Who's In Your Starting Five?

The Starting Five in South Carolina

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” – Jim Rohn

I read this quote recently and began to think about the people I spend the most time with as a leader.  I believe that you should always surround yourself with people who make you better.  I also believe in surrounding yourself with people who think differently and push you to stretch your thinking.  

As a leader you can only lead people as far as you have gone yourself.  That's why it is critical to continually re-evaluate your "starting five" to determine if they are helping to develop you as a leader.  The book The Wisdom of Crowds touches on some of these key points.  These are four factors that book references that will make up a wise crowd or an all star starting five.

Diversity of opinion	Each person should be an independent thinker
Independence	People's opinions aren't determined by the opinions of those around them.
Decentralization	People are able to specialize and draw on local knowledge.
Aggregation	Some mechanism exists for turning private judgments into a collective decision.

I actually think about the five people quote in two different ways.  First, there are the five people that I have the most face to face time with.  These are the people who are on your leadership team, executive team, etc.  These are the key decision makers who you rely on to get a project done.  Are you surrounded by the right people?  

The second way involves the importance of a Personal Learning Network (PLN).  The five people I spend the most time with really depends on the project, area of interest, topic discussed, etc.  Technology has become a game-changer in terms of unparalleled access to experts in all fields of study.  In this way I become infinitely smarter with my starting five.  I am able to garner resources, ask questions, discuss obstacles, and take advantage of opportunities.  I often wonder how I ever operated without the benefit of my PLN.  Mudder Nation is a great example of a PLN devoted entirely to insane people like the three of us.  This blog has also expanded our starting five as it has given us another avenue to connect and learn from others who are taking on grand adventures.  

DC, Patrick, and I have all also written various posts about how one wouldn't be here without the other.  This is the heart of the quote.  You will only be as good as the company you keep.  This line is scary as it is just another sign that I am turning into my parents.  They often gave me this advice throughout school as it pertained to friends.  I feel fortunate to surround myself with people that push me in all phases on my life.  Some people push me professional while others push me to be a better person.  The rare people are the ones that can push you in all aspects including your year in the mud.  


Who is in your starting five?  Take a look at those five people.  Are you okay with your average?  Is it enough to move you or your organization forward?  How can you leverage the collective wisdom of this group to transform learning?

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Leadership Lessons From Electroshock Therapy

“No one has a problem with the first mile of a journey. Even an infant could do fine for a while. 

But it isn't the start that matters. It's the finish line.” 

― Julien Smith

As I begin this post I am realizing that the title might be alarming to people who do not realize that Electroshock Therapy is a Tough Mudder obstacle.  It is likely still alarming even after you realize that there is an obstacle where you are physically shocked by live wires.  The video below brings this obstacle to life for people who have never seen or experienced it.  

Once you get passed the initial shock (horrible pun noted) of this obstacle there are some leadership lessons that are inherently built into it.  

1. Strategy - The great philosopher Mike Tyson once said that "Everyone has a strategy until they get punched in the face." This is certainly true with leadership and with this obstacle.  People face this obstacle utilizing many different strategies.  Some people try to carefully dodge the wires while others just run through as fast as they can.  These pre-conceived strategies often go out the window as soon as you hit a live wire.  I've seen countless people tumble to the ground (present company included) only to realize that they have to get up and keep moving with live wires all around.  Leaders work along the same lines.  The line that separates good leaders from great ones is the actions they take when the initial strategy fails.  How do leaders respond to adversity?  That's often the defining characteristic of many great leaders throughout history.  

2. Flinch - People often don't realize that success is not an isolated event but more of a cycle of events.  The basic foundation of success is failure which fosters growth and contraction.  Along the leadership journey you continually encounter hurdles that progressively get higher as you move forward.  This is also true with our journey in the mud.  The hurdles will get higher with each event as we move towards the "World's Toughest Mudder".  The temptation is often to flinch or hold back for fear of getting injured, failing, or even being publicly humiliated.  At the end of each Tough Mudder event you are faced with Electroshock Therapy as the final hurdle before the finish line.  There is always a huge crowd around to watch participants go through.  You have several choices as you enter this final obstacle.  You can flinch, slow down, and try to anticipate the shock or you can run full speed knowing that the shock will occur but you will move through it.  During our trip to South Carolina we were actually dared to walk through the obstacle instead of running.  We are never ones to back down from a challenge so we gladly accepted.  This meant not flinching or even running through the obstacle but embracing the conflict that was about to unfold.  Honestly, it was not nearly as bad as initially anticipated.  This is typically the case with conflict or change from a leadership perspective.  Once on the other side of an obstacle there is a certain pride and sense of accomplishment.  Push through your leadership obstacles and you will feel the same thing we do when we complete this obstacle (without the tingling feelings from being repeatedly shocked). 

3. Finish - This lesson ties closely to the quote that started the post.  Anyone can start a journey but finishing takes great strength, courage, and perseverance.  Electroshock Therapy is the very last obstacle that you encounter and you can see the finish line before you start it.  The only thing keeping you from the finish line is 10,000 volts of electricity.  Keep in mind that you can always elect to walk around any obstacle but that's not why you train, sign up, and start the journey.  As leaders the most intimidating obstacle occurs right before you complete an initiative.  Anyone can start something but great leaders finish what they started.

Leadership lessons abound on the course and these are just a few from the final obstacle.  It may be important to note that this is not the only obstacle/time where electricity is involved.  I'll save the Electric Eel and Shock on the Rocks for another time.  

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The Secret Formula to Excellence

"Researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: 
10,000 hours."

- Malcolm Gladwell

I was rereading the book Outliers recently and came across the quote above.  There really is no easy road to expertise and excellence.  There will also be no easy path to the World's Toughest Mudder.  The truth is that many people give up before they can realistically see improvement.   The other scenario is that people get just good enough and settle.  Good is often the enemy of great for most people.  This is true with piano lessons, diets, and in the workplace.  As a group we have gotten pretty good at completing the courses that are thrown at us by Mother Mudder.  We have completed the course four times in three different states.  We could settle with being pretty good at doing that or we can look at the challenges that still exist.  There are obstacles that still present a challenge or we as a group have not completed together.  

For example:

• Twinkletoes (2/3 have successfully completed)
• Hangin' Tough (2/3 have successfully completed) 
• Funky Monkey (2/3 have successfully completed

Author's Note:  I intentionally chose three obstacles where I was in the numerator.  

We are also looking forward to climbing Everest without assistance and completing Dong Dangler/Ball Shrinker (0/3 have successfully completed).  There are obstacles that we have not encountered yet but are eagerly looking forward to conquering.  I could never climb the rope in gym so I am ready for revenge if the rope climb comes my way again.  We have become adept at taking on new challenges such as running two laps in Carolina or running on both Saturday and Sunday in Miami.  The point of these challenges is to keep us from falling into either of the two scenarios.  We will not settle for good or give up if we fail to complete a challenge.  We will run farther and train harder.  We will even take to extreme measures like building homemade rings to hang in the garage or spending far too much time on playgrounds traversing the monkey bars.  

Release Forms Will Be Standard on This Mission

People are often looking for the secret to greatness.  The secret all starts with your personal passion.  This year in the mud has ignited a passion in the three of us.  This passion spans fitness, education, and leadership.  Once you understand the first ingredient...the rest of the formula falls into place.  Understanding the formula is not difficult.  Putting the formula into practice is what ultimately separates good from great.  We may end up outliers or just completely crazy.  Either way this will be a memorable 10,000 hours.

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How in the World Did I Get Here?

The old saying that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one single step is certainly true.  For me my journey of a thousand miles began with a single step straight into a mud-filled obstacle challenge that showed me that my life needed to change.

Hold Your Wood - Carolina

I participated in my first Tough Mudder only as a dare from  Patrick whose backstory you can read here.  I did not train for the event at all.  I had actually let my weight balloon and fitness was the furthest thing from my mind.  I had become in my own words "Chunky but Funky".  I even spent the day before the race tailgating at a University of Virginia football game.  This was hardly  a recipe for success but it was an absolute recipe for disaster.  I am the last of the three to post my story to start this journey of "Our Year in the Mud".  This is fitting since Patrick and DC spent most of the first race waiting for me to reach each obstacle so that we can go on.  This exemplifies one of things that draws people to this type of challenge.  Tough Mudder is not a race but a challenge that requires assistance from a team or even perfect strangers.  I'm pretty sure I almost died up in Wintergreen during the first race.  That may be a slight exaggeration which might be a theme that you see during some of these posts.  I do know that I never would have completed it without DC and Patrick.

The humbling experience at the first race inspired me to get in the best shape of my life.  We signed up for a second race and I began training.  This could be considered by many as a mid-life crisis which could be accurate (let the record show I am the youngest of the three) but it is more about three guys who are challenging ourselves to push the limits of what is possible.  During the training for the second race I was able to drop nearly 40 pounds which made running more of a possibility.  I was excited to see what we could do with some intense training.  The second race was in Pennsylvania and our team which expanded to four absolutely crushed the course.  You can see a comparison of me running the same fire walker obstacle at the two races.

Fire Walker - Virginia

Here's a hint:  I wasn't actually running in the first picture.  I was being overcome by smoke because I couldn't move another step.

Fire Walker - Pennsylvania

As guys typically do we decided to raise the bar again.  We set our sights on a third race in South Carolina which would mark the anniversary of our first race attempt.  This time we would run it twice which meant instead of 12 miles and 25 obstacles we would take on nearly 24 miles and 50 obstacles (no exaggeration on this one).  Could I actually go from barely completing the first race to running it twice within the period of one year?   This would motivate me to train even harder.  Working out tends to get boring by itself.  I need a challenge to motivate me and Tough Mudder, Patrick, and DC became that motivation.

This time we expanded the team from 3 to 5 with only 3 being crazy enough to take it on twice.  I'll save the whole South Carolina story for another post but we did manage to complete the course twice, inspire a lot of people in the process, and even save a life.  That's not bad for a day in the mud.  I did end up in the ER but isn't that how you should live your life????

October 2011 - Wintergreen, VA

We now have our sights set on competing in the World's Toughest Mudder.  To accomplish this latest challenge we will crisscross North America competing in Tough Mudders to prepare for the 24 hour race in October 2013.  Our next race is scheduled for Miami in March.  This time we will run on both Saturday and Sunday.  It definitely isn't the way most people would spend their time on a vacation to South Beach.  As you are beginning to find out...we aren't most people.  We'll keep you posted on the training, the races, and even some leadership/education lessons learned along the way!

October 2012, Florence, SC

                                     

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