Tired of the boss? The pay? The pressure? The hours? The ______?

Tired of the boss? The pay? The pressure? The hours? The shift? The overtime? The team not performing? The J.O.B.? The lack of options? The ____________?

Reflect

I recommend reading this complete post and then investing some time to reflect on where you are, why you are there, and most importantly, what you are willing to do to move forward? You have the power, the ability to change everything. That's important. Having the desire and the will to do it is more important? But, actually doing it is most important.

I know we have the power and ability because I have done it and continue to do it. I have watched my wife, Ria, do it. We have seen our clients do it. I'll be very transparent with personal choices and sacrifices in this lesson with intent to inspire, not impress. It's not about bragging. It's sharing and giving some behind the scenes information about my and Ria's personal growth journey.

We are either growing intentionally or slowing accidentally. Not some of us, all of us. ~ Mack Story

It's our choice, but be sure, one of the two is always happening.

Why? Because the world around us is changing at an ever increasing pace whether we continue to change or not. Consider technology as an example, if you grew and developed and were aware of everything there is to know today and stopped learning and growing tomorrow, in a matter of days, weeks, months, you would be behind everyone, and no longer ahead of everyone.

Why is personal growth so important? It's the only way forward. We're either growing or slowing! We either grow and change daily to get better, or we don't, and get left behind.

"The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment you first find yourself in." ~ Mark Caine

Character vs. Competency

Multiple studies have shown that 87% of our results come from who we truly are (character) and 13% come from what we truly know (competency). Unfortunately, most people that seek growth invest the majority of their time and $$$ intentionally on developing their competency. Just look at any college or university's offerings. The vast majority is related to competency development which is great if you want to make do with 13% of your potential.

If you want to work on character, where the real opportunity is related to personal and professional growth, you have to make it happen yourself. And, it's a lot harder. You must intentionally start changing you...what you value, what you think, how you feel, what you do. And, you should never stop changing you.

I started my career as a common blue-collar factory worker with parents that didn't graduate high school, and now, I train and develop people with titles ranging from janitor to CEO/Business owner with degrees ranging from none to PhD. None of that matters. What matters is that I've grown myself into a person of greater value to people who want to live a more positive life, regardless of position or title.

Please take a few minutes to watch this short video (~3m) of my wife, Ria, and me speaking about growth and change before continuing to the main message in this post. 

Some thoughts from the stage

Become an intentional lifetime learner

We need more than a 4 year degree to be truly exceptional, effective, and successful. What we need is a 40 year degree. This is why I read every day on purpose for a purpose.

After barely graduating high school in 1987 and joining the USMC as an Infantryman, I mostly coasted along and put in a little effort to finally graduate with a 4 year business degree (competency) 2002. Then, my hourly rate basically doubled in just a few short years from 2002 to 2005, as I benefited immediately from having the degree. Then, the benefit of having the degree was used up. By 2005, my hourly rate had increased by a total of 5 times what it had been in 1987 when I started my career. Pretty good by most people's standards.

In 2005, I was back to a promotion every now and then and maybe a cost of living raise annually if I was lucky. I could have gotten another degree or two and saw another small increase in my hourly rate. Yes, doubling or tripling your hourly rate is a small benefit, if you know what I now know. For the masses, even doubling or tripling their hourly rate is unimaginable. Too many settle, and are happy to get, a $0.50 or $1 raise annually. That's only slightly better than nothing.

My Intent

I have to say here I have a lot of character work left to do and much better results to achieve in the future. My intent is not to impress you with these numbers, but to impress upon you the impact what I write about and talk about every day has had on my life.

For many, these results are amazing. For some, these results are nothing. There are many who have far exceeded my results. They've already figured some things out. But the masses, those I truly want to impact and help, have not seen these results in their life. But, they could!

My intent is to be transparent about some things that most people do not share. As I mentioned early on, my intent is to inspire you, not to impress you. I have no need or desire to impress you. My life is good, and I'm in control of it. I want to help others achieve success and freedom in their own way for their own reasons.

My Shift in Focus to Character Development

In 2008, I started my intentional personal (character) growth journey, and by 2016 my hourly rates increased by up to 142 times. Don't miss the point that in 2008 I already had 20+ years of intentional competency based growth and some accidental character based growth that had allowed me to increase my hourly rate 5 times between 1987 and 2008. However, today, I also now have nearly 8 additional years of intentional character based growth and 8 more years of intentional competency growth. My passion and my career have now merged.

CHARACTER IS A MULTIPLIER

In case you missed it, 5 times hourly rate increase (first 20 years) X 142 times hourly rate increase (last 8 years) = 710 times hourly rate in 28 years. CHARACTER counts, and it counts A LOT. As you can see, character development is a multiplier when it's applied to your competency. Most people settle for accidental character growth and don't tap into their real potential.

There are also other benefits. I no longer have a boss. I set my own schedule, and I LOVE what I do. This may help you understand why I'm so passionate about motivating and inspiring others who are willing to invest their time and $$$ into personal growth and development. I know they can create the life they want if they're willing to pay the price and do the work!

Many often ask, "How did you actually do it?"

Well, it's a long story, much of it is in my book, Defining Influence. But, the short version is that I applied the Law of Sacrifice. I intentionally paid the price.

The longer version: What did applying the Law of Sacrifice look like?

After achieving great success starting my own consulting business in 2008, I gave up a good, strong, and steady six figure income as a Lean Manufacturing Consultant and chose to let all of my contracts expire and went to $0 income at the end of 2012 to pursue my passion, purpose, and calling to focus on leadership development speaking and training others on leadership across all industries. I was hungry to help others to say the least and my actions and my life showed it!

After earning her MBA and achieving years of great success in the administrative side of the Healthcare industry, Ria also gave up a really strong salary and went to $0 income at the end of 2013 to join me. Together, we co-founded TopStoryLeadership.

Her story of personal transformation is much more amazing than mine. She details over coming seven years of extreme sexual by her father from age 12-17 in her book, Ria's Story: From Ashes to Beauty, and details how she overcome it in her book, Beyond Bound and Broken: A Journey of Healing and Resilience.

Things we gave up to move forward

"You must give up to go up." ~ John C. Maxwell

Together, we intentionally gave up nearly $400,000+ of steady income and went to $0 income with no benefits by choice and started creating the life we wanted together instead of accepting the one society wanted us to have. We do more than love each other. We actually like each other and want to spend our lives working together to help other people have better lives in hopes that they will also choose to help others, especially as leaders in the workplace.

Unfortunately, we were not debt free with hundreds of thousands of dollars in a big fat savings account. If we were going to move forward in a hurry, we were going to have to do it the hard way by making major sacrifices to the lifestyle we were accustomed to at that point in our lives.

What were some of the things we literally sacrificed?

A lot of time doing wasteful things, I have been reading leadership books etc. daily since 2008. I spend a lot of hours each week growing intentionally, transferring what I'm learning into files, and then writing about it on social media platforms as comments and blogs, and in my books to help others benefit. I don't watch TV very much any longer. I don't hunt and fish any more. I don't miss any of it because my values have changed. They just kind of fell away over time as my passion for personal growth and development along with helping others kicked in.

We gave up super nice vacations along with the fun and pleasure associated them. We gave up dining out regularly at really nice restaurants with really big tabs. We gave up wasting $,$$$ regularly on many other fun things. I gave up alcohol 100% in May 2012 (I haven't had a drop since, don't miss it, and will never drink it again.). I stopped using all profanity/curse words in late 2012. I gave up my $60k Ford Raptor 4WD and my Corvette Z06 and chose to drive a Nissan Sentra for 4 years. (I'm now back in a Mercedes.) Ria gave up her Hummer and chose to drive a Toyota Corolla for several years. (She is now back in a Cadillac SUV.)

We chose to give up all of our 401k savings and invested over $100k intentionally into training and developing ourselves over the last 3+ years and to support ourselves as we've grown into our new profession of helping others get results at a higher level. We even took out additional loans and went deeper into debt to accelerate the transition as we shifted our personal and professional trajectory.

However, in just over 3 years, my and Ria's hourly rates are often up to 50 times what they were in 2012 when gave it all up and went to $0 to start from scratch. And, we they increasing steadily as we continue to sacrifice, grow ourselves, invest in ourselves, and help others get the results they desire in their lives.

We are continuously moving forward along our path for sure. Most importantly, we have been, and continue to be, happy about our choice to align ourselves with our passion and purpose. We're modeling what we're teaching.

We're not close to where we want to be yet. We're still doing battle in the trenches as we move forward, but we're making the right things happen, for ourselves and for others.

Would you like to make changes and create new options?

"If you want dramatically different results, you must do things dramatically different." ~ Mack Story

An amazing transformation has taken place in my life. I would love to help you do the same personally and/or professionally with your entire team or organization. You may not have to or want to give up in the manner that we have, but you must sacrifice time and resources to move forward. It will not just happen. Hoping it will happen is not a strategy.

If you're still reading, odds are you want to be more, do more, and have more, and you know you need to stop doing some things you don't need to be doing and start do some things you haven't been doing. It doesn't matter if you're in an entry level position or at the top of the organizational chart or somewhere in between, we all have infinite growth potential both personally and professionally.

We can help you and/or your organization find a way forward.

Ria and I offer fully customized training, coaching/mentoring, and accountability sessions virtually by phone or Skype with anyone, any place, any time (schedule permitting). If you truly want different results and want to partner and learn from someone that has lived what they are teaching (not someone that has just read about how someone else did it or took a course on how to teach others to do it), contact us.

If you're a formal leader of others, we can also help grow your team onsite as well and help you multiply your results organizationally. We also speak at large and small conferences/seminars on personal growth, leadership, change, time management, blue-collar leadership, communication, trust, and much more.

As I mentioned, Ria's story is much more amazing than mine! Watch a short 3 min video as she shares a little on stage at a John C. Maxwell event where 700+ of his Coaches and Trainers were being certified.

FREE downloads available:

Click here to access Chapter 11 “Get Out of the Way and Lead” from my book, Defining Influence.

Click here to access the first 5 chapters of “Blue-Collar Leadership: Leading from the Front Lines.”

Note: I encourage you to be a river, not a reservoir. Please share my blogs with others if you find value in them. I believe in abundance and write them to help others become more effective, successful, and significant.

Make an impact!

Mack Story

My passion is to help you live with abundance, achieve success, choose significance, and leave a legacy. In other words, I want to help you make a High Impact !

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Mack’s story is an amazing journey of personal and professional growth. He began his career in manufacturing on the front lines of a machine shop. He grew himself into upper management and found his niche in lean manufacturing and along with it, developed his passion for leadership. He understands that everything rises and falls on leadership.

Mack is the author of Blue-Collar Leadership Series, Defining Influence, & 10 Values of High Impact Leaders. He's an inspiration for people everywhere as an example of achievement, growth, and personal development. His passion inspires people all over the world! Order signed copies here.

Mack’s experience as a John Maxwell Certified Leadership Coach, Trainer, and Speaker includes an international training event in Guatemala with John as part of the Cultural Transformation in Guatemala where more than 20,000 Guatemalan leaders were trained.

Contact Mack at 334-728-4143 or [email protected] for Keynote Speaking, Corporate Training, Professional Leadership Development, Cultural Enhancement/Transformation, and Process Improvement.