What Gives You the Champion Edge (TCE)?
Three Skill Sets
It’s obvious that some people accomplish so much more than others. And they do it so much more quickly than others. You’ve seen them, perhaps know them, have worked with them, or at least heard about them. There are champions among us. And I suspect you’re either a champion or want to become one.
In the last chapter I outlined the seven characteristics of a champion. I alluded to the fact that they became that way because they have The Champion Edge (TCE) working for them. And you get TCE when you learn, practice, master, and apply all three skill sets. That’s what this book is all about.
The three skill sets are purpose, passion, and process. They are the how-to’s that turn your effort into meaningful outcomes. They are the how-to’s that turn your performance into peak performance. They are the how-to’s that bring out your best so you are the best in your business career and life.
As such, this is a prescriptive book. I’m going to share dozens of skills and strategies and tips and tactics that have proven to work with countless people. I’m going to tell you what works.
And this is an action book. I’m going to push you to do certain things so you excel in the areas of purpose, passion, and process. Because reading this book will do very little for you. But applying this book will give you The Champion Edge that will accelerate your career and life.
So let’s take a moment to briefly define each of the three skill sets that comprise TCE. That way you’ll know where we’re headed. And then the rest of the book will be totally focused on making those skills a reality for you.
Purpose is all about the where and why questions. Where do you want to go with your career and life? Why do you want that? Why is that important to you? Champions have clear answers for those questions.
Passion is all about the how question. How are you going to keep on keeping on? How will you get enough fuel for the long-haul career success you desire? And how will you know you’re on the right path? Champions are known for their passion.
Process is all about the what question. What do you have to do to accomplish your goals, not only for yourself but with others? Champions master certain intra and interpersonal communication skills.
The Purpose Skill Set
Over the last several years, books on “the power of purpose” and having a “purpose-driven life” have been among the best-sellers in history. Hundreds of millions of people have been desperately hoping to find their purpose or clarify their professional or personal purposes. And that makes sense. The Bible, Proverbs 29: 18 (KJV) says that “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” In other words, no purpose equals no life-sustaining direction.
That’s why knowing your purpose is the starting point for getting TCE working for you, because purpose gives you direction. It answers the where question.
Without direction, you become very much like Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (London: Macmillan, 1865) who asks the Cheshire cat, “Would you please tell me which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends on where you want to get,” the cat replied. “I don’t care much where,” Alice answered. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” the cat responded.
Without the direction that purpose gives you, you could possibly achieve a lot but feel empty inside, wondering what’s the point of all your hard work.
Purpose gives you the where you’re going and the why you’re going there. Debbi Fields, the founder of Mrs. Fields’ Cookies, demonstrated that. Even though she was labeled an “empty-headed housewife” who had to fight bankers, family members, friends, vendors, and suppliers who tried to run and ruin her life and business, she had TCE because her purpose was clear. She said, “I’ve never felt like I was in the cookie business. I’ve always been in a feel-good business. My job is to sell joy. My job is to sell happiness. My job is to sell an experience.”
Without purpose, your career and life will be more like that of a human lobster than a champion. More inert than alert.
You see, when a lobster is left high and dry among the rocks, he doesn’t exert the energy to work his way back into the sea. He waits for the sea to come to him. If it doesn’t come, he just sits there and dies, although the slightest effort would get him back into ocean, which is perhaps a yard away. As author Dr. Orrison Swett Marden wrote, “The world is full of human lobsters: Men stranded on the rocks of indecision and procrastination, who instead of putting forth their own energies, are waiting for some grand billow of good fortune to set them afloat.”1
With purpose, however, you don’t wait for things to happen. You make them happen. As Canadian naval officer and senator, Douglas Everett, said, “There are some people, who live in a dream world, and there are some people who face reality ... and then there are some who turn one into another.”2 Champions do that. They turn their purpose or dreams into reality. I’ll show you how in the next chapter.
The Passion Skill Set
Passion or self-motivation is a critical part of TCE, the fuel part or the how you’re going to reach your destination. Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to climb Mt. Everest, exemplified that. When asked about his amazing accomplishment, he replied, “You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.”
What percentage of the time are you sufficiently motivated? Later in the book, I’ll give you a number of strategies you can use to keep yourself motivated and on the right track.
I’ll give you a sneak peek, however. One part of TCE passion is an “it’s-up-to-me” attitude. It might sound cute or even trite. The kind of rally cry you might hear from a rah-rah motivational speaker. But it’s not some light fluffy statement that you can afford to dismiss.
Champions know that no one gave them a bad attitude and no one can give them a good attitude. And you need to realize “it’s up to me.” No one is responsible for your success—not your boss, your company, your husband, your wife, your parents, or anybody else—except you. Oh sure, those other people can help, support, and encourage you, but none of them can make you successful. You are responsible for your success. And a champion with passion accepts responsibility for getting and keeping that kind of motivation.
David Adkins, better known as the actor Sinbad, understands that. He says, “My mother and father taught me everything: integrity, honesty, being responsible. My father told me you can’t be great at anything unless you accept responsibility.”
In fact, those who dismiss this “it’s-up-to-me” attitude end up in trouble. It’s why the vast majority of Americans reaching retirement age lack the financial resources to take care of their basic needs—without some form of government help. They never fully understood the fact that it was up to them, not the government or their company to secure their future.
It’s why so many people never seem to move ahead in their lives, their careers, or their relationships. They don’t buy or read educational books, and they don’t invest their own time and money into motivational recordings, written materials, or seminars. They do very little to continue their growth and development and thereby increase their value to their companies and the people in their lives. And they wonder why they aren’t better off today than they were last year. It’s because they don’t have an “it’s-up-to-me” attitude that pushes them toward continual education.
Passion is how you’re going to fire up your motivation, follow-through, and character that ensures the success of your business career and life.
The Process Skill Set
Process is the third part of TCE, the what question. What do you have to do to accomplish your goals, not only for yourself but with others? Whereas purpose and passion relate to your heart or emotional intelligence skills, process brings in your head or social intelligence skills as well. And as the late Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa, phrased it, “A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.”
Fortunately, research tells us a great deal as to what process skills work and don’t work so you don’t have to waste your time keeping busy, trying to guess your way to champion success through trial and error. You can focus on the mental and communication skills that have proven to bring out the best in yourself and the cooperation of others. That’s why novelist Ernest Hemingway said, “Never confuse motion and action.” And that’s why I tell my audiences, “Don’t confuse activity with accomplishment.”3
We’ll focus on those exact process skills later in the book. And I can assure you they will work for you. Dr. Charles Garfield, a professor at the University of California’s medical school and head of the Peak Performance Center, agrees. He says, “You have the power to change your habits of mind and acquire certain skills. And if you choose to do so, you can improve your performance, your productivity and the quality of your whole life.”4
One of those process skills is the “do-a-little-bit-more” behavior. As author A. Lou Vickery summarizes it, “Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd: a little bit more. They did all that was expected of them and a little bit more.”5
A 19th-century history professor Charles Kendall Adams put it this way, “No one ever attains very eminent success by simply doing what is required of him; it is the amount and excellence of what is over and above the required that determines the greatness of ultimate distinction.”6 In other words, a little bit more.
For example, champions know if they want to double their paycheck, they will have to do a little bit more to triple their value. When you do that, one of three things will happen. One, your present employer will respond with raises, bonuses, and promotions. Two, a new employer will find and grab you. Or three, you’ll discover some way to start your own business and write your own paycheck. And if you already own a business and want to double your paycheck, simply take action to triple the value you offer your customers.
When you do that, most of the time (hey, life isn’t always fair) your compensation will catch up to your value. And even if your compensation doesn’t catch up as much or as fast as you would like, you’ll still feel a great deal better about doing your best than doing just enough to get by.
It’s Time to Stop Using Dumb Strategies
Now you know what a champion looks like. We outlined that in Chapter 1. And you also know that a champion becomes that way because he or she has The Champion Edge working for them: purpose, passion, and process.
So where are you right now with regard to champion status? Are you getting everything you want out of your career and your life? If so, congratulations. If not, you’re in the right place.
This is the place where you stop using some dumb strategies that have almost no chance of success. This is the place where you stop doing the same things in the same ways, year after year. This is the place where you start practicing the skills that do work and make TCE a part of who you are, professionally and personally.