Successful People

Conrad Hilton circa 1922

'Successful people keep moving'

Ben Dunlap talks about a passionate life | Video on TED.com

Ben Dunlap talks about a passionate life | Video on TED.com

Leadership: According to Peter Williams

Peter Williams is recognized as one of Australia's leading thinkers in the area of innovation, technology commercialization and all things online.

Last night I heard him speaking at the RMIT Prize Giving Ceremony here in Melbourne.  He talked about leadership and according to Peter these are his three points when looking at a leader:

She/He will  -

   1.    Give you something to believe in

   2.    Be someone to believe in

   3.    Be someone who believes in you

He then went on to tell the graduates that they need to be keen to keep giving back to their profession and stated boldly to:-

 "Keep Putting In and Giving Back and you will have a good life.

The Power of Memories

This morning I was walking under the Flinders street Rail Station Tunnel on my way into the City.  It is usually crowded with thousands of people going hither and yon on their way to work, to meet people, to make life changing decisions and sometimes just because it is the shortest route for them to get to the other side of the station.   I am not a fan of the tunnel and often use an alternative route above ground where I can actually see the Yarra River and the sky.  However this morning I was using it and because I was a little bit later there were not too many people but there was a banjo player with his banjo case collecting a few coins for picking out a few notes.  I admire greatly people who are brave enough to put their talents on public display like this but there are times when their skills on the instrument are not matched by their bravery.  This morning I walked past and was content to simply look at it as a part of the colourful life of Melbourne’s city centre.

It’s a long tunnel and he was positioned in about the middle and I was about to climb the stairs when the notes seemed to strike a chord with me and I recognised the melody as the folk song that was used in Riverdance, that was made famous by Michael Flately and his Irish dance troupe a few years ago.  All of a sudden I was flooded with memories of playing in the K&N Brass Band and playing this as one of our major pieces in our concerts.  It was a difficult piece to play with strange time signature and set in unfamiliar keys, but it was just so exciting to play and I just loved playing it and being part of such a great group of musicians.  I then thought of the time that we went to see the floor show in Birmingham where it was onstage in glorious colour and I was again thrilled with the colour and enthusiasm of the whole show but just loved it more when the theme from Riverdance evolved using the traditional Irish instruments; very exciting.  Living in the UK it was easy to visit family in Amsterdam and being a market person frequented quite a few.  If we were there on a Saturday morning we always went to do some shopping at the local market in Jordaan.  We did it few times and we saw a group called 'Uzory' on a regular basis.  They were a group of muso’s from Eastern Europe who regularly did concerts in European Capital Cities and in between professional gigs did the markets as buskers.  The first time I saw them was in winter and they were all rugged up with heavy coats and hoods with just a few fingers bared to play their instruments; another time it was the middle of summer and so they were dressed in very summary clothes.  They played traditional music on traditional instruments but it was so exciting and on more than one occasion I lost the family who had moved on to do the shopping. One time I could hear them as we approached and they were playing the theme from Riverdance and as soon as I recognised it I just had to get over and listen close up.  It was amazing and although they did not recognise it as Riverdance, I gave them 10 Euro’s to repeat it and I just loved it all over again.

It all happened for me in a heartbeat and so I just had to go back and drop a few coins on the banjo bag of the guy who was picking his way through the melody; note by struggling note.  


The SBS TV channel has a by-line that says ‘Six Billion Stories and counting ....’  This is one of mine and I am looking for the next one.

Thinking

I have been thinking recently about what it means to have a big picture view of anything. It is accepted wisdom that you need to know where you are going so that 
a) you can have directions in how to get there and 
b) to know when you get there; 
        ...and this takes us to the old Ithica narrative as to whether the journey or the destination is the ultimate goal.

As a fundraiser I am constantly challenged by the need of one part or an organisation to raise funds, because that is what we are on about and the need to have an answer as to what the funds are to be used for. I sat with someone recently who refered again and again to what she called the 'Light on the Hill'.  I like the imagary of the goal as being that is where we are going and when we get there all the world will be well and we will know that we have achieved.  It is interesting to note that the Person that I was talking to was a board member of an organisation that completely folded a few months later.

However having said that, it is almost an end in itself, and there is no more need to 'do' anything. I am much more comfortable with the idea of a chain of responsibilty where we are all building on to what others have put in place and in our turn passing the fire on to others who will follow.

By all means lets look for that 'Light on the Hill' but let us also keep our eyes firmly on the task that is at hand, the things that we have to do every day so that we will eventually get to that light on the hill.

What do you do for your profession?

This morning I had contact with an exciting person by the name of Helena Steel.  She is a business coach, workplace trainer and speaker.  She is a volunteer and mentor to many people including Un Students, and also numerous new members of Toastmasters, who are overcoming their fear of public speaking.  Look her up here http://www.careerguru.com.au/

My contact with Helena is revolving around the '2' in 10 educational event that Fundraising Institute Australia is running in July here in Melbourne, but I was impressed with her take on some of the old principles of just simply 'getting on' with people.  I have been saying to fundraisers for many years that if you have five years experience under your belt, in whatever field, it is time to pass that wisdom on to other people who are new to the profession.

One of Helena's keynote speaks is called "Paying it Forward"; it was outlined in the movie of the same name a few years back and it is all about why Volunteering and Mentoring means that you will always have a successful career, because you have to give to get, its a Universal Law.

One of my other favourite characters is Jeffrey Gitomer, a sales motivational Guru from the states who makes most motivational speakers seem very tame but in his "Little Black Book of Connections" he talks about Networking.  Many people think that networking is where you get in with a group of people give away millions of little bits of card sometimes erroneously called 'business cards' and then wait until they all ring you to give you their business.  Jeffrey says Networking 101 is you have to give others something of value before they give something to you. "the question you have to ask yourself is:  How can I make people better as a result of connecting with me?"

Look him up if you are game; http://www.gitomer.com/ and if you are really brave sign up for his newsletter.

So; I ask again, What are you doing for your profession? 

JFK said it best "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country!"  We just need to change the word 'country' for profession, employer, family, friends, wife, husband, partner,  the list could go on.

Thanks Helena for your 'push to think!'.

The Golden Seed Guide to Positive Aging

For many years we have been in the grip of a fitness boom that says that the best way to approach old age is to be active and fit.  I have no doubt that fortunes have been made on the back of ‘over 50’s fitness’.  Yet so much evidence is pointing to something that life coaching has known for a long time and has changed many people’s lives in the process.  It is not so much the body that we need to keep active, but it is the strength of your personal foundation and the development of healthy attitudes that keeps one young.  ‘Young at Heart’ is not reserved for a special few but for all of us as we approach those golden years. 

There is absolutely no doubt about it you are going to age; but how are you going to do it? 

I can see four factors that seem to be significant in approaching and successfully negotiating your approach to retirement no matter what your age.

1.       Bend

The bend guide is all about flexibility, resilience, resourcefulness and adaptability.  It was Charles Darwin who said that it wasn’t the strongest or the most intelligent that survive; but those who are able to adapt to different circumstances.  When someone bowls a leg break then the batsmen has to adapt and possibly change the stroke that he was going to play.  After many years of living there can be a tendency to get stuck in a rut and think that because ‘it’ has always happened this way then it will always be so.  There are many stories of very successful people who after a lifetime of success, be it in any field when circumstances change, be it by choice or not, they find it difficult to cope and their world falls apart.  Are you Mr/Mrs/Ms adaptable? Or are you the person who rails at the world and complains that ‘it was never like this in the old days? 

2.       Stretch

The Stretching guide is all about taking things a little more lightly.  We have all worked with or know someone, for whom everything is a ‘sheep-station’; serious in the extreme to the point where someone might tell them to ‘lighten up and get a life’.  There are three parts that make up this stretching activity

a.       A Sense of Humour

There are times when approaching the Golden Years brings with it certain indignities that are sometimes trying and they can be quite troubling.  It is reported that Gina Lollibrigida when asked why she looked so good at 70 replied that she did good skin care, eat healthily and didn’t make ‘old people noises’.  Now many of us will associate with that, but there are times when it is just so important to laugh and that includes laughing at yourself.  If you haven’t got a sense of humour then go out and get one.

b.       An Attitude of Gratitude

Someone once said that they used to complain about not having any shoes until they met someone with no feet.  As the economic climate devastates so many peoples savings and so many people have genuinely suffered; it is still vitally important to focus on what you do have, not what you don’t have.  As we get older there are so many things that start to pack up and it is fairly easy to complain about what we can’t do rather than be grateful for what we can do.

c.        The Ability to Forgive

Of all the qualities of life this is one of the most important; yet expanding this ability is the one that many of us find most difficult.  Of all the things we need to approach the Golden Years this is the one that cannot be ignored.  Of course we need to forgive those who we feel have wronged us and let go of the desire for revenge.  There is a saying that indicates that by not forgiving it is like drinking a glass of poison and hoping that the other person will die.  It’s not about condoning or forgetting the past, but freeing ourselves from the power of what happened; and never forgetting the importance of forgiving yourself as well.  The ability to forgive is really about you 

3.       Live

If stretch was about taking things a little less seriously then ‘Live’ is all about embracing those qualities that make us sparkle.  It’s about having the capacity to play, love and a desire to ‘connect’ with others.  It’s the ability to be nourished by the past and celebrate what we have become, not necessarily to live in the past so that our mantra is all about ‘In my day...’ but to celebrate what we have become.  For some people it is in spite of our past rather than because of what has happened; but cause to celebrate anyway.  It’s about developing the attitude of continuous learning and curiosity about life and what it holds for us.  It’s about engaging with the world and expectation about what each new day will give us.  Without it we lose that ability to ‘Sparkle’. 

4.       Love
Add this all together and it really is about loving yourself and what you have become.  For some people it will be enough to know within themselves that they are really OK, for others it may be that it is about putting back into the community in some way; reconnecting with old friends so that you have a legitimate reason for doing the ‘.. and do you remember when..’ type of conversations.  For some it may be to remember the past and somehow record it for future generations.  Everyone has a story within them but it does not have to be written down just passed on in some way so that you are leaving something behind for the future.  One woman, who was a WWII WREN, related the story to me about her 30 year old daughter’s latest Christmas gift for her.  It was a journal and in the front cover she had written 'Dear Mum.  Give me the threads of your life and I will weave a blanket that will keep my daughter warm for the rest of her life'.

Make a commitment to develop these factors in yourself, and you'll build a solid foundation for all of the adventures you still have within you.