345 – Focus On WIN

John Over the last two decades, I’ve been on an insatiable quest to learn everything I can about leadership. What makes the best leaders so good? After running companies small and large over the last 20 years, today, I speak on stages all across the world to audiences who are interested in that same question. My name is John Laurito. I’m your host, and I invite you to join me on this journey as we explore this very topic and what makes the best leaders so good. Welcome to tomorrow’s leader.

John All right. Tomorrow’s leaders. Welcome to the show. Happy January. I know we’re now midway through the month. It’s been a gap of I know, a couple of weeks here. This has just been a crazy, crazy, crazy month of travel. I have been to, I think, seven cities in the last two weeks. Nuts. And that’s just the half of it. I got another seven or eight left to go this month, so no excuses, but I have been all over the place and I’m finally back this weekend doing a little bit of recording, so I get a few episodes to share with you coming up, but I hope your January is off to a great, great start. So first off, Riddle’s the winner of The Last Riddle, If you remember that I gave on one of my solo episodes, the the riddle was what word? Has Kirstie in the middle. In the beginning and at the end. What word has cast in the middle, in the beginning and at the end, That was a tough one. I did not get many guesses, but the correct guess correct answer was given by Tammy Haines. Congratulations, Tammy. Very excited that I was thinking that was there was going to be no guesses that were correct.

John So just so people know. Okay, okay. Is in the middle. What word has Casey in the middle in the beginning and at the end. So hence the word inc stand is born. That is the answer. What word has Kirstie in the middle in the beginning and at the end? So, Tammy Haines, congratulations. You’re one smart. Pearson. Smart Pearson. All right. Today’s Riddle. Let’s move on here. Today’s riddle is. Okay. What walks? What walks on? Four feet in the morning. Two in the afternoon and three at night. What walks on four feet in the morning? Two in the afternoon and three at night again. Email me, text me, carrier pigeon me, whatever you want to do. Get your answer to me. I will announce your name on the air if you get the answer right. Okay, so today’s topic. So as I mentioned, I’ve been traveling a ton and this was just, you know, every once in a while you have a huge, just big aha moment where things come to you and you realize, Wow, okay, now I get it. And I had been traveling last week was crazy. I was in. I was in. Let’s see here. Where was I? I was in the week before. I was in Long Island and New Jersey. Cranford, New Jersey, my hometown of Cranford, New Jersey, where I were. Grew up, spent most of my life. Good old Cranford, New Jersey, at a business meeting right down the street from where I grew up on Springfield Avenue. Awesome. Loved it. So last week was another packed week of travel. I was in Rochester, New York. I was in Detroit. I was in Indianapolis. I was in Chicago. So needless to say, it was a busy, busy week.

John Lots of air time, lots of planes, lots of airports, all that kind of stuff. So I finally got home on Friday night and I was actually contemplating taking I was on a flight that was later that was not going to give me home landing until 10:00 at night and not home probably till 11 by the time on a Friday night. And I had a leader who I have a ton of respect for gave me some really good advice. Kevin O’Leary, shout out to you who said, you know what? What do you do and why are you leaving late? Why don’t you just take the early flight? Which meant me leaving this meeting a little bit earlier than had been planned, but it meant the difference of me landing at five at night and versus landing at ten at night, which is a big difference after a long week. And so I, I did that. I decided to take the early flight. And I will tell you, it was one of the best decisions because what it gave me was a night that I wouldn’t have had. It gave me a night with my kids. I got home early, got home at six, and we decided to go out to dinner. So I had a night that I would not have had. I would have been up in the plane till ten at night. And I actually told the kids, I’m like, I literally we were driving back from dinner and we were driving back and I said, you know, I’d be I’d be up in the air still with it, like an hour, hour and a half still to go. Had I had I not had that nice, friendly push and made the decision to come back earlier than expected.

John So but here is the interesting thing. You know, I was I got home. I was I was tired, exhausted, hungry. Really looking forward to having a great night with the kids. And we decided on all the different types of restaurants. We decided we go to Mexican. I love Mexican. I could I could eat Mexican food every single day. I really could. Pizza and Mexican food. Those are my two go tos. So I was really excited about getting some great Mexican food, enjoying the night, having some fun, just having a margarita, just enjoying it. And so I decided that. So we started looking at places. And by the way, Mexican food not only I treated I mean, it’s a passion. I love it. I love it so much. Have won a contest. I won a contest eating tacos, 19 tacos, consumed in one sitting. Yes, I beat my mai. I beat a small group gaggle of guys and girls trying to to all out eat each other. And I won. So an event if you I don’t know. I’m kind of a big deal in the taco world. So in any event I was looking at trying to find a place, a mexican place close by. In fact, there was one right around the corner, and ultimately I found one that was within 5 minutes away. And I’m thinking, okay, let’s go to this one. And the kids decided they wanted to go to one that was like half an hour away. And I’m thinking, okay, I don’t really want to go have fun. I always want to go a place close and get tacos sooner rather than later. So I was kind of pushing for that. They were pushing for the one that they liked that they heard great things about.

John That was a half an hour away. Bottom line is, I was outnumbered, outvoted. We decided, okay, let’s hop in the car. We’ll do the one that’s half an hour away. And I will tell you, as I’m driving there and we’re talking and we’re laughing and we’re playing great music and we’re singing, we’re having a blast. And I’m thinking to myself in my quest to try and get tacos as quickly as I could, I missed the whole point of what this night was about. It’s not about getting food as quickly as I can. It’s about spending the time with the kids and actually enjoying every single moment of it. And you know what? One of the best parts of the night was the car ride. I didn’t know how we’re in the car with them. And both ways were having fun chatting about stuff, singing, playing cool music. It was awesome. And I wouldn’t have had the time had I been focused on the wrong thing, which was just trying to get tacos as quickly as possible and feed my. So my point is, it just was a reminder that sometimes you miss the win. Win stands for what’s important now. And I think as leaders, leaders of our own life, leaders of our organizations, we always have to remind ourselves and challenge ourselves to understand and think through, okay, what’s really, really important right now? What is it? What’s the thing that we’re trying to do? What’s the thing we’re trying to accomplish? Is it trying to get a meal in and out really fast or is it really trying to spend time with somebody? What’s the objective of this whole project that we’re working on in the organization? What’s the objective that we’re trying to achieve with this whole new process that we’re rolling out? Sometimes we lose sight of what’s important right now and we get side sidetracked by all the other stuff that’s really just distractions.

John And we miss the whole point and what we’re trying to do. Okay, This was this was a family situation. This was a time, quality time with kids. It wasn’t about getting food really fast and scarfing down 1920 tacos. Now it was about spending time and having a great night, which I did. We had a fantastic night, so it was just a reminder about the importance of knowing and understanding your win. What’s important now, I hope you take this and I hope this changes maybe something you do in the future and maybe something tonight, today, whatever this weekend, and maybe you think a little bit about, okay, what’s really the whole point of this thing? Enjoy, be present, enjoy the moment, Enjoy the time you got with somebody. Honestly, you don’t know how long you’ve got it. So enjoy every single moment of that time. You have those special people in your life. So, okay, that’s my message for today. I will be back soon with another episode. I hope you’re enjoying your Januar. I hope it’s going exactly the way you want it to go. I hope we’re off to a good start. Don’t give up on those New Year’s resolutions and those goals and other important to you. Keep going. Keep going. It’s two weeks in, just day by day, every single day. Keep going. All right, everybody, thanks for your time. You know, the deal likes subscribe, share, all that kind of good stuff. And we’ll see you next time. Bye.

Thanks for joining us on today’s episode of Tomorrow’s Leader, or for suggestions or inquiries about having me at your next event or personal coaching, Reach me at John@johnlaurito.com. Thanks, lead on!