Lead the Field Part 4 of 4: Service
November 4, 2009 by dr. lam · 2 Comments
A very short story but one that affected me none the less involved Nightingale overhearing some young adults talking in a cafe in Monterey, California. This group of young adults had moved from a small town in Iowa to beautiful Monterey because they wanted to find a job out there to enjoy the pastoral charms of the picturesque California coast. One young man sighed, “No one has given me a job so far so I’m going back to Iowa.”
Nightingale listened in on this comment and realized that this young man had it all wrong. ”Give me a job?” How about “what can i do to serve you better in your company?” Many times our attitude dictates how well we succeed in life. Many individuals are in it for “what is in it for me?” Of course, so is the company. However, when we begin to think how can we better serve the customer, friend, colleague, family member, or whatever, we will shift our perspective to hopefully one that will help us tremendously.
Remember no one will pay you for something they don’t need. It is not a job that someone is giving you. It is a service that you are giving for which you get paid. If there is no service that you can render or you cannot think creatively how to render that service no matter how good or bad the economy is, then you might not have a position.
He likens a company to a ship. When the ship is sinking, the first thing the captain will jettison is the cargo never the crew. If you are currently unemployed, when you should get the next job think constantly about how you should be the last one laid off. How do you become so integral to the crew that you cannot be let go. Don’t be the cargo. Be the crew. Of course, many times lay offs occur because of terrible economic times, downsizing, bankruptcy and other untoward events. But if we follow service mentality first to possibly acquire the job, then follow the service mentality again when we secure the job, we may not be released when times get tough. Because if the ship sinks, everyone on board sinks.
In fact, in my mission statement that I have all my staff memorize: SAM LAM stands for Serve Always Mentality (which is for our customers) and Laugh Achieve Mentor (is intended for themselves, i.e., the crew or staff). I hope that this blog was not offensive but was enlightening to both those who have jobs and those who are seeking them.
Lead The Field Part 3 of 4: The Road and the Inn
November 3, 2009 by dr. lam · 3 Comments
Nightingale’s most famous expression is You Are What You Think. Very similar indeed to the law of attraction and the power of intention that have been investigated elsewhere in my blogs. His idea is that whatever enters our mind is fuel for what we are and what we will become. If we are geared toward failure, we will inevitably achieve that end. If we are focused on success, we will likewise arrive at that destiny. The expression “If you think you can, you’re right. If you think you can’t, you’re right” is a propos here.
Like the idea of setting our intention and our unconscious minds, we should desire to achieve goals in our life that can help steer us toward a meritorious destination. Using a quote from Miguel Cervantes, “The road is more important than the inn”, we can understand that it is not the goal that is so very important but the journey toward that goal. Likewise, I have emphasized in these blogs that we should not be in a hurry to get toward a destination but enjoy the ride.
Life is about setting goals that are worthy for ourselves to want to ride toward but remembering all the while the enjoyment of the “road” rather than fretting about reaching the “inn”. Oftentimes, once we achieve the goal, we desire another one, then another one. We should strive toward lofty ambitions, things that may not otherwise be so apparent that we could achieve and then continue to ratchet ourselves upward toward that ideal. That journey toward a high ambition will elevate our spirits in the process. When we aim toward a very low goal, then replace it with another low goal, then another, we really do not attain any higher ground, we just recycle our present status.
What are my goals? I have quite a few. However, my ultimate goal is to heal the world. You might laugh at such a notion, but I don’t. I feel very compelled through my work, my writing, my speech, and my encounters to work toward a spiritual, mental, and physical healing for my patients, loved ones, and acquaintances. Now, Nightingale warns about a goal that is too vague in nature so that we don’t really have any intention or realizable strategy to achieve that goal. My goal may appear that way to you, but it does not to me. When I have set my intention for that goal, everything else falls into place. I set my intention for writing my blogs, patient consultations, postoperative visits, interactions with my staff, desire for my wellness center, business dealings, interpersonal relationships, friendly encounters, desire to start new projects, etc., all with that in mind. That is but one of my big goals. What are yours?
Lead The Field Part 2 of 4: Acres of Diamonds
October 30, 2009 by dr. lam · 5 Comments
We can learn a lot from stories because stories speak to us and stick in our minds and our hearts. Nightingale talks about the founder of Temple University, Russell Herman Conwell, a lawyer, an editor, and then a clergyman, born in 1843 who raised enough money to found this institution when students without funds asked him how they could attain a higher education. Conwell accomplished his record fund-raising activity by recounting this simple tale…
In Africa, a farmer heard the marvelous stories of untold wealth that other farmers were achieving by finding diamonds on nearby properties. Filled with lust, the farmer sold his property and began to travel around looking for diamonds. He spent his entire life looking for incredible riches but ultimately died a broken man. In a final act of desperation, the man threw himself into the river on his former property and drowned himself.
A day later, another man walked by the river and across the way saw this gleaming rock. He picked it up, brought it home, and put it on his mantle. A traveler came by one night, and the man opened the door to this stranger for dinner. After dining, the traveler walked by the fireplace and saw on the mantle the most amazing diamond he had ever beheld. He asked, “Where did you find this rock?” The man replied, “Oh, this is a pretty big one, but I have seen hundreds of them all around here by the riverbank.” The traveler replied, “Do you know that this is a diamond, one of the largest that I have ever seen and that it can make you richer than your wildest dreams?” The man replied, “No, I didn’t”.
Of course, the moral of this story is that we too often look for diamonds on other people’s properties when the diamonds are right under our feet. We just don’t know what a diamond looks like. We never tried to find out. We just kept looking around and around everywhere for the riches but they were always right in front of us. When we search endlessly from job to job, companion to companion, or whatever in an unsettled fashion we ultimately arrive at nothing. We squander the wealth under our feet because we are always looking elsewhere for it. And it does not exist elsewhere. It exists right here.