The Lesson of the Ladder
A ladder is nothing but a tool...an instrument to use in order to arrive at some destination.
Cavett Roberts.
The name may not mean much to you, unless you're either a motivational speaker or were privileged to hear him speak. The founder of the National Speaker Association, Cavett Roberts was considered by many in the speaking community to be THE standard bearer of motivational speaking throughout most of the late 20th Century.
After completing law school, Roberts moved to Arizona where he established himself not only as a successful lawyer, but also as a successful insurance and real estate salesman. His oratory skills were honed in the courtroom and in his interactions with the public as a sales professional.
It's interesting to note that he made a living with words in all three industries in which he was successful. Roberts learned early that words are worth money, and if you use them well, you can be highly successful in influencing others.
Roberts started on the professional speaking circuit in the early 1960s, and in 1972, nearly a decade later, he won the coveted Golden Gavel Award from Toastmasters International. A year later, he founded the National Speakers Association.
One of Roberts's most memorable observations related to the topic of attracting success. This was something he knew firsthand, as he had been a successful lawyer, insurance agent, real estate professional, and later as a motivational speaker who inspired hundreds of thousands with his oratory.
We've all heard the expression, "climbing the ladder of success."
But, have we really given thought to what that means?
How does one truly climb the success ladder and get to the top?
Roberts understood the significance of this simple yet profound statement.
"We know a ladder is nothing but a tool - just an instrument to use in order to arrive at some destination," Roberts said. "Likewise, a job is just a tool to be used in arriving at our goals in life. Let's consider the reason a ladder is so symbolic."
An interesting parallel, but there's a powerful leadership lesson here that every Black Belt Leader in Life needs to grasp fully if they want to reach and exceed their goals and ambitions.
First, a ladder is designed to move you upward. To help you get from where you are to where you want to be. You start at the bottom and you work your way to the top, making progress with each step you take.
I had my first job, mowing grass in my neighborhood, at the age of 13. I've had a lot of other jobs since then. I've sold clothes, driven a school bus, worked for a pest control company, ran a bagging machine in a warehouse, sold electrical supplies, worked in the commercial lighting industry, and sold insurance and investments.
I've been a sound engineer, a martial arts school owner and instructor, and I've been a children's pastor, a youth pastor, a college campus pastor, a senior pastor, and an executive pastor. I've built and started several companies, some not so successful and others that were (and still are) highly successful.
All those varied experiences prepared me for the work I've done for the past three decades of my life, speaking, coaching, and training. Every job, every position, every business I started, each of these was possible because of the lessons learned, and skills honed, from my prior vocational experience.
Each thing I put my hand to do continued to move me upward, one step at a time. Each job, each position, another rung on the ladder of success.
If we were to be honest, it's been the same for all of us. We've learned, grown, matured, and become better at who we are and what we do. We started at the bottom and worked our way up to the level of success we're experiencing today.
Secondly, a ladder is ascended one rung at a time. You don't bypass the rungs on the way up. It's a slow, meticulous process. It requires patience.
The same is true with our careers in life. No one starts out at the top. When I got my first lawn mowing customer, I told my dad I was now the CEO of my own business. He quickly reminded me that CEO meant chief equipment operator, as I was going to be the guy pushing the mower, edging the driveway, and trimming the grass against the house.
As a teenager starting your working career, you don't walk into McDonald's, Chic-fil-A, JC Penny, or Office Depot and apply to be the CEO, or even the Manager. You start at the bottom, learn what needs to be done, hone your skills, and as you demonstrate competency, you get promoted.
You move up the ladder, one rung at a time. Make a mistake and get demoted, or worse, get fired, and you move down the ladder (or fall to the ground).
An important leadership note when it comes to success is that it is progressive. As we develop our skills, move past competency to Black Belt Mastery of our chosen art, profession, or trade, we are rewarded. With that promotion comes new responsibilities, new obligations, and the progressive process continues.
Thirdly, you don't get to the top of the ladder standing still. It takes an intentional, purposeful effort on your part to work you way up to the top one rung at a time. At any point, you can stop climbing and you won't go any higher.
The same is true in our vocation. Whatever we put our hands to do, as a Black Belt Leader in Life, we seek to do so with Black Belt Excellence. This requires that we be purposeful, intentional, deliberate about learning, growing, and improving ourselves on a consistent basis.
It requires we commit to a lifetime of personal growth and development.
Sadly, there are a growing number of people in the world who want to experience all the trappings of success, but without the effort required to earn it. A constant conversation I have with employers today is the lack of work ethic, especially among those who comprise Generation Z.
On a flight back from Salt Lake City this week, a commercial construction project manager was sharing with me his struggles in hiring and retaining good, quality people. He said new hires, with little to no experience, were making demands life a flexible work schedule, a "stress-free" work environment, pay that wasn't commensurate to the work they were being asked to do, and they wanted to decide what days they would work and what time they would show up.
Cavett Roberts saw this in the 1960s and '70s. Here's what he observed.
"It requires effort to climb (a job or a ladder) in either case. Not all people are willing to make the sacrifice in effort to reach the top of the ladder, but I can't conceive of anyone having so little ambition that he or she doesn't want to go up far enough to escape the congestion at the bottom."
What would Cavett Roberts say if he were living today?
If you want to experience more success, learn the lesson of the ladder.
A ladder is a tool to get you from where you are to where you want to be. So is your career. Become a Black Belt MASTER of your chosen art, profession, or trade, and you'll rise to the top.
A ladder can only be climbed one rung at a time. It requires you to be purposeful, intentional, and deliberate. This requires patience. The same is true of your job, your career, your calling.
You can't get to the top of the ladder simply by looking up. You've got to put forth the effort, do the work, to start climbing. Black Belt Excellence isn't achieved overnight. It takes a minimum of 10,000 hours to become a Black Belt MASTER of anything.
That's a LOT of rungs to climb, and a reminder that success is a journey, not a destination.
One last ladder observation.
My mentor, Dr. John Maxwell, also talks about ladders. He says one of the worst mistakes a leader can make is to climb the ladder of success only to discover the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall.
While every ladder can take you upward, not every ladder will take you to where you truly want to go. If you climb the wrong ladder, you expended a lot of time and energy only to find yourself somewhere you really didn't want to be.
So, before you ever start climbing the ladder of success, take the time to look up and see where it's going to take you and ask yourself if that's where you truly want to be in the future.
If not, climb down, find the wall you want to scale, and start climbing all over again.
And don't be surprised when you get to the top, there's another wall and another ladder yet to climb.
Why?
When we stop climbing, we stop succeeding.
For the Black Belt Leader in Life, there's always another ladder to climb, another mountain to summit, because we're committed to a lifetime of learning, growing, maturing, and becoming a better version of who we are and what we do.
We keep climbing, and we keep winning.
Are you ready to go to the next rung?
Let's go!