As a former university professor and now as a full-time speaker, executive leadership coach, and author, I’m always telling my students and clients there are only two ways to learn: T&E or OPE. Trial and Error or Other People’s Experience.
This book is all about OPE. In other words, you get to learn what works and doesn’t work by learning from the trials and triumphs of others. You get to learn, firsthand, whether or not Am I Doing This Right? when it comes to your own life and career.
You see, the most successful people, professionally and personally, are keenly tuned into OPE. They know life is too short and the cost is too high to rely solely on T&E. They can’t afford to keep on making mistakes, failing unnecessarily, and hope to get ahead when there are proven shortcuts to the life, career, and relationships they want. This book will give you dozens, if not hundreds, of OPE shortcuts that will change your future for the better. I know because I know the author.
Tony Thelen and I met about a dozen years ago when he and his wife Sheila attended my two-day Journey-to-the-Extraordinary experience. It’s an intense, highly interactive, hands-on boot camp designed to help the participants assess their lives and then set goals that will lead them to more positive and constructive lives. The participant reviews have always been over the top, but Tony was extraordinarily intent on applying everything he learned while at the Journey.
Immediately after the workshop, for example, Tony made goal setting and goal achievement the cornerstone of his life. He wrote out his annual goals, reviewed his progress every month, took notes, and kept track of everything that happened in the pursuit of his goals. He even reached out to people like me and several others to review his goals and goal achievement at the end of every year and get some coaching to help him move up to the next level.
As you can imagine, his results were over the top. Unprecedented success for Tony, on and off the job. He filled 10 binders, writing out the steps he had taken, the lessons he had learned, and the goal-setting system he had perfected.
Of course, I didn’t know any of that was happening until a couple of years into the process. That’s when Tony invited me to speak at some John Deere meetings, and we had a chance to talk about how the Journey affected him and how he was using it. He showed me his goal-setting system and his detailed notes. I was blown away. I immediately suggested that he consider putting his system into a book, because I knew the system was working for him and I knew it would work for others as well.
In 2020, Tony reached out to me again. He was ready to write this book and wanted some of my input. Of course, I was and am honored to help, especially so when I began to read his early drafts and realize the treasure his book would be for so many people.
Am I Doing This Right? takes a new and fresh approach that I have not seen anywhere else. It combines Tony’s down-to-earth insights (some of which he learned from T&E) as a leader in business, with academically sound leading practices, and the voices of leaders from around the world. The result is a book that speaks to your head, touches your heart, taps into the T&E of other leaders, and gives you the fast-track OPE for your own highly successful fast-track for your own career and life.
Having spoken to and worked with hundreds of organizations and thousands of people, I keep on hearing the same refrain from my clients. They say such things as,
I don’t care about the theory or the buzz words of the day… I just want to know what works… I want to hit the ground running… I want to be happy and I want to be successful, but I’m not getting what I need from my school or classes… Help!
Perhaps you’ve felt some of that as well. You’ve taken a lot of classes, read a lot of books, attended various schools, and still feel like you’re not prepared to thrive in the new world of work. Perhaps you’ve learned all kinds of “interesting facts,” but you’re still unsure of exactly “what you’ve got to do” and “how to do it” to ensure your own personal happiness and professional success.
Well, let me assure you this book provides many of the answers you’re looking for. In a world flooded with good and not-so-good advice, I find this book invigorating because it moves beyond head knowledge and focuses on 18 key areas to be successful when you begin a new career or job. Am I Doing This Right? gives the right advice, at the right time, from the voices of experience, to help you realize your goals.
—Dr. Alan Zimmerman
March 2022
Author of PIVOT: How One Turn In Attitude Can Lead to Success
www.DrZimmerman.com