Depth Perception

In my business community there is this concept we call depth. The main principle of depth is that the growth of the business can be measured by the volume of people that are joining us at the bottom of each business center (or "leg") in any given period of time. I was thinking about that today and I realized that my perception of this concept goes much deeper than that - pardon the pun. To me depth in our business community includes depth of knowledge, depth of character, and depth of commitment. I believe that this is as much a key ingredient to the success of the individual as it is to the organization as a whole. In order to be successful, one must develop a deep knowledge of their chosen field. To do that, one must have sufficient character to the extent he/she can be committed or dedicated to a tireless pursuit of excellence. In "Talent is Overrated" by G. Colvin, the author states that "[talent is not necessarily inherent...talent is most often created by the individual through deliberate practice carried out over a period of time]". Meaning that great performance or great success in any specific action or direction in life, is usually preceeded by a specific learning process deliberately carried out and evaluated/measured over time toward a specific goal or set of goals. It is simply not enough to train or practice at things over & over again and expect outstanding results. Repetition in & of itself is not enough. To become truely great at anything requires evaluation of results and grading oneself on performance in order to identify what you are good at & in what areas are you not so good. Chris Brady calls this "Smart" practice. For example if you are a golfer and you consistently hit your 9 iron perfectly onto the green from 100 yards out, practicing this shot over & over again is not going to improve your inability to hit 300 yards with your driver! This rule genarally applies to most things in life, however it is seemingly little known and applied sparingly, if at all at the career level. I've found that both personally and professionally, many people seem to think, as I did, that you either have it - or you don't! That some people just have a natural ability to do things well and some don't. While there is some truth to that, many simply plod along their career path growing in experience, but not really growing in expertise. Orrin Woodward once stated that "20 years on the job is not necessarily 20 years of experience; Frequently it is 1 year of experience repeated 20 times over". I've found through reading and learning and associating with people who have much more success and/or experience than me; that the great ones, those that excell at practically anything, learned how to be great. They identified their goal and then worked on their weaknesses in that endeavor until they became strengths. To become the best, we too can and must adopt the concepts of depth. It is something that can be applied by anyone willing to focus long enough to achieve what they want out of life. It's not easy, but what great thing was ever achieved with ease? When you see those who have achieved great things do you still think they were just lucky or did they work really hard to get there? I assure can assure you, as one who aspires to a better than average level of significance in life, it is and takes hard "smart" work. This is yet another reason why I feel the Team is making a difference in the lives of many on our way to a global community of a million people. Take time-tested principles, apply personal perspective, and drive depth to succeed in a way that the world has never seen before. "Living the dream" I hear people say to me in jest - I urge you to take your life into your own hands and actually do it with us. Live Well - Be Well! Stephen