In this transcript, Clay Clark (US SBA Entrepreneur of the Year) discusses with David Robinson (2-time NBA Champion & co-founder of $250 million Admiral Capital Group) leadership principles on Thrive15.com, one of the best customer service training programs!
Clay Clark: The thing about your vision is through the Admiral Fund and through Carver, you’ve wanted to help empower and to educate a generation of people that are without mentorship and who are drifting. You’ve cast that vision, you’ve said, “At the Admiral Fund, as we make money, we’re going to set aside some of this money to give back.” That’s what, immediately, ignited my passion to connect with you. You had this vision that you were doing and I said, “That vision seems so similar to what we’re trying to do.” It’s interesting because other people, I saw some of their visions, and I said, “I don’t want to call that person.” I don’t see that as a … I think when you have a vision and it attracts people, it also can detract the people that maybe, don’t share your vision. It’s a big thing.
If I’m watching this and I sincerely do not have a vision for my life, and being honest, it’s probably eight out of ten people watching this. We’re buying the self-help book, we started the LLC, we have some stuff, we’re selling some things, and I don’t have a vision for my life. What would you recommend is the action step that I would take?
David Robinson: Unfortunately I meet a lot of people who’s vision is to make as much money as they can and get through to tomorrow. I would just say sit down, take some time to figure out who you are. Figure out what your passions are, what your talents are. What are you going to contribute to society? That is really going to be the question you ask yourself in your life at some point. What am I contributing to society? You’ll find that everything you do is a vehicle to that vision. Whether it’s your business, whether it’s your family, everything you do is going to contribute to your overall vision. My vision is to use the talents that I’ve been given. I’m seven feet tall. I run the floor well. I dunk the basketball. I have communication skills. How do I focus all of my talents to give back, to contribute? It’s why I’ve been given my gifts. I have to give it back. In my mind, at the end of the day, I’m going to go before the Lord and he’s going to say, “I gave you five talents,” maybe ten, “I gave you ten, now what have you done with them?” I’m going to say, “Lord, I invested those ten talents, and here, here’s ten more.”
Clay Clark: Proverbs 29:18, it reads: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Again, if I’m watching this and I don’t believe in the bible, I’m not going to push my view on you, but why? Why does every business drift? Why does every organization fail? Why does every NBA franchise that doesn’t have a vision fail? Why does every NBA player who retires with fifty million dollars and loses it all, why does the money disappear? Why does the business crumble? Why does the organization not succeed when there’s no vision? Why?
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David Robinson: It’s because we get away from mission. You can’t build a mission unless you have a vision. Once you know where you’re going, you can build your mission. You can say, “This is what I want to accomplish every single day; this is where I’m going and this is how I plan on doing it. Once I build my mission, then I revisit my mission.” Anybody in business, anybody especially in non-profits will tell you, go back to mission, every single year. Go review your mission statement, are we doing it? Are we following? That will guide your next step. That will guide your next action. If you have no vision, then you have no mission. If you have no mission, there have no way to correct the ship when you start going off track.
Clay Clark: An action step I like to give entrepreneurs is, I like to give them a sheet of paper … People will pay me as a consultant, I make them do this. So if you were a client of mine I’d say, “Hey, take out a sheet of paper. I’m going to come back in thirty minutes and I want you to write specifically where you are right now, versus where you want to be in five years in five areas.” And they say, “Five? I’m here to just talk about business.” I said, “Stop. You’re paying me so we’re going to play my game here. Spirit, mind, body, relationships, finances.” Spirit, mind, body, relationships, your physical body … And they say, “What?” Go ahead, write it down, spirit, mind, you know. We go through this. When they go through it and they say, “Spirit, mind, body, relationship, finances.” They’re like, “Why is it in that order?” Because if you have a bunch of money, it doesn’t matter so we’re going to get into this. They come back and we start to even change the way we do the business. We say, “Well, I’m no longer going to schedule you to work Friday nights, because that’s when you’re going to be with your wife. Because that’s one of your goals, to have a better relationship, five years from now.” I think everybody here, you might just want to hit pause. Take out a sheet of paper, and write down where you want to be five years from now in those areas.