by Burt Dubin
Every great person was once a neophyte. For example, Colin Powell was a poor kid from Brooklyn. How did he, and hundreds of other successful professionals, rise from obscurity to success to significance?
I don’t pretend to share his real-world history. And, based on the principles of human nature, here’s my guesstimate of the nature of his evolution from zip to magnificence as a person—as a person first— and then as a world class professional. These core values are available to you to move yourself ahead in your world.
Core value #1: Openness and generosity. Don’t be greedy for your share of the pie. Instead, make it a bigger pie. Be willing to offer insights, words of guidance, to those who report to you. Help them grow. Great people do this.
Core value #2: Resolute determination to succeed in your career or your business. Succeeding at anything requires making intelligent decisions. This inevitably leads to nose-to-the-grindstone activities, midnight oil, never giving up despite formidable challenges and road blocks.
Core Value #3: Energy, all-but-endless energy. Readiness to drive all night through a raging storm to be somewhere you committed to be early next morning in weather so bad all planes are grounded. Champions do that when it matters. Willingness to consistently do more than is expected, more than is required, more than anyone in their right mind would do to serve your company, your constituency, or your clients.
Core value #4: Diligence. Careful attention to the details. Every possible detail that turns your performance at whatever you do from unexciting to unforgettable.
Core value #5: Presence. That quality of beingness which magnetizes eyes to you before you say or do a thing. This comes from a certain sureness on your part, a sureness that you’ve researched thoroughly, prepared well, and that you’re emotionally, psychologically, and physically primed to deliver. It seeps up from your spirit, emanates from your essence, soars from your soul, and manifests from the marrow of your bones. It rises as a glow from inside you, a glow that people can see in your stance, a glow that’s visible in your glance and palpable in your poise.
Core value #6: Intuition. Your inner knowing, your sensing in the moment, the mood of those around you, the feelings they have, their attitudes, their desires regarding possible outcomes. Your inner wisdom relative to actions to take, words to say, to suit the situation, to advance your cause.
Core value #7: Balance. I mean retaining balance in your life. Putting first things first. This surely includes your spiritual life, quality time with your significant other and your children. This means placing your loved ones ahead of your career or your business, being devoted to their happiness first. And maintaining peak personal health, too. Balancing the rigors of travel, fast food, missed meals, and finding where and when to exercise.
All of this is not easy. One way is to book time for these values on your calendar first. Some top professionals book whole weeks and months away with their loved ones. Rudyard Kipling's classic poem “If” comes to mind. I do not offer answers to these challenges. I simply place them before you as puzzles to be solved on the way to your making yourself a transcendent performer at what you do.
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