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Overstepping Stones

Written on December 17, 2008 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Relationships

steppingstones We’re sure you’ve heard of stepping stones. Today we want to talk about overstepping stones.

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Hear George & Mary-Lynn discuss today's topic on The Bigg Success Show! Click the purple player: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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We’re proud residents of the State of Illinois. We’re dismayed, however, that our great state has been getting some bad press recently because of the actions of our Governor, Rod Blagojevich. While he hasn’t been convicted yet of any wrongdoing, it appears that he’s in deep trouble.

A state of dissatisfaction

It’s rumored that he felt he had reached a stalemate in his career. He wanted to make more money. He even had aspirations of running for President. But even before this scandal broke, his approval rating was incredibly low (the last number we heard was 4%). If you look at the state of our State, you can understand why.

He looked at every opportunity for a stepping stone, which culminated in what appears to be illegal activity. That got us thinking – we all need stepping stones to help us get to the next level of success.

Overstepping the bounds

But there’s a fine line between a stepping stone and what we’ll call an overstepping stone.

We abuse our stepping stones when we overstep our bounds. It appears our Governor did this on at least three levels:

Legal / ethical: He used his position as leverage to try to garner favors and commitments of which he was the sole beneficiary. At a time when the public lacks trust in their leaders, he has become the poster boy for self-serving activity. He didn’t live up to his fiduciary responsibility to the people he serves.

Next, not now: He was so focused on what would be next that he failed to do as much as he could have with the now – his current job. He came into a tough situation, without a doubt, but he hasn’t improved it any. If he had focused on doing his current job better, he might have the next one already.

Seeing people only as links: He wanted to make more money. He wanted to have more power. He used people to further his ambitions. It appears there was no value placed on people as humans. They were just stepping stones on his personal path to grandeur.

What can we take away from our dear Governor’s actions? The best way to advance in your career is to do your best in the position you’re in. Serve the people you’re supposed to serve, not yourself. Don’t overstep your bounds by using people or your position as your stepping stone to the next place. Then your bigg opportunity will come!

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Thanks for checking out our post today. Join us next time when we ask if your e-mail is diluting your message. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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Is Passion Overrated?

Written on August 13, 2008 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Business, Entrepreneurship

One of the most awesome people we’ve met since we started Bigg Success is Jim Bouchard. He’s a black belt turned motivational speaker. He does a great job helping you get in touch with your personal power. Recently, Jim turned the table on us – instead of us being the interviewers, we were the interviewees!

But that doesn’t mean we didn’t take the opportunity to send a few questions Jim’s way – we love to hear his fantastic insight! So today we thought we’d share some of the highlights with you.

Let’s check into the conversation as we talk with Jim about passion …

Hear a portion of our interview with Jim on The Bigg Success Show! Just click the purple play button: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

jim There’s a lot of rhetoric about getting into a business that expresses your passion. The business I’ve been involved with for a long time is the martial arts business. Most martial artists will go into business – start a school – because it’s our passion, but it’s not always the best way to make money. I think that’s a very important, and often overlooked, factor when entering an entrepreneurial life. Passion is necessary, but it’s not the only ingredient that’s necessary.

george That’s a great distinction. It’s the old story – I have a hobby I love that I turn into a business. Now I don’t love my business or my hobby. Think about your hobbies, but also reflect on the elements of that hobby that you really enjoy. Teaching has been my hobby, because I had my businesses full-time. What I got out of it was the joy of helping people and seeing the light bulb come on. Bigg Success fulfills me in the same way.

jim That’s what people really need to look at. When you open these doors, you find passions that you never knew existed. I didn’t set out to get into the speaking business. I did always have the ambition to write a book at some point, but I never thought I’d go out into the speaking world. Like you, George, I found it was just a natural extension of the teaching that I liked to do – in my case within the martial arts world.

marylynn You’re such a great presenter, Jim. How did that happen for you … that you ended up getting into the speaking business?

jim That’s a great question – it actually came from some of my martial arts students. I was sharing the martial arts philosophies that helped me create an anchor and a sense of value and worth in my life. They found themselves applying these philosophies to their business and personal life. A few of them encouraged me over the years to take my message to a different audience – not everybody wants to learn how to punch and kick, but everyone wants to learn how to develop their personal power, their capacity to act effectively. That’s how it got started. Then one of my mentors told me that I was already presenting every day anyway – I went on the floor and taught! So for me, it was a very natural transition. But I’m going to mark it this way … one of the greatest gifts that I learned from the martial arts was the idea of beginner’s mind. The whole world is open as a learning experience for us and we should never stop to pat ourselves on the back too long. Perfection is not a destination … it’s a never ending process. So I’m going through the same process as a speaker that I went through as a martial artist. I want to learn, I want to grow, and I want to be a better presenter every day. And I know you guys feel the same way!

george Absolutely, Jim! The thing that strikes me from your story – you said some of your students made a suggestion. With that one little suggestion, and you listening carefully and then processing it, you found this opportunity. That’s something we all need to be aware of – opportunity doesn’t hit you like a train. In most cases, it’s very subtle. But that’s where you’ll find that thing that you really want to do!

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Dynamic Components of Personal Power

(Image from JimBouchard.org)