“Compliance will never take you,
where commitment can go.”
~ Dondi Scumaci

As posted previously, I love that saying (what I call, a “Dondi-ism”) by my great friend and mentor, Dondi Scumaci.

It reminds me that, as leaders and influencers, we always need to ask ourselves where our focus is and who it is on.

As Dale Carnegie taught us in his classic, How to Win Friends And Influence People, “Ultimately, people do things for THEIR reasons; not our reasons.”

So, in terms of the goal we are leading people to, is our focus on ourselves, or on them?…In other words, how does our goal align with THEIR goals; THEIR wants, THEIR needs, THEIR desires? And, with THEIR values?

When we question ourselves like this – intelligently, and with a genuine, authentic desire to build them – we’ve come a long way toward earning the commitment that Dondi wrote about.

Just my thoughts. What about yours?

What a joy to present recently in Del Mar, California at the Think and Grow Rich Summit 2013. Hosted by speaker/author, Tony Rubleski in conjunction with the Napoleon Hill Foundation, it was three days jam-packed with terrific speakers, authors, thought and business leaders. While I could only stay for part of it, every speaker I saw rocked the house and, from what I heard, the rest of them did the same.

The focus of the event was on how the principles from the classic by Napoleon Hill touched so many lives and every speaker included that as part of their presentation.

While I spoke on The Five Laws from John David Mann’s and my book, The Go-Giver, it was very easy to cite numerous instances where its message was greatly influenced by Think And Grow Rich. And, as I re-read it just prior to the conference I happened upon a paragraph that has always been one of my favorites.

It’s step number five in Dr. Hill’s Self-Confidence Formula within his chapter on Faith (the book was published in 1937):

“I fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice; therefore, I will engage in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it affects. I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of other people. I will induce others to serve me, because of my willingness to serve others. I will eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness, and cynicism by developing love for all humanity, because I know that a negative attitude toward others can never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me because I will believe in them, and in myself.”

If you go through the above paragraph and make a study of it, you’ll see that it calls for you to focus on being of service (value) to others. It calls for you to focus on that, and on them. It calls for you to genuinely and continually place their interests first. And, in every aspect of such, you receive in-kind.

There is such immense brilliance in that paragraph, isn’t there?

What did you receive from that paragraph that I might have missed? And, how do you do in terms of applying Dr. Hill’s wisdom in this regard?

Global hunger kills nearly 16,000 children every day. It’s a scourge of third-world countries. And, strangely enough…it’s also one of the most solvable problems there is. Why hasn’t it been solved then?

Of course, charity is a magnificent and wonderful way to help those who cannot help themselves. Yet, with all the charity that people in first-world countries provide, massive third-world hunger (much of it based on a lack of clean water) continues to exist, and big-time!

One reason is that, aside from monies falling into the hands of despotic leaders and never making it into the hands of those who actually need it, there’s no individual, long-term economic incentive for the actual residents to do the work.

The Solution

One thing that never fails in terms of increasing the standard of living for everyone under its umbrella is Free-Market Capitalism. This involves a person or group of people creating something that brings immense value to others, solves their problems, creates lots of jobs and becomes self-sustaining; based on a healthy profit for all concerned. Yes, even if the actual incentive for the creators isn’t the money itself (though it is one of the rewards), by “the very nature of the thing” it will create that long-term abundance for those who need it most.

Yes, while charity is so very important, it often merely temporarily sustains rather than permanently solves. Even more effective and beneficial is… to help people to not need charity; to be both self-sustaining and prosperous, and be able to pass that prosperity along to others.

The New “Fab Four”

And, that’s what one group of graduate students at the Lauder School of Government* at the IDC  in Israel, are in the process of doing. Originating from four different countries, the team of Princella Smith, Julian Jubran, Bezawit Getaneh and Paul Amos are competing for the International Hult Prize. If they win, they will receive $1,000,000 in seed funding for their project. Of course, they are competing with some other terrific groups of young entrepreneurs; all of whom deserve huge applause.

Forming a company by the name of Aqua Zai, the four’s mission, and how they plan to accomplish it, can be seen in this very brief video. (Please take a look. It’s outstanding. And, I’m honored to have been asked to provide a brief endorsement within the video.)

Aqua Zai will combine powerful technology – including the newly-developed, Zai Bug – with proven, advanced Israeli agricultural techniques in order to provide clean and nutritious food to the world’s urban slums. They will begin in Ethiopia.

Isn’t That Awesome?

To find out more about this project and the Hult Prize, visit www.solvingglobalhunger.com. If you’d like, you can vote for this project or another one you feel is deserving. {Note: Personally, I’m not a huge fan of online voting for contests because it often turns into a popularity contest rather than which project is best. However, the rules and methodologies have already been determined, and this is how it has been set up: the first round of qualification is through online voting. The final voting will be done by a panel of judges in New York.}

Please know: I did NOT post this article in order to ask you to vote for their project. I actually decided to write this post before I knew the initial qualification would be determined via online voting. I’m just personally so impressed with what this talented group of young entrepreneurs is doing and the cause they have gotten behind that it just seemed right that you know about it. Feel free to vote or not vote; or vote for whichever team you feel is most deserving; that’s up to you.

I wish the Aqua Zai team, as well as all of the competing teams, the very best.

—–

*The name of the school has “Government” in it, but neither this project, nor the Hult Prize is affiliated with any government entity. This is all privately funded.

In The Go-Giver, Pindar told his protege, Joe:

“Appearances can be deceiving. Truth is, they nearly always are.”

Why is this so? Because, as human beings, we tend to make decisions and judgements (both minor AND major) based on very limited information which is controlled by our personal belief system.

Our belief system is a combination of our upbringing, environment, schooling, news media, television, movies, internet, etc. At times, these belief systems serve us well…but all too often, they do not!

A good start is to stay conscious of this; constantly doing a “check” on ourselves, checking our premises and making sure we are making decisions based not just on appearances but on what really is.

In his classic, Science of Getting Rich (first pub. in 1910) Wallace D. Wattles wrote:

“{I}t requires far more effort to {think truth} than it does to think the thoughts which are suggested by appearance. To think according to appearance is easy. To think truth regardless of appearances is laborious and requires the expenditure of more power than any other work a person has to perform.”

So thinking, really thinking…thinking past appearances; past sound bites; past what others tell us to think, is hard work. Hmm, probably why so few actually do it.

Your thoughts?

They are cousins, aren’t they? I mean, mentoring and coaching.

We might look at mentoring as the bigger picture and coaching as the hands-on. The forest and the trees.

Of course, mentors also coach…and coaches mentor. They both encourage. And, they both bring out the best in their protege or student.

And, I’ve never seen a better example of both than in this video. It’s been going around YouTube lately and, if you’re an animal lover, you may have already seen it.

It features a scared foster puppy named Daisy trying to navigate some stairs, and her older and wiser foster brother…her mentor, her coach, her family member, her friend, Simon teaching and encouraging her all the way. (Be sure to watch the entire 1:44 minute video all the way to the end.)

Just a few of the lessons:

1. Simon waits until he’s definitely needed. He doesn’t offer his help too quickly, first giving Daisy an opportunity to do it on her own.
2. At first he simply provides a quick example.
3. He continues to show the way, ever so patiently, even though Daisy isn’t quite getting it. But, he just keeps going. Even walking after her when it looks as though she wants to quit and walk away.
4. Simon encourages, encourages, encourages.
5. At the very end, he provides support so that Daisy knows she’s safe, while still having the opportunity to complete the task herself.

And, he expresses to Daisy how proud he is of her.

I’ve seen very few human mentors and coaches do it as well as Simon did. I’ve never seen myself do it as well as Simon did.

Any other lessons you see that I might have missed?