Your True Calling Comes from the Inside

“The first time I walked on stage, I knew that was what I was created to do. I knew that there was a calling and a sense of purpose in my life that gave me fulfillment and a sense of destiny.” ~ T.D. Jakes

Unless you’re a film buff , you may only have a nodding acquaintance with the Hedy Lamarr. The raven-haired beauty dominated the silver screen from the 1930s to the 1950s. Of the Austrian-born actress’s first American film, Algiers, one filmgoer said when she came on screen, “everyone gasped… Lamarr’s beauty literally took one’s breath away.” Fame and fortune based on her looks and acting talent followed Lamarr throughout her career, but she had a secret. Hedy Lamarr was a genius.

Of screen, Lamarr tinkered. She held no degree or formal training but invented a technology that improved the efficacy of traftic lights. Howard Hughes often consulted with her on aircraft designs. During World War Two, Lamarr developed a frequency-hopping signal generator for torpedoes that negated any signal-jamming efforts. Tis technology formed the basis for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-capable devices today.

There are two powerful lessons we can learn from Hedy Lamarr. The first is that she never accepted that she was “just a pretty actress.” The public recognized her for her films, but Hedy’s experiments were known only to a few. Hedy had a sense of self and mission that negated popular perceptions. Secondly, she used her “day job” to become a vehicle to dream and explore her penchant for technology. Even if we feel like our current career or position isn’t our passion, if we let those
circumstances kill our soul, we can never achieve the kernel of greatness inside of us. Had Hedy Lamarr resigned herself to just being an actress, the technological landscape of today might look much different.

Everyone has a calling—a God-given purpose for why they were created. For some, their vocation is their calling. I know some pastors, counselors, health care providers, and others who make their living fulfilling their calling. For others, their vocation supports their calling. I suspect Hedy Lamarr was among the latter.

Believe in what is inside of you and not what others perceive you as. Connect your vocation with your calling, and you can change the world. If you struggle to believe that, think about Hedy Lamarr, “just another pretty girl” who changed our world.

Consider this …

1. What is your calling—your God-given purpose for being placed on this Earth? If you don’t know, start spending the time required to discover your calling

2. How does your vocation relate to your calling? Are they synonymous? Or, does your vocation support your calling?

3. In what ways can you link what you do every day to the fulfillment of your calling?

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Innovator’s Field Guide)

“As an entrepreneur, you love your business like a child, and you’re taught to be laser-focused on the business.”~ Daymond John

In a small town, two businesses had served the same clientele for years. One of them was a grain and feed store, and the other was a hardware and tool store. Each business owner wanted to capture extra sales by dovetailing new categories of goods and providing a one-stop shopping solution for their customers. They had both heard that this tactic was being employed by chain stores and tried to emulate that formula. So, the feed store started stocking hardware items and hired an employee to oversee that category. The hardware store did the same with feed and grain items.

Both owners encountered the same problem, each from his own perspective. The feed store’s clients who wanted tools were not happy with the small selection. The hardware store’s owner often heard complaints from his customers about the scant inventory of grain and feed. This went on for a couple of years, and neither business owner understood why the add-on categories weren’t as successful as they would have liked.

Finally, at the local meat and three, the hardware-store owner came up to the table where the feed-store man sat and said, “We need to talk.” The feed-store man agreed, and by the end of lunch they worked out a solution. Each of them would not try to do something the other one did better, and each store swapped their one employee who managed the competing category. Soon, sales and customer satisfaction were up for both store owners.

Find out what you are good at, and be the best at that one thing. Diversification, if not properly executed, can be a grave distraction to yourself and your team.

Consider this …

1. Take a moment to brief y describe your core business.

2. Now describe the component of your core business that you are the best in the world (or in your market) at doing, which no one else can match. What other things are you trying to do that are distracting you from your core capabilities?

3. What partnerships might you develop to enhance your core business, without creating unnecessary distraction?

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Innovator’s Field Guide..)

“All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost. The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

In performing research for a prior book, I came across some thing I never knew about gold. We use gold as a metric to value commodities, ideas, and activities (i.e. “the gold standard”), but gold also has a nasty secret. Gold is commonly found naturally in small quantities and scarcity is a factor in the metal’s intrinsic value. There are geological conditions that produce large quantities of gold. Those deposits are sometimes found near volcanic activity. There’s a problem with gold that’s chucked up from volcanos. Gold bonds with chlorine or cyanide to form toxic compounds. It’s ironic that one could literally be poisoned by sitting on a mountain of gold.

God’s creation and the lessons it can teach us never cease to amaze me. As deadly as large quantities of gold can be, a  bacterium thrives on toxic gold. Cupriavidus metallidurans ingests the lethal chemicals found in these gold compounds, and plain untainted gold comes out the other side. Cupriavidus metallidurans probably didn’t start out loving poisonous hors d’oeuvres, but the bacterium adapted to its environment. If a microorganism can learn how to turn toxins into gold, surely humans in a business environment can do the same. The fact of the matter is, we are the sum total of all of the experiences we have ever had, be they good or be they bad. It’s how we process those experiences that determines whether we become bitter or better because of them.

Over the next thirty years, business environments are likely to change twice as much as they have in the last thirty years. Quantum innovations, virtual companies, harvesting mistakes, and reverse innovations will become the new normal in the coming years. If you’re not familiar with those terms, it’s time to brush up on your adaptation skills, or you might be poisoned by the very gold you’re trying to find.

Consider this …

1. Identify at least one extremely bad experience that you’ve had personally that still impacts you today— at home, at school, in the workplace, or etc.

2. Why is it that this experience is still negatively impacting you today? These are the “toxins” that you need to properly process.

3. Where is the “gold” in these experiences? Mine that gold and use it to put the negativity of this experience behind you for good.

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in Top Performer’s Field Guide)

“The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.”~ Billy Graham

Robert Bigelow will be the first to admit that the nearly $300 million of his own money he’s sunk into Bigelow Aerospace is the worst financial decision he’s ever made. He knew that going into the venture. The founder of Budget Suites of America made his fortune on low-budget, long-term stay rental apartments, and some would say, is now frittering his money away on a pipe dream. With no background in science, Bigelow bought a research project from NASA and has literally expanded on the idea.

Bigelow Aerospace produces inflatable habitats that can be used in orbit and potentially on other planets. NASA had tinkered with the idea for years and scrapped the project in 2000. Bigelow saw the potential and snapped up patents for the inflatable habitats for dimes on the dollar. In 2016, a Bigelow habitat was attached to the International Space Station as a proof of concept and it works as advertised: a cheap, self-sustaining (well, as self-sustaining as anything can be in space), and lightweight habitat that could pave the way for humanity’s first steps in colonizing our solar system.

He’s constantly catcalled by the press for both his highly public stance on his company’s product and for his belief that UFOs have visited Earth. Robert Bigelow doesn’t care a whit about what others think of him. He’s thinking in terms of a legacy that will allow mankind the kind of inspiration we haven’t seen since the first moon landing in 1969. Tat’s some vision from a man who got his start in cheap hotels. 

The lessons from Bigelow are numerous, but building something that lasts longer than he will is the key point. We can’t take it with us. Have you ever seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul? We can, however, make sure we’re paving the way for those who will come after us.

Consider this …

1. What’s your legacy? On what part of the world will you leave your unique thumbprint?

2. How does your business, product, or innovation contribute to the fulfillment of your personal legacy? Is it your legacy? Does it support your legacy?

3. Spend the time necessary to draw and internalize (deeply understand) the clear link between your business, product, or innovation and the legacy you wish to leave behind.

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Innovator’s Field Guide..)

“I believe in servant leadership, and the servant always asks, Where am I needed most?’”~ Mike Pence

Faith is as much a key to business success as capitalization. We have faith in our vendors to supply goods on time. We have faith in our abilities and our vision. We have faith God is showing us the correct path for our lives. But do the team members we shepherd understand that we have faith in them as well? Perhaps you just bristled at my question and thought, “Of course, my team knows I trust them. They wouldn’t be on my team if I didn’t!”

Your associates transfer their own hopes and fears onto what you may perceive as the most insignificant of actions or words. As harsh as it sounds, there are members of your team who do not have the drive to rise to the next level on their own, as a result of their personal insecurities. Associates who fall into this category are extremely susceptible to what you may consider an insignificant slight. You may correct a team member’s minor mistake in front of another team member. To you, the correction was a reflexive response to keep a small gaffe from growing into a larger problem. For the insecure team member, this sends the message that you have no faith in their abilities.

If you try to follow the principles of servant leadership, yet see this situation as babysitting or handholding, perhaps a self-examination is in order. Your job is to empower, enable, and lift those in your care. Some members of your team need extra attention in areas that are not defined on quarterly evaluations. Open your eyes to the personal issues your team members have and adjust your actions accordingly. This may just be where you are needed most today.

Consider this …

1. Reflect on your recent or routine interactions with your associates. Are there any situations that come to mind where you may have left the wrong impression about your faith and trust in them?

2. T inking more about those interactions, identify one or two associates whom you know to experience the insecurities described above.

3. Put a plan in place to not only demonstrate that you believe in them, but also to help them overcome these insecurities. Start taking consistent action now. 

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Innovator’s Field Guide.)

“Our minds influence the key activity of the brain, which then influences everything; perception, cognition, thoughts and feelings, personal relationships; they’re all a projection of you.” ~ Deepak Chopra

Herman was the type of guy who could negotiate multimillion-dollar deals with a bulldog-like determination and a razor-sharp focus. He had that drive, that charisma, that “Midas touch” about him that drew people into his orbit, temporarily. Herman even had a beautiful wife and four wonderful children. T e corporate salesman would have no need for this book because he needed no advice nor external motivation. He was a “legend in his own mind.”

Herman had it all, including a disease that would eventually kill him and an anger issue to match his illness step by step. Even before his diagnosis, Herman made everyone else in his life miserable. His kids avoided him, and his wife wanted little to do with him. There were times when his family wanted to wring his neck because he brought the same determination and doggedness that served him so well in business to his personal relationships.

When Herman realized that his pursuit of business pushed away everything truly important, it was too late. His children grew up and wanted no relationship with him. His wife concluded that she would always be in second place in his heart behind his business, and she moved on. Those who drove past Herman’s palatially empty house would sometimes see him sitting on the porch by himself. A month before he succumbed to the disease, Herman still posted the top sales figures at his from. Even with that accomplishment, few people mourned his passing. Those in his office didn’t miss their compatriot; they were just glad his accounts were freed up.

Successful people understand the necessary balance between Results and Relationships. If we focus on one, at the expense of the other, we lose them both. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his/her soul? If you could ask Herman you might find out.

Consider this …

1. Are you a Results person or a Relationships person?

2. If you’re a Results person, identify the specific ways in which you tend to alienate the necessary Relationships in your life.

3. If you are a Relationships person, identify ways that you can develop a strong focus on delivering the necessary Results in your life.

4. Make a plan to develop (and maintain) a better balance between Results and Relationships.

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Innovator’s Field Guide.)

“When it is useful to them, men can believe a theory of which they know nothing more than its name.” ~ Vilfredo Pareto

Business speak is rife with fortune cookie adages we believe to be true but are woefully unquantified able. Henry Ford’s, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got,” is great advice, but there’s no reasonable way to measure the get versus the got. We love gauged metrics and the 80/20 rule is worthy of examination. Does 20 percent of an organization really do 80 percent of the work, or is that something the workhorses made up to make everyone else step up their game?

The 80/20 rule can be traced back to an 1896 paper by Italian polymath Vilfredo Pareto. His initial claim was that 80 percent of the land in Italy was owned by 20 percent of the population. Pareto expanded his research to other countries and then things got spooky. The distribution of land to population in other countries followed the 80/20 rule. Wealth, as a percentage of GDP, fell into the 80/20 space. On a lark, Pareto found that in his garden 20 percent of his pea pods produced 80 percent of the total peas. 

The applications of the 80/20 rule didn’t stop with Pareto. What has now become known as the Pareto Principle states that approximately 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes. Failure rates of hard drives, word distribution in books, revenue by clients, standardization of stock prices, sizes of sand grains, and thousands of other correlations all roughly adhere to the 80/20 rule. It seems that the 80/20 rule is embedded in the fabric of the universe. What’s more, the 80/20 rule is “fractal” (look it up). Meaning, the 80/20 can be applied to 80/20. In other words, 64 percent of the effects come from 4 percent of the causes, or 51 percent of the effects come from 1 percent (actually 0.8 percent) of the causes. Now, THAT is a business maxim I can get behind.

Consider this …

1. The Pareto Principle is best used as a principle for prioritization. List all of the things you have to get done within the next week or the next month.

2. Identify the 20 percent that will produce 80 percent of the intended results, or the 4 percent that will produce 64 percent of the results, or the 1 percent that will produce 51 percent of the results.

3. Reorder your list so that you knock out the 1 percent first, the 4 percent second, the 20 percent third, and the 80 percent last.

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Top Performer’s Field Guide.)

Without having seen the Sistine Chapel one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I challenge you to shut down every device around you that is connected to the internet. No phones, laptops, tablets, or talking tech from Amazon or Google shall beep, boop, or chirp. If the thought of doing this hasn’t made you throw this book across the room, see how long you can go without turning everything back on. If you made it past six-and-a-half minutes, congratulate yourself. A 2013 study commissioned by Nokia found that smartphone users check their phones at about that frequency. Even if a device did not signal an alert, a different Pew Center study says 67 percent of us will check anyway, just to see if we missed anything.

The point of this exercise isn’t to illustrate how addicted we are to digital devices. Being a hard-charging superstar, you feel like you can’t unplug because you’ll miss something work related. Give it up. Michelangelo periodically put his brush down when painting the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling. Laying on his back painting a tiny section of The Last Judgment, Michelangelo could not frame the scale and proportion of his efforts. The artist had to stop working, descend the scaffolding, and look up at his work to obtain perspective. You should do the same. 

I also have news for you. Whatever your career is, you’re not painting the Sistine Chapel. In six hundred years will anyone care about the work sitting on your desk right now or the report that was just emailed to you? Likely not. In six hundred years, some far-flung ancestor will benefit by you spending a little more time with your children. You can leave your children with a legacy of love and balance that will be passed down to future generations. If you don’t have children, make a positive impact in someone’s life. Just do something that makes your corner of the world a better place. Ask yourself, What’s my legacy?

You drive your success, but when your success drives you, there’s a perspective problem. Come of your scaffolding for a moment and examine what you’re working towards. If you don’t like the ceiling you’ve been painting, it’s time to readjust your plan.

Consider this …

1. Describe the long-term significance of where you spend the vast majority of your time.

2. Are you spending enough of your time on things that have lasting significance?

3. If not, identify two or three areas where you could have a major, lasting impact … and then pursue them!

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Top Performer’s Field Guide..)

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
~ Nelson Mandela

Are you old enough to remember when your local news station touted its weather forecaster because you wanted to know if your weekend plans were going to get rained out? Pay attention the next time the tagline for the meteorologist hits your screen. One of my local network affiliate touts:

Your top source for severe [emphasis mine]weather coverage and the most reliable local
forecast information.

The buzzwords “severe weather” coming before “reliable” is no mistake. You’ve been hooked into watching because of the fear of life-threatening weather and your wish to avoid it. It’s not just the local weather—the news is rife with taglines that appeal to fear avoidance. In short, fear sells.

It’s no wonder that faced with media designed to induce the basest of instincts, fear is the number-one reason most people also never achieve their goals or aspirations. They’re afraid of sticking their neck out. They’re afraid of falling fat. They’re afraid of looking foolish. If that’s you, STOP IT. In the words of the great Zig Ziglar:

F–E–A–R has two meanings: ‘Forget
Everything and Run’ or ‘Face Everything and
Rise.’ The choice is yours.

It’s been estimated that 85% of that about which we worry never happens. Of the remaining 15%, the vast majority of people say when that fear does come to fruition, it brings with it benefits or personal lessons that were more valuable than harmful. Tat means only about 3% of the time that which we fear comes to pass and could be potentially harmful. A full 97% of the time, we’re fearful of something that has a low probability of causing harm.

If fear is a barrier for you, start building confidence blocks that have nothing to do with your business. Go whitewater rafting, bungee jumping, or skydiving. Anything that you’ve always wanted to do, but are afraid to do—get to it. The activity doesn’t have to be grandiose, but those confidence blocks will build upon each other to wall away other fears that are keeping you from your dreams.

Consider this …

1. Write down your three biggest fears either inside, or outside your business or organization.

2. Identify opportunities to face those fears head-on.

3. Develop a plan to take advantage of those opportunities and prove to yourself once and for all that our fears are often bigger and meaner than reality.

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Innovator’s Field Guide.)

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”~ Søren Kierkegaard

George Eastman had a vision that drove his invention of roll film and the camera to use it. Eastman wanted to reduce the cost and simplify the process of photography to the point everyone could have access to the technology. The vision of cameras being as commonplace as brooms led Eastman’s company to market dominance for a hundred years, but twenty-three seconds was all it took to bankrupt Eastman’s dreams.

In 1975, it took Steve Sasson twenty-three seconds to record a fuzzy 100-by-100 pixel image from the world’s first digital camera. Sasson, who worked for Eastman Kodak, showed of the new tech to company executives the next year. Pictures of the meeting’s attendees were taken and displayed on TV screens. After processing what they were being shown, the inevitable questions started. Who wants to see their pictures on a TV? How will this technology cannibalize our present film and camera sales? What does a digital photo album look like? Sasson didn’t have the answers to any of those questions then, but he knew in his gut that digital photography would be huge.

Kodak poked digital photography with a stick for the next two decades. The company would never fully embrace the technology and went bankrupt in 2012, largely because of this continuing blunder. Kodak’s failure did not lie in refusing to embrace the future, but in abandoning Eastman’s vision of the past. You see, the entire reason George Eastman founded the company was to put photography in the hands of everyone. Digital cameras represented an evolutionary step in that direction, but most everyone at Kodak forgot that was their mission.

When we do not constantly realign our actions with our purpose, there can never be lasting success. Most mission statements take far less than twenty-three seconds to read, and the example of Kodak represents that review time is well spent.

Consider this …

1. What is the mission of your organization? (Don’t simply recount the published mission statement. Actually DESCRIBE your mission.)

2. Does your REAL mission match your currently published mission statement? If not, correct it.

3. Can every single employee describe the REAL mission of your company? Can they describe how their work contributes to the mission? If not, you’re missing a great opportunity

For more, check out The Top Performer’s Field Guide, The Innovator’s Field Guide, or visit www.JeffStandridge.com.

(Originally published in The Top Performer’s Field Guide..)