..after bit of thinking...

Hey there!

If you know me, you know me as a fun loving guy who is friendly and helpful and oftentimes, insightful. Those who know me well know me as a thinker and philosopher and studier of self and others. By being this way and doing these things, I learn things about myself and others rather quickly. One particular thing about this is that although I tend to learn things rather quickly, it still doesn’t help to know that if I had known (or paid attention to) information earlier, I could be experiencing something different now.

One of the themes I have focused on for the past three months has been leadership. As a former soldier in the Army, I have experienced excellent leadership and very poor leadership. I have been the leader of a few and of many. I like to think that I was a good leader but alas, I have found that I am a mediocre leader at best.

Why do I make such an assessment about myself? Because I have found that one (major) component of leadership is follow-through. To get to where I am in my business and career, I studied hard to learn concepts, financial principals and human behavior. But as much as I learned about others and myself, there were still major things I neglected to learn and apply about myself! In the meantime, I assumed and imposed my own capabilities and capacities onto others and have judged them by these; which is a big nasty no-no. In doing all of this, I have alienated, hurt, lost and discouraged people I have met on my journey and in turn hurt myself.

What makes me identify this? I am a successful person, and successful people don’t do this, and can’t have this in their past, right? Yes they can; at least I can. I say this because after studying the definition of success, I find that I am far from successful. I am driven and I have acquired many things, most of all which are knowledge, understanding and wisdom. And yes, I am a published author, a licensed stockbroker, real estate agent and have had a tax business for over 12 years. But those are trivial accomplishments because what matters most and what the true definition of success is, I don’t have and I haven’t done. I don’t have the relationships that I could’ve had; and those, my friend, are the foundation to all success.

Each of the things that I accomplished took only one thing and that thing I have plenty of – self discipline. If what needs to get done only requires the effort of me, then count me in. Especially if there is little risk. But if it requires the assistance of others or in some way puts me at risk, then I may just bail out. Please know that I have discovered the origin of this and it is being rectified even as I type this.

How did I find come upon this insightful new self discovery? Well, I was pondering how I got to be where I am in my career and my life and what I need to do to get to the next level. Not saying that I am not at a great place, but maybe, just maybe I could be ahead by two or three steps. I found that the old adage, “I would prefer to have 1% effort from 100 people than 100% effort from myself” to be extremely applicable to me. Meaning, I am the one who did the exact opposite and worked all day everyday utilizing the greatest efforts of myself while collaborating, partnering, bridging, leveraging or utilizing no one else’s energy or resources. I say that I am dedicated to helping others learn and apply prudent financial principles. How many more could I have reached and helped if only I had partnered and followed through with those who I already knew? Unfortunately, I consider that answer to be my greatest failure and loss.

But alas, all failures are the breeding ground for success. So now that I know this new information, I am working on a new goal for myself for the benefit of my family, friends and clients; to transfer from being a studier of self to a server of others. I saw Tavis Smiley speak a few weeks ago downtown and he said, “You can’t lead without loving and you can’t save without serving.” What a statement. And my older brother told me, “Give the people what they want and they will come to you for what they need.” Wow. With that, I now want to focus on people with the purpose of feeling them rather than my old focus of learning them. I want to feel what they feel rather than know what they say and mean. I foresee this as a lifelong goal for me as it will be the undoing of 25 years of habits and the implementation of a new ideology.

Wilferd Peterson in his essay, The Art of Leadership, says - -

“The leader is a great servant. The Master of Men expressed the ideal of leadership in a democracy when he said “And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.”

The leader sees things through the eyes of his followers. He puts himself in their shoes and helps them make their dreams come true.”

I am not the brightest person on the planet, but I know when I am my own obstacle. Leadership and change are difficult tasks and challenging undertakings.

But I believe Mr. Peterson - - “The leader can be led. He is not interested in having his own way, but in finding the best way. He has an open mind.”

If you are one on my path whom I have hurt or damaged, I ask for your forgiveness. I ask for you to contact me so we can discuss how I can make amends with you. Please know that change is as much a process as it is a behavior so it won’t happen overnight. But I promise you that it is in the works.

I have lived my life under the sage advice, Learn, Grow, Teach™; I am now really learning that learning is as constant as change. But I guess it does say, “Grow”. That is what I am doing now. And I still look forward to teaching; I guess that can be the reason why I am writing this letter. All in all, it must be true – “1% of 100 is better than 100% of 1 - this is my 1%. I only hope it comes around for the benefit of us all.

Love you much,

With you,

Israel C. Wright, RFC, AAMS