I’ve just returned from a wonderful vacation in Mexico. The closer you get to the equator in February, the more clothing becomes optional. So, at a Mexican beach resort you see some interesting things. There are middle aged guys like me wearing trunks pulled up past our navel (except when we go out to eat at night, then we wear leather dress shoes and white socks); middle aged European guys over 30 years beyond the expiration date on their Speedo; and their European wives/girlfriends/consorts who…..well, the girls at my southern Missouri swimming pool weren’t allowed to do that when I was a kid. Oh, and then there are the thongs. You’ve gotta love butt floss.

Whatever.

The most interesting things I saw on the beach were the tattoos (and, that tattoos were the most interesting thing may actually be a bit telling about my advancing age, but I digress). Wow! People are painted up. Alot. And, it’s not pretty. Usually.

I saw one guy who had a huge tattoo across his back—-literally looked like a billboard. It said “Only God will judge me, and he doesn’t exist.”

If he’s right, then he’s right. But if I’m right, then he’s gonna have some ‘splainin’ to do.

Wouldn’t that be a cool talking piece if that guy became a follower? The amazing thing is that Jesus can forgive idiots who paint stuff like that on their body in permanent ink, and idiots like me too, of course.

When someone asks lots of questions that is a good sign. Questions indicate curiosity, and I’ve become convinced that curiosity is a necessary component to personal development, leadership and accomplishment.

People who are curious and inquisitive about all manner of things have a broad knowledge base. They can converse across a staggering array of topics. This makes them valuable to the team they work with, and the company they work for. They are problem solvers precisely because the breadth of their knowledge base can draw on such a wide variety of resources to solve a problem.

When you ask alot of questions just because you like to know how stuff works, you get a lot of different answers. You learn how different industries, different people, different cultures, different disciplines think and operate. All that information goes into the melting pot and creates the Stew that is You. That latent information lying in your brain suddenly comes to life while you are exercising, or taking a shower, or sitting in your favorite thinking chair. If you are like me, those are the times when you are essentially problem solving…..thinking about ways to fix or enhance things. Suddenly a concept you didn’t even know you knew launches an exercise in thinking that produces a new solution to your problem, or a new strategy for capitalizing on an opportunity. It all happened because a dozen years ago you got curious and asked a lot of questions.

I remember being on a Chamber of Commerce tour of a small company in Southern Arkansas that built the dump beds that go on the back of dump trucks. It was very interesting (how do they roll that steel into that shape) to learn about their business, who their customers were, how they got into the business, what supply and distribution problems they faced, how much their product sold for, where they found skilled workers, how they motivated employees, and what kinds of margins they operated on (yes, I ask the money questions). I recall that the rest of the half-dozen or so people on the tour just kind of stood around with their hands in their pockets and that at one point the lady giving the tour turned to me and enthusiastically said “You ask a lot of good questions!”

My buddy Jon Brownfield and I toured a cigarette manufacturing company once. Why? To see how they make cigarette’s, dummy. Just this year Jim Woolums and I toured the Louisville Slugger factory in of all places……..Louisville. Why? Well, because that’s the touristy thing to do in Louisville, silly. (Caught ya there didn’t I?)

Another friend—the Chief Resident at the University Hospital—took me into surgery once. Why? I asked. We saw butts, breasts and brains. It was really interesting. I’ll never forget watching them use hammers and saws on this lady’s knee and thinking: This is just glorified carpentry. It is!

Now, I can’t point you to any great decisions I’ve made as a leader, or even any great achievements in my personal life because I toured the dump truck, cigarette & baseball bat factories, but I do believe that four decades worth of  inquiry in various and assundry places has produced a library of knowledge that has helped me to be successful and that impacts my company and the people around me.  Just yesterday a brief conversation about the U.S. Postal service came up and out popped a piece of information about designing a mailer that could affect it’s deliverability. Where did that info come from? I don’t know. I didn’t even realize it was there. It’s just something I knew.

I’ve never thought about curiosity much, and only recently has it occurred to me that a person’s measure of curiosity might be a good indicator of their fitness for leading a company to achievement. My theory may or may not be right. It’s just that I think much of what makes me uniquely qualified to do what I do is rooted in my broad knowledge based which was built by asking lots of questions. My business partner even jokes that the first time we ever sat down and had lunch together he felt like he was on the witness stand. Of course, he’s too sensitive! But I’ll bet I did ask a lot of questions. Why? Because I wanted to know him.

As proof that I’m not the only curious one in our midst, I had dinner with a physician this evening—a bonafide Medical Doctor—who wants to get a Masters degree in Theology. Why? He’s curious. He wants to learn.

Cultivating Curiosity

If you buy into my theory that curiosity is important to achievement and success, what follows are some suggestions on how you might cultivate it within yourself.

#1. Be interest in other people and experiences other than your own. I’m generally interested in people and what their experiences are. I like to know about their religion, how they grew up, why they picked the mate they did, and why they listen to the kind of music they do—what about THAT music engages them? I enjoy people who can answer those why questions without feeling defensive. No offense is intended. I just wondered how their mind worked.

If you aren’t interested in other people, it is possible that you are too self-absorbed. If that hits a nerve I’ve got some advice for you: get over yourself. It’s not about you. There are many talented, interesting people in the world. Seek them out and learn from them.

#2. Ask philosophical questions that start with WHY and WHAT. Why did you choose this as your life’s work? Why do you vote Republican? Why do/don’t you exercise regularly? Why don’t you like any ice cream but vanilla? Why is your desk arranged in that manner? What do you think about……..whatever topic you want to bring up. What did you think of…….the most recent thing in the news. You learn a lot about how a person is wired using what and why questions. It’s amazing what people will tell you if you’ll just ask.

I’m convinced that we live way too much of our lives in intellectual and spiritual isolation because we are afraid to ask people questions. As a result, we have to figure out many things for ourselves when we could have learned from others and saved ourselves some pain if we’d have only asked.

#3. Read. Reading books, periodicals, newsletters, blogs and professional journals cultivates an inquisitive mind and stimulates curiosity. Personally, I digest a couple of daily newspapers, three or four magazines a month, and probably 50 books a year. I use reading services and tools to sort internet information that is most likely to be of interest to me. Recently I challenged the leaders of my company to read at least one book a month in order to grow themselves so they could continue to be the kind of leaders worthy of all those who are depending on us (Core Value #1).

If you aren’t a good reader, read! Proficiency will increase by doing.

#4. Travel. You don’t have to go far. I’ve been fortunate to see much of North America and parts of Asia, Europe and Latin America, but there are many opportunities to stimulate your thinking within a couple of hours of where you live. If you are in my neck of the woods, Eureka Springs, Sam Butcher’s Precious Moments museum, George Washington Carver’s Historic site, or the music festival in Mountain View, Arkansas are good places to start. I think the whiskey trail in and around Lexington, KY where my friend Jim lives would be interesting. How do they make that stuff and what’s the difference between whiskey, bourbon, and all those other liquors? While in KY I’d tour a Thoroughbred farm.

From liquor and racehorses to religion—–when I’m in Charlotte I want to tour the Billy Graham museum and home place. In Springfield, Ill I toured the funeral museum once. In northeastern Ohio learn from the Amish. How about swimming with the manatees in Florida? What is it with those rocks in Arizona?

Oh, what a wonderful world full of interesting experiences!

Well, I think I’ve made my point. A mark of an effective communicator is that he knows when to shut up and I’ve likely beaten a dead horse. But I really do think I’m on to something here. As I go forward in life, I’m going to try to surround myself with curious people who are interested in things, ideas, and other people. I want to hang out with big, crazy, “what if” kinds of thinkers. My friend Ken Channel calls them “guys who play intellectual pitch.”

Curiosity may have indeed killed the cat. But I’m pretty sure it’ll make you and me healthier, wealthier, and wiser.

Now, go learn something.

We had an awesome training event in our company yesterday. The team brought their goals (personal, professional, relational, financial & spiritual) and discussed them with one another. Then I fleshed out a couple of our key corporate goals. There was a great energy in the room; not a fizzy excitement, but more of a determined yet upbeat resolve and assurance that yes, what had been written would come to pass. You see in our company we know that the first step to achievement is writing it down, and our team has learned how that works. 2009 was an incredible year. Profits were up ten fold. Accomplishment was everywhere. I can hardly wait to see what 2010 will bring.

Will every goal be achieved exactly as it was written down? No. And that’s not the point. The purpose of the goal is progression—forward motion toward the desire. But any variety of things will then come to bear on that goal that might change it’s measurement, it’s time frame, or even its exactly purpose.

In pursuit of your goals there’s gonna be some hiccups. Call ’em failures if it makes you feel more comfortable. And I’m a big fan of failing early so you can get it out of the way and get on with pursuing that which is most important. That’s why I believe you should never exercise, read your Bible, or pray on January 2nd, and you should always eat chocolate cake on that day. Each of those things represent failures.

Hundreds of millions of people established diet and exercise goals for the new year. Tens of millions of people make spiritual resolutions. By this time…..writing on the 6th day of the year….many of those goals and resolutions are already weakened because we’ve already faltered or failed. Somewhere deep in our psyche is a warped, perfection-based notion that any failure to execute the goal activity or resolution blows up the whole goal. But that is nonsense. All it did is delay it by a day. Since such delays are inevitable—it’s not realistic to think that you’ll execute your eating or exercise, or devotional intention perfectly—-I advocate failing early. January 2, is a good day. Then, on January 3, get right back in pursuit of the thing that was so important that you wrote it down in the first place.

For years I was hampered by perfection. I didn’t know that was what it was, but that was it. I remember my spiritual mentors encouraging me to read the Bible and pray daily, and if I really wanted to do it right, I’d do it “a great while before day” because the Bible told of Jesus going out to pray “a great while before day.” (Notice it wasn’t just “before” it was “a GREAT while before”—apparently the effectiveness of prayer diminishes with each extra ray of light as the sun rises.)  If I wanted to be like Jesus, I needed to emulate Him in rising early to pray. But that didn’t work really well for a college student who stayed up until all hours of the night. I’d feel guilty that I wasn’t disciplined enough to get to bed early so I would have enough sleep that I could get up and pray “a great while before day.” Then one day I realized that God didn’t keep time. It’s always day in Heaven. There was no need to focus on the WHEN of my devotions, and that frees me to focus on the WHO—Jesus. I’m released from my perfection, which—in reality—I didn’t have to begin with or I wouldn’t have needed Jesus to come and die for me in the first place.

The mantra of my mentors Lee Brower  and Dan Sullivan is “Progress, not Perfection.” That’s a good way to think about it. You haven’t achieved your goal yet? So what? Are you closer to it now, than you were before? If the answer is “yes” let’s celebrate that progress and figure out how we can get more of it—moving ever closer to the goal.

I really don’t care what your failure, sin, or shortcoming was yesterday. What’s really important is your tomorrow. Make tomorrow’s achievements your total focus, and make sure the steps of today are pointed toward them.

Focus is a central key to success in any endeavor. Focus. Laser-like focus!

A few days ago I was sitting in Panera Bread (which we call “The Annex” because that’s where I have a lot of my meetings) with my associate Nola. The food at Panera is better than average. The atmosphere is outstanding! The baroque music stirs my creative juices! I can get alot done at Panera. On this occasion Ron Spigelman, Conductor of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra was sitting at a table nearby, and he was havin’ a concert. Laid out on the table in front of him was a thick musical score. He was swinging his arms and directing imaginary music in a big way. All the while, Panera’s own piped in music was playing in the room. He seemed oblivious to that, and to everything else in the room for that matter.

I watched him for a while, and then I couldn’t help it. I had to ask how he could work through this voluminous musical score while totally different music played overhead. He said “It’s easy. I’m a conductor. I am trained to hear many things at once, while listening to only one particular instrument. So, I never even notice the background music.”

Now that’s focus!

Shift gears for a moment and let’s take a look at an example of non-focus. You may remember a few weeks ago a group of medical academics issued a report that said women didn’t need to have mammograms as often as had been protocol in the past. Shortly after this report came out, HHS Secretary and former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius appeared on all the morning news shows saying the report was wrong and that women of a certain age should still have mammograms on the previous schedule.

Now, understand this. I don’t know when women should have mammograms? (If they help with early cancer detection I want my wife to have one……DAILY!) I don’t know whether the physicians who issued the report saying less is more know what they are talking about or not (though I’ll give them latitude because they are physicians).

Here’s what I do know: Running the State of Kansas is an executive job filled by an elected politician. Being the Director of Health and Human Services is an executive job filled by an appointed politician. If Kathleen Sebelius were a wise woman she’d realize that this was an argument for the medical community, not a stage for political theatre. But I know, when you are just the HHS secretary and you really want to be the Senator (or whatever) from Kansas you’ve got to get your face on TV whenever you can. However, the point is: she was out of her area of expertise. She drifted from politics and administration into medicine. The HHS secretary needs to deal with public health policy, but she shouldn’t be advising people on when to schedule an exam. She’d lost her focus!

Those of us who have capacious curiosity and large egos can be given to mission creep—to drifting into areas where we really don’t have specialized knowledge to contribute, or helpful things to say. We need to know when to shut up. Beyond that, we need to take a good look at our lives and determine whether we are really investing our energy in the places where it makes the most impact. Are we focused?

I’m reminded of the power of focus in nature: The Grand Canyon was carved not by water that dispersed over acres, but by water that was concentrated into a stream focused on one path.

Sports provides an analogy. I’m writing this piece from Chicago, home of the greatest basketball player ever, Michael Jordan. Do you remember when the great Michael Jordan tried to play professional baseball? He failed! He lost his focus on doing what he did best, drifted into another arena, and failed.

Dispersion = failure. Focus = success.

I just departed from a convention of my colleagues who were asking questions about how to be successful. Many of the answers given were about things they could “add on” to their existing business to give them success. NO! Success comes when you “take away” the ancillary things that distract you from your primary mission and focus your efforts and energy on the one thing that matters most to your success. Don’t seek to do more. Do less, and do it really well.

Focus! Focus! Focus!

Success is natural. The river of life leads us there. But there are dams on that river that prevent us from arriving at that point called success.  My life is about helping people identify those dams—we’ll call them blockages—which prevent the river of their life from delivering them into that great ocean downstream which we’ll call “Success.”

What are those blockages? They could be anything: How you grew up; Some little, silly something that a teacher said; Erroneous teachings from unknowledgeable leaders in your religion; The Great Depression’s influence on your parents or grandparents. Today, blockages are being created in the lives of young people who are growing up with a parent gone to war. Blockages can come from anywhere. And we’ve ALL got them.

I recall one man who, recently divorced, was asked why he ever married the girl in the first place. He said “I thought she was pretty. As a child my parents had always teased me about growing up to marry the “ugly” little girls in class; the dirty haired ones with snot bubbles hanging out their nose.  So when I got the chance to catch a beauty, I did.”

Turns out she was beautiful on the outside, but broken on the inside. The result was a divorce devastating in its emotional, personal and professional impact even a decade later.

Wow! That was a messy blockage, producing bad thinking, and leading to a personal  train wreck. How much better it would have been if that blockage could have been identified and removed earlier allowing the flow of the river to lead to a successful marriage.

We often feel guilty about our blockages, so much so that we may be reluctant to admit them, and therein lies the first lesson: There’s no shame in having a blockage. It’s not your fault. It’s not a weakness. It’s just an “is.” It’s a factor that affects your success. The first key to blowing up that dam on the River of Success is recognizing that it exists, admitting it, and moving beyond the false & improper guilt and shame to look for a solution. We want to dynamite that dam—blow it up—so the natural flow of the water carries you downstream to the Ocean of Success.

Exactly what is that blockage? Is it a circumstance? Or, is it a mental paradigm; a way of thinking that needs to be changed? It could be either, but more often than not its simply a way of thinking or a “false belief” that needs to be eliminated. Sometimes those false beliefs may be so deeply rooted that it’s hard to get to the tap root eliminate them. Our strongly-held, false beliefs may even be so comfortable we don’t want to let them go. There can be a sense of security, even in false belief!

Removing the dams on the River of Success requires willingness on your part to #1. Look into yourself and discover the blockage. #2. Delve into your thinking to ask yourself why you think that way. #3. Be willing to challenge your own belief to be sure it is correct or to change your thinking if it needs to be changed. When you remove those blockages, you’ll be amazed at how quickly the current of the River of Success will deliver you to higher and higher levels of achievement and personal satisfaction.