My Single Most Important Lesson About Success

A segment from this summer’s upcoming book, The Workplace Engagement Solution (Career Press) by David Harder:

 

 

Many people don’t pursue what they really want because, at the core, they believe they will never get the help that brings their vision to life. Once we define a mission, vision and purpose our success is purely based on the quality of help we get. The most successful people in the world either intuitively or consciously understand that if they are going to realize their dreams and ambitions they must get the right people to help them. Those of us who don’t get this basic fact of modern life are basically walled off from our best and highest use. In the modern world, those of us who believe we must do it ourselves are running in circles often chasing our tails.

 

 

 

The concept of building success through building meaningful support systems is so elusive we routinely put down the process in front of our children. The Emmy, Academy, and Grammy awards represent an extraordinary opportunity for us to point out how the most successful people in media made it to that podium. However, we either wordlessly sit by or complain as the award winner goes on and on doing what? They are thanking all the people who helped them by generously giving their time, putting their necks on the line and investing blood, sweat and tears in the success at hand. Many of us assume they bought that support system once they became rich and famous rather than pointing out to our children they became rich and famous by building that support system. The absence of an awareness and skill set to build and develop a reliable support system is one of the fundamental reasons large swaths talent doesn’t engage, doesn’t change and gets paralyzed.

 

 

 

When I began the journey called Inspired Work doing everything myself was the norm. But, designing a solution for others brought the unexpected reward of ending my lifelong sense of pushing an egg up a hill with my nose. Typically, when we design a curriculum we look at the desired end result. The purpose of this first program is to, “Instill an awareness of the work we were born to do and recognize the skill sets that bring the vision to life. During this journey, we don’t abide by the standards of average, we stand with Irrevocable Happiness.”

 

 

 

I finished the first 2/3rds of the curriculum in less than a week. The questions and process that brings us to a personalized vision came naturally. Then, I ran into a brick wall. At the time, my natural inclination to bring a vision to life, to make it a practical reality was simply to work harder. Without a thought intervention, this was my natural pattern. My adoptive father was a Russian immigrant who had worked in a labor camp where the community’s had a favorite saying: “Work tastes better than food.” He was a medical doctor. As a concert pianist, I worked in practice studios for so many hours that I often had blood coming from the edges of my fingernails. In our programs, that magic moment arrives when someone announces a breakthrough, a new career, a new business, a commitment to new learning or new behavior. I ask the question, “What are you going to do now?” The response is usually some form of “working harder.” When we come from that place, at best, we are going to burn out but usually we will simply fail.

 

 

 

Two weeks before delivering our first program, I was climbing the wall looking for an answer towards completing the curriculum. The Academy Awards was on Television. Kevin Costner was making repeated visits to the podium as Dances with Wolves swept most of the categories. Jeremy Irons hit the stage to accept Best Actor for Reversal of Fortune when it hit me:

 

 

• Everything of value in this world is done through collaboration

 

• We can live in the delusion of adequacy for many years

 

• If we are going to succeed with any form of a unique career path, our success can only be derived from getting others to help us

 

 

 

This was a turning point that got passed on to thousands of participants. Not only do many of us have inadequate support in our careers, we can also extend that poverty to our healthcare, love lives, financial abundance, social standing, image, childcare and development and continuous education. From the lens of adequacy, we live with problems that seem to have no solution. We work harder to get past them. But usually, we don’t. Or, we get there while other vital aspects of our lives suffer.

 

 

 

In the learning and development field, we are providing our talent with support. But, how many of us spend time teaching our people how to get help? It seems a bit counterintuitive that to become self-sufficient we must learn how to identify, recruit and manage help from others, doesn’t it?

 

 

And yet, that is exactly how real and lasting success works.

 

 

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

 

Schedule time with David via www.inspiredworkservices.com/calendar

(C) Copyright, Inspired Work, Inc. – 2016 – (All rights reserved)

 

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

The Inspired Work Program (Los Angeles)

Saturday and Sunday, January 7 & 8 or February 11 & 12

Launch the new year with a fully personalized and exciting new direction.

Over 42,000 professionals have used The Inspired Work Program to define their place in the vastly changing world of work. Our process elevates standards, produces unique vision and blends the spiritual with “rubber meets the road” practicality. Our participants form successful new and renewed careers. Our participants launch effective businesses, often for the first time. Our participants get hired more quickly, stay longer, contribute more and bring home the kind of energy that adds to the lives of everyone we touch. For two days you are engaged in immersive experience that offers a life-changing learning experience coupled to a form of self-definition that leads to clear, personalized outcomes.

Our participants learn how anticipate change and develop the life skills that are vital for the work of tomorrow. We offer a philosophy that shifts gears from being overwhelmed by change to becoming excited with growth – the new payoff that is available to all of us.

Join us and expect turning points in your career, your job or your business.

Friends and family are welcomed. Their presence only makes the outcome more profound.

To our CEOs, business owners, chief human resource officers and talent professionals:

The easiest way to qualify this program for use in your organization is to send one or two participants or deliver the program to an intact team. The results will speak for themselves.

For a program overview (click here).

About your Leader (click here).

We invite you to call and discuss your career and business needs. 

Call us at (310) 277-4850

The program is delivered at the beautiful Luxe Summit – Bel Air (Los Angeles).

Shuttles are available from LAX and the hotel provides special rates for out-of-town guests.

Inspired Social Networking

Begins on Tuesday, December 13 from 4-6 p.m. (PST) or Monday, January 9

with three additional virtual sessions.

The people who can transform your career or your business are out there waiting for you.

We bring business development skills to social networking and the outcome is unique, powerful, effective and enjoyable for both the users and the recipients.

Once you define what you want out of your life and your business, your successful is purely based on the quality of help that you get.

There isn’t a more powerful program for building the right support system than Inspired Social Networking.

For more information, (Click Here).

To enroll, call (310) 277-4850.