Success is a destination. It’s measured by a point, a moment in time, an achievement, an accolade, a goal, a key performance indicator, a metric, etc.
Anyone can be successful, but not everyone can be great. Greatness finds no one. It's a lot of little things. Greatness surrounds itself with greatness. What will greatness require of you to achieve and sustain?
Everything you’ve got!
Top leaders adopt the mindset of growth, progress, abundance, extraordinary, passion, purpose, intention, intensity and relentless unwavering pursuit of their goals. I call these people “Progressive Leaders”.
A Progressive Leader is someone who creates, inspires, prepares, and directs people to perform, individually and collectively, at the highest level consistently under the most challenging conditions in pursuit of a shared and valued goal.
Progressive Leaders believe that talent and ability are not fixed. They understand that abilities and skills can be nurtured, encouraged and developed, and elevate others to regard effort, perseverance, and learning from errors as the route to mastery which can improve the performance of themselves and their team. You are either winning or learning, never losing or failing.
Progressive Leaders lead from the guiding principle to inspire, to aspire, to desire to catch fire to go higher, and embrace being passionate about people, process and progress, not perfection.
Stop playing small and stop playing not to lose. You only get hurt and lose. And when you are winning, don’t stop going because winning is ONLY good enough.
Progressive Leaders aspire and rise to greatness and inspire others to follow. Progressive Leaders want to shift from acceptable to exceptional, from excellent to extraordinary, and from success to greatness. Winning or achieving goals is considered success, and while top leaders want to be successful, success to a Progressive Leader is mediocre and unfulfilling. As Tony Robbins says: “Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure.”
Okay is NOT okay. Good enough isn’t good enough. Good is a 4-letter word when you’re reaching for more. When you’re working for extraordinary on your way to achieving greatness.
You may be awesome, but have you achieved greatness? Greatness is about who you become in the process. All great leaders are successful, but not all successful leaders are great.
All company leaders want to grow, evolve and improve sales, profits, and customer happiness. In other words, leaders want something different, better and more. To have something different, better and more, YOU must become and do something different, better and more in the mind of the coworkers and consumers you serve.
Progressive Leaders are people of dignity, honor, integrity, and strong character. They set the example, not live up to one. They are the best, not hope to be the best. They believe that greatness can only be attained if they care more than others think is wise, do what others are unwilling to, risk more than others think is safe, dream more than others think is practical, and expect more than others think is possible.
It has been said that Hell is dying, going to Heaven and meeting the person you could have been. Potential is perilous. Regret is ridiculous. Raise your standards, design the life you desire, don’t live a life by default.
Greatness is trying to find every one of us. We must get out of our own way and act with intention and intensity every day. Kaizen, or what Tony Robbins calls CANI – constant and never-ending improvement – means you make little improvements (1%) in all areas every day.
Growing and serving others is one of the highest callings in life. A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle. Share your light. Just as iron sharpens iron, one person sharpens another. Pass on your passion so that it pays back, forward, multiplies with compound interest and pays dividends to everyone it touches.
Stop working a very costly time-consuming job, and build a business that serves people extraordinarily, and benefits you and boosts your life, rather than one that consumes your life. Start living the life you design, paid for by the business you own, driven by the people you develop and serve.
Stop playing small and stop playing not to lose. You only get hurt and lose. And when you are winning, don’t stop going because winning is ONLY good enough. The love of winning is second ONLY to the hatred of losing and changing the game.
If you want to build better businesses, develop people better. Progressive leaders develop people and build businesses for greatness, not success. Shift from operating a business to owning a wealth and prosperity generator that lifts all people.
Change the way you and your people think and act. Shock the world. Always ask yourself what’s the most extraordinary thing you can do next, because that’s exactly what you can and should do next.
Challenge accepted paradigms and preconceived notions of what it means to be in business, not the business of contracting or the trades, but rather the business of business and people. Change your perspective and you will change your status and results. Seek innovation and differentiation, not competition and assimilation. Stand out, don’t fit in.
To unleash your full potential, you need to unlock your mind and the minds of your teammates and change the minds of those your serve. Unshackle your thinking. Don’t look at ideas and think or say, or let others think or say, “that will never work.” Don’t accept reasons why something won’t work. Reasons are just excuses. Find ways to make your ideas work.
“A closed mind will always find a thousand excuses. An open mind will always find a thousand ways.” – Unknown
Don’t ask why not … ask a better question. Ask “how will we MAKE it work?” Don’t settle for the first answer. Find the best answer. Hack your brain. It’s not that failure is not an option. You will fail, but failure is only failure if you don’t learn from it and try again like Thomas Edison.
How you are going to work the problem and transcend the issue? The idea or problem is never the problem. It’s the story you tell yourself about the idea or the problem. Shatter expectations; create extraordinary experiences for co-workers, customers, community, and causes; and positively impact peoples’ lives.
Are you chasing success or greatness? Success is reaching the summit. It’s a destination. Greatness is a state of mind. It knows no bounds or limits. Greatness always has another level. Level Up. LIVE LIMITLESS!
To download your FREE Leadership resource and training package complete with powerful tools, templates and educational videos, visit https://egia.org/marketing/cbs-leadership/.
Drew Cameron is America’s Most Sought-After Sales & Marketing Strategy and Success Advisor to Home Services Contractors and president of both HVAC Sellutions (soon becoming ProfitSpark) and Energy Design Systems, LLC: the premier industry alliance developing leading-edge technology along with providing complementary marketing and sales consultative support, recruiting, training, and coaching for performance and profit enhancement of Home Services Contactors. Drew is a renowned author, speaker, educator, coach, consultant, software developer, philanthropist, and an International Consultant Award Winner. Drew is also the president of the Ron Cameron Foundation; a Board member, a Foundation Board Trustee, and a Contractor University Founder & Faculty member for the Electric & Gas Industries Association (EGIA), a member of Black Belt Contracting (BBC), and a member of Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA). Contact Drew @ 610-745-7020 [email protected].