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Success or Significance
Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you had a chance to take time to be with family or friends and celebrate all that we have to be thankful for. This week we share a message from John Maxwell that can transform our thinking both personally and professionally. Also we would like to share Sherwood Park Dodge's latest web video with you.
Are you adding value to yourself or to others?
Do you know the difference between success and significance? I know a lot of people who believe they are successful because they have everything they want. They have added value to themselves. But I believe significance comes when you add value to others—and you can’t have true success without significance.
I came to this conclusion while working on my book Your Road Map for Success, in which I wanted to define success. I habitually file good quotes and stories I come across, and then reference them when writing a book. In preparation for the book, I pulled out every quote I ever filed—137 quotes to be exact—on the topic of success.
I laid them out on the table and carefully thought through them. After six months I came to understand that success is:
• knowing your purpose in life, • growing to your maximum potential • sowing seeds that benefit others.
The big question is: Once you’ve learned something, do you have a heart to share it with others, or do you hold it for yourself? Success is indeed a journey, but if you stop at adding value to yourself, you miss the reward of significance. Here are a few of my observations about the journey to significance.
This journey takes time. It is a process that requires patience and commitment.
Success is usually the steppingstone to significance. There has to be a certain amount of success in people’s lives before they are willing to take the step to significance, where they ask themselves, “What else is there in life beyond professional and monetary success?”
Pursuing significance takes us out of our comfort zone. Significance is not attainable in a natural way. Let me describe to you the difference of what I think natural and unnatural is:
I don’t think you glide or fall into significance. You don’t wake up one day and say to yourself, “I’m significant.” Significance takes us out of comfortable territory into uncomfortable territory.
Rusty Rustenbach, in his pastoral article Giving Yourself Away, hits this topic out of the park. He writes, “You and I live in an age when only a rare minority of individuals desire to spend their lives in pursuit of objectives which are bigger than they are. In our age, for most people, when they die it will be as though they never lived.”
Once significance is sensed, nothing else will satisfy. I think Katherine Graham put it best: “To love what you do and feel that it matters—how could anything be more fun?”
I know a lot of people who love what they do but don’t feel it matters much. And I know some people who don’t love what they do but do feel it matters. But when you can love what you do and feel that it is making a difference in the lives of others, now you have the right combination.
Five Differences Between Success and Significance
1. Motives With success, my motives may be selfish; with significance, my motives cannot be selfish. Significance and selfishness are incompatible.
When I was a young pastor, I would go to a church and look at my laypeople, and my first thought—as wrong as it was—was, What can they do to help me? As I matured, it turned around where I would think, What can I do to help them?
In my experience, motives matter because:
• Selfish people seldom find significance. • When you help others, you help yourself. When you help yourself, you may not help others. • As Solomon wrote in Proverbs 23:7, “As [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
2. Influence With success, my influence is limited; with significance, my influence is unlimited. Here’s an anonymous quote I found that will help illustrate: “When you influence a child, you influence a life. When you influence a father, you influence a family. When you influence a leader, you influence all who look to him or her for leadership.”
3. Time Success can last a lifetime; significance can last several lifetimes. People who desire significance value time. They evaluate what they do with their time, and they invest their time wisely. M. Scott Peck said, “Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.”
4. Focus Success asks, “How can I add value to myself?” Significance asks, “How can I add value to others?” My evolution from selfishness to significance went something like this:
What can others do for me? → What can I do for myself? → What can I do for others? → What can I do with others, for others?
5. Reward If I pursue success, my joy is the result of my success; if I pursue significance, my joy is the result of others’ success. Very frequently I’m asked what motivates me. And I tell you, I crossed the line a few years ago where the success of other people is a higher reward to me than my own success. Why is it so rewarding for me to add value to others? First, it’s my calling. Second, it’s so productive to get beyond myself and to help people grow and develop. And third, it’s rewarding for me because it pleases God.
This past week we were saddened to hear about Steve Jobs passing. We think it's fair to say that he was a man who went from success to significance in his lifetime.
PPS - We have some exciting news going on at The Adam Ad Group. We have spun out a new company to handle our amazing growth in online marketing, SEO, PPC , video production and business consulting services, our new company is called The Rainmaker Group. We are in the process of building new websites for Adam Ad Group and Rainmaker Group that will better showcase who we are and what we do.
We also recently announced the arrival of Arthur Zhang to The Rainmaker Group/Adam Ad Group. The team continues to grow. We are now pleased to welcome Gerry Shea as the latest addition. Gerry will be working with us to expand online marketing services in North America. Gerry is focused primarily on helping North American automotive businesses to expand market share while reducing marketing expenses by leveraging the web.
Gerry grew up in Kamloops where he ran a successful chiropractic clinic before a shoulder injury sustained while water skiing forced him to close the practice. In 2002 he began acquiring certifications and now Gerry is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA). Gerry worked as a Computer Network Engineer for a few years, which led to a passion in website production.
Prior to joining The Rainmaker/Adam Ad Group Gerry worked with ASL Internet, a full-service website development company specializing in design, production and maintenance of websites for the automotive industry. We are thrilled Gerry has joined us! If you'd like to learn more about how The Rainmaker/ Adam Ad Group can assist you company to capitalize on the opportunities present on the web, email or call us at 604.937.8886.
Special Note : Many of you know that my 11 year old son has Type 1 Juvenille Diabetes. We are extremely excited to introduce to you our new program called MyBrandit.
This system offers our customers and subscribers, great selection, pricing and quality on all promotional products and merchandise. The products are hand selected as proven winners and the best part for us is that we will be able to donate a portion of all sales to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Please Click on the banner below to have a look around and let us know what you think! or copy and paste the following link into your browser http://adamadgroup.mybrandit.com/
Testimonial Of The Week - In a uncertain business climate, what is certain is the commitment and ability that Drago and his team deliver to develop successful strategies and campaigns for their clients.
Simply put, Drago and the Adam Advertising Group deliver results for their clients. Drago's foundation for success is based on a personable, focused and value based understanding of the client and their goals, the partners they choose to do business with and the ideas that deliver value and results to their customers. (Paul Hickie, Business Development Manager - National Accounts, Calyx Transportation Inc, National Fast Freight)
We also wanted to say Thank You for allowing us to meet with you every Monday Morning. The MMM has experienced incredible growth with a subscriber base of 77,594 people.
This week we would like to recognize a very special couple who not only built a successful company but are making a difference out of a very tragic circumstance, Jack & Margaret Lee.
Jack Lee founded 4Refuel in 1995 and it has become one of North America’s fastest growing fuel logistics companies. The company manages nearly one billion litres of fuel per year and is currently growing at 26% annually. Then things took an unsuspecting turn when Jack and Margaret's daughter Janice took her own life, Monday, December 4, 2006. To read about Janice's story click here or copy and paste the following link into your browser (http://www.ok2bblue.com/History). Jack and Margaret have taken this devastating situation and are making a difference by their creation of The Blue Wave Foundation. The purpose of BLUE WAVE and its website is to be a media/portal where youth and parents can learn about the challenges surrounding mental health issues.
The underlying message is that we all feel "Blue" from time to time, and that it is: OK2B BLUE. However, prolonged "Blueness" or depression, may be a symptom of what could be a more serious mental health issue if left untreated. Hence, the need for broadscale education relating to the mind which, in such cases, would raise awareness for early intervention.
Please help Jack and Margaret spread the message of The Blue Wave Foundation, by visiting or sharing the website with others. www.Ok2bblue.com
Can The Adam Advertising Group help your business, or do you have a success story we should hear about?
Contact Drago Adam at drago@AdamAdGroup.com or call 604 937 - 8886 or 866 923 - 6477
PS: Thank You for sharing your Monday Mornings with us. The MMM started three years ago with 35 subscribers, today's issue is going out to over 77,594 Weekly Subscribers.
