During yet another recent automatic writing session, I wrote the following quote:
Success is not about what you do. It’s about who you are. Be love always.
—Carolyn J. Braden
Now, someone else may have said this at some point and it stuck in my head, so I can’t positively say I’m the first to say it. I also know the same thing has been said numerous times in various ways over the years, however, I thought I’d put it out there anyways in case anyone needed a reminder.
We often get caught up in the hoopla of “who’s who” and “who does what”. When I used to work in the corporate world, I’d often be involved in conversations where others would say things like “Oh, that’s the VP of Finance” or “They are just an Analyst” or “Our CEO…..”. My ears would often go deaf when I heard things like that.
I’ve never cared about titles very much. Many businesses where I’ve worked have though, so I’ve had to push my educational titles or my work titles sometimes for my career’s sake. In my mind though, I believe titles aren’t important. What’s really important to me is WHO SOMEONE IS.
I think I’ve adopted this practice from my Aunt Maureen. She has never been afraid to go up to anyone. CEO, President, Director, you name it, she’ll talk to them. She has people with those titles over for dinner or has them give talks at her home. She pulls “titled individuals” (that others may think “Oh, I could never talk to them”) into her circle and makes them real and relatable.
I did this with many Directors and VP’s (and even tried with a CEO) in the corporate world too. I scheduled meetings with quite a few titled individuals for one year. It ended up being an interesting experiment. During our meetings, I had meaningful conversations with many. Some, I did not. One thing I learned from the experiment was how important BEING LOVE was.
Those that held to their meeting day/time (or rescheduled when needed and actually held to the rescheduled date) and spoke with me about life topics (things other than direct work related things) were BEING LOVE. Those are the ones that stood out to me as being super great humans. They made me feel like I was an equal human and not just some “worker-bee” that was beneath them. I’ll never forget them for that. I also won’t forget the ones that didn’t treat me with equality.
No matter what you do, no matter what your title is, you have to always be love, act with love, and speak with love. BE LOVE to everyone; from the sanitation workers to the administrative assistants to the clerk at your local grocery store. For BEING LOVE will always keep you successful.