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Here are your keys to success!
I am listening to a complaint about mosquitos from one person and commute time from another person, each of whom is paid more per day for this deployment than they might make in a week in similar endeavors.
My patience is thin. It’s not that I lack empathy; I have been in their shoes. I know the pressure cooker that is catastrophe claims adjusting. Still, in the back of my mind, I keep hearing Super Chicken ( a popular cartoon character from the ’70s): “You knew the job was dangerous when you took it.”
Rules of Engagement
Rule #1 – the greater the reward, the greater the risk/requirement
Dave, a CAT manager and a new friend, says, “CAT adjusting is good money. It is not easy money.”
I am convinced there is no such thing as “easy money.” It looks easy if you distance yourself from the effort and sacrifice it takes to earn or accumulate it. The adage, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained” has an inverse: “The more you hope to gain, the more you must venture.”
Some will squander opportunity. Most will, to some degree, and that is one of the great separators between the haves and the have-nots, the achievers and the dreamers.
“There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.”
Roger Staubach, Hall of Fame NFL Quarterback
Rule #2 – You get out what you put in and then some
Think of your career journey as an investment. Think of your work as a sort of Robinhood™ – an investment platform. Rather than investing money, you are investing something of far greater value and much more limited supply.
Time is the currency.
Time cannot be hoarded or saved for later. Every tick of the clock, every beat of your heart is time marching by. Time can be wasted. Time can be invested. Time cannot be hoarded.
The goal of investment, whether time or money, is to get out more than you put in. That is called a profit. Earn enough profit and your money works for you as hard as you worked for it.
Rule #3 – Fools listen only to themselves
Interestingly, the owners of Robinhood chose that name for an investment platform. The implication is clear. Robinhood was an empathetic character devoted to the little guy. He stole from the wealthy and gave to the poor. Platforms like Robinhood give access to Average Joe and cut out the broker, the middleman. That, however, eliminates the advice and insight one might gain from an investment broker. You are on your own. Trade at your own risk with yourself as your financial advisor.
A word to the wise in any such venture might be gained from Abraham Lincoln, a lawyer, who almost certainly repeated this wisdom from another source, the origin of which may date back to as early as the 1600s”¦
“A man who represents himself has a fool for a client.”
The way I heard the saying was a little more complete and brutal. It went like this:
“A man who represents himself has an idiot for a lawyer and a fool for a client.”
But I digress. We are talking about how one invests time, not how you defend yourself in court or serve as your own Wall Street broker/advisor.
However, there is a similar principle at work. The smart worker will surround himself/herself with wise advisors and supporters. No less an authority than one of the wisest and wealthiest men to ever live, King Solomon, wrote the following:
Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety. Proverbs 11:14, King James Version of the Holy Bible
Rule #4 – There is no substitute for hard work, or is there?
Thomas Edison said, “There is no substitute for hard work.”
He had a point.
Thomas Jefferson said, “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”
Some will excuse underachievement by claiming bad luck. They will explain the success of others by calling them “lucky.” Such people tend to live in disappointment and bitterness and die in poverty.
Behind every fortune is somebody’s blood, sweat, and tears. It may go back generations, but somewhere down the genealogical line, someone sacrificed to make good things happen for themselves and their progeny.
I am thinking of a couple of movie scenes right now, and a quote from each.
The first is the movie Titanic.
When all Hell has broken loose and the ship is sinking, there is a mad scramble for lifeboats. The wealthy Caledon Hockley, the antagonist in the film, advises his personal bodyguard/heavy Spicer Lovejoy that it is “every man for himself” and wishes him good luck.
Lovejoy pats his pistol and answers, “I make my own luck.”
I dislike the character but I agree with the sentiment. You have to buck the odds. You have to buck up, buckaroo, and make your own luck. Where there isn’t a way, make a way.
The second scene is from the Chevy Chase movie, Christmas Vacation.
Clark Griswold (played by Chevy Chase) has spent hours famously fussing with the exterior lighting, not knowing that the lights are connected to a switch in the basement. When he finally has everything lit, the family gathers on the front lawn to witness the glory.
Clark’s father-in-law, Art, says, “The little lights aren’t twinkling, Clark.”
Clark’s daughter Audrey says to her grandfather, in defense of her father, “He worked really hard, Grampa.”
Art answers, “So do washing machines.”
(I know. My list of great movie quotes is a little quirky.)
I like it, though. It isn’t just about how hard you work. Working smart is better than working hard. Often, the smarter you work, the lighter the workload becomes.
We can even take it back to Thomas Edison. Isn’t it easier, more efficient, and more effective to flip a switch for electrically generated light than to light a candle or a gas lamp?
There is no substitute for hard work, but if there is one, it is working smart, developing more efficient processes, implementing better technology, and teaching your work to work itself.
Rule #5 – What you value increases in value
I am amazed by those who easily toss away opportunity over a little aggravation. So, it put you out a little to make so much money? It was hard? You had to get up early? You had to work late? Did you sacrifice a dinner engagement or change a hair appointment?
You will protect what you value. Your family? Your friendships? Your home? Your pets? Absolutely!
What about your job? What about this opportunity that knocked this time and may never knock like this again?
Jimmy Johnson’s Keys to Winning
Most people today see Jimmy Johnson as a white-haired NFL studio commentator who once coached a long time ago. Yes, he did. He coached. He coached Miami University to a National Championship. Then, he went to the NFL and became the first coach in history to lead a team to a Super Bowl win after having led a college team to a national title. He won two Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys and then had his famous split with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. The team Johnson assembled went on to play in the NFC championship the following year and then win their third Super Bowl the year after that.
Today, you will find Johnson living in his beautiful home in the Florida Keys, sometimes fishing from his boat which he christened Three Rings, and working at his leisure for Fox Sports. (Seriously, Johnson is on set when he wants to be.) He is living in the lap of luxury.
What you don’t see is the coach who took over an NFL franchise that had bottomed out. What you don’t see is how his Cowboys posted a 1-16 record his first season because Johnson wasn’t coaching for that season or the next. He was building the team of the 1990s, and that takes time, effort, and sacrifice. You don’t see the countless nights he slept in his office at the end of a 20-hour workday when he finally ran out of energy, only to wake up a few hours later and do it again.
Another thing most people don’t know is that coaches like Bill Belichick, as well as NFL General Managers, and even an owner or two make regular off-season trips to visit Johnson in the Keys to talk strategy and (most importantly) talent evaluation. You see, Johnson is considered by his peers to be the premier talent evaluator in the business.
Michael Baca of NFL.com, in his piece on Johnson’s memoir Swagger: Super Bowls, Brass Balls, and Footballs wrote:
As an esteemed talent evaluator, Johnson indexes the five traits he looks for in a player:
How do we implement these key elements of success into our work endeavors? Let’s break it down.
Intelligence.
A person’s IQ is what it is. You cannot improve yours. You can improve your understanding of your job and the intricacies thereof. You can be more studious than the rest. You can be an information sponge. You can memorize the “playbook.” You can master the software.
Hard work.
Anyone can do it. Very few will. Katrina was the first hurricane I worked as an insurance adjuster. I had never worked as an adjuster or in insurance in any capacity before. My background was in ministry. Still, I rode that storm like a rodeo cowboy rides a pissed-off bull. I wrapped that strap around my fist and held on for all I was worth.
I managed to stay nine months on that storm. The money I made and the experience I gained changed my life.
A friend asked me how I managed to do so well on my first storm. My answer? “I had no choice. My family’s stability and our future depended on it.”
What is riding on your work ethic right now?
Playmaker.
One of Johnson’s favorite players is Michael Irvin, whom he coached in college and the NFL. Michael bought into Johnson’s system so much that he called himself Playmaker. What is a playmaker? Someone who makes the most of an opportunity. Someone who goes after it harder than the competition. Someone who makes extraordinary things happen in ordinary circumstances.
I didn’t always know, but I always wanted to. I always wanted to be the very best receiver the Cowboys ever had. That was my goal coming in as a rookie and my goal throughout my career: being the best they ever had, going up in the Ring of Honor.
~Michael Irvin
Gym Rat/Loves to Compete.
Elisha is one of my favorite Bible characters. He was a gym rat. Wherever his mentor Elijah was, he was close by, learning, serving, observing. Elijah tried to get him to do like the 50 other students of prophecy and back off. Here’s how it went down:
And Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to the Jordan.”
But Elisha replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.”
So the two of them went on.
Then a company of fifty of the sons of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing Elijah and Elisha as the two of them stood by the Jordan. And Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up, and struck the waters, which parted to the right and to the left, so that the two of them crossed over on the dry ground.
After they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken away from you?”“Please, let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.
“You have requested a difficult thing,” said Elijah. “Nevertheless, if you see me as I am taken from you, it will be yours. But if not, then it will not be so.”
2 Kings 2: 6-10, Berean Standard Bible
Elisha had a hunger in him the others lacked. Like Irvin, who was not the fastest or most gifted receiver in Cowboys history but is the greatest, he was a playmaker because he committed to the process. You couldn’t get him out of the gym.
Character.
Character is the most important element of them all. Character is the foundation on which the other essential elements are built. Character is who you are at your core, not who you convince others you are, not who others think you might be. Character is you in the dark when no one else is around to witness it.
Listen to Super Chicken. Learn from Jimmy Johnson. Dig in with Michael Irvin. Hang in there with Elisha.
You can do this if you want.
That is a BIG IF.
If you are not ready to commit to monthly or annual support, you can say thanks with as little as $5. Gene will lift a cup to you!