The Lifetime lift

I have spoken to a few people recently who tell me they were able to accomplish great things, move mountains, or “make it rain” simply by making a few phone calls. I always congratulate them, but I do not think they are giving themselves enough credit.

When you have been working for any amount of time your previous experiences all contribute in some way to your current situation. Whether you have been working for 1 year or 10+ years, the foundation of your decision making, persona, and abilities are lifted by a lifetime of experience. I call this the lifetime lift.

An example most recently was hearing about a killer sales guy that was able to broker deals between parties yielding his consulting company serious revenue in a month. Without relationships, pitch meetings, deck building sessions, determination, personality, experience etc… NONE of this would be possible.

The lifetime lift can be explained by taking a look at what happens when you attack a problem. Previous experiences contribute to how to hold, shape, play, and ultimately solve that particular problem. Even experiences dating back to childhood have in some way influenced your behavior in that moment or scenario.

One of the ways I benefit from the lifetime lift is in my ability to explain and teach people. I spent a large part of my time in high school developing a consulting company which was basically a PC fixing and tutoring service. I helped my friends for free and ended up charging parents and their businesses an hourly rate – but that is another story. Now when I attack a situation, go into a sales meeting, or connect the dots in a business development situation, I benefit from the patience and understanding of people that came directly from that consulting experience.

One of my favorite examples of what I call the Lifetime Lift is from Guy Kawasaki in a presentation explaining the building and launch of Truemors.com

Just a simple slide with a number…

Followed by a lifetime of lift to explain how a marketing budget could possibly be $0.00

Full presentation which is worth your time.

I think everything you work on gives you some foundation for the future.

Deciding between jobs and what steps to take next can be a daunting task, but looking further down the road can provide some relief that your first or second step will ultimately lead to something greater and step 3 will benefit from what you did before.

Sometimes it is hard to see how something you are doing or working on today can help you in 1 month or 1 year, but thinking about things at a longer timeline can have a positive impact. It can help you plot out what you want to ultimately do and map out the stepping stones to get there.

I have been lucky in my career so far in having good mentors to bounce ideas off of, creating platforms to ask questions on (like this blog), and learning from doing. Each of my experiences has created a framework and outline for going after what is next and it is lifted by my lifetime (albeit short!) of experiences.