Joe here. I wanted to share a turning point in my life and the reason why I asked Mary Grace and Bryan to partner with me in launching a new company.
All my life I have been a student of success. I enjoyed reading biographies hoping to discover a secret or a golden nugget of wisdom for building a successful and happy life doing work that makes a difference in the world. I read books and listened to speakers who attempted to synthesize success into a repeatable set of actions or principles.
I learned a lot from my study -- perhaps I learned too much because sadly I did not connect my knowledge to action in a meaningful way.
I believe it was Naval Ravikant who said the two most dangerous things in life are narcotics and a good paying job. I had fallen into the trap of the later. If the wages of sin are death, the wages of a good education and hard work are a great job with benefits. I had fallen into the trap of selling my time albeit for increasing rates of pay. I was stuck. I had all the outward signs of success and many would have considered me a role model.
The great recession of 2008 changed everything. A combination of personal, professional, financial and health problems converged simultaneously -- perhaps like what many of you are experiencing now. I was forced to change and rethink my life system.
Rethink my life system?
I realized my life is a system.
I’m a system engineer and I had not thought about applying a system approach to me. I spent the next four years as a freelance consultant and traveler both living and working in 39 countries around the world. As I learned different cultures, I began to form the simple rules which govern my actions. I went through a journey from being a student of life to a person actively living my life. I began to discover how to turn my knowledge into action and with this came a deeper understanding of happiness and success.
In 2013 I returned to America with a passion to serve as a coach and mentor. During my time as a mentor working with Kaiser Permanente, I met two extraordinary individuals who would change my life and thinking in profound ways. Mary Grace and Bryan are now my partners at Human Centered Reliability and together we created a Pathway to Personal Mastery. In upcoming blogs and in our future podcast launching in a few weeks you will get to know them and hear their stories. I'm excited for you to learn from them, too.
In business we like to talk about synergy. That 2 + 2 = 5. That the sum is greater than the sum of the parts. In the case of Mary Grace and Bryan, 2 + 2 = 1,000,005. On paper you would wonder what we have in common.
We have completely different backgrounds and upbringings.
What we do share is extensive experience in leading improvement and change, but the power or our system comes from our diversity, a key value for our company. Mary Grace and Bryan will share more about their framework for personal and professional success in our upcoming webinar. You can sign up for the next one by clicking here.
Now, I'd like to hear from you. Studies show that insight is deepened when we take action. So tell me, what's one way you can be more intentional about your life system? Let me know in the comments below.
Sign up for our next free live webinar.
