Glad to set you straight

Every Thursday I send an email to a list of subscribers. Every Thursday people hit reply and write back to me.

One said this:

“Glad to set you straight.  I've ACHIEVED EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED AND THEN SOME. APPRECIATE YOUR EMAILS BUT THEY REALLY DO NOT APPLY TO ME. THANKS.  [signature]”

I didn’t add the all-caps. That’s how he wrote it.

The message gave me pause. Not because it’s a little weird someone that successful would feel the need to tell me that. Not because he wasn’t interested in my emails – that’s fine, people unsubscribe every week. Thousands keep reading.

It gave me pause because I personally can’t relate to his attitude – I’m way too curious about life.

Am I the weird one? I just think there’s always something more to learn. I’ve been really blessed the last ten years to grow and advance in life more than I thought possible. And that just makes me want to grow more.

One of my favorite things about my job is that I seem to attract people who have a similar attitude about personal development. One of my longtime Inner Circle members lands 10+ NYT hits a year, and she’s still participating in this monthly training program. I recently had a Senior VP of corporate communications not only attend the pitching boot camp I did for her team but actively participate in the activities and brainstorming. Just like the SVP for Global Comms at GM did when I worked with his team last year.

The desire for continuous learning and improvement likely contributed the MOST to those people’s success. And they are smart and humble enough not to change it now.

I certainly haven’t “achieved all I’ve ever wanted and then some.”

If you haven’t either, keep seeking. Keep learning and growing. If my stuff helps, great. If somebody else’s stuff helps, that’s great, too.

Just don’t shut the door early on your potential.