Either way the resulting feeling of accomplishment will be an addiction. A great addiction that you will seek out again and again searching for that “fix”.
As you strive to fill the need for that feeling again it will drive success and prosperity in both your life as well as the lives of others.
I don’t use the term “addiction” lightly knowing full well the awful consequences the more common forms of addiction can bring but “addiction to success” is one I am happy to have and one I have no qualms “pushing.”
Today’s post is a guest post from a friend and former colleague Beth Coughlin. I had the pleasure of leading Beth in a former position. Even though Beth worked for me, I learned a great deal from her.
The biggest lesson I had to learn quickly for both our sakes was how to manage some one smarter than me. You see, I believe Beth borders on genius. With that genius comes great opportunity and unique challenges. (no offense Beth)
Much of my time working with Beth resulted in me looking up definitions on words Beth used which I had no clue what they meant while at the same time trying to figure out how to teach this extraordinary intellect how to organize her bloody office as well as how to apply a “filter” to her thoughts before she just blurted them out! 🙂
In the end, we developed a great relationship that I hope will continue on for many years to come. Together we accomplished an amazing turn around on what I would say was the largest operational transformation of a facility in my career. In the end, we JUST DID IT! and we HELPED MANY DO IT!
Here is the first of hopefully many more guest posts from Beth on coaching, mentoring and helping others succeed.
Write Your Novel! by Beth Coughlin
While many have proclaimed the Novel Dead, I asked Mike if I could guest-blog because there is more to the Novel (capitalization intentional) then a bound book with a plot and a witty conclusion.
In the end, every Novel is about character growth and development.
Since those that know me well know that irony is one of my strong suits, the fact that I never have made time for my novel but have spent the last six months coaching someone else on writing her novel should not be a big surprise. As much as I despise being a homily, those that can, do, those that can’t, teach.
Or, at least, those that can’t make time to write, edit. The author is a fine young lady, sixty-something years young who started a blog a couple of years ago called www.stretchmarksinthemoonlight.com . It was an eclectic, quirky collection of vignettes that covered autobiographical (and some fictional) scenes ranging from the hysterical to the poignantly tragic. I met her husband, who was convinced she was brilliant, who asked me to call her because “I worked in the publishing industry.”
Folks, I ran a warehouse. But I keep commitments, called her, and warned her, “I just run a warehouse. Oh, and eat Sunday dinner with a published author.”
“Will you help me get published?”
“Well, it needs to be a book first.”
Okay, if you haven’t figured out yet, I have a hard time with the words no.
So the trail started, first demanding more shorts from her, then finally laying down the law: it needs to hang together, if you are going to share your story, SHARE IT.
80,000 words and 6 months later we are in second draft mode. The real accomplishment: in recent years she had started reconciling with son(s) from which she had been estranged by her apparently erratic and pointless behaviors during their memory of her marriages.
Back-story matters. While the reconciliation was well on its way, revelation of her side of the story has sealed the deal.
What story did you write, or coach someone else to write today?
