The Greatness Guide, Book 2: 101 More Insights to Get You to World Class (17 page)

Listening is, in so many ways, the social equity of the world-class cultures that evolve into world-class organizations. Listening makes people feel special (and talent leaves organizations mainly because they didn’t feel special). Listening shows respect. Listening allows you to gather the data that will improve everything you do. I guess what I’m suggesting to you is that brilliant performers are brilliant listeners.

Today, just for a day, make the decision to listen (versus just hear). Don’t interrupt. Don’t rehearse your answer while the other person is speaking. And don’t dare check your e-mail or search for text messages while another human being is sharing their words. Just listen. Deeply. Be there for that person. Because everyone has a voice. And each of us craves to have ours recognized. Watch the great things that unfold once you do.

Powerful thought: The main competition is not for “share of wallet” (as I hear at so many of my clients’ conferences). No. It’s for share of your customers’ hearts. In today’s world of business, what smart companies compete for are the emotions of the people they serve.

People buy with their emotions. I drink Colombian coffee. Why? Because it tastes extraordinary, and makes me feel happy. I try to buy from companies with a social conscience. Why? Because doing so makes me feel good about myself. I adore my old, ripped Levi’s. Why? Because they make me feel relaxed—and grounded. That’s all emotional engagement.

I love staying at the Mercer in New York and Hotel Victor in Miami and the Savoy in Florence and the Ritz-Carlton in Singapore and the Leela Palace Hotel in Goa. Why? Because they wow me. And make me feel special (there’s that feeling thing again).

Connect with your customers’ heads and your product or service may be seen as a commodity: They’ll leave you when a competitor comes in at a cheaper price. But connect with their hearts and you can have them for a lifetime. Great businesses don’t
have customers who like them. They have customers who
love
them. And that’s what allows them to endure.

I did a show on SIRIUS Satellite Radio yesterday. The host, Jesse Dylan, asked me a thoughtful question: “Robin, we all have goals and aspirations. But sometimes things don’t go as planned. How do you know when to quit?” My answer was straightforward: “You’ll know when you know.”

No one gets to world class in their work or within their personal lives without a relentless devotion to not giving up. All acts of heroism were accomplished by human beings who refused to lose. They just wouldn’t let go—no matter how bad or impossible or impractical things looked. But having said that, life often sends us curve balls and has other plans for us. (Comedian Gilda Radner, who died of ovarian cancer at age 42, put it so very well: “Now I’ve learned the hard way that some poems don’t rhyme and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the most of it without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.”)

We long for something to happen and some dream to get done. But no matter how hard we try, the clouds never part. We never get the break. Luck never smiles on us. We continue to toil
in darkness, fueled purely by faith. That’s fine—if deep within you your fire burns brightly and every fiber within you tells you to carry on (self-faith is a hallmark of greatness). But sometimes, you get to a point where you just know it’s time to change strategy. It’s not about losing hope. You just
know.
It’s about trusting life. Trusting that there’s an even better thing waiting for you. And that it’s time to course-correct.

For the past few years, I’ve tried to live by the pretty simple philosophy that I shared with you in an earlier chapter: Do your best and let life do the rest. It’s not easy to let go of what you want (I know how painful that can be). But why wouldn’t you, if something even better is waiting just around the corner?

On a recent flight with Colby, I flipped through the newspapers while he read a Hardy Boys book. Saw an article about Tristan Unsworth, an 11-year-old boy who is now the hero of his small hometown in Canada. The other day, his snowboarding buddy was sitting next to him in class, sucking on a candy. Someone said something funny, the kids started to laugh, and that sent the candy down the boy’s windpipe. Everyone in the classroom was too stunned to do much. The boy started choking. His face turned purple. He said later that he thought it was his day to die. But Tristan’s grandmother had taught him the Heimlich maneuver. He rushed into action, and saved his friend’s life. Beautiful.

The school principal said yesterday, “He’s the most humble boy I’ve ever met in my entire life. He’s the most wonderful boy.” A powerful reminder for you: Greatness inhabits each one of us. And that’s true whether you are an entrepreneur in Moscow or a teacher in Tel Aviv or a student in Bogotá or a manager in Manila. Let’s not forget that. Let’s not mask our brilliance. Let’s not bury it so deep that we neglect the essence of who we are. Let’s model ourselves after Tristan. And be remarkable.