Find A Way

     Like so many of us, I was really captivated, mesmerized, and flat out astounded by the outrageous accomplishment of Diana Nyad earlier this week to swim the 110 miles from Cuba to Florida.  The tremendous and herculean physical effort and mental concentration is more than I can even comprehend.  I’m reminded of a quote from an article written by Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent for the Telegraph in 2009, “There is a fine line between genius and madness because they share the same genes, scientists have found.”  

     Diana may have crossed this line to some extent, however her determination to achieve this goal (for whatever her reasons) is what so fascinates, intrigues, but most of all inspires me.   

     For better or for worse, we live in a world today where ‘instant gratification’ is the norm – we wait for nothing.  We buy things we can’t afford with borrowed money; e-mail and social networks have created an expectation of immediate response by both sender and receiver; smartphones are increasingly replacing human interaction; and worst of all is that this creates a false and highly inaccurate sense of expectation for success. 

     It would be easy to blame our youth for all this, but the truth is, my generation created this, and has simply passed it down to our children.  

     For Diana, this swim was a long-awaited triumph and was her fifth attempt since 1978, and her fourth since turning 60.  Through it all, Diana held her mantra close: "You don't like it. It's not doing well. Find a way."

Find a Way

     For me, as a professional sales person, one of the biggest goals I had was being Rep of the Year.  What makes this such a special award is that the winner is chosen by their peers.

     It took me 11 years to finally achieve it, and the irony is after about 4 years I stopped trying.  What I didn’t stop was trying to be the best damn sales person I could be.  Many times I was overcome with mind numbing detail work; soul killing loneliness from the nonstop travel; and there were always the steep and seemingly unachievable sales targets.   

Find a way. 

     I have never been one that feels the need to have to ‘prove’ something by undertaking some incredibly difficult and punishing physical endurance challenge.  However, having said this, I am one that regularly chooses activities that can and often are physically challenging and punishing.  

     The difference is probably somewhere in the goal(s) of why we do what we do.  Many of us simply cannot achieve extreme physical challenges because of limitations of our bodies.  For me, the arthritis in my knees and herniated disc in my lower back insures that I’ll never be able to run a marathon, but I have come up with other activities that still give me the cardiovascular and muscular workout that I want.  

Find a way

     To my beautiful and talented daughters, both of whom are on very different paths with significant and seemingly overwhelming challenges in front of you: 

Find a Way  

     To my wonderful and loving wife Cristin, also on her own uncharted and challenging journey, let Diana’s words ring loud and clear:

Find a way

     Finally for anyone reading this, set your goals, seek your fortune, pursue your happiness, and when shit happens,

Find A Way

A Salesman Looks At 20 (with apologies to Jimmy Buffett)

I've done a bit of smugglin'
I've run my share of grass.
I made enough money to buy Miami,
But I pissed it away so fast, Never meant to last,
Never meant to last. -J.Buffett-A Pirate Looks At 40

This month marks my 20 year service anniversary at John Wiley & Sons.  This seems like a good opportunity to hit the 'pause' button on this wild ride called life and reflect on a few things.  When you consider how much time we spend working its no wonder that our sense of identity and self-worth get inextricably linked with our jobs.  It's also why the 'Great Recession' is taking a much larger and devastating toll on this country in terms of the number of people (many of our own family and friends) who lost jobs and with them their sense of identity and worth. I'm so blessed and thankful to have found a home at John Wiley and continue to make meaningful contributions.

I once had a boss who challenged me by saying something like, "the reason you work so hard is because you are afraid you'll fail".  I took great exception with this statement and told him he couldn't be more wrong.  I work so hard precisely so that I don't fail.  The difference, subtle as it may be, is in how one defines success.  In sales this is pretty easy - either you make your sales goal or you don't.  But it's not always so 'cut & dry'.  In 20 years I've only missed my sales goal 4 times (and until this past year it was always by only a few percentage points - which means my company made a lot of money on me, but I didn't). My point here is that in those years that I didn't make my goal, I did other things that I knew were important to the organization. One thing I learned many years ago is that when you play by other people's rules, you will lose more than you will ever win because these rules weren't written with your unique strengths and skills in mind.  Although the goal is the same, you need to create your own rules to enable you to use your God given talents to achieve these.  You can miss a goal and still be successful.  I haven't always been so conscientious about these things, however what I did was simply get into some habits where I actually didn't think much about them, I just did them.  Whether it was work or family related, exercise, diet, etc.  I just did it.  Sort of like when you're at the top of the mountain skiing down - if you stop and think about what you're about to do, it gets very scary and too easy to change your mind about the route.  Sometimes it's best to just go (be careful) and do the best you can.

In all seriousness, the one true and perhaps best measure of success for any of us is, at the end of the day, can we look at ourselves in the mirror and say, "I did my best".

"All I I can give you is my very best, and when I do that, I ain't gonna worry about the rest" - Ann Peebles - Give me some Credit

Sustainable Success in 2012 and Beyond

                    

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village.    

An American tourist, who was a

consultant, complimented the Mexican

fisherman on the quality of his

fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

"Not very long," answered the Mexican.

"But then, why didn't you stay out longer and

catch more?" asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch

was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The American asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta

with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends,

have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs . . I have a

full life."

The American interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help

you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell

the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger

boat."

And after that?" asked the Mexican.

With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second

one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of

trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then

negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your

own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, 
Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."

"How long would that take?" asked the Mexican.

"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the American.

"And after that?"

"Afterwards? Well my Friend, That's when it gets really interesting,"

answered the American, laughing. "When your business gets really big,

you can start selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions? Really? And after that?" said the Mexican.

"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the

coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a

siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying

your friends."  - Anonymous


I love this story!  It's a great launch into today's chautauqua.  I'm calling it Sustainable Success in 2012 and Beyond.  Everyone strives for success, but just what exactly is success?  The achievement of a goal?  Sure, but who defines it?  
Can efforts that fail be successful?  
Who determines whether you succeed or fail?  
Why can this differ depending on who you ask?

I want to talk about how we determine success.  
More specifically, how we should determine success.   I've learned over the years that when I have allowed other people to create the rules of my success, I would fail just about every time.  It sounds so simple, but the trick is for you to create the rules of your success.  God has given all of us unique talents, skills, and attributes.  Just as it's possible to arrange a finite set of notes in infinite sequences to create music, the same is true with the way we use our God given talents to achieve our goals and dreams. The story of the Mexican Fisherman is a great example of this.  Both the Mexican and the American had the same goal, however each had very different ways of accomplishing it.  They also each share very different definitions of success.  


As a professional sales person one of the biggest, most important goals I strived for was being recognized as the Rep Of The Year.  Besides the plaque, money, and Rolex watch (which are ALL fabulous), the real prize is being recognized by your sales professional peers as being  #1. 
It's the equivalent of achieving an Olympic gold medal (in my opinion).  

The problem is that there are so many sales people who are better than I am at so many things and there is NO way I can beat them. After years of beating my head against the wall and intense disappointment, I decided to hell with this and just do what I do best. 


This is where the sustainable part comes in.  
I simply couldn't keep up the incredible and stressful sales effort, month after month, year after year, so I came up with ways to make the day to day grind more manageable and even enjoyable.  This allowed me to tolerate the long hours and mind numbing detail work.  It took me 11 years, and when I least expected it, I did finally achieve Rep Of The Year in 1996.  I am going on 28 years of working this crazy job with all it's unreasonable and often mind numbing travel and nonsense, but I've been able to sustain a level of performance that allows me to be a sales leader in my industry.  


When people ask me what my secret is, I tell them something no one wants to hear.  That being there is no secret.  Just sustaining a reasonable effort over a long period of time, making small and incremental changes regularly.  It's my opinion that greatness is not about winning the race every time. It's about finishing it - time after time, after time. Because what you'll find is that with each race, fewer and fewer people will finish. Excellence therefore is sustainable effort.  The simple test is to place this powerful adjective before any aspect of your life, and see if it is indeed true.

Just to put this into some perspective, I have been jogging since I was 16 and although I was never very fast, I was consistent.  As the years went on I got slower, covered fewer miles and skipped many days.  I conservatively estimate that I have been able to sustain a very modest record of jogging between 2 to 3 miles, 3 or 4 days a week over these 34 years. If you were to average this to say, 9 miles a week, x 52 weeks a year (468 miles a year).  Then multiply this by 34 years you get a total of 15,912 miles jogged.  That’s more than three quarters of the earth’s surface!  Think about it this way, it’s like running from Chicago to Beijing China, and back. Oh yea, then to Costa Rica for some beach time and rest.

Little changes sustained over a long period make a profound difference.   Who are you going to let define your success in 2012?   Let 2012 be the year that each of us introduces the power of sustainability to the important aspects of our lives. 

May you find sustainable peace, Love, friendship, good health, and prosperity in the new year.