Last week, I hit the library in search of some books for a weekend getaway. Jane and I dropped off our daughters at DeSales Center in Michigan for a workshop with Sean Forbes from D-Pan and we planned to hang at the hotel and do nothing but read all weekend. While at the library, my eyes caught a title in the “Hot” books section: The Leap: How 3 Simple Changes Can Propel Your Career from Good to Great
Hmmm, I figured, can’t hurt to know how to go from good to great where I’m at now.
I spent Friday night wading through emails, Twittering time away, chatting with folks on the Z4 and watching the Comedy Channel. “Ahhh, this is so nice,” I said to Jane. “No one to interrupt me, no dishes to wash and a whole bed to myself. I could get used to this.” Jane just smiled– she was deep into a Harry Potter book.
Saturday morning found me submerged in the bathtub and I dove into ” The Leap.” Written by Rick Smith, he describes it best in this paragraph:
The Leap is a guide to personal evolution. It’s a “good to great” manual for individuals, a book about aligning passions and skills, and about the amazing energy that gets released when we find our personal “sweet spot.” All of us have a special place on the spectrum where the best of our ability intersects with what most inspires us. Too few of us ever find that spot or even know it’s there. But it is there, and it’s magic. This book will point you to it.
And sure enough, it did. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Back in the bathtub, I dove into the first chapter where Rick describes a climb to success that ended up with him riding down the elevator after being let go by his company. He had written a best-selling book, The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers: The Guide for Achieving Success and Satisfaction and all of a sudden, he was facing the fact that his career had suddenly ended.
Rick came up with the idea of putting together a company that would network the top well-known, highly respected executives in the world. He named his networking group/company World50. He faced opposition right from the beginning, with nay-sayers shooting down his idea left and right.
His first customer turned out to be Carl Gustin. Suddenly, I sat up in the bathtub and read on with even more interest. Carl Gustin was the former Chief Marketing Officer for Kodak and Apple. I had met Carl Gustin last summer in Las Vegas when he came to the Zvrs Team Week and gave a presentation. He also sat through our each of our team presentations where we shared our marketing ideas. I could see that he was a little nervous at first, after all, it was his first opporunity to spend a day surrounded by deaf and hard of hearing folks with all the hands zipping through the air. By the end of the day, Carl was laughing along with us. “This company reminds me of Apple in the early days,” he told us at the end of the day. “You guys have a lot of passion.” Carl joined us all for dinner and I had the opportunity to chat with him and ask questions. Soon after, he joined the board of Zvrs and has been with us ever since.
After I finished the book, I took the “What’s Your Primary Color” analysis over at www.theleap.com. I found myself smack dab in the middle of the spectrum, a gray-blue color:
The book is filled with questions to explore– I’m saving those for later in the week when I can focus more on that. I have some ideas of how I want to go from good to great this year, but I also learned that my work with Zvrs is right where I want to be– my passion and my talents are aligned with where I want to go.
Now all I gotta do is…
Leap.