“People have a reservoir of talent worth discovering. They just have to be given the opportunity to discover it in themselves.” – Ricardo Semler
Ricardo Semler is the CEO and majority owner of Semco Partners, a Brazilian company best known for its radical form of industrial democracy and corporate re-engineering. Under his ownership, revenue has grown from 4 million US dollars in 1982 to 212 million US dollars in 2003 and his innovative business management policies have attracted widespread interest around the world. (Wikipedia)
Amongst Ricardo Semler's work and created a list of 10 rules for success:
Free yourself: Ask yourself ‘what do I want to be remembered for?’ Free yourself from what you have done in the past if this has been unhelpful to you, find something that inspires you and do that.
Manage the issue of ego: Ask yourself ‘why am I doing this?’ Am I doing this to make myself look good or am I doing this with an altruistic purpose.
Find your definition of success: You have to find your own definition of success, because money on it's own is not success.
Share as you go: Look for opportunities to share with others, whether it me your time, expertise or money, don't keep it all to yourself.
Let go of the past: You shouldn’t only look at the past, the past can be a strong anchor, but sometimes you have to move beyond the past. Only at that time, will you increasingly start looking towards the future.
Do things that interest you: Do what you believe is interesting, otherwise you will maintain motivation and ultimately not be successful.
Have the courage now: Having the courage to do it now; don't wait for tomorrow, next week. Now is the best time for your next action.
Give up control: Focus on outcomes not simply outputs. Allow people to focus on the qualitative outcomes for what they're doing rather than in simple quantitative methods. Management control seems smart, but often it is counter productive.
Know your limitations: Be aware of your strengths and limitations. It is often best to focus on what you're good at rather than be unproductive doing things you're not good at.
Ask three whys in a row: Semler believes, “The first ‘Why?’ you always have a good answer for. Then the second ‘Why?’ starts getting difficult [to answer]. By the third ‘Why?’ you realize that, in fact, you really don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing.” Semler says that by asking “Why?” three times, you start to get clearer about who you are and why you are here. In other words, you start to find your own wisdom.
If you enjoyed reading this, why not check out Ricardo Semler's TED Talk on the 10 Rules for Success, available here.
To find out more about the leadership programs I offer go to my website bluegemlearning.com