If you want to get warm, you must stand near the fire. (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)
Who has what you want?
When the thought first occurred to me to enter the world of executive coaching, I wasn’t sure where to start. Then I remembered Sam McKee.
Sam & I had a mutual acquaintance that had told me years before how much she thought we had in common. I knew Sam had done something with executive leaders, but I wasn’t sure what. So I reached out to him to learn more. Spending time with Sam helped me learn to better leverage the resources I had to get started. There was, however, one little problem. I had many more questions and we lived in Washington and I lived in Florida. So I took a trip west to see Sam in his element.
One evening as my wife and I were sitting with Sam and his wife talking, Myronie (Sam’s wife) pointed out how Sam and I had similar backgrounds. Sam had lived in Silicon Valley working closely with the executive culture there. I, at the time, was living in Orlando, Florida. I was working closely with the largest healthcare provider in central Florida, Florida Hospital. Then it clicked in my head – I had just as many connections as Sam did. I had the same amount of resources and potential, I just needed to leverage it. Now, years later, Sam and I are colleagues in the coaching field and have been privileged to do some work together.
The principles I learned through my relationship with Sam have carried over into every area of my life. Whether it was starting a business or, eventually, moving my family across the country. The principle is the same – who has what you want? Get close to them. It will rub off on you.
Here’s some proverbial wisdom: the way to get wisdom is to get close to someone who has it. In the quote above, C. S. Lewis is talking about this very thing.
For you. When was there a time in your past when someone had something you wanted? How did you seek them out? What did you learn? How did it benefit you?
How might you apply what you did back then to reaching your current goal?
This is day two of an exercise I’m engaging in called, 40 days of action, how to generate momentum on your most important goals. If you’d like to read the original blog, click here. If you’d like to participate in 40 days of action, click here to email me.