As we celebrate nine years of Julian Consulting, I think about those who have made possible our success.
My wife and business partner, Judy, was the one who told me to follow my dreams, even when she knew that dreams not yet realized cannot pay very real bills found in our mailbox.
My father's words ring loudly through my life and influence all that I share with clients. So, on our ninth anniversary I want to share nine pearls of wisdom from my father.
My father's estate will not be measured in dollars, but in pearls made available to invest in the development of our lives and character.
1) When you make a decision, it becomes the right decision.
This doesn't mean that you cannot make mistakes or that there is never a need to retrace one steps to find the path. It does mean that reflexive second-guessing is unproductive. Take risks. Commit to your decisions and, unless there is a clear reason to do otherwise, press forward.
So, when you leave your job of 13 years and find yourself bringing in a grand total of $500 for a month's efforts while surrounded by the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, don't turn back. Work hard, stay focused, and persevere.
2) If you read a book and get one good thing, it was worth reading.
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People sold more than 25 million copies, but, at nearly 350 pages of small type, it was arguably 100 pages too long. Even the Bible has passages that require discipline to plow through.
This principle has helped me to appreciate books that I otherwise would have dismissed and has freed me as a facilitator to set a realistic bar for my sessions to meet. I tell participants, "If you get one thing from today's session, and that one thing may come from your colleagues or from within your thoughts, then it was worth your being here."
3) Each of us is here to serve people.
Every job involves serving others - directly or indirectly. We should celebrate every day we have the opportunity to serve others.
Today I had a client who apologized to me and I told him: "I'm here to serve you. No worries." Serving others frees me from focusing on myself and allows me to find success in the success of others.
4) Live out your convictions without feeling the need to impose them on others.
Dad was a minister for 50 years. He had strong convictions about the connection between his faith and his behavior. As members of his family, we lived under the influence of those convictions. But to members of his congregation he always gave the freedom to develop their own convictions, even ones quite divergent from his own.
My job is not to convince others that I am right (although that is part of influencing others at times). My job is to help others find what they are called to do. I am not there to impose my convictions on others, but to help them live out the convictions they have chosen to adopt.
5) Ask others for what you need, but allow them the freedom to make a genuine decision.
"A 'yes' is as good as a 'no'." My dad often begins requests with this statement, a reminder to him and his listener that this request is an opportunity for the other to act freely.
I tell my clients that I do not have an agenda for them (another favorite phrase of my father). I am there to help them reach a decision, but I'm the one who leaves and they are the ones who stay to live with the decision on a daily basis within the context of their organization and team. To be effective, decisions must be theirs.
6) We overestimate what we can accomplish in one year and underestimate what we can accomplish in five.
I had a seminar participant tell me that this phrase didn't originate with my father. I'm sure that's true. There are variants of this phrase attributed to a range of famous individuals. The point remains: It is my father's voice in which I hear this reminder that we need to take a longer view.
I talk a lot about trajectory, about the direction of one's life, and this statement is one source of that focus. My father's view of time was also captured by a more theological insight: "There is enough time in each day to do God's will."
7) Pursue your calling and you'll find a way to pay the bills.
My father has been agnostic toward money. Significantly he told us that he never asked about his salary before accepting a job. While I am wired a bit differently on this subject, his recognition that money may be important, but it isn't a pursuit worthy of a human life, has influenced my desire to build reduced-fee and no-fee work into my business.
I was allowed to earn a undergraduate degree in philosophy - an employment dead end if ever there was one. Somehow that decision has led me to a place where I am living my dream, doing what I love, and having greater success (in many senses of that word) than I thought possible.
8) See the good in people without pretending that evil does not exist.
This insight took so many forms: A strong belief that people can be transformed both over time and in dramatic forward leaps; a commitment to long-term relationships that bear fruit in the lives of all involved; an appreciation for those who share foundational commitments - my father would lead our Christmas Eve service and then attend midnight mass at a local Catholic church.
I love my clients, meaning that I desire their best and work with them to realize the good.
9) Hard work is good.
We were taught to do more than was asked. If you were mowing a neighbor's lawn, then you trimmed as well. My dad used to say (or at least this is how I remember it): "If you want to be seen as a professional within the community while doing very little, then be a pastor." I never heard this as disparaging his own calling, but as a reminder that one reason many pastors never saw their congregations grow was that they failed to leave their offices to work among the people of their community. My dad visited his parishioners' homes, their workplaces, and ministered to them in the hospital. He worked hard to impact the lives of those in his care (including their family members, neighbors, and co-workers).
Building Julian Consulting from the ground up has not been easy, but it has been worthwhile. Thanks also to those who have partnered with us to see that it is work having purpose and meaning.
