3 Life Lessons from a little known book that will transform your life
Uncommon success Lessons Hidden in plain sight
Life is a strange school and everyone is compelled to learn.
Lessons come in different shades.
Some lessons are learned, some passed down, yet others can’t be learned without scraping them out, because they are hidden in unexpected places.
My friend and brother Jaymie V Pottinger, has such lessons hidden in plain sight.
He condensed an eight-part leadership framework into a book titled The FACE of Leadership. It has uncommon leadership lessons everyone should learn.
The TV documentary that opened my eyes
Now Jaymie may have written his book for leaders, but his eight-part framework applies to everyone. Mostly to people looking to succeed in business.
Before diving into Jaymie’s uncommon lessons, let me share a story of how I came to learn of life’s strangeness.
I wasn’t looking to learn; I was actually looking for entertainment during my down time, scrolling through TV channels to find something interesting.
I love watching documentaries and food channels, (I’m a foodie for all you guys who love to cook!)
I found a documentary, it was about the greatest skateboarder of all time Ethan Hawk. He is now in his mid-fifties, amazingly, he still skateboards.
Watching Ethan took me back to my skateboarding days as a teenager. I grew up in Newark, New Jersey, back then skateboarding was cool.
I had this red skateboard, red was like the marque color of skateboards. I loved my red skateboard, I would skateboard to this nice little hill at the end of our street, and come down riding fast, it was fun.
But one day I was coming down the hill going fast, I had speeded down this hill so many times I didn’t give much thought to what I was doing, it was summertime, I was enjoying the wind, dressed in shorts.
I must have hit a rock, or something, I came off of that skateboard slid on my backside peeling off a chunk of skin, Ouch! that hurt so bad.
That experience didn’t stop me from riding the skateboard, but something shifted in me, I realized, I could get hurt badly. Unconsciously I made a mental note to quit skateboarding.
Now watching Ethan Hawk’s documentary, I learned three leadership lessons written in Jaymie’s book.
· How to resiliently bounce back from failure,
· How to develop foresight
· How to unlock your hidden power of awareness.
They tied nicely to Ethan’s story.
Lesson #1 How to resiliently bounce back from Failure
Let’s focus on the first lesson, — how to resiliently bounce back from Failure.
Falling from the skateboard, dampened my skateboarding enthusiasm.
But watching Ethan, I discovered difference in mindsets, Ethan started skateboarding roughly the same time that I did, but unlike me, he discovered something, he found the love for skateboarding, and decided to make it a lifelong career.
Proverb 16:1 says “The preparations of the heart belong to man,” then it goes on to say, “But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.”
Ethan Hawk realized he loved skateboarding, so he started a preparation process. He prepared himself to a level that no one else had.
Here is the interesting part, Ethan Hawks fell off the skateboard so many times, got bruised, broke so many bones, suffered concussions, but he didn’t quit.
And because he did not quit, he became a master skateboarder, he created over 100 unique moves, and became something like a skateboarding founder. He brought the sport to the Olympics.
God gave him something, He gave him a skateboard, and he took it seriously he went into preparation with everything in him. He, wasn’t thinking about money but money came to him, he cracked the money code,
You see when you discover the thing God created you to do, you will suffer setback, you will fail, but, you need to know how do you bounce back from each failure?
Most people don’t bounce back because they get frozen in fear. They make a mental note never to work that thing again.
Why Failure is Learning
I related Ethan’s story to the first lesson in the book The FACE of leadership, Ethan Hawk understood the failure framework to success.
He realized that failure was not fatal, it was not the end. He instead embraced every failure to prepare, each failure became the beginning of preparation.
Every time he tried a new move and failed, he got back to working on it. He practiced the move over and over, falling, breaking bones, suffering concussion, but none of those injuries stopped him, he kept bouncing back, kept preparing until he was perfect.
Despite suffering concussions, broken bones, and having to walk with crutches, he didn’t give up. He focused on the preparation, and on God’s purpose for his life. Because he realized one thing, “Failure is not failure, it’s just the beginning of learning.”
Thomas Edison failed so many times trying to create the light bulb, he was asked why he didn’t give up and his response was that every time he failed, he had just found out one more way it could not be done.
Lesson #2 How to develop foresight
The second lesson is how to develop foresight. Think about this, Ethan Hawk had to see himself riding a skateboard for the rest of his life, because he is still doing it today.
He might not have quoted scripture, but Proverb 16:3 says, ‘Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.’ he may not have said, ‘I’m gonna commit my works to the Lord, but by doing it over and over again, he was actually committing his work and purpose to God.
He didn’t invent the skateboard; he just took it to a new level, and because he did, God established him. He has built over a thousand skateboard parks, helped so many people learn how ride the skateboard. He has infused the world with love for skateboarding.
When you commit your ways to the Lord your thoughts are established. Ethan had foresight. He saw skateboarding changing the world. He could see exactly where he was going, and how he was going to get there.
Lesson #3 How to unlock your hidden power of awareness
The third framework is awareness. Think about every time you fail at something, you become fully aware about what doesn’t work.
Ethan hawk prepared himself, he committed his works, his thoughts were established. And all of a sudden he had awareness.
Awareness gives you hindsight, all of a sudden, you can see clearly, the future and the past. you can actually see backward what you couldn’t see then. Suddenly you are like, ‘look at how this is affecting my life. how it’s affecting, my business, how it’s affecting the people around me.’
That awareness gives positive confession. You need positive confession, when people ask me, how are you doing? I respond excellent. I could have a headache, but I’m excellent, I could be unwell but I’m excellent. Why? Because there’s nothing stopping me from saying I’m excellent.
I’m aware of the power of my confession, I know that the preparations of the hearts in the answer of the tongue from the Lord. Think about this. If you’re saying negative things, about your situation, nothing will change in your life. See God can’t help you when you focus on negativity.
In Closing:
Here is something to think about, I rode the skateboard fell down many times, but it wasn’t my thing. But Ethan hawk knew something about skateboarding. He knew something about failure. He knew something about foresight and he knew something about awareness, I quit skateboarding, but he didn’t, he became a star.
What’s that thing you shouldn’t quit from despite failure, pain and frustration?
Watching Ethan hawks, I saw the face of a leader. What about you, are you the person who exemplifies the face of leadership? Who knows failure’s not final, who maintains positive confession, who has foresight and is aware of the transformation happening in your life?
