It’s Not What You Get

A wise person once said that in life the value of pursuing your goals or dreams is not what you get when you reach the goal, but rather what you become along the journey. This week, I was once again reminded of the wisdom and value in this statement. What prompted this thought, you might ask? It was the news that Phyllis Jeddry passed her last class and has achieved the status of CPCU – Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter. She is the third person in a year to achieve this prestigious designation. Her personal story captures a more compelling drama and represents the process of achievement that if noted, can inspire others. Becoming a CPCU is a lofty professional honor, to be sure, but that doesn’t even begin to tell Phyllis’ story. It did get me to thinking.

You see, when I started at DII in 1986, Phyllis was already a veteran of the agency. She has among the most often told stories of her hiring, first day and recruiting of her sister Karen in our lore. I think she would kill me if I recounted any of the details here, so I will spare her - for now. What I know about Phyllis is that since her hiring, she has performed just about every job in the Agency. She started doing filing and has steadily worked her way up through the ranks to be one of our most proficient and professional Account Executives. Somewhere along the way, Phyllis started taking insurance classes to transition from a job to a career. For the early years, a few of us took them together. First we started the introductory level courses and then graduated to the challenging level of CPCU courses. I planned on being there every step of the way, and I wasn’t alone. We were part of a group of young, committed professionals who were seeking the honor of achieving the industry’s most honored designation.

I was personally well equipped to pass these tests. Having a degree in accounting and finance and a mother with a gift for writing, I could easily handle the course load and craft an essay answer to the test questions. The classes were very much like college courses and the tests were like final exams. Hard if you studied and impossible if you didn’t. I had a college degree, so this was nothing more than an extension of that learning. Phyllis on the other hand did not have a college degree so the classes were doubly difficult and the exams were anxiety ridden experiences. Lacking the college experience, Phyllis missed one of the great college lessons of sifting through the volumes of information to focus on the important. Having this skill made exams a whole lot easier. In Phyllis’ case, this skill was replaced by a dogged determination to study, study, study to make sure she passed the exams. And one by one she did. My journey was becoming a more intermittent affair. Life was beginning to intervene in my ability to be disciplined about taking the courses. I wanted to do everything and found that frequently, the urgent crowded out the important. I fell behind the more disciplined of the bunch and in my own exceptional way (I call it exceptional, like my grade school teacher who gave me a week’s detention for being exceptional – as in deviating widely from a norm), I passed the same class twice. A long story for sure. Clearly I was off track. Phyllis and others marched on.

Then we came to the crucible of the CPCU program, accounting. Several of us committed to take this course and so we registered together. I was going to re-engage and while we heard that we would have a lousy instructor, I knew that would be no problem for me as I had a degree in accounting. I could make up the difference for myself and committed to do the same for everyone else. In a low point for my professional career, I never attended a class, never delivered one ounce of assistance and the group, essentially crashed and burned. I have never again restarted my efforts. Frankly, I was too busy doing other important things. Looking back, I can’t name one of them, but I knew they were important at the time. Isn’t that the way life is? Don’t we want to distinguish ourselves in some way? Feel like we are the best at something or at the very least, gave our best to something? I started giving my best and in the end, my best was so dispersed that I never finished. Sound familiar? Well in Phyllis case, she never lost sight of the goal.

Oh, to be sure, she had other distractions that caused delays. Having a daughter, family issues, professional challenges, you know the really important stuff that always gets in our way. Maybe she was encouraged by a new group of committed people who were pushing forward. In the last year, DiAnne and Candy both reached their personal goal with similar stories of persistence. It always helps to know that something is possible. We often get that through others. Isn’t it also true that in many cases what seems possible to others is impossible to us? Their situation is different, easier, right? They don’t have the issues to deal with that I do? If all I had to deal with was the stuff that they deal with, then I could most certainly do what they do? Why do minds do this? Why do I do this? I know Phyllis’ story, I have a pretty good read on her life and she had more reasons to abandon the process than I do. Her commute is long and frustrating. She has an active, athletic daughter. Her parents live with her family and require an incredible amount of care. She deals with the stuff we face that frankly represents the essence of our lives.

So this brings me to the end. When she stopped by my door to give me the news, of course I saw an elated person, proud of her achievement – beaming with excitement. (Her results were delayed and she was checking every morning at 5:30, until she final received word). But that’s not all I saw. I also saw a very determined person, who dedicated part of her life to proving to herself and anyone who may have ever doubted her that she has what it takes to stand at the summit of professional achievement. A better professional to be sure, but more importantly a better person because the journey reshaped her in ways only Phyllis can describe. Congratulations, you have my highest admiration – along with anyone else who relentlessly pursues their dreams.

Let’s Go See the Principle

I was recently engaged in a conversation on the topic of change. The context was will things that worked in the past always work in the future. You can imagine that I took the side that suggests that pat performance is no guarantee of future success. My opinion is well documented on this topic. The other party suggested that my opinion was limited and frankly, wrong. Like any debate, we look for a clear winner. I thought I won and I am sure my counterpart thought he had won. This got me to thinking. What if we were both right?

My personal opinion is that there is fundamental truth. Some would argue that much of truth is cultural and here again there may be two correct opinions. We are all born with a sense of right from wrong. Some of this may be cultural conditioning, but much is also inherent in humans. For example murder is wrong in any culture. This is truth. There are many more examples, but I want to bring this back to our world.

So how does this apply to a debate on the success of the past and future success? It lies in the value of timeless truths. Said another way, when our actions are governed by timeless principles, we will definitely find past success being reproduced in the future. If you are talking about selling efforts, I maintain the following are a few timeless principles.

1. Helping the Customer – our best opportunities present themselves as problems. Someone is having a problem and we deliver a solution that meets or exceeds their expectations. Help starts with concern and interest for the customer’s perspective.
2. Understanding the Consequence - We can’t solve a problem unless we understand the issue and its consequence to the customer. The latter is important because a problem with little consequence may not compel a prospect from choosing our solution. On the other hand, a small problem with grave consequence may be an excellent opportunity.
3. Deliver Value – value is what someone is willing to pay for. Knowing what a customer values is critical. It seems to me that companies that do this well, have a system to ask their customers what they value. They ask in a variety of ways and listen intently. Then great companies do more of what their customers want and less of everything else.
4. Behavior Determines Success - Regardless of the “times” - someone always wins. What determines the difference? It is most certainly the habits of winners that make a difference. Study any person at the top of their field or game, and I will show you someone with talent and exceptional habits.
5. Finish What You Start – This one is hard for me, but in life we are measured by what we finish, not what we start. When we finish strong, it speaks volumes about our products and services.
6. Question Everything – the Japanese perfected the process of asking why, five times to determine the root cause of an issue. This was probably invented by a 5 year old and usurped by Taiichi Ohno. Too often we react and correct symptoms rather than the root causes of problems.
7. Never be Satisfied – Good enough will never last. Someone is always getting better. I have a BlackBerry that is two years old. In two years, the following improvements have been made by RIM. Camera, games, touch screen, video, navigation, instant messenger, music, multiple ringtones, smaller, lighter, and a sharper screen. The Storm is a reasonable approximation of the iPhone, but not quite. I wonder is Steve Jobs is satisfied. If he isn’t, then why should we be satisfied.

I could go on and on, but I think my original point is valid. Principles are timeless, like truth.