Be a Personal Alchemist: Create the Chemistry of Success.

Las Vegas, Saturday, October 3 2009 10.40pm

Watch the video

Listen to the podcast

It’s almost Halloween. How scary is that? We’re on the cusp of 2010. 2010. It sounds like a movie – a cross between science fiction and a reality show. In fact, it sounds like my life. It’s getting more fascinating all the time. But it’s also getting more brutal. I’m raising my game every day, but my clients’ expectations are rising even faster. Have you noticed that even Great isn’t good enough any more?

Even being the best may not be good enough if someone else has reinvented your industry. Everything is mutating so fast that direct comparisons may be impossible. Success doesn’t automatically accrue to you because you’re best-of-breed, especially if your breed is becoming extinct. I know. I make a living with my mouth – the oldest technology in the world. I’m a communicator in a world where communication is the super-solar energy driving everything else. I’m in competition with any other form of communication through any media by any person competing for my audience’s bandwidth. Yeah. I can go insane just thinking about it. There are so many magical people creating so many magical breakthroughs every second that I have to become my own Personal Alchemist.

What’s a Personal Alchemist? It’s someone who has the power to transform something of little or no value into the substance of Great Value. It’s someone who has created the secret sauce that entices, enthralls and spellbinds others. It’s the amalgam of preparation, mastery and imagination. But it’s also much more than that. It’s a touch of the divine. It’s the moment when you know you’re experiencing something as close to perfection as it can be in that moment. Those are the moments I chase and cherish. And here’s the big AHA: I find them because I’m looking for them. Tens of times a day. My life is not defined by the breaths I take. It’s defined by the moments that take my breath away. They’re all around me. And they’re all around you. In fact, you may be a Personal Alchemist waiting to happen.

Think about the people with whom you live and work. How many Personal Alchemists do you know? Think about the services and products you consume every day. How many are delivered to you at the level of Leadership Alchemy? Think hard now. There are more than you think.

And here’s the biggest question of all: How many people have you enticed, enthralled and spellbound today? Maybe more than you think. Give yourself credit. Modesty is not always the best policy. Unplug yourself a little, or maybe a lot. I don’t care what you do for a living. I care what you do for others’ lives.

I know the concept of being a Personal Alchemist may be a little extreme for some of you. But let it breathe. It’s your success channel. In fact, it may even be your lifeline for survival. Someone, somewhere is creating the new chemistry of success for your customers. So how can you guarantee that your customers only have eyes for you?

Hmmm. It’s a big audacious ask. It may even be impossible. But today’s impossible is tomorrow’s ho-hum. Now is a good time to begin. And here are ten ways to accelerate your progress because your competitor is right behind you. Maybe she’s even overtaking you. You’ve got much less time than you think to discover the universal elixir of your business.

Lipkin’s Ten Ways To Become a Personal Alchemist:

1. Make Reality Your Friend: your world is conspiring with you to help you win. It’s your laboratory of success. Everything is a base metal waiting to be turned into gold. Everyone serves a purpose. Crises are there to clarify your thinking and electrify you into inspired action. Even the bad times are good for you. You have to believe this truth because the alternative will shut you down.
2. Focus Will Set You Free: whatever you focus on, you move towards. And whatever you focus on moves towards you. In every situation, there’s always One Main Thing at the source of everything else. What’s your One Main Thing? Are you looking for all the right things in all the right places? What are they? I’m looking for inspiration, elegance, wisdom, beauty, generosity, ingenuity, and eloquence – to name just a few of my favourite things. They’re all the raw material for my One Main Thing: Exciting People.
3. Travel Light: Heavy people can’t soar. The past is heavy, man. Let it go. Your grudges, biases, fears, certainties, attachments resistances, doubts, ideologies and self-righteousness are weighing you down. Opportunity cannot land in cluttered places. So create the space for genius to breathe. Discard everything that doesn’t liberate you. The past is a great servant but a shocking master. Be light. Delight. Enlighten.
4. Play From Your Sweet Spot: Leadership Alchemy is attracted to inner congruity. That’s where you are fully integrated. It’s the confluence of your What, Why and How. What is the unique compelling value that you deliver to others? Why are you so passionate about delivering it? How are you delivering it every day? Here’s mine: I electrify people into powerful action. I love to see people get big results by playing big. I train, I learn, I share, I give, I explore, I love, I dream, I write, I talk, I thank every day. How about you?
5. Be Open To Everything: Frustration is not an option. Nothing is wrong, unjust, unfair, shouldn’t-be-happening, or stupid. If it’s happening it’s meant to happen. There is a reason. Find it. Use it. Don’t be resentful or resistant. Don’t complain. Don’t fight it. It may be the opposite of those things you think it is. And all those people who are bugging you? They may all be your teachers. They may be giving you the answers if you choose to listen. Remember: be open to everything and everything will be an opening to everything.
6. Courage Is The Right Side Of Fear: Courage without fear isn’t courage. It’s recklessness and stupidity or, even worse, insanity. Fear is the gift that sharpens your senses and immunizes you against complacency. Fear protects you against inertia, provided it’s the right kind of fear. It’s the kind that adrenalizes you, not paralyzes you. October may be the scariest month. That’s why I like it. I’m addicted to my fear. It’s what driving me to write this blog on a Saturday evening in Las Vegas before I go out to play. My fear is my friend. It’s what will keep me forever young. I’m serious. My fear motivates me to learn more, be more, do more. How about you?
7. Declare Your Compassionate Commitment (All The Time): We are living in times of apocalyptic anxiety. The one thing that others want from you more than anything else is certainty – the certainty that you will help them win against all odds. So declare your commitment to their success. And follow through. All the time. If people trust your intent, they’ll forgive you for the mistakes and breakdowns that will inevitably happen. So talk, then act. Then talk, then act. The word precedes the action and the action validates the word. Everybody wants a champion to help them win. Be one.
8. Embrace Heterarchy: It’s the opposite of hierarchy. It’s a belief that leadership should be flexible and fluid. It’s the principle that teamwork is more effective than autocracy and that leadership must be earned. Are you earning yours? How are you winning the followership of the most valuable people in your life? And are you being a great follower? Destroy your title. Build your reputation as someone who leads, follows or gets out of others’ way.
9. Model What’s Possible: Look around you. Others are waiting for you to go first. They’re depending on you to show them the way. Just as you’re relying on them to do the same. We’re all angels with one wing, we can only fly while embracing each other. So be conscious of yourself, but don’t be self-conscious. Inspire others with your actions. Be the reason why they do those things they otherwise would not have done. And keep your worst to yourself. Form your inner circle to which you can turn in your darkest moments, just as they can turn to you. But to everyone else, shine brightly so they can see where they’re going. And remember: either you will be a model of what’s possible, or you will become a warning of what could happen.
10. Discipline Yourself: Make your priorities non-negotiable. Leadership Alchemy is mercurial. It will get away from you in a  heartbeat and you may never get it back. So procrastinate later, do them now. You owe it to yourself. You cannot give what you do not have. The you of tomorrow is totally dependent on what you do today. Do the right things right and the results will follow.

That’s it. Thank you for reading. Tell me what you’re thinking. All power to you and yours. And happy Halloween!