Advice from the Heart – A Letter from a Father to His Daughter
There is a lot to be said about what you can learn outside of a classroom and a text book. We all know firsthand how experiences can mould us, but what about the advice and recommendations others give us?
I was 18 years old, and I was two days away from packing up the car and heading to University to start my first year of an undergraduate business program. While I was packing my clothes (and some of parents' belongings – hey, I was a starving student), I came across a letter tucked neatly inside my dresser drawer entitled – “A letter from a Father to His Daughter”.
I quickly ran and shut my bedroom door so I could read my father’s letter in privacy. In the letter he spoke about how quickly the last 18 years flew by and as a parent, did he do everything and say everything that needed to be said to prepare me for the world outside his door.
Now, you’ve probably never even heard of my dad. He was never one of the Top 50 CEO's of the year, he didn’t earn an extravagant salary, and he didn’t create some cool gadget. My father was a director of a Not-For-Profit Agency whose sole mission was to provide affordable housing to senior citizens. My father was passionate about people and doing the right thing.
In his letter to me, he outlined the three most important rules to succeeding in this world:
Rule #1 Be careful about stepping on other people’s toes because one day those toes could be connected to the ass you may one day find yourself kissing.
In other words, don’t burn any bridges. Success at the cost of other people’s failures is not success at all. It is not about stepping on other people, it is about working with people.
Rule #2 If your heart is telling you something doesn’t seem right, trust it.
A lot of times we walk a fine line of morals in business. It is decisions that remain intact with our values that define true success. At the end of the day, being able to live with the decisions we have made is all we have left.
Rule # 3 It’s not about how much money you make, the revenues your company generates, or the products or services you sell – it is always about the people.
Just as mathematics can always be simplified to adding and subtracting, business always comes down to people. If you lead with people in mind, the rest will fall into place.
Now, fast forward 16 years. Last week I attended my Dad’s retirement party. For those of us ten, twenty, or thirty years from retirement , it seems like it will never come. For my Dad, it was never about the destination; it was about the journey. In his speech to the crowd that gathered to say their goodbyes, he once again passed along a golden nugget to me. Let’s call this rule #4:
Rule #4 Alexander Ovechkin couldn’t do it for the Capitals and Sidney Crosby couldn’t do it for the Penguins. It takes more than one man to win a Stanley Cup.
In his case, it took more than just the work he did over the past 28 years to reach the success his organization had achieved. Success is not a solo sport.
I paid over $30,000 for an undergrad business degree, but the greatest things I’ve ever learned in life didn’t cost me a cent!
My father has taught me that the greatest things in life are free, and if you can stand tall and look back at the decisions you’ve made in your life and smile, well, then you’ve done just fine - but that’s just his 4 cents!
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Hi Jamie,
I've read a few of your articles. Ell done and keep up the good work.
Frank