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Success is about showing up

One thing I've learned in my 62 years is that success never seeks you out. Success is about as indifferent and unemotional as it gets. It doesn't give a hoot about your dreams and vision of what success means to you. It doesn't care if you're wildly successful today and lose it all tomorrow. Success is never in a rush. Success is just this extraordinary state that allows people, companies and organizations to bask in its glow and glory for as long or as little as they choose. There's only one rule; show up and play to win. Otherwise, get out of the way.

I’ve been teaching, writing and coaching business and leadership for 40 years. I’ve had my share of successes and failures - but I keep showing up and keep trying to get better. When I look at my calendar and see keynotes, classes and consulting dates, I know that each and every one of them happens because of showing up and working hard. Speaker inquiries and coaching requests don’t happen by sitting around and hoping the phone rings.

There are leaders out there that believe the “Easy Button” really works. It doesn’t. It’s a joke. They think problems will fix themselves. They don’t. They get worse. They think sales will increase because they turn the lights on every day or hire some overpriced Cracker Jack performer. They won’t. They think profit will appear without a financial plan and accountability. It won’t.

There are employees that believe showing up is enough - that somehow it’s your responsibility to make them successful. Success is not an entitlement. Showing up to collect a paycheck with the least amount of effort is thinking and behavior you want your competition to be afflicted with - not your company. So here’s a Monday Morning Wake Up for you and your entitlement thinking employees - purge your company and its culture of it now. Success demands personal ownership. Success is fueled by passion and the willingness to win against all odds individually and as a team.

I’m writing this MMWU to get you fired up to the point where you can look objectively at how you are showing up and fighting to succeed as a leader. I’m trying to get you to look directly at the mediocrity that exists in your company. I want you to own your role in allowing mediocrity to settle in and tell me what you’re going to do about it. I want you to isolate those “I just want my paycheck” employees and hit them with my favorite employee Wake Up line, “I’m fighting harder to protect your paycheck then you are - and I’m getting tired.” I bet the real players on your team would step up and fill in for every paycheck collector you give a career opportunity to - and the company won’t skip a beat.

Going “No Compromise” is a requirement for success in today’s crazy economic times. It’s what you and your company are really all about but for some reason, resist or fear playing the business game at that level where extraordinary success occurs. Maybe it’s time to take back real control of your company. Maybe it’s time to revisit and rethink what success really means to you and get back in the game - not merely show up.

 

Maybe it’s your time to go after the success you’ve been waiting for. Success is waiting for someone and some company. Crank up your entire company’s sense of urgency to TEN and go for it. No Compromise.

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