Cultivating Epic Relationships

Your success is equal to and often greater than the number of quality relationships you have. 

I can directly trace every success, or big accomplishment, or just good thing, I’ve had in life back to amazing people and relationships.

Sometimes it was a simple introduction to another person that turned out so much. Other times it was the biggest deals, or blockbuster products, or shared mountaintop experiences.

They are too numerous to put here … but here are some highlights: 

• Getting an amazing gig at a seminary, where I could work and get to know the professors and live on campus, with a library 50 yards from my apartment, that marked me for life
• Seed money to start my first business
• Meeting my wife and life partner Lindsey
• Being part of a panel discussion in the White House
• Co-authoring a For Dummies book
• The acquisition of my business

As I reflect on these and lots more I won’t ever share, here are some hallmarks of building the best relationships that I’m seeking to upgrade even more in this season of my life:

• Be a Giver — Be consistently generous without an expectation.
• Show up — Be there for their highs and lows.
• Share moments — spend quality time with others, it’s in the moments you share with your people that matter most, to me and them, and bond you forever.
• Checkin — my internal habit is when I think about someone, I ping them. It’s one of my weakest points though and something I am working on.
• Put yourself out there — whether it’s publishing your thoughts, ideas, beliefs or showing up to a meetup, or coffee meeting, consistently putting yourself out in the Arena. Great people can’t help you if they don’t know what you are doing.
• Be quality, do right and good by people — be the kind of person doing good work that others are proud to share and do it the RIGHT way!
• But ultimately, just be you — the genuine article, the real deal, think and care about others … and you’ll find your people.