How Do You Match Up To The Most Successful Leaders

Question from W.N., Poway, California: "I am not happy where I am in life and want more. What is best way to get from where I am to where I think I would like to be? "

SUPERMAN, CRACKERJACK
AND SUCCESS

Gene Levine, CEO, Gene Levine Associates

In order to get to heaven, you first have to die. All too many people, want to be given the recognition and rewards associated with success without working for it,. In other words, they want the glory, without having earned it. Since true success can never be given, what is success? Is the meaning of success the same to everyone? Is there a trait common to successful people that made them successful? Can you become successful, or more successful? And finally, what does success have to do with Superman and Crackerjacks?

In order to answer questions about success, it is important to qualify it. For purposes of this paper, I will define success as “continually accomplishing one’s own specific worthwhile goal.” Without a goal, there is no cause to accomplish anything. Without accomplishment, there can be no success. It is impossible to become truly successful unless we first know where we are going, or what it is we hope to accomplish.

Therefore, I believe the first rule to success is to establish your own specific worthwhile goal. All successful people achieved a goal they had set out to achieve. Although the going got rough for them at times, and their goal seemed a long way off, they apparently never lost heart or gave up. They did not fall back to old habits that lead nowhere. Instead, they completed what they had set out to do, which was to accomplish their own worthwhile goal. This trait of “stick-to-itiveness” toward goal achievement is used and advocated by today’s most successful people.

Should the pilot of a cargo plane get orders to fly the cargo to a far away airport, it is a given that when the pilot climbs into the pilot's seat there is no way to visibly see the final destination before takeoff. So, how does the pilot reach this place if it can't be seen? Well, after looking at the navigation charts, the pilot knows where it is. Once the goal is known, and it's firmly planted in the pilot mind, the pilot then begins to prepare the plane and crew for the flight. Carefully plotting the exact course on the charts the pilot will attempt to use the various wind currents to advantage and decide on the best and most expedient routes. the pilot will obtain applicable weather forecasts, anticipated air traffic, and go over these time and time again. Then, hour by hour timetables are set in the flight log—mile by mile, checkpoint by checkpoint,. the pilot will make allowances for the plane’s and crew’s capabilities. Then, after considering all the factors, the pilot is finally ready to take off and begin the journey. The final destination isn't visible to the pilot's eyes before taking off but, the pilot does know where it is, how to get there and the approximate arrival time. When the plane finally becomes airborne, the pilot's goal is reached the way it was planned — mile by mile, checkpoint by checkpoint.

Compare that goal achievement analogy of knowing our goal and how to reach it, to the number of people going through life without goals. A person, or in fact, even a business or organization will stagnate without goals. Imagine a person setting out from a port on a raft hoping to reach the same destination our successful pilot did, but without a plan, map, compass or Bible (the latter may be needed most of all). Perhaps by fate, the raft will reach the distant port. More likely however, we would eventually find the raft smashed on the rocks, lost at sea, or gone no further than the inland waterway. Many people in this world are like that raft. They have no goals, much less a plan to accomplish them. They can drift through life never knowing where they are, or where they are going. It is a wonder if they accomplish anything at all. I have found that successful people are always amazed that 95% of all the people in the whole world go nowhere in their lifetimes. 95 people out of every 100 accomplish nothing during their life on earth. They leave this earth no better for their ever being here. Will humanity say that about you?

Successful people always use one of nature’s simplest laws to their advantage. I have found, without exception, that when this law is understood and applied properly, it has always brought its user whatever it was he wanted out of life. The law is simply that everything, everything in our entire infinite universe operates on the simple law of cause and effect. Nothing happens by accident. You will find no exceptions to this. For every result there is a cause. Provide good causes, and you will produce good effects. It is as reliable as the rising of the sun. Using this known law of nature, anyone, without exception, can become successful any time they want to and their rewards will always be in direct proportion to their contribution.

You have to ask yourself, are you providing the cause to produce the effect you want? Are you expending the attention necessary to achieve what you want out of life? Or, are you drifting through life like someone on a raft waiting for fate to put you where you want to be. You have a control, if you want it, over the balance of your life. You will never have a control over fate. Since you only have so much time allotted to you in life, why waste it drifting. Use your time to plan on how you hope to get where you want to go, and firmly establish when you want to get there. Then get going! Do not underestimate your potential. And since success is “continually accomplishing specific worthwhile goals,” it is never too late to begin to set them. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life. And let’s face it, if you do not set your goals, they will be set for you by someone else.

If Rule One to success is, “establish your own specific worthwhile goals,” then Rule Two, in my opinion, would be; you must remember to live successfully one day at a time. Life is nothing more than a total of many hours, days, weeks, months and years. As surely as the whole is the sum of its parts, a successful life is nothing more than many successful days put together. Since you can only live one day at a time, you should live each day successfully. By that I mean, achieve in a day what you set out to achieve. To become successful, you need only to succeed in each small act during the day. This will add up to a successful day. Enough successful days add up to a successful week, successful weeks add up to a successful year, which in turn will yield a successful life. Success, as you can see, is not a matter of chance, luck or fate. Anyone can be successful! It can be predicted and guaranteed as long as you observe the laws of nature, and the rules for success. Again, they are to establish your own specific worthwhile goals, then set out to continually accomplish them, day by day. Finally, remembering that if nothing else, you must provide the cause to get the desired effect.

Since I work with successful people, study successful people and coach people who want to be successful, I've learned they have much in common with one another. First, they developed a clear concept of what they wanted to become, and worked unceasingly to become just that. Then, they know what they must continue to accomplish, to be what they still want to be. Successful people know that when they put a limit on what they will do, they put a limit on what they can do.

Whatever you are right now, it is what you want to be right now. If you want more for yourself, for your family or from your job, then you will soon have to do something that will provide the effect you desire. You are the one that has to make up your mind what bigger and better things you want out of life. What you sow, you most certainly will reap. The argument for personal potential realization can best be summarized by stating that when a person has potential but doesn’t try to reach it, he is no better (in the final analysis) than a person with no potential.

When you finally do get into the success habit, you will have it made. Life is always on the lookout for strong, able and successful leaders – leaders who will set up goals, establish the attainment plans and then create the climate for their achievement. These things that life looks for in leaders are the everyday habits of successful people.

Every business and organization wants and needs successful leaders. It is a known fact that you do not raise morale in an organization, for it always filters down from the top. Who is at the top of successful organizations? Well, whenever you find an extraordinarily successful organization, business, or group, be it in the armed services, an automobile dealer, a firm dealing in sales or services, or a manufacturer, you’ll find behind its success, one person. This truly successful person, therefore, ‘is our “Superman.” Not a comic strip hero, but a real person of extraordinary achievement ability. A person surrounded by a mystique which makes him appear beyond human capabilities. This person is always envied and talked about. He not only sets goals, he does far more than the average person to achieve them. He works around the clock thinking of ways to do a better job, thereby improving himself, the people he works with and through and organization he works for. No task appears to be too big for him to handle. No detail is too small for him to overlook. Although his pencil does have an eraser, others seldom see him use it. He always demonstrates confidence and peace of mind. He is a “Superman.”

If he has to, this Superman will eagerly do what others cannot, or will not do. He will train a successor if one comes along because he wants to outgrow his job. Outgrowing his job allows him to rise still further, bringing him closer to his goals. He is his own severest critic. Everything he does, he does with super dedication, a supercharged positive attitude and with super skill. And unlike the comic book character, he was not born that way, he was self-made. Our “Superman” woke up one day and was not satisfied with where he was in life. He then proceeded to change his destiny by providing the causes to produce the effects he wanted. He made himself what he is. You can make yourself what you want to be, too. You can become a “Superman” if you want to. It starts with wanting to be more than what you are right now. Set up your specific goals, then in the days ahead, continually accomplish them step by step, act by act, day by day, week by week, and year by year. Before you know it, if you will do what every successful person before you has done, you will be the “Superman” everyone talks about. And you will share in any and all rewards that are associated with finally being what you wanted to be ... and could be.

In closing, I’d like to establish a relationship between the success of the candy “Crackerjack,” and your success.

When you buy a box of Crackerjack, you get more than you would expect from a candy. You get something in addition to the candy, you get a free prize. This something extra makes Crackerjack a best seller. If you notice its position on candy counters, Crackerjack always is on the top of the others. It stands out . . . above the rest. It is noticed, and as a result, you buy it, keeping it a best seller. So it is with the Crackerjacks who are our Supermen. Because they give more than is expected of them. They stand out above the others. Being above their competition, they are noticed. Being noticed is one sure way to succeed.

Yes, setting and achieving worthwhile goals, day by day, will make you successful. Applying the Crackerjack principle will assure the effect you’re seeking. Do more than people expect you to do. Becoming successful requires work—lots of work. Reaching goals requires dedication of your entire being toward that objective. And that requires much personal sacrifice. Therefore, bear in mind that in order to get to heaven, you first have to die. é

Until next time, Everything that’s wrong with today will be corrected by next generations.

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