Jim Collins is on the cover of the April 2010 SUCCESS Magazine.  He is the author of Good to Great and How the Mighty Fail.  In my book, he’s a thought leader.  Since I’m a career success coach, and he writes about success, I pay attention.  By the way, the April issue of SUCCESS is terrific.  The folks at SUCCESS just keep getting better.  If you’re not already a subscriber, I suggest you go to www.Success.com and subscribe as soon as you finish reading this post.  Trust me on this one.  I am after all, the Common Sense Guy and a terrific career success coach.

The SUCCESS article begins with a great story that highlights the importance of clarity of purpose and direction in creating your personal career success…

“One of his many mentors, business management guru Peter Drucker, advised Collins early on that he would have to make a choice: building an organization that lasts, or ideas.  Collins chose ideas.  ‘There have been lot’s opportunities to build a large organization, institute, consulting firm, and all those things are fine and good, but Peter said you’ve got to choose.  And that’s why I decided to keep everything small and focus on the research, which has been a very good decision’.”

Clarity of purpose and direction is the first of the 4 Cs in my Career Success GPS System.  The other three are: commitment to taking personal responsibility for your career success, unshakeable self confidence and competence in four key career success areas – creating positive personal impact, outstanding performance, dynamic communication and relationship building.

The first step in clarifying your purpose and direction is to figure out what success means to you personally – not your parents, not your professors, not your friends – you personally.  Jim Collins figured out that he has a passion for ideas, not building a large organization.  Then he followed his passion.  Good for him; and good for us.  That simple, but fundamental, decision guided everything he has done as he has gone about becoming a life and career success.

When I was 25, if you asked me what I wanted to be doing when I was 60, I would have told you, “Running a one person consulting, career coaching and speaking business from my house.”  Guess what?  I have been running a one person consulting, career coaching and speaking business from my house ever since 1988.  My clarity of purpose propelled me toward my goal.

I have a friend who is a serial entrepreneur.  He started a software business when he was 27.  He built it up and sold it to a major computer manufacturer by the time he was 35.  He has since started and sold four other companies.  His clarity of purpose lies in the challenge of creating something new, building it into a viable sustainable business and then moving on.

I have another friend who recently retired as the Executive VP of Human Resources for a Fortune 50 company.  We were chatting a few days ago.  She told me that when she was in college, she decided that she was going to join a good company and work her way up the ladder.  She took an entry level HR job with a company she liked.  It took her over 25 years, but she eventually became the most senior HR person in that company.  Her clarity of purpose and definition of career success was different from mine and the serial entrepreneur’s, but she reached her goal.

My second friend told me that her son has yet a different definition of career success.  He is not interested in climbing the corporate ladder, or in being an entrepreneur.  He wants an interesting job where he can contribute, but he doesn’t want to spend inordinate amounts of time at work.  He wants to spend as much time with his family as he can.  His definition of career success is different from his mother, me and my friend the serial entrepreneur.

All four of us have created our own versions of career success.  As a career success coach, I say “right on.”

There is no one correct definition of career success.  There are as many definitions as there are people in this world.  Your definition of career success is what’s right for you – not anyone else.  I would not have been happy building and selling a number of businesses in succession, climbing a corporate ladder or working for a large company in an individual contributor position.  However, as you can tell from the stories of the three people above, they were.  They knew what they wanted and they went after it.  Jim Collins would not have been happy building a large organization.  He clarified what his personal definition of career success and created it.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people clarify their personal sense of purpose and direction.  Your clarity of purpose provides both a foundation and launching pad for your career success.  The old saying, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you won’t know when you get there” is a cliché but true.  Clarifying your personal definition of career success is the first step to becoming a career success.  As a career success coach, I suggest you take some time and develop your clarity of purpose for your life and career.  Answer this important question.  “How do I define career success for myself?  Keep that purpose and definition of career success in mind as you go about creating the career success you want and deserve.  Your clarity of purpose and direction will help you make important career decisions when you’re confronted with differing opportunities; just ask Jim Collins.

That’s my take on the importance of clarifying your purpose and direction for your life and career.  It’s the important first step in creating the career success you want and deserve.  What’s your opinion on this?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Clarity of purpose and direction is one of the keys to career and life success in my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.  To develop your personal clarity of purpose you need to do three things.  First, define what success means to you.  Second, create a vivid mental image of you as a success.  This image should be as vivid as you can you make it.  Third, clarify your personal values.

I’m a tennis fan.  That’s why I was very interested when I heard that Andre Agassi was writing an autobiography.  He was one of my favorite players.  I liked his style and flamboyance as a young man.  I watched him mature into one of the all time great players.  He won eight majors and has a career grand slam – meaning he won the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open at least once.  Only five other men have ever done that.  On the other hand, his wife, Steffi Graf, won all four grand slam tournaments in one year, 1988.  She won the Olympic gold Medal that year for good measure.  But that’s another story.

Andre’s book is disturbing.  Throughout most of his career Andre Agassi says he hated tennis.  His father forced him to become a world class player.  In an interview he did with Katie Couric for 60 Minutes he talked about having ping pong paddles taped to his hands when he was a toddler.  He quit school at 14 to attend the Nick Bollettieri tennis academy.  He turned pro at 16.  He had early success on the court and off – lots of endorsements and a marriage to Brooke Shields.  However, he hated his life — and tennis.  He told Katie Couric that he “had to do it for the family.”

He partied hard – even doing crystal meth.  He fell to number 141 in the world rankings.  I saw him play in those down years.  I was at a meeting in Scottsdale and he was playing in a tournament near the hotel where I was staying.  I got some court side seats and was really excited to see him play up close.  He lost 6 – 2, 6 – 1.  In those days, he seemed to be entering tournaments just to get the appearance money.

However, in 1997 when he was ranked 141, he says he made a choice.  He chose tennis.  “The hate for tennis began to change when I took ownership and chose tennis, which didn’t happen until 1997, which didn’t happen till I fell to 141 in the world, which didn’t happen till that moment when I either had to walk away or choose it, and I didn’t walk away, I chose it.”

And that’s the point about clarity of purpose and direction.  You have to choose what you are going to be in life.  Let me say that again.  You have to choose what you are going to be in life.

Andre Agassi didn’t have a choice early on.  He was forced into a life and career as a professional tennis player by his overbearing father.  He hated the game for his first 29 years.  Finally, he realized that he could choose.  As he said, he chose tennis and became an elder statesman of the game.  He was inspiring to watch as he grew older.  In 2005 when he was 35 he got to the US Open final against roger Federer.  He played a great match, losing in four sets.  The crowd loved him and he loved the crowd — and tennis.

Now he has chosen to help others.  He has raised tons of money to help poor kids and runs a tuition free school for at risk youth in Las Vegas.  His story has a happy ending.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are clear on what they want in their lives and careers.  They use their clarity of purpose and direction as a touchstone to help them navigate the twists and turns life throws at them.  Once Andre Agassi “chose tennis” late in his career, he won six grand slam tournaments – to go with the two he won as a youngster.  I choose to help others learn, grow and prosper in their lives and careers.  What have you chosen?  The answer to this question is the first step in clarifying your purpose and direction.

That’s my take on choosing what you will become.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.  I appreciate it.

Bud

Clarity of purpose and direction is one of the keys to career and life success in my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.  To develop your personal clarity or purpose you need to do three things.  First, define what success means to you.  Second, create a vivid mental image of you as a success.  Once you define what success means to you personally, I suggest that you develop a clear mental picture of you as a success.  This image should be as vivid as you can you make it.  Third, clarify your personal values. 

I remember reading Hamlet when I was in high school.  As Hamlet was setting off on his journey, Polonius gave him some advice.  As we got to this advice, the teacher stopped and said “This advice is timeless wisdom, pay attention.”  Here it is…

There … my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts hold in thy memory…

Look thou character.  Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new hatched, unfledged comrade. 

Beware of entrance to a quarrel but, being in,
Bear it that the opposed may beware of thee.

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s measure, but reserve thy judgment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.

Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

This above all: to thine own self be true,
and it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst be false to no man.

Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!

The final piece of advice – “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst be to no man” – is at the heart of clarity of purpose and direction.  It is much easier to be true to yourself when you are clear in your purpose and direction in life.  As Polonius suggests, if you are true to yourself, you can’t be false to others.  More important, you can stay on the course to career and life success.

Roy Blackman, my father-in-law was so enamored of this advice that it was his final words of advice to his first grandson as he went off to college.  Roy lived by these words.  They were his epitaph, displayed prominently on the program at his funeral.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people clarify their purpose and direction.  Then they conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with it.  Shakespeare, speaking as Polonius, offers some timeless advice on how to live in a manner that is consistent with your purpose and direction: “To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst be false to no man.”  If you follow this advice you’ll be living your purpose and you’ll be well positioned to create the successful life and career you want and deserve.

That’s my take on Polonius’ advice to Hamlet and how it is as important today as it was when it was written hundreds of years ago.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes and leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud