The Greatness Guide, Book 2: 101 More Insights to Get You to World Class (20 page)

In Italy on vacation with the kids. Working on a new book too. The writing’s going really well. And I’m doing some relaxing and renewing. I’ve never eaten so much pasta in my life. I’m keeping our neighborhood trattoria in business. (Maybe my next project should be a diet book?)

Yesterday afternoon the kids and I rented a little boat and headed down the Amalfi Coast. We hugged the shoreline, stayed close to land, never strayed far from home. This got me thinking. About Christopher Columbus. And about taking smart risks.

Every explorer before him feared losing sight of the shore. They clung to the known. They opted for security. They didn’t dare. Columbus did something different. He was brave. Went straight out to sea. Went perpendicular to the shoreline. And found a new world. Good on him.

Of course I needed to be safe with my kids. I’m just trying to make a point: Greatness, as a leader and as a human, sometimes requires that you leave the constraints of safety. Sometimes you just have to let go of the known. And sail out into the unknown. To try a new way. To think a new thought. To behave in a new way. And
to go perpendicular when the rest of the world hugs the shoreline and clings to safety. Yes—I get it’s
so
human to feel frightened as we experiennce the Blue Ocean of Change, transition and growth. But as Lord Chesterfield said, “It is not possible to discover new oceans unless one is willing to lose sight of the shore.”

It’s a serene Sunday morning as I write this chapter. “Café del Mar” plays while I enjoy a delicious cup of java. My kids are reading and I’m moving in slow motion. Love it.

Something happened a little earlier that made me laugh, and I want to share it with you. Bianca and I were playing. Role-playing to be precise. She was pretending to be me and I was being her. She sat in my study and wrote in my journal, mimicking the way I speak. I, in turn, talked nonstop about dogs, rock bands and hip CDs. After a few minutes of imitating me, here’s what she said (honestly): “I don’t want to be you anymore, Dad. It’s too hard. I just want to be me.” Perfect.

What’s more important in life than being yourself (and loving who you are)? Most of us really do end up living someone else’s life. And we dismiss happiness as a result. Fulfillment comes from living your truth. Doing your values. Pursuing your desires and ideals. “To thine own self be true,” wrote that British sage, Shakespeare. No point in getting to the end and realizing you never let the real you come out to play. An excellent life grows out of an authentic one. Truly.

Walking down the street today I heard a man repeating this mantra to all those who passed by him: “Have you helped someone today besides yourself?” He was trying to raise money. For his Cause. But it got me thinking about giving. You need to give to get. Giving does begin the receiving process.

Give support to get it. Give praise to receive it. Give your best to attract it. Give more respect to experience it. And give more love to become beloved. (Powerful thought: If you make five people feel better about themselves each day, by the end of one year you will singlehandedly have elevated the lives of nearly 2,000 people. Continue this practice and—after a decade—you’ll have positively impacted 20,000 people. Factor in the number of people that those you touch, in turn, influence and you’ll quickly realize that your “little daily gestures of inspiration” can end up helping hundreds of thousands of human beings over the course of your lifetime.)

Give to get. Nice refrain. And so staggeringly simple (as the truest ideas are). All about servant leadership. Help others reach world class. And they’ll joyfully help you get to your cherished ideals.

The very nature of a visionary is that they see what others miss. (Makes me think of what the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once said: “Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.”) It’s like an inside joke that only they get: They see this vivid dream/opportunity/desire in their imaginations and then spend their days breathing life into it—even though everyone around them thinks they’re wasting their time, or are eccentric, or foolhardy or even crazy. Think Gandhi. Think Edison. Think Disney. Think J.K.

J.K. Rowling was a single mother struggling to pay her bills when the idea of a book about a misfit young wizard downloaded into her mind over a four-hour train ride. She says on her website that she feels blessed she had no pen with her at the time, because writing down all the miraculous ideas that were coming to her would have slowed the flow. Once the manuscript was done, her agent began to send Harry Potter to publishers. Most rejected the book instantly. One didn’t. And that’s my point about visionaries: They see an opportunity that most around them just don’t get. Imagine that. Rejecting Harry Potter. Thinking no one would buy
the book. Missing out on one of the best-selling books in the history of humankind.

Being a visionary and stepping into the higher reaches of your life necessarily means dealing with the fact that people will question you. They will not get where you are going. They might call you odd or foolish or unorthodox. They will laugh at you. All good. Thank them for the compliments and keep doing what you need to do to get to where you need to get. The world will be a better place once you do. As Maya Angelou observed, “If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can transform a million realities.”