Letting Go

Small business owners and entrepreneurs love those success stories. You see them at the magazine racks migrating to INC magazine, Fast Company, and locally, the new Valley Business FRONT.

They're reading about the successful mother who made a cookie so incredible, everyone wanted more--so she started selling them, only to become a multi-millionaire and worldwide brand.

There's the software applications developer who was just gaming around when he stumbled on a product idea that is now a leading program on zillions of computers.

Another story features an architect who secured a patent on an energy-saving building design, and now has his name on some of the most prominent facilities in the world.

Then there's the family owned masonry company that began just one generation ago that has now expanded to nearly a hundred employees, constructing schools, libraries, hospitals and other municipal and commercial buildings all across the region.

And business people love reading about those legendary coaches of winning college and pro football teams.

What do these five success stories have in common?

• The mom hasn't touched an oven in two years.
  
• The only "computer" the developer uses these days is his personal Blackberry.
  
• The architect hasn't drawn a plan since he was a Designer I over two decades ago.
  
• And the mason? No one's going to catch him laying a brick.
  
• The football coach couldn't throw that pigskin any better than his nose guard.

Funny how the proof that one has reached a pinnacle in his industry is that he's no longer doing the very thing that put him on the road to success. Leaders aren't the ones who practice the craft they lead in... they get other people to do it.

Show me a man or woman who is extremely creative and skillful at a task, but just never seemed to make it very far, and I'll show you a person who refuses to let go.

"This is my recipe. Stay out of my kitchen."

"Boy, that helped my computer. I'll just keep it to myself."

"No, you can't change the design that way. Here, let me do it."

"I'm the hardest worker, so if I lay the bricks too, I won't have to pay someone else, and I'll get ahead."

"Back in the day, I made the play. I'm putting myself in the huddle."

I have a feeling there are an awful lot of skillful people who are afraid they are giving up control or losing their own sense of contribution if they expand their product or service beyond their own two hands.

But you have to reach out those hands.

Look at it as "the circle of life" if you must. Passing on your skill or talent or even your own sense of how something should be done--is all part of moving on. Moving ahead.

Besides, do you really want to be stuck behind an oven your entire life?