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.

I believe in the power of written communication and work to use it for the good of leaders around the world—through the books I write and these weekly blog posts.

But as much as I enjoy writing, I am particularly passionate about speaking. I firmly believe that effective public speaking has the power to change the world in an instant—because effective public speaking starts with a vision.

Think about it. Each of us have experienced a message that’s changed our lives. Whether it was listening live to a lecture that reframed our perspective, sitting under a Sunday morning sermon that changed the trajectory of our faith, or even going back to the archives of the greatest speeches of all time—like Martin Luther King Jr. sharing his dream for America or Ronald Reagan charging Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. Speeches change us, they change the world, and they move people to action. Because I believe speaking is an effective way to impact people and change lives, we’re doubling down on helping members of our ADDO team become more effective speakers. Our friend and partner Dana McArthur is coming into the office to show our team how to become better trainers by engaging and challenging the leaders they teach. And I am helping three of our team members pinpoint, design, and craft their signature speeches.

Part of this training has been helping these members of my team determine what they have to say to the world.

I believe we shouldn’t speak because we want to say something, but because we have something to say.

What we have to say should be focused on our vision for a better future. Regardless of your desire to speak publicly, if you’ve read this far, this next piece applies to you. How can you identify your vision if you don’t know what that is?

It’s more simple than you might imagine: Start with a burden.

Every vision emanates from a burden.

Some of you know exactly what burdens you, but if you don’t, try asking yourself these questions:

- What do I get angry about?

- What breaks my heart?

- What do I look at and say, “This shouldn’t be this way”?

A vision should come from what you want to see changed in the world because a vision is your idea of a better future. How should things be in the world? Your answer to this question is the start of your vision. It doesn’t have to be dramatic or earth-shattering, but it does need to make the world a better place.

This idea of starting with a burden to identify your vision works for both a personal vision and a corporate one. If you want to start a business, what gap are you able to fill in your field? How are you able to make your customers’ or clients’ lives easier? If you’re starting a church, what are you providing to potential members? How are you going to reach out to your community in a way other churches and organizations aren’t?

Here’s my challenge to you today: If you’ve been struggling to define a vision for yourself, your team, or your organization, start with a burden. Don’t wait for the perfect words to come to you. Start with the passion and the right words will follow.

Have a couple more minutes? Allow me to make the case.

In our businesses, we make decisions based on a variety of factors. How will this product be received? What is the influence on the customer? What is going to create the greatest return on our investment?

But there is a factor that is a secret driver of many decisions—but seldom spoken out loud— a person’s ego.

Ego is one of the most expensive things in business.

Take this example. There’s a new chief marketing officer at a highly successful brand. She is taking the place of an individual who decided to retire and left behind a wildly successful marketing campaign. But because this new executive wants to prove her own way (and get credit), she decides to bag the successful campaign in order to create a new marketing strategy that she can spearhead and take credit for pioneering. Or how about this example. An individual is assigned to help develop a new HR process for the organization. They have the budget where he could hire a vendor—a professional HR expert—to help him establish a successful process for the organization. But if he brings on someone with the experience, he wouldn’t receive as much individual credit for its success. So instead of hiring an outside expert, he decides to do something in house. Not only is it more time consuming for this individual, but it’s more expensive and less effective for the entire organization in the long run.

Here’s the reality. Few of us would actually admit when we are making a decision based on our ego—but there are times we choose a lesser option because it will make us look better, position us more effectively, or increase our future personal success. Ego isn’t just costly to our businesses. It impacts other important aspects of our lives as well.

There are times where we may not parent as well because of our ego. Think about the Little League team that suffers because the dad coaching thinks his kid needs to always pitch or play shortstop even though there are more talented players on the team.

It can even happen in church. Think about a scenario where the pastor wants to prove a personal point, so he centers the Sunday sermon on a specific issue and finds Scripture to support it, rather than teaching what the Bible actually says and what his congregation needs to hear.

Ego is an individual struggle that is costly to any group we are a part of—businesses, churches, families, and communities.

It sucks time, money, energy, and extra effort out of the people around us. So it’s something we need to identify and fight back against. We also need the courage to call out this behavior in one another.

Here’s my challenge to you this week: Identify one recent decision you made based on your ego (big or small), admit it to yourself, then make a decision to adjust in the future. The best leaders are able to set aside their personal ego for the good of the people around them.

Talented individuals want to know if they are winning or losing. Are they making progress? Are they meeting—or even exceeding—expectations?

It’s the job of the leader to answer these questions for the members of their team, and they are best answered in two ways: affirmation and accountability. In case you stop reading after this line, it’s important to know that good people need both!

Affirmation is the confirmation that what an individual is doing is right. This can come in the form of a verbal encouragement, a written note, or even a simple head nod in a meeting to show a team member that he or she is on target.

Accountability is the correction and push we need to keep us moving in the right direction. This could be challenging a team member when they did not follow through on a commitment or pointing out an area where their performance needs intentional improvement.

Affirmation and accountability are equally important in developing people.

Time for some honesty- in my most natural state, it’s much easier for me to extend affirmation than to hold someone accountable. Because I am a people pleaser, I can affirm what people are doing well because I want them to feel good about themselves (and if I’m being really honest, about me). However, affirmation without accountability leads to a vicious cycle.

When someone isn’t held accountable (given clear and direct feedback), they will eventually miss the mark in an area of their work. This isn’t because they aren’t smart or talented. The truth is, we all miss the mark at different times. When someone isn’t doing all parts of their job well, affirmation is withheld. And therein lies the start of a cycle that creates even greater challenges.

All of us need both affirmation and accountability.

In the absence of affirmation, we don’t know if we are doing anything right.

In the absence of accountability, we aren’t getting better and finding ways to develop.

Affirmation without accountability can feel disingenuous and fluffy.

Accountability without affirmation can feel harsh and overly critical. It’s the balance of both that spurs on people to be the best they can be. As a leader, I need to remind myself of this daily, and I’m working hard to personally grow in this area.

If you don’t directly lead people at work, let me show you how this idea of extending affirmation and accountability reaches far beyond the four walls of an office.

Affirmation and accountability are essential to fostering every healthy relationship.

I see this with my son, George. He needs so much encouragement when he completes a task on his own or is kind to a friend, but he also needs correction when he is not obeying after I’ve asked him to do something.

I see this in my friendships. My most meaningful friends are those who will encourage me in the good I am doing but will also hold me accountable if I am falling short in an important area of my life.

I see this in healthy churches. Healthy churches encourage the spiritual fruit they see in their members, but there is also a culture of accountability where members are encouraged to resist temptation and grow deeper in their faith.

Here’s my challenge to you and to me this week:

Provide affirmation and accountability to the people you lead and care about most. Not only will it foster growth, but it will strengthen your relationships as you prove to be a more trustworthy leader, friend, and parent.