12 Words That Will Change Your Life & Business Forever

As many of our followers are aware, we are members of Truth@Work which is a non-profit organization founded in 1998. Their focus is to develop products, programs, and services designed to help Christian business leaders integrate their faith into the marketplace.  This past week I had the opportunity to participate in one of my most favorite roundtable discussions.  It is “12 Words That Will Change Your Life & Business Forever“.

So, what are those “12 Words” that could be so instrumental in turning around your business and have been so impactful in the lives of many?  Well here they are:

“Nothing to Lose.
Nothing to Hide.
Nothing to Prove.
Nothing to Fear.”

In the content, which can be viewed in Truth@Work’s sample curriculum link, Ray Hilbert, CEO, Truth@Work challenges business owners to “imagine living a life and running/leading your business/organization leveraging these ’12 Life and Business Changing Words.'”

“How would your relationships be different? How would your family be different? Your marriage? Your interaction with employees, customers, vendors, prospective clients, even your competitors?”

If you’re like most, you wrestle greatly with these words. How could anyone imagine running their business with a mindset that they have “nothing to lose” when dealing with “employees, customers, vendors, prospective clients, even your competitors?” And then there is “Nothing to Hide” — You want me to share and disclose everything to my customers?  And, “Nothing to Prove” – How do I differentiate myself without promotion?  By this point some may say “this is absolutely ridiculous.”

In the video, Ray discusses an analogy of living “closed fisted” versus “open handed.”  Imagine you’re living “closed fisted” or “attempting to control” circumstances in your life or business.  How are these control issues manifesting themselves in circumstances?  When we’re living “closed fisted”, we do have “perceived” control of the employees, customers, marriage, finances, etc..  However, what happens if someone comes along and wants to make a contribution to these circumstances?  Living “closed fisted” doesn’t allow for others to contribute. Stating it another way for those who have a belief in God, living “closed fisted” and attempting to control our circumstance doesn’t allow for Him to bless our business/lives.  Vice versa, if we live “open handed” or “palms up”, we do run the risk of others “taking” things away; however, we also have a much greater opportunity for others to contribute and bring possibility to the circumstances.  Working with High Performance Leaders and their Teams as well as knowing many Truth@Work members, I could share numerous stories of where people have made the shift from living “closed” to “open” and have seen remarkable results.

Still having a hard time believing?  Well, let me share a personally story. In October 2008, I was downsized after having an extremely successful career in Corporate America.  It was shortly following that I met Ray Hilbert and heard him share these “12 Words”.  Most that knew me at the time would likely say that I had a huge heart; however, I attempted to control situations fairly regularly.   It was during that same meeting where Ray discussed “What is holding you back?  — Fear” which can be seen in an earlier blog post. It was at that point that I made a conscious decision to truly focus on living my life “open handed” with a servant leader heart and launched Arnold Business Advisors LLC. I enrolled in a non-faith based transformational workshop at Zarvos Coaching and Consulting which further allowed me to get conscious of control issues in my life and a lack of trust in His provision.

Like most start-ups, we wrestled in the first couple years.  Revenues in 2010 were $3K beyond our target which we find interesting that they would be so close not having a clue at the beginning of the year as to how we would achieve them.  YTD 2011, our revenues are up 24% and profitability is up 57% over the same period last year.  Our revenue target for 2011 is 20% greater than 2010, and we once again do not have agreements in place coming close to supporting these types of numbers.  That being said, the numbers I have shared are the numbers and, to date, the calls, agreements, and payments have always come at the right time.

Adding to this, we won’t get into all the particular at this point; however, a couple months ago, there was one last piece of the puzzle that we were attempting to “hold on to” which our Truth@Work group challenged us on.  The next couple days, we made a conscious decision to start living “open handed” with this area as well.  The very next day was when I received a phone call which has now developed into a business opportunity for my wife, Lisa, and I to jointly launch an additional leadership development business in the very near future. In parallel with this, our clients have similar stories and are seeing remarkable results when leading their organizations with more of an “open” mindset.

Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, we strongly encourage you to wrestle with these “12 Life & Business Changing Words”. We also want you to know, you can’t do this alone! Find yourself a group like Truth@Work or a coach/mentor which will look you in the eye and have those tough conversations.  The benefits are truly PRICELESS!  As mentioned above, we’re still looking for that next client and would love to discuss possibilities.

As always, we appreciate your support.  We also hope that you have enjoyed this new newsletter format as it was formulated from last months survey feedback.

Thanks again, and have a FANTASTIC day!

Best regards,

Chris

PS…Want to learn more about Truth@Work and/or being a Chapter President?  Click Here