Pro Leadership

Establishing Credibility, Building Your Following, and Leading with Impact

Andrew Wyatt

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781631951251
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Leadership

A top coach shares twenty-four principles of leadership drawn from his experience founding and running his company—and shows you how to "go pro." Each of the chapters in Pro Leadership focuses on a pro leadership principle required to be mastered if a leader desires to "go pro"—taken from the yellow legal pad Andrew Wyatt kept in the center drawer of his desk during the twenty-four-year history following the founding of his company. Each time he learned a lesson, he would write it on the legal pad. Many books have been written on leadership. Andrew has read many, and believes aspiring leaders would benefit from doing the same—after all, leaders are readers. Pro Leadership is meant to add to this already valuable library, with three goals: To offer a fresh perspective on the vital role of leaders To help readers change the way they think about leadership To inspire, to equip, and to encourage leaders to "go pro" Pro Leadership benefits from something that can't be bought: the wisdom of experience, both good and bad, gained over a long and rewarding career. Now leaders of the present and the future can embark on their own journey with the guidance of the founder of Andrew Wyatt Leadership LLC.

14

Leave Room for Providence

“Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot command results; we can only strive.”

—Mahatma Gandhi

“He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.”

—Blaise Pascal

“We failed, but in the good providence of God, apparent failure often proves a blessing. “

—Robert E. Lee

PRO LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE: Leaders influence outcomes but cannot control them.

Leaving room for providence is the final step in the personal excavation necessary before elevating to build your following. However, more than any chapter in this book this is the most personal to me. In it, I want to tell you the story of my faith, and why it is so vital to my life and my leadership.

Coming to faith as I did was the single greatest paradigm shift in my life. It changed my lens and, as a result, my trajectory. It’s how I am able to prioritize people over possessions and relationships over rules. My faith has also allowed me to find my calling, and to live in my essence. But, if a discussion of faith is not for you today, then move on and feel free to skip this chapter. You can pursue pro leadership without it, and if and when you are ready, it will be here.

My Ancestry DNA results put me at over 70 percent Anglo-Saxon with a heavy leaning toward Welsh. The results are not surprising. A number of years ago, before the fad of DNA testing came on the scene, National Geographic published an article on Wales. It was fascinating, but the best and most poignant part of it for me was the picture taken in a small Welsh town, a photograph of all its inhabitants. I couldn’t help but notice that it could have been a family portrait with my brother and me standing in the front row!

Confirming my heritage has helped to answer a few curiosity questions, and it has helped to explain why I seem to be genetically predisposed in certain areas. However, when all is said and done, heritage is nice to know, not need to know. I am a futurist and not a historian, which means I care more about the future than the past. But we all have a story, and that story is the most important one you will ever tell. With that in mind, here’s mine.

I am the youngest in a family of four children. I am thirteen years younger than my oldest sister, ten years younger than my next sister, and eight years younger than my brother. I was the family surprise. Born prematurely, I spent my first weeks on earth in an incubator in what would today be called a neonatal intensive care unit. The good news for me was the unique care I received as a result of the fact that my grandfather had been the pioneer of the practice of pediatric surgery on newborns and infants in the United States. The fortunate result of being his grandson was my being put under the 24/7 care of one of his many partners—all men whom he had personally mentored and trained (more about this later). As I look back, this was most certainly my first living experience of providence, since I have been told it is doubtful I would have survived without such tailor-made care.

As I was growing up in a middle-class neighborhood in Minneapolis and attending the same high school as my older siblings and my father had, there were three characteristics that won admiration in our home: academic or athletic achievement, and wealth. I learned early on that you are what you do and what you have. The fire of striving was stoked in me early.

Since my sisters were so much my senior, they were rarely present in my life, and I had little or no involvement in theirs. It was entirely different with my brother. He was the shining example, the one to emulate. I love him and am proud of him today, but apart from the fact that we look nearly identical, we are different people. We are separate and distinct personalities, which probably explains why we are able to enjoy each other now.

When I arrived at West High School as a freshman, a lot of positive anticipation preceded my arrival. In West High’s history, up to that time, there had been only three athletes who had lettered twelve times—three sports in each of four years. My brother was the third and my father was the first. Although I loved athletics and desired to follow in both their footsteps, I did not possess the natural athletic abilities they did. This proved disappointing not only for me, but also for a few of the coaches I encountered. In fact, in the spring of my sophomore year, both the varsity football and hockey coach told me on separate occasions how disappointed they were I was not the athlete my brother had been. (I am not writing a book on psychology, but if I were, this would be in the chapter on what not to say to a teenager.)

Not only did my brother excel in athletics, but also in the classroom, where he was a straight-A student. This combination of academic and athletic ability earned him acceptance to Harvard to study and compete on their championship hockey team. It was exciting for him to have this opportunity and we were all proud to have him go there.

My father, a member of the greatest generation, did not attend college; rather he got his degree fighting in WWII on Normandy Beach and in the Pacific. He went back to college in 1946 and lasted only three weeks; he said he had learned too much in the war to sit and listen to professors who did not have the same experience he had. Today we know that he and so many others who fought so valiantly often suffered silently from untreated post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). My own study of PTSD and its causes and effects has helped me to have empathy toward my dad.

The difficult side of attending Harvard was the cost, and since they did not give athletic scholarships, my parents proudly bore the entire cost of my brother’s education. That decision led to a difficult conversation between my father and me in the spring of my junior year at West. The expense of Harvard had been greater than they had anticipated and, as a result, there was little or no savings for my college. With tears running down his cheeks, he said they would help if they could, but I was going to be largely on my own, so I should plan on working my way through if I wanted to go.

Thanks to a reciprocal agreement between Minnesota and Wisconsin, I learned I could attend the UW Madison for the same tuition as the University of Minnesota. The combination of feeling I could never measure up athletically with having to shoulder the cost of my own college education created a strong desire to move out and on, so I headed to Madison. For the next three years, I worked two and sometimes three jobs, went to school, and joined a fraternity. As an 18-year-old, my motivations were simple: money, power, and sex. My goal in life was to be the wealthiest man in the world.

Reading this, you may find it humorous as I do, but it was true. Respect and love in my family was earned by accomplishment; if I was rich, then I would be loved and respected. Little did I know at the time what a dead-end road that would lead me down.

An Unexpected Change

Early on in Madison, I met a thirty-year-old man who had made a million dollars in a network marketing business. Half an hour with him convinced me, If this guy can make a million dollars, I can make ten. I signed up, jumped in, and took off, and for the next couple of years I focused on building my business. The best way to describe me was as a driven person who used people and loved things.

I continued on this path until I was stopped cold one February day when a woman I had been dating looked at me and said, “I’m pregnant; it’s your child and I’m going to have an abortion.” Wow. Up to this point, I thought I could control everything. I had made Emerson’s essay, “Self-Reliance,” my personal manifesto, and Henley’s poem “Invictus” my creed. Now I had a problem, but for two hundred and fifty dollars and a ride to the clinic my problem would be solved—or so I thought.

The next day, looking in the mirror, I saw the face of a murderer. I could not reconcile what I had done. The seven months following were the longest and loneliest I can ever remember. I was gripped with feelings of anxiety and emptiness. During that time, my personal philosophy of life was put to the test and it was found wanting. I was wrestling with the meaning of life. This wrestling match led me down a dark road and the light did not return until September 12, 1982, almost seven months post the abortion, about the time that baby would have been born.

Business took me to the national convention of the company for which I was a distributor. As was their custom, weekend meetings included a non-denominational church service open to anyone who wished to attend. Since faith in anyone other than myself was an enigma to me, I had no intention of going. My personal battle of fighting the emptiness of my life was being waged in business, where I tried to fill my emptiness with accomplishments and material possessions. In addition, I considered people of faith weak, and wanted nothing to do with them.

This is where providence comes in. My ride home from Kansas City was with three people associated with me in my business. All were people of faith, so they were planning on going to the church service. They told me they were leaving for Minneapolis directly from the service so if I was going to ride with them, I would need to come along. Although I did not appreciate or comprehend the faith they had, I personally liked each of them; each had helped me as I had developed my business. More importantly, they were my ride, so I went along. My intention was to sit in the car and read the Sunday paper while they attended the service.

As providence would have it, it was nearly 100 degrees that day, so to prevent heat stroke, I went into the Kansas City Coliseum where the event was being held and took my newspaper to the top row, as far away from the church service as possible. The sports page that day was filled with all the things the middle of September brings, baseball playoffs, pro and college football . . . a perfect Sunday read.

That is, until I was interrupted by the preacher speaking to those gathered at the other end of the coliseum. One question caught my attention: “Have you ever felt an emptiness in your life?” It was the right question for me that day; my life had lost its meaning and emptiness was the perfect description. I put down the paper and listened as he explained the source of my emptiness. He said, “The emptiness you are feeling is caused by your separation from your creator, God, who created you for a purpose, which is to glorify him. The cause of the separation is sin.”

Now, “sin” was not a word I was familiar with whatsoever. However, I was drowning in my empty life, so I continued to listen. The speaker continued, “There is only one way to bridge the gap your sin has created between you and God; your sin must be paid for. But you can’t afford the price and God knows it. So, he provided someone who could: his only son, Jesus. He allowed his son to be sacrificed as the penalty and payment for our sins, yours and mine.” I was captivated and fully engaged now it was as if he were speaking just to me.

His next question sealed it for me. “Have you ever wished you could start your life over again?” At that moment it was exactly what I wished for, and I would have paid any price to gain a do over, but I had no idea what to do. He told me, “You can start fresh today, with a clean slate as if all your past life had never happened. You only need to do one thing: agree with God that you are a sinner in need of a savior, then believe Jesus paid the penalty for your sins and ask him to save you. Doing so will allow you to reboot your life.”

What happened next I barely remember. He said something like, “If anyone here would like to have a do over, come down here now and commit your life to Jesus and you will get a fresh start today.” I don’t remember running down to the stage, but I must have, since I was the first one there, crying like a baby. That moment I will never forget. I felt a flood of emotion, love, and acceptance I had never experienced before; it was as if I had been freed from a prison cell. My life began again that day. It was the day I experienced the providence of God in a most personal way. The guilt I felt over the abortion fell away, and many other emotional wounds began to heal as well.

My three companions who brought me there did not know what to do with me now that I had joined them in faith and the nine-hour drive home was largely a silent one, but I felt like a new man.

Thanks to Providence

The summer following my reboot, I learned a startling truth about the circumstances of my own birth, which I had always been told was “premature.” Unsolicited, three of my mother’s closest friends came to me separately and confessed their knowledge that I was an abortion survivor—that my mother, suffering her own emotional pain, had attempted to end her pregnancy with me....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Establishing Your Credibility
• Building Your Following
• Leading with Impact
• Afterword
• About the Author