from Louis Pasteur, “Chance favors the prepared mind.” While in order to win the lottery, you have to prepare by buying a lottery ticket and/or selecting your numbers, the bulk of the event is locked in chance. Where chance is an additional factor, not the primary factor, preparedness can be the difference.

Too often, while working along the path of incremental goals, some of those goals may be failures, but it doesn’t have to cause the big picture to be a failure.

J.K. Rowling 

Last year, J.K. Rowling gave a commencement address at Harvard. In her speech, she said, “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.” This is a woman who was a single mother, reliant upon welfare benefits, who went from poverty to wealth through creating the Harry Potter books. Harry Potter is now is a multibillion dollar brand and J.K. Rowling is very wealthy in her own right. The initial story was written at time when J.K. Rowling’s mother had died after a ten-year battle with multiple sclerosis, when she had dealt with a divorce from the father of her child, and suffered through her own battle with clinical depression and thoughts of suicide (the source of influence for the Dementors characters – the soulless creature who suck happiness from its victims). For J.K. Rowling, she found her success by knowing that failure was merely part of the journey to success, not the destination.

Dreams can come true through the implementation of incremental goals. Long-term goals are the focus to move beyond short-term failures.

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There is a commonly reference proverb that states:
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”

This is used to encourage you to set goals and aim for success. The idea is to not focus on how you are going to do something or what road you will take, but rather focus on where you want to end up – your destination – to determine the route. Even if you don’t know the route to take, but know the destination then as you live your life the route becomes known – the opportunities arise.

First things first, set a goal – determine the success you want to achieve.

Many years ago, I was soldier stationed in Germany and while I was there, I met an older gentleman who was always willing to give me advice on any topic that I asked. He was a retired office and at the time worked for a Defense contractor. The best advice he gave me was to always do my best on what I am working on at the moment and let the details of what to do next work out for themselves.

Ever since I was a teenager, I was always looking toward the next things I wanted to do. When I was fifteen, I wanted to start working toward certain college degrees, but I wasn’t focusing very well on completing my high school diploma. I spent more time focusing on the topics that interested me, but didn’t give my best efforts in the general topics of high school. Of course, later in life, I learned how important the foundation of general knowledge is in working toward higher learning topics.

When I was in college, I remember taking an assessment to determine my learning style. I scored nearly even across all categories. What this indicated was that I was driven by the topics that interest me at the time that they interest me. I can delve into single topic and learn more about it in a short period of time, but when it comes to learning and studying specific topics as set by a University curriculum, at times, I didn’t have the interest, so I didn’t delve in to the same motivation as I focus on non-curriculum topics. Completing my degrees, while simple from my intellectual perspective, became difficult because of motivation and working on the topics as given to me rather than those I sought myself.

There is an un-sourced quote from former Secretary of State and General Colin Powell that I have always enjoyed:
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.”

In this one quote, Colin Powell breaks down a three-point process for success: Preparation, Hard work, and Learning from Failure.

1. Preparation – Set goals. Don’t focus your attention on all the details of how to achieve your goals, but focus primarily on the goals.
2. Work hard – In everything that you do, do it to the best of your abilities. The opportunities will come your way, but you need the foundation set in place in order for the opportunities to come.
3. Learn from Failure – This has been a common theme on this blog. Failures are not the problem, but rather one of the opportunities. How you respond to failure better determines success in the future than nearly anything else. How you respond to failure demonstrates your work ethic, your determination, your perspective, and your level of experience.

As 2008 becomes history and 2009 becomes the present, this is a new year with new opportunities – make the most of this year starting now.

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I have written a lot about failure on this blog, because I feel it is an important topic for leaders. Temporary failures and the fear of failure are too often the hindrance that holds leaders and everyone from accomplishing what is within their full potential – the hindrance that keeps too many from success.

I recently was reminded of the “Pyramid of Success” from Coach John Wooden of which he developed a lecture and book by the same title. (To see the Pyramid of Success click here.) Coach Wooden was the first person enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. He played for Purdue and coached for Indian State and UCLA.

From his father, Joshua, Coach Wooden had a Seven Point Creed from which he built his success in life.

His Seven Point Creed is:

1. Be true to yourself.
2. Make each day your masterpiece.
3. Help others.
4. Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
5. Make friendship a fine art.
6. Build a shelter against a rainy day.
7. Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

How Coach John Wooden defines success:

“Success is peach of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.”

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