Adding Value=Success

As a longtime leader of many organizations I get asked quite regularly my thoughts regarding success. Quite often I find people asking the question as if they are looking for the Holy Grail or Magic Bullet that will take them to some magical place where they may find happiness, wealth and fulfillment. I however when asked about success find myself pondering what success really looks like? Success is many different things for many different situations and many different people. The idea of success as a measurement of anything can only be determined once the events in question are understood as finite or infinite. Plagued with all of the different meanings, scenarios, and ideas of what success really means I often find myself looking to a quote I keep on all of my white boards stated years ago by Earle Nightingale (“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal”). When I think of success in this capacity I go back to the idea of how do we succeed at anything we try and do in life? My answer to that question has always been adding value. The more value (as an individual or a business) we add the more successful we should be in whatever specific endeavor we are directing our time, energy, and resources. For instance almost anything we do in life is in the form of service for ourselves or others in some capacity. If we are always bettering any situation by adding value to it we are in some way succeeding. The more value we add to any situation the more successful we should become. This in my opinion is a constant in life and consistently rings true in anything we find ourselves involved with. For instance think about a good marriage. A good marriage while not infinite does not have a specified end date. To find success in marriage one must first determine and define what success looks like. Once mutually agreed upon and understood the only way to get there and maintain it is through service to one another and constantly adding value to the relationship in some capacity. This applies in your personal life and personal relationships, as well as your business life and business relationships. I have found it applies as an Entrepreneur, Leader, Manager, Employee, Husband and Father. The more value one adds in any relationship the more valuable they become in that relationship. I personally own and operate multiple small businesses. One of those establishments builds custom vehicles for many different applications. When we build a vehicle for a specific customer we try to figure out how to add the most value to the product they are going to receive. We do this in many ways from fully understanding what the customer’s specific needs are to finding the most financially reasonable and responsible way to accomplish the intended result and to ultimately provide the best products that exceed our customers’ expectations. As the Director of a technical trade school and contract industrial maintenance company I often find myself trying to figure out how we can add more value for our customers through our service offerings. I have also instructed all of our instructors and managers to teach our students (Future technicians) and employees (current technicians) that their ultimate purpose is to add value for the customer. We tell them to figure out where they add the most value and focus on that area of service. Once they feel they have maximized that offering then look for other places to add training and experience and identify new ways to add more value. By continuing to add more and more value for the customer they are ultimately making themselves more and more valuable to the relationship. If this idea of adding the most value we can is practiced religiously we should find success in almost anything we try and accomplish in life. If you go through life applying this principle, you too should find yourself feeling successful, fulfilled, and hopefully gainfully employed in an industry of your choosing. So get out there, learn, live, love, work hard and find success in everything that you choose to do. Until next time be good to one another and be great to yourselves. – Sincerely Roy Lemke