Four Strategies to Maintain Momentum
Together with you, I watched with horror and sadness the tragic events of 11 September 2001. My heart goes out to all the victims, their families, and their loved ones. I have also watched the tremendous negative affect those events have had on the economy. Nearly the entire world is now in a recession. The terrorist acts, combined with technological advances and globalization, are causing the world to change faster than ever before.
Today’s business environment is topsy-turvy with declining ethics, decreasing job security, and increased social and business problems. Yet, there are more opportunities than ever before. To help Marriott School graduates navigate and maintain momentum in this fast-paced business world, I offer four strategies: 1) have a sense of value and purpose beyond work, 2) keep nimble and maximize options, 3) add value every day, and 4) avoid self-defeating behaviors.
Strategy 1— have a sense of value and purpose beyond work
Fortunately, with our knowledge of the gospel, it is easy to have a purpose beyond our jobs. We know that we are much more than workers—we are children of God and have the potential to become like Him. We also know that the family unit is the only enduring organization, and that building a strong family is far more important than anything we will ever do at work.
A number of years ago, I had a memorable conversation with a student of mine in the MBA program at Stanford. I asked him what he was going to do when he graduated. He answered that he was going home to take over the family business—the Almond Rocca Company. Today, he is president and CEO of that company. I thought at the time how lucky this young man was—his father handed him a very profitable company. But then I realized that we are all blessed beyond measure because our Father in Heaven has so much to offer each of us as His children. Doctrine and Covenants 84:38 says, “And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him.” Let us never forget what is really important in life.
I look back on my life, and while I have had a wonderful career and hope to have many more productive years, what has given me the most joy has been coaching my son’s baseball games, attending my daughter’s clogging competitions, fishing, being in the mountains, and spending time with family. Prioritizing these types of experiences becomes increasingly difficult because they usually don’t have deadlines or timetables like our job responsibilities and other commitments.
We have to be proactive to make family and the gospel top priorities—anchoring our lives on things of eternal worth. Our greatest happiness comes from being with our families, performing service, and living gospel principles. We should never let anything—work, personal hobbies, friends, or even church—come before family.
Strategy 2— keep nimble and maximize options
One of the reasons Heavenly Father sent us to this earth was to see if we could make good choices. A prerequisite to making good choices is having freedom. In fact, it is the ability to make choices that gives us freedom. In this fast-changing world, we must do everything possible to maximize our options and choices—hence, freedom. Although we live in a free country and have few, if any, externally imposed constraints, many of us lose or limit our freedom by choices we make. When the future is uncertain, as it is today, it pays to maintain a broad range of options. Option theory rewards flexibility.
The following recommendations will help maximize options—keeping you nimble and ready to act.
Build a good reputation. People with tarnished reputations lose options. This loss of options can affect both family and professional life. In Arthur Miller’s play, “All My Sons,” a son sees his father cheating in the business world. When confronted, his dad responds, “Son, everybody does it. You have to cheat to be successful.” The son replies, “I know dad, but I thought you were better than everyone else.” This father lost options with his son.
Losing professional options can be just as damaging. I know a woman who devoted thirty-seven years to a corporation—thirty-four of which were honest. During her last three years, she started embezzling and eventually stole $686,000. When caught, the company took her home, cars, retirement account, and most of her other assets—recovering about $400,000. She lost her reputation for honesty and the respect of her friends and was sentenced to serve one year in a federal prison. She is now out of prison but must make monthly restitution payments of $333 to the company and $540 to the IRS. If she misses one payment, she violates her parole and goes back to jail. She lost options.
Both these examples teach us that we will have many more options in the future if we build a good reputation and name. As it says in Ecclesiastes 7:1 “A good name is better than precious ointment.”
Become a lifelong learner. With the fast-paced changes we are experiencing, the knowledge you learned at BYU probably won’t be relevant very long. You must get as much education and learning as you can throughout your life. Brigham Young said, “We might ask, when shall we cease to learn? I will give you my opinion about it; never, never. . . .We shall never cease to learn, unless we apostatize from the religion of Jesus Christ” (Brigham Young, JD 3:203).
Maintain good health. When you lose your health or become addicted to harmful substances or habits, you lose freedom. Doctrine and Covenants section 89 contains a promise about these health options if we live according to the Word of Wisdom. In verses 18–20 it states: “And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings [meaning maintaining good health and following the word of wisdom], walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones. And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint.”
Preserve financial freedom. We live in a world in which everyone borrows. For every net saver in the United States, there are approximately nineteen net borrowers. Almost every day in the mail, we get solicitations from companies wanting to extend our credit. They use glowing terms and phrases about financial freedom, but what they really want is for us to enter into financial bondage.
When we take debt upon ourselves, we lose freedom and options and the ability to act quickly and independently because someone else tells us how to spend our money. If we are encumbered with too much debt, we may not be able to change jobs, move, make a wise investment, or even to serve when called upon by the Church.
If we want to be happy and successful in the future, we must work hard to
maintain our financial freedom. There is something very comforting—even spiritual—about living well within our means. Many scriptures warn us that debt takes away our freedom. For example, Proverbs 22:7 says, “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.”
Live guilt free. It is impossible to feel guilty and remain happy. I don’t believe we can ever reach our potential, have freedom and peace of mind, or be happy if we are harboring guilt. We cannot live in sin and be happy.
These five activities—building a good reputation, becoming a life-long learner, maintaining good health, preserving financial freedom, and living guilt free—will bring you choices and opportunities in the future that others won’t have and will allow you to act quickly when opportunities come your way.
Strategy 3—add value every day
In the business world today, the time focus is shorter than ever before. Organizations used to focus on annual performance—how much profit they earned in a given year. They now focus more on quarterly and even monthly or daily performance. As the time focus becomes shorter, managers tend to make short-term decisions to appear more profitable. As a result, employees start to be treated more like assets that can be bought and discarded than as individuals who must be invested in and nurtured.
To be successful in this environment, employees must find a way to add value to their work every day. It is no longer “what you did for me yesterday” that counts; rather, it is “what you’ve done for me today.” When employees stop adding value to their employer, that is at least as great as the amount of their pay, their job is at risk.
There are many ways to add value. Employees can develop some expertise or skill that others don’t have, work harder than others, have a better personality and disposition than others, have better customer service skills than others, or learn and adapt to change faster than others. Employees who add the most value have jobs they truly enjoy.
Strategy 4—avoid self-defeating behaviors
So far we have considered three proactive success strategies—maintaining
a sense of purpose and value beyond work, maximizing options and keeping nimble, and adding value every day. These strategies are only part of the formula for happiness and success—the other part requires the avoidance of self-defeating behaviors.
I have watched such behaviors destroy the careers and lives of wonderful and talented individuals. Examples of self-defeating behaviors include, but are not limited to, the following: self-pity, lack of humility, inability to set and maintain priorities, selfishness, and sufferance from the “intent” syndrome.
Self-pity. No matter how talented and blessed, some people can’t seem to avoid falling into the self-pity trap. They feel Heavenly Father and society have dealt them an unfair deck. Everyone else seems to have a happier family, better job, more money, or better looks and health. Self-pity is harmful but is particularly problematic in the business world. It is Satan’s tool and primary way to induce discouragement—leading to hopelessness and unproductivity—which is deadly when you need to be adding value every day.
Fortunately, there is a quick remedy for this problem—service. Serving others helps divert attention from personal problems. I know a man who suffers from a severe wound he received in Vietnam. Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he spends every Sunday afternoon rocking crack cocaine babies in the hospital. It gives him a perspective that his problems really aren’t that great and gives him a sense of fulfillment. We limit ourselves much more by what we think we can’t do than by what we really can’t do.
Lack of humility. The very moment we cease to be humble, we start on a road that makes us less valuable to others, less willing to listen and learn from others, and less fun to be around. And, as I said before, if we aren’t continuously learning, we limit future options.
Inability to set and maintain priorities. We all know what is important, yet we still procrastinate. One of the greatest predictors of success in the workplace and even in the family is the ability to set priorities and follow through with them. When we fail to establish priorities, we let ourselves be driven by others like floating logs being tossed to and fro by the currents of a river. Setting and maintaining priorities will become even more important in the future as we juggle voice mail, email, pager mail, fax mail, land mail, and all other types of correspondence and communication at work and in our personal lives.
Selfishness. I know a man who, because of his selfishness, lost his family, his job (several times), and his friends. He is lonely because he doesn’t know how to think about anyone beside himself. No matter how talented or educated we are, if we can’t be a team player and let others receive credit, we will not be successful. Indeed, selfishness is a sure-fire way to fail in the business world.
The “intent” syndrome. People judge themselves by their intentions and others by their actions. For most of us, our intentions are much better than our actions.
I intend to get up earlier, work harder, eat less, exercise more, and be a better father and husband. None of us is as good as we think we are, but we’re probably not as bad as other people think we are.
When we judge ourselves by our intentions, we rationalize our shortcomings and give ourselves more credit than we deserve. We also tend to judge our colleagues and others more harshly than we should and ourselves too leniently. In addition, we tend to do less at work and at home than we think we are doing.
One of my research specialties is fraud. When you talk to someone who has committed fraud and been caught, they usually say something like “I intended to pay that money back—I really did.” We look at them and say, “You dirty, rotten crook, you stole money.” You see, we judge these people by their actions; they judge themselves by their intentions. If we want to be successful, we must not let the gap between our intentions and our actions become too wide. We also must be careful not to judge others too harshly or give ourselves credit for more than we are really doing.
In conclusion, some current business writers believe that with all the uncertainty and problems in the world it will be harder to be successful and happy in the future. I disagree. With the right kind of preparation and the Lord’s help, we will be able to navigate and maintain momentum in this topsy-turvy world, finding success and happiness along the way. With education and the knowledge of who we are and what is important in life and by maximizing options, adding value each day, and avoiding inhibitors of success, the changing world we face presents great opportunities.
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By W. Steve Albrecht
Painting by Thomas Luny
Painting: Details from “A Brigantine in Full Sail in Dartmouth Harbour” by Thomas Luny (1759–1837).
About the Speaker
W. Steve Albrecht is the Andersen LLP alumni professor of accountancy and associate dean of the Marriott School. His areas of expertise include accountancy, auditing, fraud, and personal finance. He has published more than eighty articles in professional journals. In August 2001, he received the Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty Award, BYU’s highest faculty honor, for excellence in scholarship and teaching. Albrecht received a BS in accountancy from BYU in 1971 and an MBA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1973 and 1975. This article is a culmination of several of Albrecht’s recent speeches.
