The Reinvention Code: COMPETE INWARD

"From the moment an idea is born, it travels in one of two directions. It will either gradually disappear or suddenly vanish on a crowded, foggy highway of wishful thinking or gain unusual clarity as a vivid dream; fueled by action-driven momentum as it bumps along a rockier, less traveled, dirt road of commitment"                                                  

It happened on a Friday.

Third Friday of May, 1999.

Should have seen it coming. Still caught me by surprise.

Like being run over by a runaway locomotive.

Called into the office. Boss hands over a note on company letterhead. Two paragraphs was all it took to terminate a 20-year radio and TV broadcasting career.

I was being FIRED!

Let go from the only thing I had known or done to pay bills and buy groceries. Let go from the only career I had ever dreamed about. Let go by a boss and friend I had worked with shoulder to shoulder for 16 years. At that moment, he can barely look me in the eye. And as that freight train of reality was slamming, he was heard stammering. Something about me having to leave the building.

Immediately.

Went to my desk. Cleaned it out. Jammed stuff in boxes and within 15 minutes I am out the door. Headed home to the most uncertain, unpredictable future I could never, ever have imagined.

Thinking back, even to this day, it felt like being trapped in a bad movie.

Right out of high school, broadcast journalism was both passion and profession. A roller coaster ride that included coverage of numerous city council and school board meetings; murder trials, political rallies; racked up  30,000 broadcasts, 10,000 interviews and over 1,000 games of pro hockey play-by-play.

Fast forward two weeks later in early June of 1999.

Broke. Busted. Sitting alone in a car outside the unemployment office.

Looking around to see if anyone notices. It’s a ball cap and shades kind of day. You take a number. You wait until your number is called.

And while waiting, you mutter.

“I don’t belong here. What if someone sees me? This is so blankety-blank unfair! How could they do this to me?” 

And then you go home and read all about it as news of your dismissal is plastered on the front page of the only newspaper in a two station town. This was not in the script for a life-long dream to be on national networks broadcasting to millions.

There was no way of knowing it back then, but those events in the summer of 1999 planted the initial seeds of what I now call The Reinvention Code; timeless principles that allow you (or anyone to) re-create and re-imagine the business, brand or career you deserve.

Since those dark days of the late 90’s, I have had the good fortune to pick myself up and launch an entirely new career in a field I knew nothing about. I have been blessed to be able to publish a book and be invited to speak at major business conferences all over North America, the Caribbean and tour parts of Europe. If you had been standing with me on the unemployment line back then and told me that one day I would be sharing a speaking stage with Gene Simmons or be front of the room at a skyscraper office on 5th Avenue in New York, teaching CEO’s that command companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars, I would have advised you to seek psychiatric care.

To this day, I still pinch myself – both personally and professionally.

And the most significant part of this story was learning how to love again. On Valentine’s Day of 2014, while on holiday in Maui, this former, washed-up scribe was able to drop to one knee and pop “The Question”.

I am eternally grateful she said “yes”.

So why is this relevant and why am I sharing all of this with you?

The subject of Reinvention only matters if:

1. You share the belief that many of us are under increasing attack from economic uncertainty, the freight train of change and rapidly shifting social norms.
2. You don’t want to be stuck in the muck of status quo or blindsided by runaway locomotives.
3. Your focus is on today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities and hope to be fully equipped, – mentally armed & ready - to take advantage of what our current global economic and social realities are offering.

If those things do matter to you and you are curious about overcoming public humiliation and change your own “bad movie” into one with a much happier ending, then I feel it’s only appropriate I share what I have been fortunate to research and learn first-hand about the reinvention process and the timeless principles that shape any personal or collective effort to make a dramatic pivot and change how the story ends.

But, allow me to say this.

Getting steamrolled personally and professionally is not all bad. Forces you to look inward.  Forces you to question everything you thought you knew about life, careers and relationships. About stuff that really matters. Up until that first and only time on the unemployment line, I may not have been as empathetic or as humble as I could have been. There is a razor thin line between the confidence required to be an on-air broadcaster and the arrogance it can breed from being recognized as a big fish in a small public pond. Go to enough big shot events, get the free dinners, and a few country club memberships, you can start to think you’re a bigger deal than you really are.

Being on the unemployment line for the first and only time in your life forces you to ask tough questions. Especially when you’ve been knocked off such a high profile perch …

“Why is this really happening? What could I have done differently”? “What part did I play in this mess?” “What am I supposed to learn”? “How do I escape this disaster”? “Am I just a broadcaster? Just another talking head?” Is that really all I know and who I am? Or, is there an entirely new and different path I could follow?

Through a series of accidents, I wound up leaving the unemployment line and purchased a soft-skills training franchise. It really meant I bought myself a job with $50,000 dollars I didn’t have on a business I knew nothing about. With no college degree, zero practical experience or background in the professional training industry, I not only bet the farm on myself, but cracked the first crucial principle of The Reinvention Code: Timeless Principles to Re-Create the Business, Life or Career You Deserve.

"Learn the fundamentals of the game and stick to them. Band-Aid remedies never last"
JACK NICKLAUS

 

After researching hundreds of other successful stories of business, professional and personal reinvention – along with a number of lessons experienced first-hand – there are seven guiding principles that dictate the degree to which any individual, any company, any family or community can navigate sudden and unexpected change.

Unlike rigid rules or step-by-step instructions, principles are like palm trees. They bend but don’t break. Principles can be adapted to fit specific situations, but endure over time. They represent both a conscious choice and an opportunity for you and I to apply live by these standards each and every day.

Today, we explore the first of these seven principles.

#1. COMPETE INWARD: 

It’s a decision to accept and be 1001% Responsible and accountable for your own level of effort and commitment as well as the outcomes you achieve and experience.

The good as well as the bad.

The chaos you create as well as the wins you celebrate.

Competing Inward and taking 1001% Responsibility means your thoughts and energies are directed inward towards the activities and mental energies you CAN control; as opposed to placing time and valuable brain space on external situations, people, spouses or circumstances you have ZERO ability or capacity to control.

What if you were to approach your life, business and career with a mindset similar to that of a pro golfer?

Unlike the popular team sports like football, soccer, hockey, baseball and basketball, the professional golfer only gets compensated for the actual results he or she achieve. There are no guaranteed contracts. No team-mates or referees to bitch about. Nobody else to blame if a golfer misses a putt, fails to make the cut and things just don’t work out.

In that respect, pro golfers like the legendary Jack Nicklaus never could afford to worry about the layout of a particular course, the weather conditions or what the rest of the playing field was or wasn’t doing. Those are factors neither the Golden Bear or any pro golfer can control as they maintain focus on the only thing they can control - the next shot. If you are deadly serious about successful reinvention, you will have to arrive at this place where you recognize how this classic phrase applies to this idea of Compete Inward with 1001% Responsibility:

“If it is to be, it’s up to me”.

Are you now in a position in your life where it’s time to simply concentrate on playing your own game and compete inwardly? Is this the moment where you stop focusing so much mental and energy on what’s happening outwardly – stuff you have no control over – and start competing inwardly so that you become a better version of you each and every morning you roll out of bed?

What does 1001% Responsibility actually mean?

From an equation point of view, the 100 represents the sum total of all responsibility is on my shoulders. The 1 is the daily reminder that I am the only one who can actually do something to influence change in a positive direction.

By definition, 1001% Responsibility eliminates finger-pointing, blaming, whining, procrastinating or entitlement. You can’t waste precious time complaining – even in your self-talk - about spouses, children, the economy, your boss, co-workers, competitors or the government. Unfortunately,many of us have been seduced or fooled into thinking we are entitled to a great life; that money, fame, deeply fulfilling relationships, exciting careers, exotic travel and bucket loads of spiritual bliss should automatically be ours just because we exist. And when that level of success doesn't happen, there is never a shortage of people or circumstances to blame.

Whether you study the Law of Attraction, Napoleon Hill's classic best-seller  Think and Grow Rich or explore the works of self-help gurus that range from Tony Robbins to Jack Canfield and Deepak Chopra you will discover a common theme in their teachings:

Thoughts + Actions = OUTCOMES

In other words, what we think about most influences what we act on which drives the outcomes we experience - either positively or negatively. This equation ( T+A =O)  essentially represents the Tao of The Reinvention Code; reflecting what the ancient Chinese identified as the intangible, unknowable source of all reality that orchestrates the natural order of things.

Knowing that our thoughts dictate both our actions and results is a critical piece of this mental puzzle,especially when it comes to knowing what thoughts to avoid like the plague.

Spend any time in any coffee shop anywhere and you will routinely hear people all over the world in many different languages and dialects point the accusing finger of blame at any on or all of the following:

• My neglectful,uncaring parents
• My unappreciative, unfeeling boss
• My slovenly spouse
• My lazy co-workers
• My meddling in-laws
• My lack of educational opportunities.
• My failure to get into Harvard
• My back-stabbing, so-called former friends
• My gender, race, nationality or religion
• My ungrateful children
• My lack of wise and generous mentors
• My slow-paying clients
• My economically depressed community
• Plus any combination of nasty weather, a dismal economy, the news media, Facebook, the police, crooked politicians or the parking Nazi who ticketed my car.

Failure to Compete Inward means any one of us can run the risk of succumbing to the tyranny of victimhood; an insidiously dangerous downward cycle that can turn anyone into an energy vampire who steals life force from others and perpetuates a sob story that is virtually guaranteed to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Any time spent hanging out at the Victim Café and dwelling on bad breaks or past mistakes is not only time you never get back, but it’s time you are literally stealing from the future you can create for yourself and the people around you. One otherwise ordinary guy who figured this out for himself was Chris who made a conscious decision to never waste any of his precious time at the Victim Café.

If he had, Chris never would have overcome the bad break of a violent childhood; never would have survived a painful break-up, poverty and homelessness before emerging as a proud and upstanding single father who broke the cycle of abuse with his children.

By making a decision to Compete Inward and be 1001% Responsible, Chris was able to overcome his lack of a college degree or white-collar social connections, ditch his old low-paying job as a medical supply salesman and enroll in a training program to become a stockbroker. When they could find space, he and his toddler son slept at the Glide Memorial Church shelter; otherwise, they bunked in for the night at a bathroom in a subway station. When the training program was completed, Chris was the only trainee chosen for a permanent position at the San Francisco office with Dean Witter Reynolds.

In 2006, Chris Gardner’s story hit the silver screen with Will Smith in the starring role where he advised his 5-year old son – and the rest of us watching to never give up on their dreams. 

 By now, you have figured out the world is not all sunshine, rainbows, unicorns and lollipops and you’ve probably been kicked in the teeth and knocked on your ass a time or two. But, there comes a point in business and life when real winners recognize that getting hit and taking repeated hits is just part of what can be an exhausting, bone-crushing journey – if you let it. The real winners know any success only appears when you and I keep moving forward – no matter how hard we’re being hit - and refusing to let circumstance or the opinion of others keep us from lacing up our running shoes and pound the pavement called life into submission.

The decision to Compete Inward means you and I make a conscious choice and decide to be 1001% Responsible for our own levels of:

• Education
• Fitness & Nutritional Health
• Emotional Health
• Spiritual Connection
• Financial Wealth
• Business Success
• Artistic Achievement
• Academic or Athletic Accomplishment
• Fulfillment from Relationships, Friendships & Family
• Meaningful Life Experiences such as travel, career opportunities,charitable causes etc.

Best-selling author Jack Canfield, the man who co-wrote the wildly successful  Chicken Soup for the Soul series was rejected 144 times before he and Mark Victor Hansen were eventually published in 1993. In a recent conversation, Canfield explained to me the human mind can't tell the difference between a real event and an imagined one, which is why victim-thinking and limiting beliefs are so powerful in the way they artificially stop many people in their tracks before they even get started on living their dreams.

The timeless,universal Tao of Reinvention will work for you either way.

Thoughts + Actions = OUTCOMES

No one else is walking in your shoes or thinking what you think.

No one else can determine where those shoes tread, how fast they move or the size of the footprints they leave.

The decision to flip a brain switch and Compete Inward is what allows you to walk with attitude to the metaphorical first tee of any day in your life or career. Taking 1001% Responsibility is the bedrock; the mental, emotional and spiritual foundation to help start your own engines, take a firm hold of the steering wheel and decide which roads you want to travel.

If you find yourself at a personal or professional crossroads and you believe things need to change in a drastic way, your first footsteps on the Road to Reinvention will hinge on your ability, capacity and willingness to Compete Inward and take 1001% Responsibility.

It has always been that way.

And it always will.                             

“The world is your oyster. It's up to you to find the pearls”
CHRIS GARDNER

 

p.s... If there is an idea or passage in this post that resonates with your own life or career experience, I would love to hear thoughts and perhaps include them in the final manuscript. In other words, I am hoping people like you will share in this forum what you know to be true and in doing so help add to the clarity and focus of this message about what it takes to simply play your own game of life and not get caught up in the hundreds of real and imagined distractions we encounter each day. Also, if there is someone in your life who could use this insight to help elevate their own level of play, feel free to share this post and in your own way help someone march with confidence to the first tee of each day.

p.p.s...  As a bonus, here is a video that offers you a deeper dive into the thoughts and beliefs of the real-life Chris Gardner and how the ability to Compete Inward will impact your own efforts to reinvent any part of your business or life. 

 p.p.p.s.... As you might suspect there is a story behind the photograph at the top of this post. While competing on the Canadian National Trampoline and Tumbling Team, Lisa abruptly dropped out of the sport entirely in the 8th-grade. Exhausted by an insane training schedule and disillusioned by a harsh, demanding coach, she quit athletics altogether before running varsity track at the University of Calgary. After graduating and becoming a school teacher, Lisa accidentally "reinvented" herself again when she joined her husband for a few casual golf games in her early twenties.

She became hooked.

Before long this high-handicap, non-golfer went about the business of Competing Inward; practicing at least an hour and a half a day, five days a week while developing a freakish swing that saw her routinely driving the ball over 300 yards. Today, Lisa "Longball" Vlooswyk is the Canadian Women’s Long Drive Record Holder with a drive measuring 350 yards, 2 feet, 2 inches. She is currently ranked top 3 in the World, has won seven consecutive National Long Drive Championship titles and is a Nike sponsored athlete. 

 Lisa also applies the same lessons from the golf course to her other flourishing career as a professional speaker with a timeless, inspirational message focused on "Drive Determines Distance". 

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If you are interested in having Gair speak to your organization, you can learn more about his keynotes, seminars and consulting programs at www.gairmaxwell.com.

His critically-acclaimed book, “NUTS, BOLTS AND A FEW LOOSE SCREWS” waits patiently for you at Chapters.ca and Amazon.com. His newest E-Book, “THE BRANDING HIGHWAY“ – How to Accelerate and Differentiate Your Marketing Without Spending a Fortune on Advertising is available as a free download