The Edge of Responsibility

Welcome back and if youre new here this entry is on the last of the 3 values I practice in business and in life. I want to be extra clear that embracing these 3 values have helped me establish a business that is performing a thousand times better than I expected and these values enable me to serve people to the greatest degree possible.

My 3rd value is Be Fearless 

Now this does not mean be wreckless. 

In my twenties I had a knack for giving people a piece of my mind. My pride about "saying what other people are afraid to say" blinded me, because even though I did share some truths I did it in such a way that the person in front of me could not receive it. My approach was wreckless! I failed to account for the damage I was causing to my own credibility. It left me with a banged up vehicle for delivering "truth" but dont nobody want to get into a busted car.

Be Fearless means understand the risk and take things all the way to the edge of responsibility. The point where irresponsible and responsible meet.

How close do you get to the edge?

Of course there are an unlimited amount of things to Be Fearless about, so I scoped down to the most important things to Be Fearless about:

• Supporting my people
• Sharing my gifts and talents
• Learning and Growing

To Be Fearless in supporting my people means I am committed to helping them grow personally and professionally. On the light side it looks like mentoring, sharing resources, and collaborating on new ideas. On the Be Fearless side it looks like uncomfortable conversations. Sharing my observations that sting, quickly informing them when their actions are betraying them. It requires me to step out of the over crowded "cheerleader" position. 

Many of the people I serve are at the pinnacle of their careers. They are super accomplished and have huge responsibility in the workspace. Naturally this creates a situation where many people look up to them and applaud their accomplishments on the regular. This is what I mean by the cheerleader position.

I will fail to support my people if I join the crowd in adoring them. Yes I do look up to them, and because I do I choose to honor them by informing them of their blind spots. I help them see when theyre riding the high and dropping the ball in other areas in their life. I do this at risk of offending and losing them because thats what it means to Be Fearless.

To Be Fearless in sharing my gifts and talents means ignoring my insecurities. Yes I have them too. Im not crazy about my double chin or my thinning hair but I have a talent for speaking on video. People tell me that my message and style of delivery has helped them, some people even look forward to my posts. So I have to Be Fearless in sharing that gift and talent.

On that same thread, several folks have shared that "the way I write" is engaging. I know my grammar, punctuation, and spelling are a D minus at best. But saying things as plainly and simple as possible helps my people so I have to Be Fearless in sharing my thoughts in written form.

Im curious, what gifts and talents have you been suppressing? Is that the best way to serve the people you care about?

I ask because I havent always put myself out there the way I do. If you dont believe me you can go check out my socials and see precisely when I started being more visible. What you cant see is that my life has become intensely more fulfilling along that same timeline.

And lastly, Be Fearless in Learning and Growing. The easiest way to describe this is do it messy! Close the space between idea and action, keep that space super tight and just Do the Damn thing. Ill admit, this mode of operation comes natural to me. Actually I fought it for a few decades. I wasted tons of energy trying to do things "the right way" shrinking myself to fit in other peoples boxes.

Today I completely embrace the messy, because it accelerates my rate of learning and growing. 2 years ago Livestreaming was a foreign land, and I did it messy. 3 years ago Podcasting was something only famous people did, and I did it messy. Less than 2 years ago starting my own business was surely going to end in major failure and I did it messy.

But I learned!!!

I had to Be Fearless in my first client call, I didnt know what I was doing, I didnt even know how to produce an invoice. And guess what after that call I learned how to draft up an invoice. My awareness in my capabilities grew and it set the stage for more learning and growth.

I delivered my first mind shifting experience, before that I had a hypothesis of what I was capable of but I didnt have any evidence. After the engagement I had hard evidence and actionable insight to improve upon.

But it wouldnt have happened without the commitment to Be Fearless. My learning and growth dwindles every second I spend doing the things I am good at. So I choose to find things that make me uncomfortable, currently Im learning how to do this darn marketing thing. 

This is super uncomfortable and Im learning and growing alot. Now I have 2 favors to ask, the first one is easy and the second might be a little scary:

The first one:

• Check out my very first "Video Sales Letter" and let me know what you think

The second (maybe scary) one:

• make a list of your gifts and talents, identify which of them you are applying in service to others, rank them in order of messiness, and share them in the comments😉