People around me know that I’m not afraid to give ‘it’ away. What I don’t think I’ve been very good at is expressing why.
In September of 2019, I participated in the Landmark’s Advanced Course which helped me to gain clarity, and I’d like to share it with you here.
When I decided to create flowww sites back in December 2018/January 2019, I did so with the very clear understanding that there was a possibility some clients or prospects would opt to take the small budget path, and that there was an equal chance their decisions may negatively impact our core business activities, our revenue, and our ability to attract and retain talent.
But I couldn’t help myself and proceeded anyway.
What drove me to do so is rooted in my desire to help others grow and prosper. From the way we dig into our Kayak clients’ “Why” in our marketing program, to the delivery of our coaching sessions, to the books I’ve published, and even the selection of topics I’ve blogged about over the years, can be linked to that desire.
Helping others grow and prosper is rooted in my past from which I’ve shared snippets with some of the people in my life. From leaving home at a very young age, to becoming homeless at 16, through the torturous battle to survive cancer in my early 40s, and even the events that led to the launch of Kayak in 2011.
Those life experiences impact every decision I make, just as your own experiences undoubtedly impact yours. It’s all part of being human. We experience and respond, then we grow or we shrink.
In my mind, the desire to help others grow and prosper connects me to my early teens as a lost soul. Wandering from family to family, friend to friend, and having run out of those, to ultimately arrive on the streets. It was a time of nothingness. Of escape. Of alienation, loneliness, and despair.
While writing these words shake me even now and give rise to powerful emotions, I’m reminded that there was something else, bigger. I felt powerless.
Everyone around me was as poor and in nothingness as I was. I don’t mean poor as in the I-can’t-afford-to-go-to-a-movie way, but in a where-can-I-find-some-food-today kind of way. It was a struggle for survival of the highest order.
Amidst that struggle was a very curious thing. Community. We were a motley crew made up of prostitutes, drug addicts, drug suppliers, and the lost. And we were one. The harder life threw things at us, the stronger our bond became. It was the glue that held my mind together and made me stronger that I could have ever imagined being.
I’ve grown to believe that Community created through generosity leads to prosperity. And that it is core to my being. I can’t imagine not working to make it possible for others to grow. I’m committed in my heart and in my soul to that outcome.
Doing everything I can to make that happen is my reason for being on this earth. I know that when I die, having done so will make my life one worth living. And, that I will have responded with gusto to that voice in my head during the deepest and darkest moments of my cancer battle, when I screamed at myself silently – and deafeningly – in my mind that, “I HAVEN’T ACCOMPLISHED ENOUGH YET!”
I’m sharing this not to have you respond, but to express more meaningfully the reasons behind why I do that things that I do, and what sits behind my vision of success for both my businesses and the people we serve.
With greatest respect and appreciation for our community, thank you from the bottom of my heart for being on this journey with me.
– Randy