Accepting A Lifetime Achievement Awards
Some guys have all the luck – and I am fortunate enough to say that I am one of those really fortunate individuals. Having enjoyed a career that has taken me to virtually every corner of the planet (yeah, I know – the Earth is round and doesn’t have corners – but work with me), I have been blessed with more than my fair share of Success.
Having been recently selected for a Life Time Achievement Award by the Perpetually Under Achieving Society, I was to be Honored and given the opportunity to share a few thoughts of Wisdom to an assembled crowd. With the glow of selection behind me, I soon began to focus on the day and what I could possibly say to such an illustrious Group. I noticed the mounting angst and stress that began to wash over me as the Day of Honor approached. With the date set, the invitations sent and time drawing near, the pressure mounted as to the Pearls of Wisdom that I would share that would illustrate my perpetual ability to sneak under the professional bar of life. The more I pressed, the more the mental canvass went blank.
Holy Writers Block Batman!
The Day soon arrived, and it was time to catch a plane to what I was certain would be one of the most underwhelming moments ever, as I would climb the dais, stand before the crowd and be forced to confess “I got nothing people…” Nice.
The flight was certainly uneventful from my perch in economy coach. The ensuing cab ride through the Park brought me ever closer to my Greatest Under Achievement Ever and the impending feeling of doom. Suddenly, as I looked out the window, I noticed Children at play, and knew that had I found the story – I found the answer that I had so desperately been looking for. Wisdom had found me on 52nd Street!
Arriving at the gala, the night progressed, kind words said by many (ok – a few people all of which I owed money to), before, as the Honored Guest it was to be my turn. Taking the podium and adjusting the microphone, I thanked the group for the Honor and proudly announced that everything I had ever achieved professionally could be summed up in one simple sentence, one simple philosophy.
Careers are Like a Hula Hoop.
The silence was deafening. The audience sat stunned, thinking I needed another dose of my medicine. I quickly explained what a wonderful group of unknown Schoolyard Kids had shown me so elegantly that day. During my intellectually vacant journey in the back of Yellow Cab 5347, it struck me, that the key to success is what we learned via our favorite plastic playground toy from so long ago. To be successful we learned that we must:
- Enter the ring, taking our place with room to operate and grow
- Prepare ourselves with Focus, Energy & Desire
- Begin some unorthodox movement and exerting of energy
- Fail ImmediatelyThe Try Again – And Again – And Again.
Hula Hoops taught us that we must learn to keep trying until we have it right – until that magical moment of success encircles us and does so with enough momentum that it seems to take on a life of its own, building and speeding forward in ways previously unthought-of. Careers and it’s associated moments of Success requires Effort, it requires Energy, but most importantly it requires Conviction. Achieving Success and achievement means trying, trying again, and trying one more time until your physical, mental and spiritual self aches, aches like being the 13th guy selected on a 12 man team. Having a Career and Life of Success means exuding energy and making things happen. Over and over and over again. Even when it hurts.
Because when the energy stops, so does Success.
With the night now complete, award in hand, the distant echo’s of applause still bouncing between my ears, I walked away feeling like the Greatest Philosopher since Forest Gump. Careers are like Hula Hoops and we had now come full circle.