Maria is doing a 6-month fellowship with ADDO in between working with Tom Brady’s company TB12 and starting her MBA at Rice University. I am so grateful for all of our long-term team members, but I’m also grateful for leaders like Maria who work with us for a season and add so much value to our business.

At breakfast, Maria and I got into a conversation about the natural human tendency to make life as comfortable as possible, and in response, Maria shared some wisdom from her mom. When she was young, Maria’s mom taught her to think about herself like a battleship—not a cruise ship. On a cruise ship, the goal is to make things as comfortable, easy, fun, and distracting from everyday life as possible. But on a battleship, you are working on a mission, moving toward a goal, and there is no illusion that things will be easy.

Far too many of us have decided to pour our energy into making our lives as easy and comfortable as possible. I see this play out the most on social media. People of all ages like to post about how they are enjoying their lives and how you should enjoy yours. Don’t get me wrong, I think life should be enjoyed, but I don’t think that’s our ultimate purpose.

The purpose of your life is to do something that matters for something bigger than yourself.

I understand that this message may not be popular. It’s countercultural. But I believe that it’s true. If you’ve been reading these blogs for a while, you’ll remember that our greatest accomplishments in life never come easy. Easy is not bad, but easy shouldn’t be the goal or purpose of our lives. So consider with me what it looks like to be a battleship in the different areas of our lives.

At work, being a battleship doesn’t mean we show up every day trying to blow things up! But it does mean that we expect and anticipate obstacles. It’s embracing the unexpected and working hard to pursue your organization’s shared vision—even when it’s not easy.

At home, being a battleship means that you love your spouse and children despite your present circumstances. Whether members of your family are battling illness, exhaustion, or relational strain, it’s sticking around and helping each other run the race of this life well.

At church, being a battleship means that you remain steadfast and faithful to serve. It’s being there for others even when you don’t feel cared for in return. It’s serving them with no strings attached, rather than with an expectation it will be reciprocated.

Today is a great opportunity to change your perspective.

Carry yourself with the commitment and mission-mindedness you would on a battleship, instead of ruthlessly eliminating all discomfort from your life like on a cruise ship.

I’ve done this many times in the past, but every time I come back to Proverbs, I come away with something new. I read a verse I’ve read hundreds of times, but at each reading, I have the chance to see it from a new perspective.

This month, this happened with Proverbs 27:17:

“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”

I’ve quoted this verse many times. In fact, I’ve even referenced it in a previous blog about friendship. But when I read this verse this past month, I saw it in a different way. I often think about a person making another person better, but the imagery of iron sharpening iron became bolder and clearer. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever really seen iron sharpen iron, but I have sharpened a knife before, and I imagine the process is similar. The act of metal grinding against metal sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard, and as you bear the knife down to sharpen it, you are actually taking some of it off in order to form a sharper edge.

To make the knife more effective, some of the outer surface of the knife has to come away. If you compare this perspective of iron sharpening iron to our relationships, you’re probably not going to come away thinking about the most encouraging person in your life (though we all need encouragement!). However, you will gain a valuable image of a person willing to create friction in a way that makes you better and more useful. We all need people in our lives who sharpen us in this way. The process is uncomfortable, and sometimes, it’s painful. But when you open yourself up to this, you’ll end up liking the results.

I’m so grateful for my wife Laura. She sharpens me more than anyone else in this world. She will lovingly point out to me when I need to do something I don’t want to do or when I need to have a conversation I don’t want to have. When I take her advice, I am better for it, but it’s an uncomfortable process to get there.

At work, I’ve purposefully put people around me who will sharpen me as I lead. As of this month, Bart Newman is ADDO’s new president. We are so excited to have him on our team! I brought Bart on fully knowing that our whole team will be challenged and pushed in ways we haven’t been before. I know some of it we won’t enjoy, but I also know that our company as a whole will be better for it. I also intentionally made Elizabeth Jay our Chief of Staff at ADDO. Her role is to carry out and implement ADDO’s vision, and this means she’s often offering me helpful advice and correction. She is gifted at sharpening me and the rest of the team as we pursue our collective goal to inspire people today to impact tomorrow.

The process of sharpening is not fun, but it is effective.

It’s important to keep this perspective the next time you receive a piece of advice or criticism that is difficult to hear. Remember, sharpening will always make you better.

If a business is truly going to grow and thrive, they must truly shine in at least one of these three areas and keep customers coming back by outperforming their competition.

1. Superior Products:

‍To be a product leader, your business needs an offering better than most of your competition’s. Customers will come to you because they know you have the best burger in town, or clients keep calling because the consulting services you offer yield real, lasting results. Apple is a product leader. Tesla is proving to be a product leader.

It’s why these businesses have such a widespread, loyal, and consistent following!

2. Operational Excellence:

‍Another element that defines a successful business is operational excellence. This means that your business has a system that is superior to your competitors, so you continue to outperform them in a way that matters to your customers. Amazon is like this. Their proprietary products may not be the best on the market, but they have a marketplace and a system for processing and delivering orders that is far superior to their competition. When you need something fast, you’re going to Amazon.

3. Customer Experience:

‍Finally, businesses are often successful because their customer experience is a cut above their competition. People keep coming back because they feel valued every time they come to you. Disney creates this kind of experience for their park guests. They work to make individualized “magical” moments for their customers that keep them coming back again and again.

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If you are standing out in one of these three areas, chances are you’ve experienced success, but I believe that there is going to be a fourth element that will be a defining factor for success in the coming years: culture.

Culture impacts all three of the elements listed above because it impacts your team—the individuals your company can attract, select, and retain. Healthy culture is one of the most important factors in attracting new talent, so it should be important to you. The next big front on the battlefield of business will be fought over talent, and I believe the best way to win this fight is to develop and foster a healthy culture within your business.

Said another way, culture is the ultimate competitive advantage.

So, what makes up a healthy culture that attracts talent? Here are a few things to keep in mind:

- Values: Compensation is important, but alignment with a company’s values must be present to keep people engaged.

- Meaningful Work: Everyone wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves, so the company’s vision must be clear, communicated often, and connected to the individual’s work.

- Personal Development: Talented individuals desire the opportunity to learn and grow in the workplace.

- Trust: People want to know they can trust their leaders and also that their leaders trust them to do good work.

- Purpose Beyond Work: Work is important, but in order to do good work, people need a purpose beyond what they do with your company.

To thrive, employees must be prepared for their job, passionate about their job, and purposeful both in and outside of work.

The only way to offer the best products and services, maintain the most effective systems, and extend superior customer care is focus on culture. You need high-quality members of your team to be successful, so how will you develop or maintain the kind of culture that attracts them?

A compelling culture will help you with your products, operations, and customer experience.

One of these companies is Chick-fil-A. We have the great opportunity to work with them in a variety of ways, and since we do so much business together, we collaborate on a “Chick-fil-A Immersion Day” at least once each year. The first goal of this day is to understand their business better, so we can serve them most effectively. The second is to more specifically understand their brand strategy and approach to hospitality, so we can represent them well externally in schools and communities where we facilitate programs that showcase their name. And the final goal is to just get better by learning from some of the best and brightest in the business. One of our speakers this year was a local Chick-fil-A franchise owner named Chris Darley.

He spent time talking about the nature of effective goal-setting and started by displaying these four words:

He asked our team: “When you have an option in life, do you want something to be simple or complicated?” We all responded, “Simple!” And he affirmed our answer. Then he asked, “Do you want it to be easy or hard?” We similarly responded, “Easy!” But this time, Chris shook his head.

No, we shouldn’t pursue things because they are easy.

Chris then asked a few of us to share some things in our lives that are most meaningful to us. The answers ranged, but included things like graduating from school, raising our children, achieving a major goal, and our relationship with a spouse. Then he asked us to think about if those meaningful things were easy or hard.

I think you know our answer.

His point was this:

M‍ost of the things worth pursuing in life are hard—things like raising children, getting in shape physically, developing daily disciplines, excelling in your job, cultivating a healthy marriage, and growing in your faith.

None of these things are easy, but they make life rich and meaningful.

Most of the things worth pursuing in life are hard.

This requires us to reframe our thinking. While we should work ruthlessly to make our lives less complicated, we shouldn’t keep trying to make everything easy.

In our work, we can simplify by creating solutions for customers that boost their experience or by building systems for employees that increase their productivity.

In our parenting, we can simplify by trying to work on developing one good habit at a time with our toddlers or by simplifying the schedule with busy teenagers.

In our faith, we can simplify by focusing on reading one book of the Bible together. Simple is good. But it’s time to be honest, with ourselves and with those we lead, that the things worth pursuing in life are often going to be hard. So, keep simplifying where you can. And let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work doing things that really matter.

He explained that this team member is incredibly enthusiastic and passionate about the work she is doing, but can often be kind of overbearing. This team member is constantly throwing out new ideas or seeking approval for a new system or process she has created. While grateful for her work ethic and ingenuity, this leader felt like it was putting more work on him just to keep up with her!

Listening to him share reminded me of a piece of advice David Salyers, former Vice President of Growth and Hospitality at Chick-fil-A, once shared with me: “It’s better to restrain stallions than to kick mules.”

It’s better to restrain stallions than to kick mules.

Isn’t that the truth? Most of the time, leaders are trying to figure out how to motivate the members of their team, how to connect them to the vision, and how to cultivate an ownership mentality in them. As I listened to my friend share, I understood his frustration but also knew many leaders who would die for his problem rather than the ones they typically face.

Most managers spend their time using sticks or dangling carrots to keep their teams moving forward. Either, they punish them when they don’t do what is asked or expected, or they overuse incentives to keep their team members motivated. But a stallion doesn’t require sticks or carrots. Stallions are intrinsically motivated to do good work out of a personal love for the vision of the organization.

You want stallions on your team.

But here is a word of caution. When you put somebody in a position who operates at a different level than you—full of ideas, enthusiasm, energy, and passion for the work—they may outrun you. You may feel like you can’t keep up, but instead of responding in frustration, the best leaders work to restrain and guide stallions to run toward a specific goal.

Though you may have to put in some work to restrain them, I can promise that having stallions on your team is worth it. Here’s a two-fold challenge for you today:

First, if you’re a leader, every time a member of your team is going further or faster than you want to go, remind yourself that you’d rather retrain stallions than kick mules.

Second, in your organization, are you a stallion or a mule? If you are in the mule category, rethink what you are doing. Find a way to level-up. If you are a stallion, try to have some patience for your leaders and peers. They are grateful for you, but you may need discernment on when to push and when to slow down the pace.

It’s important to find contentment while avoiding the trap of becoming complacent.

If I could go back in time and do these ten years over again, I would work to be more content in each season of our business.

Ten years ago, I was discontent. To be fair, most of my discontent was healthy and channeled properly. Not being OK with many things in the world was a good thing. It’s good that I wasn’t content with the way businesses developed (or didn’t develop) their people. It’s good that I was discontent with much of the leadership landscape in school. And it was good that I worked to do something about it. Unfortunately, this discontentment spread to many other aspects of our business. I never fully enjoyed the accomplishments, relationships, and moments that built ADDO in its infancy because I was always thinking about what could be better and always striving toward what was next.

Have you ever felt yourself discontent with areas of your life? Do you wonder where that lack of contentment comes from?

True contentment comes from two key things:

1. The Proper Perspective

‍2. A Heart of Gratitude

‍Many times we aren’t content because we lack the proper perspective. For me, my faith anchors me and gives me a healthy perspective of my present circumstances. The root of your perspective needs to be in something greater than yourself. Once we focus on something bigger than ourselves, we need to remember to be grateful.

A grateful heart thinks more about what it has than what it lacks.

This kind of heart is able to enjoy where it is, even if it is looking ahead to a good vision for a better future.

We should all work to be content, but we should do so with caution. While contentment is good, being complacent is not. It’s easy for contentment to move down the slippery slope to complacency. Complacency happens when we swing to the opposite side of this pendulum. We are no longer striving, not because we’re content, but because we have an unconcerned heart for improvement.

Complacent people lose their vision for what should be or could be. They don’t want to get better because they don’t care to get better. “Fools are destroyed by their own complacency. But all who listen to me will live in peace…” (Proverbs 1:32b–33a). Friends, don’t mistake complacency for contentment. Contentment is finding joy and peace in your circumstances while you continue the work you’re called to do. Complacency is deciding you’re going to stay where you are because you’re apathetic toward improving yourself or the world around you.

When we live in the healthy place between striving and apathy, we embrace contentment and avoid becoming complacent.

We may never get it exactly right, but in my next ten years at ADDO, I hope to grow in contentment. I think a good place for me to start is to be grateful for the last ten years.

Our goal was to inspire young people in our community, and we wanted the event to be affordable for them. So our ADDO team (let’s be real, it was just Garrett and me at the time) sought out corporate sponsors for the event. And spoiler alert, it wasn’t easy.

We created a detailed sponsorship packet that we would take to businesses with amounts ranging from $1,000–$10,000. We needed companies to give us money, but we wanted to provide a return on their investment. Our sponsorship opportunities showcased how we would promote their brand before, during, and after the event. But even with these benefits spelled-out, I felt like we were begging businesses for money. And interestingly, we found it was more difficult to convince a business owner to give at the $1,000 amount than a higher commitment.

Less than two years later, we were coming out of an important meeting, having just signed a contract with Chick-fil-A for many times the dollar amount we were begging other businesses to give. However, the investment was for a much bigger idea, one that would reimagine high school leadership for students all over America. It was easier to inspire our partners at Chick-fil-A because the vision was much larger.

We found the size of the check was directly related to the size of the vision.

This month, we’ve been celebrating 10 years of ADDO by thinking about key lessons I’ve learned over the last decade. And this week, I’m sharing about the importance of dreaming bigger.

Success is not determined by the size of your organization but by the size of your vision. People want to be a part of something bigger than themselves and are more inspired to support a vision that has the potential to make a greater impact.

Success is not determined by the size of your organization but by the size of your vision.

The former CEO of Pepsico Roger Enrico said it like this: “Beware of the tyranny of making small changes to small things. Rather, make big changes to big things.”

In other words, it’s easier to sell a $100,000 dollar program than a $1,000 dollar program because the scale of impact is bigger. In the last ten years, I have learned that a big vision is far more compelling and galvanizing than a small one. It’s easy to think that setting a small dream for yourself or your team will be motivating because it’s easier to achieve. But the opposite is true. A bigger vision is easier to accomplish because more people are inspired to be a part of it. Businesses, churches, non-profits, organizations, individuals—everyone—needs a vision. The bigger the vision the more compelling it is.

A school should have a vision that educating our children is incredibly important work with the potential for lifelong impact. Churches should communicate that their vision for evangelism and reaching their community has eternal significance.

Leaders in an organization should set ambitious goals for their team that are far bigger than themselves.

Dream bigger. When you do, you’ll inspire yourself, your team, and the people you serve.

Today, I want to take us all the way back to the beginning. It was April 2011, and Garrett and I were dreaming about what ADDO might look like. We chose the name ADDO because it is the Latin word for inspire.

We knew we wanted our work to inspire people today to impact tomorrow.

This vision birthed two programs. The first was a leadership conference designed specifically for young people called the ADDO Gathering, and the second was a program designed to take people to Cuba. Let’s go ahead and call out the obvious: these two things don’t necessarily connect, other than the fact that we were passionate about them and they both involved inspiring people.

We decided to hold our first ADDO Gathering in July of 2011, and we needed to do two things to prepare for it. First, we needed to create content that was relevant for the next generation, and we felt confident we could do this well. We had already successfully grown the largest collegiate charity of its kind in the Southeast, UGA HEROs, and we had created a dynamic study abroad program for college students. We understood how to appeal to the next generation, and we were good at it! The second thing we needed to do to prepare for the ADDO Gathering was to find investors, donors, and people willing to be a part of the vision. Unfortunately, this was more difficult. For all the credibility we had to reach the next generation, we had much less to convince an older audience—the people who actually had the resources we needed—to be a part of this vision.

To reach the next generation, we had built credibility. But the only way to reach the supporters and champions we needed was to borrow credibility. And we were fortunate enough to borrow credibility from some of the best leaders in our state.

We reached out to Dr. Betty Seigel, beloved former president of Kennesaw State University, the first female president in the University System of Georgia, and the longest-serving female president of any university in the United States. We worked with former US Senator Johnny Isakson, an incredible leader who was respected on both sides of the aisle. Ike Reighard, the ultimate connector, mentor, and friend. And last but not least, Coach Vince Dooley, who has been a champion for Garrett and I specifically for a long time.

While we did not have all the credibility we needed, we borrowed credibility from these amazing leaders. And in borrowing their credibility, we benefited from the years of work, experience, and network they had earned. When you borrow something, you take it with the expectation that you will return it in good shape. The same is true with credibility. Borrowing credibility from these individuals carried a weight of responsibility. In protecting their reputation, we began building a firm foundation for our own.

When you borrow something, you take it with the expectation that you will return it in good shape. The same is true with credibility.

Here’s my challenge to you this week. If you’re in a position where you need credibility that you don’t have, think of people or organizations you can borrow it from—who could vouch for you? Who is willing to put their name on the line for you? We’re ten years in, but I certainly wouldn’t say we’ve “made it” yet. There are times when we still need to borrow credibility, but we are also starting to be in a position where we can lend our credibility to others. I want to be the kind of leader (and ADDO to be the kind of company) that these mentors were for me and Garrett.

So here’s a second challenge: If you have credibility to give, are you sharing it with the next generation of individuals and organizations?  We need one another to pursue our global visions for a better future.

It’s especially tough for two reasons. First, most young people feel like they barely have enough money to live, much less to set aside for retirement—an event that seems like an eternity away! Second, they feel like this is the time in life when they should live it up and enjoy what they have.

But investing when you’re young is beneficial because of the potential for compound interest. Even investing a small amount, when it has a time to grow and compound, can positively impact your wealth long-term. Check out this chart to see how investing early makes a difference. OK, enough of the financial lesson. This month marks ten years since ADDO’s inception, so over the next four weeks, I’m going to dedicate these blogs to lessons I’ve learned over the last decade. Today’s lesson isn’t really about money, but how I’ve seen this concept of compound interest play out throughout my time at ADDO. Compound interest works when you invest money, but it’s also a benefit of intentionally investing time and energy into young people.

Compound interest is a benefit of intentionally investing time and energy into young people.

Over the last ten years, ADDO has had the opportunity to invest in the lives of hundreds of thousands of students. And as we’ve grown and matured as a company, we’ve earned opportunities to invest in adults—helping businesses build more effective teams, partnering with companies to recruit better talent, and designing effective professional development programs for schools and educators.

If I’m honest, I’ve pushed for us to grow our work with adults and senior-level leaders. Working with executives and helping companies achieve better results has some real benefits— the results are more immediate, the contracts are more appealing, and the clients carry more prestige. With that being said, I don’t want us to ever lose focus on the investments we can make in young people. In this tenth year of ADDO, I refuse to abandon creating programs that inspire and impact youth. Why? Two words: compound interest. When you invest your time and energy into young people, the opportunity for compound interest is huge.

Think about it:

When you invest in a 16-year-old, you are making an investment that will reap benefits for the next 50+ years!

Don’t get me wrong. Our team at ADDO is still dedicated to impacting people and building up leaders at every age and stage. But, I want to remain just as excited about the impact I can make on a senior in high school as I am about the opportunity to add value to a senior executive.

So here’s my challenge to you: Find areas to make intentional investments that can generate compound interest for years to come.

It could be spending extra time with the newest member of your team who is a recent college graduate and needs some guidance entering the working world.

It might be volunteering for a local youth mentoring program.

It could be taking the extra time around the dinner table to talk to your child about why you believe what you believe.

It could be volunteering to teach the fifth-grade Sunday School class at your church.

It might not be glamorous. You might not see the reward immediately. But an investment early will pay great dividends down the road.