Dialing Up the Awesome
Several years ago, my friend, Maggie Larsen, sent me a card that I keep in front of me at my desk. On that particular shelf I have things that are meant to remind me about the kind of person I want to be. I have a miniature model motorcycle and scooter to remind me of my greatest passion and its origins way back when with a Lambretta 50cc scooter when I was fourteen. I have little frog with a crown on it to remind me to always be the frog that she kissed that was really a prince. That is my reminder to be all that she wants me to be. I have a small steel Tasmanian devil to remind me that its OK to be a bit wild and crazy at time to get the most out of life. I have one of those magnetic pile of ball bearings that you can shape into anything you want, to remind me that creativity is one of my greatest strengths. And then I have Maggie’s card, which for some reason has what seems to be an angry bird on the cover and says “My Modus Operandi is dial up the awesome and break the knob off.” I take that to mean that I could always do my damndest at whatever I undertake.
In my career, I always knew that enthusiasm was one of my strengths. It is what they call a force magnifier. People like to be around enthusiastic people and they generally don’t want to be around doubters or nay-sayers. I think that is a shares human trait. We all want to be positive even if we are inclined to be otherwise. I recall at one of the early career setback moments that could very easily have led to my being fired (this was at the end of 1989 when I had presided over a major loss to a Memphis cotton merchant who had defrauded us), I offered to fall on my sword and resign and the bank’s president at the time told me that he and the Chairman had discussed that and decided that my enthusiasm was simply too unique and too valuable to the bank and that they would rather I took a demotion and stay with the bank. Lots of people wondered why I would choose to stay and suffer the embarrassment of a demotion (in this case being sent to Gulag Toronto, as I called it, to be CEO of the bank in Canada). I knew why it was good for the bank, because it is always useful to keep a cautionary tale around for management to point to both to justify punishment and to remind people that there but for the grace of diligence and caution go any of us. A little over two years later and I was offered my choice of four important senior management positions in the bank and a return from the Gulag, not on my shield but on a proud stead. That same president came to Toronto and told me that he and the Chairman were very proud of the way I had handled my stint in servitude.
Most of the money I made in banking and most of the real highlights on my resume that got me hired over and over again in the years after that were achieved at Bankers Trust in the days following that stretch at Gulag Toronto and even today get me hired as an expert witness. That says to me that i made the right decision in those days in putting my head down and muscling through the assignment in Toronto. But actually, I did much more than that. I didn’t just grind it out in Toronto, I embraced the assignment. I dialed up the awesome and forgot what had led to the exile. I didn’t sit around and sip wine. I grew the Canadian operation by opening offices in Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver and vastly expanded the business. The guy who ran the Montreal office even went on years later to run the largest Canadian bank and one of the traders in the Toronto office went on to run a large London bank. That operation became the launchpad for many great things and many great careers. I also started a side business related to insurance that was a creative extension of our core business and broke lots of new ground in the industry. It led to me buying and/or starting several operations which I went on to sell for outsized profits and thereby led to me being paid outsized bonuses. In all, going to Gulag Toronto was a pivotal point in my career progression. Who knew?
The point is not whether I knew that would happen. Who could? The point is that I thoroughly embraced my reality and made it as awesome as I could. I don’t know that I ever “Broke the knob off”, but I just take that to mean that I kept doing it no matter what. I like that about myself, and I think it all goes back to this innate enthusiasm I manage to maintain about whatever I am doing. Many people find reasons to not like where they are or what they are doing and I always seem to be able to take the exact opposite stance. Wherever I am and whatever I am doing is always, buy definition, the best thing I could possibly be doing at that time. The grass is never greener next door. it is always most awesome right where I am standing. The ability to not just say that, but to actually feel that, is what allows me to dial up the awesome.
What goes hand in hand with that is that my eyes are always pointed forward and rarely do I wish for the past or s[pend excess time wishing things were as they were. I think that is a lot of the affliction we see in America today, especially on the right. I never wish for the past, I always try to dream about what could be in the future. That goes along with not having regrets and being more of a dreamer than not. I like being a dreamer. The dream world is always the best of places. It is less about the grass being greener in the future and more about making the grass even better than it is today.
I just took an online quiz that I ran across in the Washington Post that seeks to help you determine the best path for you towards personal growth. It was a seven-question quiz and the thing I didn’t like about it was that it forced you to pick amongst the things that you didn’t like about your current situation. I’m not sure I would have chosen any of them in some instances, but I did the best I could. What it told me was that I am somewhere between being an Emotional Elephant and a Fit Frog. God knows what that means. I think what this quiz told me is that I am pretty content with both how I am and where I am going in terms of growth. While I always feel like there is room for improvement, I am more satisfied than not with where I am. That agrees with all the basic tenets of my life philosophy. Dream about what could be, but don’t bemoan what is. Take the best out of what is at all times and that sort of enthusiasm for your current situation will exude from you and help you with those around you to succeed to greatest amount you can and thereby make you happier and more content with your accomplishments and your circumstances.
I do not know if my state of awesomeness would agree with anyone else’s standards, but I think the key to peace and happiness is to be comfortable with your own standards and always feel that you are dialing up the awesome to its maximum level. I will leave it to you if you choose to break the knob off.