Be a helper versus a taker. One of the defining traits of the most successful people I have coached, the billionaires, the A-players, the celebrity CEOs, the Fortune 500 companies, the fastest teams, they have installed a belief system that the person who serves the most wins. One of my favorite interviews is Charlie Rose interviewing Ted Turner. As you know, Ted Turner created CNN. Ted Turner was dismissed. He was laughed at. No one ever imagined a 24-hour cable news channel would get any traction, and this man … I’d encourage you to really read and study Ted Turner’s life. He won America’s Cup. He started a cartoon network. He started the Goodwill Games. This man is an industry titan. Study as much as you
can about the way he thinks, the way he behaves, his values, his rituals, his routines. Why? As you do, and then apply them, and execute them, and wire them in, you’ll get the results he starts to get.
What I want to share with you is in this interview with Charlie Rose he went back to Rotary. See Ted Turner was a Rotarian, just like my father was a Rotarian. He said, “You know, he who serves the best prospers the most.” I’m going to repeat that again because it’s so profound, at least to me and I’m sure it is to you. “He who serves the best prospers the most.” At the end of the day leadership, and high performance, and being a titan is about value distribution to as many people as possible.
If you really want to rise to mastery wake up every morning and spend five minutes thinking about this fundamental question, reflecting on it, letting this question wash over your brain cells and your heart cells right to your very core. “How may I serve the most people?” If that becomes your obsession you will work with love. Your work will be Van Gogh level. Your passion will be Steph Curry level, or Michael Jordan level, or Muhammad Ali level, or Djokovic level, and everything else will take care of itself.