Formula for Success

 

J. Paul Getty, petroleum industrialist who founded Getty Oil Company


From my study this week, using J Paul Getty’s quote, Jim Richie from Launching Leaders compiled the following formula for success.

1.         1.    Get up early

2.          2.    Work hard

3.          3.    Get your education

4.          4.    Find oil (do what interests you, what you are good at)

5.          5.    Make your mark

6.          6.    Prepare to serve and give back

With out knowing it, this is the formula that I have shaped my life around.  From an early age on the farm, I learned to get up early and get to work.  Farm life doesn’t wait, and a good harvest depends on work put in at every stage of growing.  I have been a lifelong learner.  While just now getting back to formal school, I have spent my adult life learning and preparing to teach my children.  We should always be ready to learn new things, this is how we grow as individuals and are able to contribute more to society.   

To find happiness and contentment in our life we need to find what we are good at, find the things that we enjoy.  I have always loved to bake.  As a child my dad would come into the house from working on the farm to say that some specific dessert sounded really good right now, and that was all the encouragement I needed.  I learned to bake at an early age and found joy in creating something delicious and beautiful.  This is my mark.  Now, I like to create baked items that are not available in my community.  I have worked hard to develop a name that people have come to equate with a high-quality product.  In this way I am able to give back giving me opportunities to teach the skills I have learned to others and allows me to build a team of good people around me.

A team is only successful when they work together.  To be an effective coach, I must listen to what my players are feeling and find a rhythm that that can work for everyone.  Every player is important, and their role is vital to the rest of the team.  A successful team has each other’s back, and everyone is working with the same goal in mind. From experience I have found two types of leaders, those that lead with integrity and those who do not.  What does that look like?  Sheri L Dew in a devotional give at BYU-I in March 2004 gave 7 things that lead to a person of integrity, the number 1 thing being a person worthy of trust.  In business it seems those who care only for the bottom line don’t always care how get they there.  While I believe that the bottom line, the financial balance sheet, is very important; a successful business will not last long without integrity and trust.  When you take advantage of your employees to achieve success or cheat a customer because you only care about the balance in the bank you lose the trust of those who work for you and the community.  A leader with integrity in business creates a team, everyone pulling together to achieve a common goal. This is the type of leader I strive to be.


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