Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

David W. Reeves was a member of the 1966 NCAA All-American Track & Field Team where his records for 100- and 200-meter runs stood for more than ten years. He built successful, award-winning agencies for a life insurance company for more than twenty-seven years.

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The Character of Leadership

iUniverse, Inc.

Contents

Introduction....................................................................xiChapter 1 Do What The Best Are Doing...........................................1Chapter 2 Leadership Versus Management.........................................11Chapter 3 Courageous Leadership................................................21Chapter 4 What We've Got Here Is A Failure To Communicate......................31Chapter 5 What I Do Is Exceedingly Different...................................39Chapter 6 The Excellence Paradigm..............................................51Chapter 7 Quality Leadership Equals Quality Results............................61Chapter 8 We're Looking for a Few Good Men.....................................71Chapter 9 I Love Knowledge.....................................................79Chapter 10 The Power Of Discipline..............................................85Chapter 11 The Trouble With You, Dave, Is You Think Too Big.....................91Chapter 12 You Are Never Going to Be the Same...................................101Chapter 13 To Thine Own Self Be True............................................109Chapter 14 If I Don't Do it, Who Will?..........................................119Chapter 15 You Can Count on Me..................................................129Chapter 16 Understanding Business...............................................141

Chapter One

That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do, not that the nature of the thing itself has changed, but that our power to do it has increased. -Heber J. Grant

Long before I became successful at agency building, I ran track for Brigham Young University. By the spring of 1966, my best time in the hundred was 9.5 seconds, which was good enough to win most meets in our conference, but it wasn't nearly good enough for me to be noticed in national meets.

Early in my senior year, I was sitting in the stands at a major national meet held in Southern California. I was feeling sorry for myself after having finished poorly in both the hundred and the two hundred races. Down in the infield sat Tommie Smith of San Jose State University; Tommy held the world record for two-hundred-meters, and was among the best in the world at one-hundred-meters. Though I had never met him, I went down to the infield, walked right up, and blurted out, "Tommie, I'm Dave Reeves from BYU, and I was just wondering if you could tell me what it is you do every day?"

He said, "You mean my workout?"

I said, "Yes."

He told me to get something to write on. I did, and he began to write. He wrote down what he did on Monday, Tuesday, and every day of the week, including the day before the meet and the day of the meet. He told me how he warmed up and how he warmed down. Then he actually showed me the best thing of all: the "Sprint Form Workout," which he'd learned from his coach, the great Bud Winter.

I took that workout back to Provo, and on the following Monday, I began to do exactly what Tommie Smith was doing in his workout. My sprint coach didn't think much of it, mainly because it wasn't his idea, but I had tried doing it his way for two years and the results were less than spectacular.

Every week, I was getting just a little faster and a little better as my own "sprint form" improved.

Five weeks later, Tommie and the San Jose State University Track Team came to Provo. I was about to learn whether the metamorphosis of Dave Reeves was complete.

We were called to our marks in the one-hundred-yard dash. The gun went off, and I was out of there like a shot. At twenty-five yards, I had him by one foot. At fifty yards, I had him by one yard. At seventy-five yards, I had him by two feet. At ninety yards, I had him by one foot. At ninety-eight yards, he was right on my shoulder, and I could see him in my peripheral vision, which is when I made a bad tactical error and lunged for the tape. Those of you who have run track know that the lunge broke my stride, while Tommie, still in erfect form, leaned into the tape and beat me by three inches. We both ran that hundred-yard race in 9.3 seconds.

As we got to the end of the straightaway and turned to walk back, I said, "Nice race, Tommie."

He said, "Yeah, Reeves, nice race ... I didn't tell you everything, did I?"

Even though I lost that race, I learned a valuable lesson. By implementing what one of the best sprinters in the world was doing, I improved my time for one-hundred-yards by two-tenths of a second. At that speed I had crossed the finish line six feet ahead of where I had finished my races in the past. The results of changing the way I had been doing things prior to meeting Tommie, produced an improvement of two-tenths of a second. Two-tenths of a second makes the difference between world class and average college speed.

Although hard work is a key ingredient to success, it is not necessarily the primary element. Before talking to Tommy, I had already been working harder than the other sprinters on my team. After I armed myself with Tommy's workout, what changed was the refining of my technique. That was the primary element necessary for me to accomplish my objective.

In track and in business, I have seen many individuals fail in their pursuit of success, not because they weren't working hard, but because the way they went about achieving total success lacked that primary element, and they never knew it. Those individuals didn't need to work harder; they needed to learn how to refine their technique.

My purpose in sharing this story is not to impress you with my athletic brilliance, but rather to illustrate the point that in order to be the best, all you have to do is what the best are doing. Refining technique is not as simple as it sounds, because it requires change. Change, in turn, requires personal discipline, and in the maze of "quick fix solutions" in which we live, many individuals struggle with discipline. The truly great ones in both athletics and business are totally committed to following the roadmaps that are put forth by the real winners in their particular fields. They do so with integrity and without concern for how long it takes to accomplish the objective. By following such roadmaps, without wavering, the disciplined ones become the winners they emulate.

The trouble with such lofty ideals is that today's world gives little fellowship to the virtues of commitment, integrity, and discipline. Nevertheless, those who claim the prize of real greatness in what they do are successful because they are willing to do the things that the unfocused, uncommitted, and undisciplined will not do.

I'm reminded of a timeless presentation by Albert E. N. Gray, the former Vice President of Prudential Life Insurance Company. In that presentation titled The Common Denominator of Success, Gray said: "The common denominator of success-the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful-lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do."

As you nod in agreement, perhaps you find yourself saying, "That's right!" Somehow, you always knew that was so, and this statement resonates within you.

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