I am halfway through an amazing book that was given to me by Elysa Rice (www.genpink.com) who received a couple of  pre-release copies because of her success in her blog and her generally amazing online presence.  This book has given me so much to think about in the first several chapters regarding life, business, and relationships, that I will probably end up writing several posts on the lessons that I learn from it once I finish reading, but this is just something that popped into my head yesterday that I felt I just had to share.

Delivering Happiness was written by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, and the more I read, the more I feel a real connection with not only the lessons in the book, but the mindset that Tony outlines as his strategy for happiness and success in business and in life (for clarifications sake, I put happiness before success, simply because I don’t think success is worth much of anything, or even that it is actually attainable if you are not happy as well). I most definitely recommend picking up a copy of this book as soon as it is released in June 2010.  I think it can give you a fresh new look into what it takes to grow personally and professionally, which is what brings me to the topic of my post today.

As I was sitting on the balcony, i put my book down for a moment and looked to my right to see a beautiful tree that was bare only a few weeks ago.  Seeing the thriving, brilliant green leaves flowing in the wind made me think about how this tree came to be.  All things start out being small and fragile and require nurturing to grow.  A tree, a child, a relationship, a business, and anything else you can think of, all require the right environment and nurturing to survive and expand.  As I thought this through, I found myself thinking back and asking myself, “Am I doing what it takes to grow?”

I often find that I have trouble thinking in the long term.  That beautiful tree outside the balcony has made a long journey to be as grand as it is now, but I always have some sort of fire to put out that pulls my attention away from the bigger picture and often becomes detrimental to my overall goals in life, so I am posing a challenge to myself, feel free to join in if you like.

Tony Hsieh writes in his book that a genuine interest in getting to know people is the first step towards building successful relationships.  Through those relationships you will grow partnerships that last and allow you and your partners to successfully grow together personally and professionally.  I am challenging myself to stop worrying so much about the small fires and tasks that surround me, and direct my focus to the amazing new people that I have an opportunity to meet and speak with every day.  Opportunities and success will come along in the future, but they are most certainly not going to be what I focus on as the intent of my relationships.  I want to truly build a connection with the people around me that I haven’t paid much attention to over the years.  With those kind of connections, happiness seems to come naturally and success should follow suit.

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