Purpose provides the path

Notes from the book – “The ONE Thing”

Purpose is the straightest path to power; the ultimate source of personal strength – the strength of conviction and to persevere.

The prescription for extraordinary results is knowing what matters to you and taking daily doses of action in alignment with it.

If you have a purpose, clarity comes faster, which leads to faster decisions.

Knowing where you are going leads to the best possible outcomes and experiences life has to offer.

Purpose also helps you when things don’t go your way.

Purpose provides the path.

Happiness happens on the way.

Notes from the book – “The ONE Thing”

To be wealthy, you must have a purpose. Otherwise, you’ll never know how much money you need or be able to deploy your wealth in service of the purpose.

For more money to motivate you, it depends on why you want the money.

When it comes to happiness, any end you seek will only create happiness for you through the means it takes to achieve it.

Wanting more money just for the sake of getting it won’t bring you the happiness you seek from it.

Purpose – happiness happens on the way to fulfillment.

What do people want in life?

What do people want in life?  Happiness.

But it doesn’t happen the way we think.

Happiness happens ON THE WAY to fulfillment.

Here are 5 things we need for happiness, according to Dr. Martin Seligman –

1) Positive emotion and pleasure

2) Achievement

3) Relationships

4) Engagement

5) Meaning

The last two are most important.

When our daily actions fulfill a bigger purpose – a deep happiness can happen.

Do your daily actions have engagement and meaning?

How can you make it better?

A compass gives you direction but not directions

Your goals are your direction.  But you need to get directions.  You need to learn how to do it.  You need to learn from others who have done it, and apply your own ideas through experimentation. 

If your company has goals, that gives employees a direction.  But you have to tell them HOW to do their part.  You have to give them directions.  

Lots of people have goals.  Fewer take the time necessary to learn how, and fewer still execute on the right plans.

Are you clear on what your goals are? 

Are you clear on HOW?  

Are your people clear on HOW?

Take ownership of your problems

“When a TEAM takes ownership of it’s problems, the problems get solved.” – Jocko Willink

Talk to your team about your problems and challenges.  Ask for their help.  Get their ideas.  Move their efforts in the direction of a solution.

Reward and celebrate the answer.

Many brains working on a problem are always better than one.

Good counsel leads to good decisions.

There are lots of people giving advice.   Many do it for a living, and many contradict each other.

Some give good advice on one subject, but not so good on another.

You will never live long enough to learn it all yourself.  You must learn from others.

Many people listen to others with the same problems and they are in an echo chamber and never get out.

You have to determine who you will listen to in the world.

Choose carefully.

Strong character is a wealth accelerant

When you put ambition together with strong positive character traits like trustworthiness, loyalty, kindness, and more, your chances of being successful are much better.

Those with poor character who come to success against the odds, will have troubles and often lose their wealth.

Character counts. 

Time Management – “yes” is expensive

Every time you say, “Yes, I’ll do that,” “Yes, I’ll own that,” “Yes, I’ll get another pet,” or “Yes, I’ll be on that committee,” you are crowding your time.  Then you feel like you are running fast but can’t keep up your commitments or enjoy your days.

Stop saying yes to everything. 

Say no thank you.

Better a moment’s awkwardness than months or years of regret.

A world of assets for all to use

I listened to John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s autobiography and had an important epiphany.  Wealthy people own assets, and those assets may be the reason they are wealthy.  But most of those assets are not for their own use – they are assets that others use or “rent” by buying the products and services that are made and delivered with them.

For example, I own fleets of trucks.  I must own 400 trucks and other vehicles in many states – probably more.  But I have never driven one mile in them.  They are for the use of my employees.  If they didn’t have trucks, they could not do their work.  If these trucks weren’t there, customers all over America would not be able to get their homes fixed.  They are on my balance sheet, but they aren’t for me.  I do not need them personally.

I own many buildings.  But on any given day I am only in one or two.  I had to buy buildings in Georgia, Ohio, and elsewhere I have only been to once.  Heck, I even own a building in Bristol,VA I have never seen.  Again. these buildings are owned by me, but not used by me.  They are for other people.  I have to pay tax on them and insure them and take care of them, but they do not make my life better.  

I am the steward of assets that other people use to work and produce products and services.  Do we make a profit from these assets? Not always. We could lose. And any profit always comes with lots of work and responsibility.

My son Tanner wrote an article on Substack about engineered wood, and he put a link to a video of how plywood is made.  It was fascinating.  What struck me was the incredible amount of specialized machinery it takes to make a sheet of plywood.  Massive, engineered, specialized machinery that someone invested in and owns.

I do not own that machinery, or maintain it, or have to know how to run it.  It does not directly make its owner’s life better.  But that owner concentrated all that capital to make plywood. I can “rent” that machinery simply by buying a sheet of plywood for $35.  I don’t have to worry about the machine, or take care of it.

I don’t have to own the airliner that takes me to San Diego.  I just buy a ticket and I benefit from the physical asset.  I don’t own the Empire State Building, but for a few bucks, I can spend time at the top and take in the view from it.  I don’t have to own Amazon warehouses, Fed Ex trucks, paving machines, data centers, or equipment that makes roof shingles.

This is capitalism.  And it has lifted billions of people out of poverty and made their lives better by increasing everyone’s standard of living.

The wealthy don’t so much as personally own assets, as they are stewards of what they own for the benefit of all.

Today, we are all wealthy.

Follow your passion – on the weekends

Following your passion is not great career advice.  Often, your passion doesn’t make much money because people aren’t willing to pay you to do it, or you just aren’t great at it.  (There are exceptions.)

Follow your talent.  Talent is what comes easy to you but is difficult for others.

Develop your talent into marketable skills, and achieve mastery at them.

Follow your passion on the weekends.