Dime A Dozen

Some leaders stand out in history. Are you more like President Lincoln or President Tyler? (Remember him? Me neither.) “No one wants to follow a Dead, Dull, Disillusioned Crybaby.” - Art Williams

Mediocre Leaders are a Dime a Dozen but Great Leaders are Priceless.

If you accept a Leadership position plan to give it your best. People want to be inspired.

If people are going to be putting their best efforts into a team they want to know that it counts for something special. The team will always be more energized when they are going for truly Big and Inspiring Goals!

No one wants to follow a weak leader.

Most leaders are mediocre and that’s what’s wrong with the economy, the government and the world. The right kind of Leader can make a big difference in whatever field they are in.

In all areas of life, an inspirational Leader is like water in the desert—they make people come alive. 

So, when you find yourself in a leadership position, then lead, inspire, motivate! Make your team proud and excited to be working with you! Make a decision to make a difference because…

Mediocre Leaders are a Dime a Dozen but Great Leaders are Priceless.

Follow Your Instincts

Body language takes precedence over the words someone says. Do you think you'd like to work with this guy?Some of the biggest decisions you’ll make in life are related to your job, your career. Where are you going to work? What are you going to do?

The best advice I ever heard on this subject came from Art Williams. He said to follow your instincts…

"If your instincts say to you, "I like these people, I like what they do, I believe I could get excited about this, this is my kind of company" — then and only then should you join us. If you don't have those feelings, stay away — for you will only be disappointed."

Of course you’ll want the facts. You want to check out the company. You want to get the details of their offer. But beyond that you want to pick up on the intangibles. What is the body language you are picking up on? That’s the biggest indicator. 

What is your gut telling you? Are you starting to naturally get excited about what you are hearing, who you are meeting and the possibilities you would have there?

Get the information. Ask your questions. Consider it carefully.

Then finally, trust your gut!

You Won't Know Until You Try

 What you see on the outside very often has NOTHING to do with a person's potential.

"There has never been a test—and there never will be a test that can measure the heart of a man or woman." —Art Williams

Life is full of opportunities.

As you look out there and try to decide what you are going to do with your life, you wonder… “Could I do that? Would I be any good at that?”

There is only one way to find out. Go for it!
Tennis may look like fun, but you’ll never know until you get a racket, get on the court and start hitting some balls. Until you get into the water, you’ll never know if you really like swimming.

On the outside looking in you get certain impressions on how it would be to work somewhere, but you’ll never know for sure how you like it until yo start doing it. You’ll also never know if you have an aptitude for it, if you could be good at it.

The same with employers.
They’ll never really know until they see you in action. It's even true in professional sports. They put months of analysis, testings, interviewing, looking at video, conducting tryouts to see who they are going to draft. They make their pick, sign them to million dollar contracts and then hope. Because years of experience has taught them that they really are just guessing. They won’t know, even after all that research, how they will perform in intense game situations.

So what’s the point? 
If you think you’d like to do something, if you think you would enjoy it and be good at it, then get started and find out for sure as soon as possible.

And if you are an employer...
Don’t pick your winners on appearance. Get them in the game and let them show you who the best ones are. Because if you try to pick them in advance, you’ll almost always get the wrong one.

Testing scores can’t measure anyone’s heart—their will to win. 

And their will to win is what makes them Winners!

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Have you been underestimating yourself, or holding yourself back because you're afraid to try? Or have you hired someone who totally suprised you (or disappointed you) because you misjudged their appearance?

...Post a Comment below...

Winner's Book Club Selection of the Week

Coach: The A.L. Williams Story

On September 9, 1975 I joined a company that 2 years later became A.L.Williams. I was excited about the company. I was excited about the concepts and the chance to be a part of taking some desperately needed financial information to the public.

It seemed like a great opportunity, one I had been looking for a long time. Yet, I had no ideas of the adventure that I was getting involved in or how it would shape my life.

Here is the book that tells the story. In it you’ll…”Learn how ‘average-ordinary’ people from all walks of life became great leaders, took the “Buy Term & Invest the Difference” Crusade to the families of North America, and brought a political, scheming, outdated industry to its knees.”

“Every coach, parent, teacher, or leader trying to instill the values of hard work, teamwork and perseverance should read this book.”  —Coach Mike Cavin,
 former head football coach, Southern Methodist University 
(Recruited and coached Herschel Walker at University of Georgia)

Here are some of the highlights:

Learn who influenced Art’s style of leadership and motivation more than any other person outside his family

• Read never-before-told tales of the old days at ITT and Waddell & Reed
• Discover the back story of how Art found Financial Assurance and what they did to create the “uniqueness” of A.L. Williams before it even had a name
• Find out how 85 people made the leap to join a company with no name, no office…and a very short stack of apps
• Read the dramatic story of switching from National Home Life to PennCorp after the unexpected death of Art DeMoss
• Learn what it took to pull off the impossible task of building a home office in 
just 6 months
• Find out what 1979 “bombshell” put the first nail in the coffin of whole life insurance
• Discover the 1982 “bombshell” legislation that pounded in the “final” nail
• Relive the “glory days” of beating Prudential for the first time in 1984 and the six “National Championships” that followed
• Follow the meteoric rise of A.L. Williams through 1990 as it defeats “trash value life insurance” at every turn, changing the life insurance industry forever
• Read “war stories” as ALW leaders battled insurance regulators, politicians and underwriters associations in every state to change a biased system
• Read for the first time Art’s personal account of selling the company to Primerica and his painful exit from the company
• Find out what Art thinks today about the company, the life insurance industry, and what it takes to make dreams come true

 Here’s what another great coach has to say….

“Art Williams built the largest and most successful term life insurance business in the world, based on his life experience and the wisdom he gained from his years as a successful high school coach. You will enjoy reading his life story and will gain valuable insight, inspiring you to greater success in your coaching career.
 Art put together a tremendous winning team. In this book, Art shares basic fundamentals and concepts that will benefit you tremendously as you build your own winning program. 
I love his statement, ‘Nobody wants a boss, but everyone wants a coach.’ Coaching is all about leadership.
 I know of no greater ‘people’ leader than Art Williams.”  —Coach Dicky Clark,
 Fellowship of Christian Athletes,
 Regional Director of Georgia and South Carolina

One of My Favorite Things: A Poem

My friend Art Williams sent me this about 18 years ago and it immediately became one of my favorites. Now that wasn’t a big deal because I have never been a big fan of poetry, but then as far as I knew, neither was Art.

This one was different though, and I think you’ll see why.

Good Morning

Every morning in Africa,
A gazelle wakes up.
It knows that it must run faster
Than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows that it must outrun the slowest gazelle
Or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter
Whether you are
A lion or a gazelle...

      —Anonymous

What’s so perfect about this is that it presents life as it is—reality in its unvarnished truth. You may not like it, you might not think that is the way life should be, but it doesn’t matter. That is the way it is. And like the gazelle in Africa, if you ignore it and pretend dangers don’t exist, you won’t last long. 

If you’re smart and you want to survive, you’ll copy the gazelle and wake up running!