The Lifelong Process

The Law of Process focuses on only one thing: continual efforts to build leadership. As was mentioned before: Rome wasn't built in a day. To become someone better, you need to make a point to work on your weaknesses and turn them into strengths. And even when you feel you've reached a point where you say: "I've reached my potential", then you are dead wrong. Learning is a lifelong process (hence the title of the post) and goes on for a lifetime.

We need to spend our entire life building our worth and go for the long haul, not the short-term goal. If you plan to make a fortune in a day, you are going to be disappointed. "The secret of our success is found in our daily agenda," as Tag Short says. So long as you keep up with your investments into building your leadership, allowing your "assets" to compound, you'll see how much you'll gain in time.

Don't be let down by the fact there's a leader born every minute. Sure, although many of them truly live up to what is expected from them, it doesn't happen overnight. You need to be master of many factors like experience and influence before you can call yourself a leader. To really rise up you need to work your way to the top. You need to learn continuously.

When you start off, you won't really see the need for leadership - and this means you might have missed countless opportunities! But once you do get into a leadership position, then you'll see how you need to learn to lead. British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once said, "To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge." Also remember what Margaret Thatcher said: "Being in power is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't".

Once you see your lack of skill and work on improving yourself and build your leadership, lots of things will happen. You change in many ways, and then you will notice how you're going on the right track. John C. Maxwell spotted a budding leader in one of his seminars, and gave him good advice on how to become a successful leader: keep learning. Once you do sufficient research and practise, it becomes second nature.

But always bear in mind: you can only go so far when you tell yourself to keep going. President Theodore Roosevelt is a great example of one who uses the Law to great effect. Born to a wealthy family in Manhattan, he was very sickly when he was a boy. But it was his father who encouraged him to be more than that. And over the years, TR (as he was fondly known) honed himself to be the fit man he was known to be. And he continued to distinguish himself: becoming a police commissioner; helped campaign for President McKinley, even though he was almost assassinated; built the United States into a world power; oversaw the construction of the Panama Canal; won the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering peace between Russia and Japan; and even went on expeditions after serving his term. Historian Hugh Brogan described him as "the ablest man to sit in the White House since Lincoln; the most vigorous since Jackson; the most bookish since John Quincy Adams."

When Roosevelt passed away on January 6th, 1919, they found a book underneath his pillow. It goes to show how he lived by the Law of Process; he never stopped learning. And you shouldn't either. Emulate Roosevelt's spirit; build your potential and, most of all, persevere through it all.

Cheers!