MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 21: They Keep Good Company

‘Success is as much a product of being in the right company as it is of working hard. If you look for success secrets in the Bible, never read Proverbs 22:29 without reading Psalm 1:1!’

The moral is very simple: hard work, diligence, commitment, passion and everything like these virtues will take you really far but the truth is how fast you go most often depends on what company you’re in. Think about when you wrote the references part of your CV. Except you’re from some planet where nothing makes sense, you must have had two primary concerns when you selected those whose names you put in that section: one, they must know you, at least; and two, you must have some certainty that they know you ‘well’ – ‘well’ in this sense meaning that they know well enough to say some good things about you. In fact, if there’s anyone that knows you ‘unwell’ and you’re aware of that, such person would probably never get listed on your CV as a referee. Why don’t your grades or records of achievement matter here?

In my short life experience, I have seen people’s connections make the difference for them. This teaches me all the more that it’s not only about how much you know, but also about whom you know! People get admitted into top-rated colleges just on the recommendation of the right person; people get jobs by bearing a note from someone that matters; businesses sometimes break through by referrals; and the examples can continue of how the right connections can make. There are also many ready examples of how the wrong connections can mar. In fact, a time comes in the life of everyone when all that matters is just whom we know and/or hang around. That is why the most successful people that you will find around hang around with similar people – and the same goes for the most wretched people.

Give a lot of time to keeping in touch with good people; stay in touch with people who share your values; network with your peers who have a sense of purpose; keep a good address book, an up-to-date email list and a business card holder. Go for that conference to meet people, subscribe to that mailing list, join that professional association – do all you can to put yourself in the right company and stay there, it will definitely pay off!

 

‘A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years' study of books.’ (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Hyperion, Chapter VII. Quoted from the Chinese)

5 MAJOR INCENTIVES FOR BEING IN A TEAM

I have read a lot about teams and teamwork: John Maxwell, Brian Tracy, Myles Munroe, Ben Carson, Norman Vincent Peale, and Mike Murdock…. and they all seem to agree unequivocally on one thing.

Since the age of 18 when I became a member of the Executive Committee of my church, I had also realised that encouraging people to work in a team with true team spirit is crucial to the success of the team. Leaders have to show everyone on the team why it’s important that they work together. At that time, my pastor had not much difficulty convincing everyone to see a common end and work towards it – after all, everyone on the committee wanted to be blessed by God!

Since then, I have seen leaders who never really got their teams off the ground because the members just wouldn’t ‘blend’ – they were always kind of ‘oil in water’. Unfortunately for me – maybe fortunately if I factor in the lessons I’ve learnt – I have been in similar situations before, some of which I pulled through but others I simply gave up on.
As I read from John Maxwell’s Teamwork Makes the Dream Work this afternoon, I noticed he quoted the words of King Solomon in Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12. There and then I was inspired to write this piece. For every leader who has had some hard time getting people to work together, and for everyone who seems not to be so convinced it’s useful after all to work in a team. The message here is one I have never really come across in any of the works on teamwork I have read – at least not in this form.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (Young’s Literal Translation, boldface emphasis mine)
9 The two are better than the one, in that they have a good reward by their labour.
10 For if they fall, the one raiseth up his companion, but wo to the one who falleth and there is not a second to raise him up!
11 Also, if two lie down, then they have heat, but how hath one heat?
12 And if the one strengthen himself, the two stand against him; and the threefold cord is not hastily broken.

From the passage, I can identify 5 major incentives for being in a team.
1. Superior returns. Look at the phrase ‘good reward’. The term reward refers to something you get in return for something you’ve done. Every person would get more for what he does together with others than from what he does alone. That is always true in the long run even if it appears not so in the short term.

2. Superior resilience. ‘the one raiseth up his companion’ suggests to me that team players recover from shocks or downfalls much more quickly than loners.

3. Superior comfort. In the context of the quoted passage, ‘heat’ refers to the warmth received from staying close to others especially during cold weather. Those who are married would understand that better! It is much more comfortable to stay in a team for that is when one would truly have cover from the vicissitudes of life.

4. Reduced vulnerability. In the face of adversity, ‘two stand against’. That suggests that extra strength from other team members is always available to fight with. In essence, the vulnerability of each team player is significantly reduced.

5. Reduced volatility. Something is volatile if it disappears so quickly. For every loner, the absence of the foregoing four benefits makes it easier for them to snap under stress. A team player is like s strand in a length of twined rope. To break him completely, you have to break the entire team. Even if a strand of twined rope is broken, it apparently stays intact unless it begins to fall away from the rest of the strands. It becomes much less useful – if at all – once it completely falls of the ‘team’. It’s the same for us all; we are much less volatile when we stay in our teams. If we want to be lone rangers, then we’d be easily broken and quickly forgotten.