The Greatness Guide, Book 2: 101 More Insights to Get You to World Class (24 page)

To me, success is all about being
in the process
of joyfully creating a life that reflects your highest values, your deepest beliefs and your greatest dreams. There’s a lot in that statement and I invite you to break it down and reflect on it. There’s the part about the “process” of creating life on your terms (the journey really is better than the end). There’s the part about “joyfully” journeying through life because life is meant to be fun. There’s the element of living by your values and beliefs, which is all about being true to yourself and living life on your terms. And there’s that aspect of chasing your dreams, as these are what get us out of bed each day and fill our hearts with hope.

This reminds me of the words of Mark Twain: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” That’s true success.

One of my favorite books is
Man’s Search for Meaning,
written by Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychotherapist who survived confinement in Nazi concentration camps. So many of those around him perished. They lost hope. They fell into despair, then death. He managed to get through the ordeal by applying what I believe is our highest human freedom: our ability to choose how we respond to and process any event that happens to us. We can look for some good or we can become haunted by the bad. Frankl writes, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms to choose one’s attitude to a given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way.” Such a magnificent thought.

I was watching
The Big Idea
with Donny Deutsch the other night. I don’t watch much TV but I enjoy his show. Great guests. Interesting insights. And a ton of inspiration. He had on the creator of
CSI,
a man who used to drive a tram in Las Vegas for $8.50 an hour. His big idea? To write a script for a television show that married the traditional police show with forensics. That winning concept has made him rich. It also got me thinking. About screenplays and Hollywood writers. They get to write their own stories. List the cast of characters. And determine how the whole thing concludes. So do you. True, we can’t predict how life will unfold. In so many ways, the only thing we can expect is the unexpected. But by writing our stories and then doing our best to act them out daily, we can get a lot closer to our own Hollywood endings than those who don’t. So many of our professional and personal desires really can come true—if we write the script. And that’s a beautiful thing.

I just watched the powerful Hilary Swank movie
Freedom Writers
once again with my kids. The story reminded me of what’s most important. At the end of our lives, the only thing that endures is who we became, the difference we made and the love we gave. In one scene, her onscreen father, proud of her inspired work with inner-city kids that other teachers had given up on, told her, “You’ve been blessed with a burden.” I believe the same is true for each of us. As Google co-founder Larry Page once said, leadership really is about “a healthy disregard for the impossible.”

We all have talents, resources and capacities that make us special. And with those gifts come responsibilities. To use them. To refine them. To polish them and make them brighter so that we create more value, and so that we elevate the world around us (I adore the Harley-Davidson ad that encourages us to “Leave behind shoes no man can fill”). To forget the burden on you to be great is to neglect the call on your life. And no failure could be bigger than that.

I like my music loud, my coffee strong and my dreams large. I like days with color, people with passion and conversations that call out the best within me. I want to live like there’s no tomorrow, achieve the best within me, and love the people in my life like I really mean it. I want to do my part to elevate our world. I want to live with intensity.

What a beautiful word:
intensity.
Live a high-volume life. Play full-out. Take risks. Reach high. Don’t look back. Be authentic. Be great. “Live to the point of tears,” said novelist Albert Camus. I
so
love that line.

Sure we need to enjoy the journey, tread lightly and balance our courage with striking kindness. But do it all with rare passion, with bravery and with a sparkle in your eye. Do it all with intensity. All of the great ones do.