The Greatness Guide, Book 2: 101 More Insights to Get You to World Class (16 page)

Dropped Bianca off at school today. Watched her walking away from me. Toward her friends. She’s 11 now. Growing up. Seems like yesterday I carried her around on my back and bought her bubble gum and watched her coloring with crayons. Now she’s into Avril Lavigne and Beyoncé and Hilary Duff. As I mentioned earlier, she wants to be a rock drummer when she grows up. (When she was younger, she wanted to be a dentist—and a dollarstore owner.)

One of my favorite music artists (musicians really are artists), English songwriter Lloyd Cole, has a song that reminds us that time is a lot like an airplane, flying by too fast. Don’t blink. Before you know it, your kids will be gone, off living lives of their own. Time’s like that. Slips through our fingers like grains of sand. So today, please do love your loved ones. Give your best at work. Go the extra mile in all you do. Speak truthfully. Live with honor. And have some fun. Because one day, your time will run out.

I was in an airport, about to fly to Las Vegas and give a speech to 3,000 network marketers. Had some time, so went up to the business lounge to read. Too noisy. Cell phones rang (with those grating ring tones that cause me to toss in my sleep). People talked too loud on their BlackBerries (RIM is one of our clients—still love you guys). One passenger was playing an electronic game on a PlayStation Portable, sans earpiece. So we all heard him as he battled the dragons and invaded new lands (kind of funny, actually). I shut out the world courtesy of my iPod. Thanks, Steve Jobs. But I shouldn’t have had to.

Then I went to the gate. Guess what? Noise. Noise. Noise. Someone had installed three flat-screen TVs there—the volume now at 10. Pretty hard to believe. Not everyone was in the mood to watch TV, or wanted the interruption. No one asked for our permission. Again, out came the iPod. I need my peace. Crave it, actually. (I believe world-class results come from alternating periods of peak performance with periods of deep renewal; big idea there.)

Sure, I appreciate technology. Helps us work better and live better, if used intelligently. But whatever happened to silent spaces
and noiseless places? Too much noise gets in the way of dreaming and good conversations and time to just be. And we all need that. If we want to live a good life. And get to great.

Stainless steel—a tremendous invention. But what about a stainless character? One that is noble, aspires for mastery in all pursuits and never gives up in moving closer to its ideals. What is within must always appear without. What I mean by that is that the quality of your inner world eventually is reflected in the quality of your outer world. Your external life can never grow bigger than your internal one. Life really is a mirror—reflecting who we are, rather than all we want.

A person who dreams pristine dreams and who is impeccably honest, good, ethical and stands for what’s best will soon act in alignment with those values. And those actions cannot help but drive extraordinary results. Inner always creates outer. Always.

Last night I saw
Spiderman 3
with Bianca. Best line in the movie was the most obvious one: “We always have a choice. We can always choose between right and wrong.” This leadership/success/greatness stuff really is pretty simple. Simple—but not easy (and excellence is all about doing what’s right versus what’s easy). The best things in life do take effort and commitment and discipline. (My friend Nido Qubein once said, “The
price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret.”) And sure, it all seems so obvious. But what’s most obvious is what’s most often forgotten.

The best leaders turn their teammates loose. They clearly communicate the vision, coach and develop their people and, once done, set them free. Free to use their own creativity and ingenuity to get the results needed. Free to do excellent work and find splendid solutions. Free to feel what it’s like to succeed. And free to fail, because making mistakes is part of getting to success.

People want to be a part of an organization that lets them bring their gifts to work and be fully alive. People want to be engaged and feel proud of their contribution. At the deepest level, each of us aches to know the work we do—and the lives we lead—make a difference. Will you let the people around you realize this longing by setting them free? Because if you don’t, someone else will.