Two Words That Changed My Life

by Rick Houcek

Eighteen years ago, I was given a gift.  One that has served me well every day since.  A gift that has been an inspiration to every leader I’ve shared it with.

I’d like to share it with you.

It was 1990 and I was president of an Atlanta ad agency.  We were a division of a $700 million Michigan-based agency with offices in half a dozen or so cities.  I ran the southeast. 

Our CEO was in his 60s and was a high-energy, hard-charging marketing machine of the highest magnitude.  I didn’t get a lot of face time with him, but what I got was worth gold.  Watching him interact with people and listening to him talk … well, you saw quickly why he was CEO.

Intelligent, well read, charismatic, articulate, driven to win, hard-nosed, well dressed, impeccable manners — he seemed the complete package.  I was both impressed by and mystified at his intense energy for his age.  He was 20 years my senior. 

Like most leaders, he was widely misunderstood and often criticized — though never to his face.  I watched other company leaders yield to his power and wishes in his presence, then mock and poke and jab and laugh when huddled in private cliques.  I was often in attendance at these bludgeonings, but never joined in the attack. 

I was too busy being a sponge.  This guy was a high achiever — most people are not — so of course he’d be ridiculed.  But long before this — back in my 20s — I had decided my time was infinitely better spent learning how high achievers got that way and adopting those behaviors myself, rather than joining the masses in trashing them.

So it should not have come as a surprise when one day in a meeting he asked me what new business I was chasing.  I gave him a list of target clients, a brief description of each, status of pursuit, and likelihood of winning.  One of them, I said, was a prestigious national account, Atlanta-based, with products, services and offices from coast to coast.  A cherry.  It would be a feather in our caps to land it.  But there were four substantial roadblocks.  First, the client relationship with the incumbent agency was rock solid.  Second, the CEOs of both agency and client were old college buddies with a long, well-known friendship.  Third, the agency had just been hired a mere 12 months earlier.  And last, the new ads they created were blowing the doors off sales.

Summation:  This client had every reason to ignore all other agency suitors and not one valid incentive to grant even 15 lousy seconds to hear an elevator speech.

In telling the CEO this, I summarized by advising that we go elsewhere and steer our attention toward prospects with a higher probability of success.  Sound judgment, I thought, in view of limited resources.

He asked a few clarifying questions.  I gave good answers, backed by fact.  I made it clear my intention was to hit — no, beat — our new business goals, but to be smart about playing in arenas where success had a better than even chance.  No 350-to-1 long shots. 

He put his hand to his chin, squinted, and thought pensively.  Then nodded slightly.

We discussed a few other unrelated topics.  And the meeting ended without fanfare.

Two days later, I received this short, two-word note from the CEO.

“Pursue aggressively.”

Nothing more.  No explanation.  No rationale.  No reasons why.

Huh?  What?  I thought we agreed.  Wait, are we talking about the same target company?  What’s going on here?  Did he intend this message for someone else?

Nope.  The message hit the right target.  Me.

Lessons & Actions For You:

Talk about a wake-up call.

My purpose here is not to argue the merits of either position, his or mine.  This isn’t a “Who’s right?” debate.

No, it’s about one thing.

Going for it.  Even when the odds of success are stacked heavily against you.  Even when logic suggests an alternate path.

He saw it.  I didn’t.

Up to that point in my life, I had been a 50-50 mix of risk-taker and cautious pragmatist.  Frankly, I always thought that was a pretty intelligent and defendable ratio.  Heck, it may still be.

But he hit a nerve in me.  Some switch inside me got flipped.  That one note, on that day, with those two words, kicked my tail into a gear higher than I ever thought I had.

As intense as I was before, he threw me into overdrive.

I couldn’t get those two words out of my head.  Pursue aggressively.  It seemed like everything I was involved in, every project I undertook, every role I played, now drew on “pursue aggressively” as its mantra for action.

I heard a continuous loop tape playing in my head every time an employee wanted to “settle” for good or okay.  The words pursue aggressively kept emerging from my lips — though sometimes in varied form, like “Just do it!” … or … “We can win this” … or … “You can do better than that” … or … “Let’s don’t let that stop us” … but essentially it was the same.

I was energized like a high-performance engine on jet fuel.

May I suggest you do three things:

First, pull out your personal goal list, your action plan, your daily to-do sheet … and scour the list to see what you’re slacking off on.  C’mon, be honest.  I’ve got some on my list — you do too.  We all do.  Why not identify a few of significant importance — and pursue aggressively.  Re-commit yourself today.

Second, do the same with your top team.  Within the next three days, call a group meeting — or handle it one-on-one — pull out the lists — and get a host of projects re-ignited.  Pursue aggressively.

And third, adopt the phrase and install it into your everyday leader language.  Pursue aggressively.  You could do much worse than to become known for it.

It’s no secret — the most successful people are intensely action-oriented.  They flat get things done.  Yet each of us needs a kick in the rear from time to time.

Let this be yours.

Pursue aggressively!

Rick Houcek facilitates off-site strategic planning retreats, helping CEOs and Leadership Teams create high-impact plans that overcome the crippling effects of lousy execution (the single biggest cause of plan failure) — and get successfully implemented!  His dynamic Power Planning^TM strategic process drives action through his Escape-Proof Accountability^TM system.  It’s ideal for small and mid-size businesses.  To bring this potent weapon to your team, contact Rick by phone, fax or email.  Visit his web site at www.SoarWithEagles.com.  And ask about his 100% No-Risk Guarantee.

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