September 5. “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” (Zig Ziglar)

Spending my time and effort to help others get what they want will help me get what I want in life. That is the essence of this quote. The idea is that the more that we spend time helping one another, the more that we help ourselves. In a world that has so much greed, so many people who seem only to care about taking what they can for themselves, this quote might seem counterintuitive. But I can attest that it has worked in my life, and I believe it can in most people’s.

I have tried to spend a lot of my time and effort in life to help others. Whether through my volunteer work, as a husband and father, or as a leader/manager at work, I have centered much of my life around helping others to get what they want. And, I can attest that it has brought me the most important things that I have wanted in my own life.

I have written before that my greatest ambition in life has been to be a father and husband, and to do those things well. Since I was a child, while others dreamt of putting out fires, fighting crime, or flying to the moon, my dreams were of being a successful husband and father, and helping to raise a family. I look with awe at what my wife and children have become over these past 31+ years, and I am proud to say that I played a part in that success. I have felt fulfillment in their achievement, not because I ride their coattails, but because I know that it is the fulfillment of my own dreams as well.

At work I have told every boss I have ever had that my job is to make them successful, that my work must constantly contribute to their success or I cannot be successful. Similarly I have told those who work for me that my job is to boost them up, give them the tools and opportunities they need to be successful, and then to help them deliver. When I have had this service mindset for those who work for me, and those for whom I work, I have always had success. My success becomes inevitable if I make those around me more successful.

Today my reflection is on what areas of my life can I increase my focus on the success of others. Where have I allowed myself to be less concerned about them, and more concerned about me? I know that when I turn those equations around, my success will be inevitable.