Have You Made Your Life's Choices?

Habits of Wealth is a product of many year's preparation, even though I had no plans to write a book. I was preparing myself, in many different ways, to achieve effectively. I maintained files of ideas and concepts important to me. I dictated personal notes. I grew through listening, reading, assimilating information at seminars, and practicing leadership in the best way I knew how. Only because of this preparation did I come to believe there was a book in me. Even then, it took some unexpected but motivating encouragement before I committed to it. 

My motivation for writing Habits of Wealth is to give something back, to share an entrepreneurial philosophy I believe in and care about deeply. I hope it will have a positive impact on people through personal and organizational prosperity. 

I've had many positive entrepreneurial experiences. However, I believe my greatest accomplishment is the wholeness of my life experience. I enjoy my entrepreneurial life tremendously. I've developed a self-knowledge that success and achievement are more important than one's financial statement. Life's measurement is not only quantitative but qualitative. 

At a New Year's Eve party in 1986, friend Mark Jerstad asked me what I thought I'd be doing in five years. I vividly remember the question, a profound one for an entrepreneur constantly evaluating ideas and opportunities. For some reason, I had an immediate answer, one that just came to me. I said, “I don't know, Mark . . . isn't that great?" 

That doesn't sound like it came from a fellow who prides himself in disciplined organizational planning, does it? Nonetheless, my response was accurate. I didn't know then, and I don't know today what I'll be doing in five years. If I knew, it would betray my entrepreneurship. 

It turns out that Mark didn't know, either. He has since realized a lifelong professional dream. He is now CEO of the Good Samaritan Society. 

Although I was proud to say that New Year's Eve I didn't know what I wanted to be doing in five years, I did know the answer to a more important question: What I wanted to be in five years. 

My greatest accomplishment isn't what I've done. It's what I've been. And what I've been is the same as what I want to be. It's the anchor of knowing what I want to be that gives me the freedom to choose what I want to do. 

There are two sides to an enriched entrepreneurial life. One is an active to be identity. To be provides boundaries of thought and activity within which the other side—our to do side—makes its choices. To be is the conscience of to do. An organization has neither ethics nor conscience. That comes from its leader, who either enriches or damages the quality of the enterprise through the to be model. 

The higher your ladder takes you, the more important it becomes that your to be priorities are in writing. Here are mine—what I want to be. I call them My Life's Choices. 

MY LIFE'S CHOICES 

I choose the risk of achieving great things within well-defined ethical boundaries, and to forego achievement that compromises those boundaries. 

I choose to lead my life rather than let life lead me. 

I choose the willingness to hold courageous points of view, and accept responsibility for any consequences. 

I choose to activate, as well as participate; to decide, not just contemplate; to seek—not merely accept—change. 

I choose to have vision, doing today what will provide my family, associates, and customers with opportunities and growth tomorrow. 

I choose to nurture, support, and advocate courageous, ethical entrepreneurship at every opportunity—believing from it will flow our greatest achievements. 

I choose above all to be a caring, loving husband and father, responsible for balanced priorities and value-based leadership. 

Formal, written planning helps to create success for an organization. It's similarly true that formalizing your personal choices can create personal success. Do yourself a favor. Think about what you want to be. Then commit your choices to writing.