Independent Strategy for Individual Success

Last Wednesday I delivered a speech titled “Success” to an enthusiastic group at the Centre of Education and Training in Brampton, Ontario. I opened my speech with the following quote:

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

Then I said,

Success belongs to those:

a. with a clear vision and specific goals

b. willing to lose fear, willing take action and have a fierce desire and determination to succeed

c. who foster positive and meaningful relationships

After the delivery of my speech Cal Lockhart, a retired engineer, wrote me the following note:

“I really like your inspiration. You transmitted it to the group. We are inspired to succeed. Well done!”

Today I have decided to share with you a bit of my speech. The title of my blog post is deliberate. I believe I have a duty and responsible to encourage especially the youths in our communities to have big dreams, remain positive and to be influence only by those who are productive members of our communities. We should reject greed, violence and hatred which have no place in our communities.

Success does not come overnight. Success takes time. To be successful we all need a strategy, whether in business or in our personal lives. A strategy is merely a tool or plan on how you get from your current position to your desired goals. Do you have a plan for your life? If you don’t how do you intend to succeed in life? How will you know when you have achieved your goals?

At the start of 2014, I had two simple yet somewhat related goals which I stated publicly in previous posts on McKenzie’s Voice. They are:

1. I wanted to complete all the credits and requirements for the Distinguished Toastmasters Award from Toastmasters International.

2. I wanted to break into the professional speakers market.

Mission accomplished! In May 2014, I was received the prestigious Distinguished Toastmasters from Toastmasters International for outstanding accomplishment and leadership excellence. Last Thursday, October 23rd I spoke to a group of approximately 300 grade 6 students at the Sunny View Middle School in Brampton. Let me repeat….mission accomplished! 

As I wrote on the Toastmasters District 86 Facebook wall last week, I consider my accomplishments monumental and memorable because they occurred concurrently with Toastmasters’ 90th Anniversary. In 1924, Ralph C. Smedley held the first meeting of what would eventually become Toastmasters International in a basement in a YMCA in Santa Ana, California. He began working as director of education for a Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) after he graduated from college. He observed that many of the young patrons needed “training in the art of public speaking and in presiding over meetings” and he wanted to help them. Ralph C. Smedley merely had a dream. He could not have known that 90 years after people like myself and hundreds of thousands of others our lives would be so transformed and enriched by his vision and mission.

How can you succeed?

Here are my three tips for an independent strategy for individual success:

Clear Mission and Specific Goals

You need to have a clear mission and specific goals. My passion for speaking was ignited way back in the 1970s when I heard the late Michael Manley, former prime minister of Jamaica spoke. He was charismatic and eloquent. I also listened to recordings of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech.” In essence the seeds of my dream as speaker were planted decades ago in the 1970s. However, it was not until about 15 years ago I took the first step to make my dream a reality when I first decided to join Toastmasters International. 

Where are you in your life? To succeed you need to build a bridge from where you are today to where you want to be. You need to embark on a mission of discovery that is the process of uncovering your purpose—what you want and why. Purpose takes the form of a mission, a vision, goals, and objectives. As mentioned above success takes time. It requires patience. You should not be in a hurry to succeed. Success cannot be accomplished in hastily.

Don’t be hindered by fear

I cannot over emphasise that fear and naysayers are the number one killer of dreams. In my speech on “Success” I made the point that I know I am not the best speaker in the world. In my professional field as a financial services specialist I also know I am not the best. However, I have the courage and the willingness to take action to make my dreams a reality. I have a fierce desire and determination to succeed. For example to receive the Distinguished Toastmasters Award from Toastmasters International, I agreed to be appointed Area 67 Governor in Guelph, Ontario which is about 45 minutes away from the City of Brampton where I live. As a speaker I agreed to share to my experience as an immigrant to 300 grade 6 students as part of the Ontario Public School Grade 6 Social Science Curriculum. For my work I have gone to countries to that most people only read about in their local newspaper or seeing on the evening news. I stories and experiences to share about different places, food and cultures. Yet I am continuously engaged in activities to improve my skills, knowledge and experience. I am receptive of positive and effective evaluations and feedback. 

What are your fears? What are your dreams and goals? What actions have you taken to accomplish your goals and success?

Foster positive and meaningful relationships

The key to success is winning and maintaining relationships with people. Every successful executive and entrepreneur will tell you, their most important asset is people. In an era of Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media it is easy to lose sight of the criticalness of connecting with people outside of the virtual world. When opportunity knocks, it's always a person knocking or answering. 

Fostering positive and meaningful relationships is one of my key factors for success. Your friends or relatives can provide important leads to career or business opportunities. They can also play important role in providing you with ideas for improvement.

For me, relationships are like watching grass grows. You plant the seed in every relationship with trust and honesty. For a time you may not see anything happening but one day you wake up to a beautiful lawn. Building relationships and a successful careers or businesses business career is just like that. Fostering positive and meaningful relationships is like a leap of faith or delayed gratification. Eventually it flourishes into something beautiful and lovely.

What is your strategy for success?

Mark McKenzie is a leading Subject Matter Expert in financial services regulation and supervision as well as a professional motivational speaker, corporate trainer and youth mentor.  He can be contacted by email mastbmckenzie@gmail.com or by telephone 647-406-4622. Read my blog http://mastbmckenzie.blogspot.ca/ and always write me a comment and share. Follow me on Twitter @mackynacky. Connect with me on www.youtube.com, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.

Reflections of Selfless Giving by Tuula Redditt, DTM

Growing up as a child my parents taught me and my siblings the joy of selfless giving. We volunteered our time to the church throughout my childhood and the gratitude that we received made us very happy. There was this one time when an elderly lady that I delivered newspapers to asked me to help her thread a needle in her sewing machine because she couldn’t see very well. She rewarded me with a quarter which I promptly spent on candy and that act of kindness began my journey in life of selfless giving. 

To this day people like my mom, my best friend Tuula, past colleagues and fellow Toastmasters like Mark McKenzie inspire me to continue this journey which has actually developed into more of mission and part of a dream that I have of making the world a better place.

One of the experiences I had with volunteering was for many years I would donate money to many charities like the Cancer Society, Heart and Stroke Foundation and MS Society. I realized that all this money that I was donating was not making the impact that I desired. It got swallowed up in the logistics of developing a cure. I was saddened by this and came up with a different approach to making a more direct impact on the problem. I began to donate my time! My selfless giving had found that mission that made the impact that I was looking for.

As an artist I love doing paintings of wildlife and producing graphics for non-profit organizations. My first donation of a painting was for the Sick Kids Hospital. Our good friend’s daughter was born with a medical condition that required many operations to keep her alive and when contributing donations to her fund we painted a canvas of a mother lioness holding a cub in its mouth. 

Many years later I was approached by a fellow colleague who had become a helicopter pilot at Cap Borden in Barrie. Every year they would deliver toys by helicopter around Christmas Time to the Sick Kids Hospital and to raise funds he sourced me out to donate my time to create the graphics for a one of a kind calendar that had photographs of some of the missions they were on and a photographs taken by another colleague who was a photographer for the Snowbirds. Ken Lin had also donated his time to produce this limited edition calendar. Donations were given to print it and all the proceeds went to the hospital. Now this made a HUGE impact! And all I had to give was my time.

Today I support small business owners and non-profit organizations by this selfless giving and the gratitude that I receive is worth way more than money and I can only hope that others realize the impact you can make by just taking the time … and donating it! 

Finally my experience last year when I happily delivered our big box of non-perishables to the Salvation Army of Brampton has reinforced my mission and dream to make the world a better place. Losing my job as a digital media artist for a long time employee of 20 years made me realize how much wasteful spending I was doing on frivolous things. Now with much less income I seem to realize how little some people have just to survive. As I dropped the food off at the back of the Salvation Army I couldn’t get into the building so I left the box outside with a note of who it was from. As I entered the front of the building to let them know there was a box waiting I handed the note to a man rocking back and forth on the floor in the tiny lobby that had no chairs and the look of gratitude that I got from everyone touched my heart deeply. Now when I’m out grocery shopping I always by two of the things that I see on sale to add to that box that waits to be filled and once again delivered to the Salvation Army. Thanks Mark for your inspirational work and opportunity to go after my dream of making the world a better place. 

Please visit www.skystudio.ca to more Tuula's art work.

The Right Foundation for Success

"If you think you're tops, you won't do much climbing" –Arnold Glasow

Throughout my life I have tasted success many times. As I wrote in my blog last week, in May I was awarded the Distinguished Toastmasters by Toastmasters International for outstanding accomplishment and leadership excellence. I am proud of this accomplishment. I also know what it feels like to fail because I have experienced failures many times.

Do you have the awards on your wall or the scars on your back to prove your successes and failures?

Today I would like to share with you the right foundation for success. I share quite willingly and liberally my experience of starting out from very humble family beginnings in Kingston, Jamaica to trek across the global as financial sector subject matter expert. I don’t do it for aggrandizement or boosting but rather to inspire others through the lessons I have learned along my journey in life. For example, this on Thursday I will be speaking to approximately 300 grade 6 students at middle school in Peel District School Board. My experience in life is not purely about my successes as I have had failures such as recent as 2008/2009 when I almost lost my shirt during the global financial meltdown. However, ambitions, a positive attitude, a fierce determination to succeed and a willingness to learn the hard lessons from my shortcomings have being incredibly valuable.

Here are I share three lessons on the foundation for success:

Be humble

Despite your successes and your failures be humble. Self-pride and arrogance is the landmines for failures. When you are gracious and humble you will find others who are willing to share their knowledge with you and this can be tremendously beneficial to your success. If you are full of self-pride and arrogance no one will want to be associated with you. Just as others are willing to share their knowledge with you, you too should take delight to teach others what you. For example, today I am using the communication and leadership skills I have gained from 15 years in the Toastmasters program to give back to my community by coordinating the 2nd Annual Holiday Season Food Drive for the benefit of the Salvation Army of Brampton. This is just one way of giving back. 

A key fact for the foundation of success is to be humble and you will find others who are willing to share their knowledge to help you grow. 

Be a good listener

After 21 years of marriage my wife constantly reminds me that one of the art of effective communication is effective listening. Being a good listener is a very important step in building up friendship and other relationship. It is the very heart of building successful working relationship. A good listener keeps eye contact so that the speaker knows that you are interested in what is being said. To be successful you have to be open to new ideas and as such you have to learn to accept views, opinions and values of others which may be different from yours. It is also very important not pass judgmental statements or otherwise the speaker may feel being criticised. 

Do not give advice unless you are asked to do so. Do not diagnose and analyse. You have to learn to keep the secret. People confide in you because they believe that you can be trusted. It is also very important that you show your appreciation when others share their knowledge and experience with you. This shows your deep respect for the speaker. Being a quality listener requires personal discipline and a high regard for others. The best leaders I have ever known were patient people who listened attentively to an associate and only asked questions for clarification. They never lectured or pontificated. They sought to learn and gain new knowledge by being quiet. They eagerly took notes and added in the margins new and unique epiphanies. Successful business leaders know how to carefully listen to customers, employees and advisers.

Admit mistakes but never be afraid to take action and make yourself vulnerable

A key foundation for success is admitting your mistakes but never be afraid to take action and make yourself vulnerable and exposed. I have passion for what I am doing. You too should be confident about your goals and plans. You too should speak freely about your dreams, your accomplishments and successes. You should pitch your ideas with confidence. Make yourself slightly vulnerable and exposed. Share with others your stories, experiences and accomplishments so that they may be inspired and motivated. 

Open yourself up to be scrutinized. Take risk but manage it prudently. Don’t blame others or make excuses for your mistakes. Admit your mistakes and find ways to fix your mistakes. Remember your mistakes are valuable experiences for learning and grow. Your mistakes are usually consequences of the willingness and courage to take action to turn your dreams into reality.

There are several factors that are the right foundation for success. Today I share three from my experience and hope to hear from you about other factors that you consider the key foundation for success.

Mark McKenzie is a leading Subject Matter Expert in financial services regulation and supervision as well as a professional motivational speaker, corporate trainer and youth mentor.  He can be contacted by email mastbmckenzie@gmail.com or by telephone 647-406-4622. Read my blog http://mastbmckenzie.blogspot.ca/ and always write me a comment and share. Follow me on Twitter @mackynacky. Connect with me on www.youtube.com, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.

Exceeding the Vision

One of my goals for 2014 is become a professional speaker. To accomplish this goal in 2012 I entered my Toastmasters Club’s Spring International Speech Contest and was successful. I went on to the Area Contest and was also successful. From there I went on to the Division Contest and fell short but was never discouraged.

At the start of summer 2013, I was elected Vice President for Education for City Centre Toastmasters Club for the year 2013/2014 and was also appointed as Area Governor for Toastmasters International, District 86 Toastmasters, Division W, Area 67 in Guelph, Ontario. At the end of 2013, I successfully coordinated and collected over 2,000 pound of non-perishable food items for the Salvation Army of Brampton as part of my High Performance Leadership project. For the 2013/2014 school year, I served as co-chair of Terry Fox Public School’s School Council. In May 2014, I was received the prestigious Distinguished Toastmasters from Toastmasters International for outstanding accomplishment and leadership excellence. On the October 23, 2014, I will be speaking to approximately 300 students at a Peel District School Board’s middle school in in Brampton.

I am on my way to accomplishing my mission. What is your vision? What is your mission? I want you too to accomplish your dreams.

Our dreams are our creative visions for our lives in the future. Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown. Our potential for professional growth, development and success is only limited by our capacity to make the impossible possible and creating opportunities. Helen Keller said “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

Here are some my simple tips for exceeding your vision:

Have a plan

In everything you do, have a plan. Your plan is like your roadmap. As Ray Lewis said “Don't walk through life just playing football. Don't walk through life just being an athlete. Athletics will fade.” You need to have a plan. Remember vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time and vision with action can change the world. As noted above I recently received the Distinguished Toastmasters award which is symbolic of how well I executed my plan to become a professional speaker.

It is important to note that a plan takes time to implement and execute. My journey in the Toastmasters program started more than fifteen (15) years ago and it is only now that I am reaping the reward. Remember success is about dedication. You may not be where you want to be or do what you want to do when you are on the journey. But you have got to be willing to have vision and foresight that leads you to an incredible end.

Be innovative and Don’t be afraid to take risk

Think outside the box. Do something new. Be innovative. Rekindle your childlike qualities and take some risks. Don’t fail because of inaction but rather because of your determination and courage to try.

Believe in Yourself

The foundation of all success is the awesome power believing in yourself and self-confidence. In February 1964, a 22-year old boxer named Cassius Clay whom we all know today as Muhammad Ali defeated the heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. Before and after the fight Ali said “I am the greatest.” Ali went on to become one of the greatest boxers in history. Ali had the conviction and self-belief to say he was the greatest long this before he knew he was in fact the greatest. Ali later said that he figured that if he said it enough, he would convince the world that he really was the greatest.

Do you belief so strongly in yourself that you can convince the world that you are the greatest? As Henry Ford said “Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.” You have to believe in yourself. You have to be confident whether you think you can or you think you can’t do something.

Celebrate your successes

When we pause to celebrate small successes it allows us to stay in the moment where our energy and motivation is at its peak. Celebration helps us to build the momentum we need to stay focus and inspire us to wanting to achieve other goals. It allows us to express gratitude and experience as sense of accomplishment and contentment. Celebration builds our self-confidence and self-respect. Celebration allows you to mark your progress and remember your accomplishments. Celebration allows us to self-promote and market ourselves.

You have to have a big vision and take very small steps to get there. You have to be humble as you execute but visionary and gigantic in terms of your aspiration. Exceeding the vision, it's not about aggrandizement but rather about being bold, taking small steps every day, every week, every month, making yourself a little bit better and steadfastly moving towards your goals.

Would you like to exceed your vision?

Mark McKenzie is a leading Subject Matter Expert in financial services regulation and supervision as well as a professional motivational speaker, corporate trainer and youth mentor.  He can be contacted by email mastbmckenzie@gmail.com or by telephone 647-406-4622. Read my blog http://mastbmckenzie.blogspot.ca/ and always write me a comment and share. Follow me on Twitter @mackynacky. Connect with me on www.youtube.com, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.