How can you achieve greatness in life and remain humble? In this episode Jimmy shares ideas and examples of humility possessed by people who have accomplished great things in life and been recognized on the world stage for their humble attitude.
Episode Keys
- The power humility brings to attract others to you that will help you continue to grow as a person.
- Why humility is important in your development as a person, a father and a community leader.
- When you should learn from your mistakes to help you retain humility in times of achievement.
- How you should gain humility by giving what you have instead of keeping what you earn.
- The secret to gaining and retaining humility is to reflect on your own life in times of challenge.
Podcast Transcript
Good morning. Another beautiful day here. Spring has arrived. I gotta tell you, I love this time of year could probably do without the allergies. Right. But anyway…Hey, this is Jimmy Williams, your host this morning on live life by design. I wanna reach out and hope my co-host of the most Lori few is doing well. She had something very, very important. Very is it’s something she just couldn’t wait to do and had to do immediately. I think that is far more important than being on this podcast. Something about either washing her hair or watching the news or some important task like that. No, I’m just teasing. We miss Lori. She’ll be back with us next week here on Live a Life By Design, but it’s truly an honor to spend a few minutes with you each week, sharing a positively powerful message that hopefully will help you live a life on your own terms.
It is such a great topic that I’m discussing with you today. We’re in an election season, you know, here in the United States, we have what are called the midterms coming up up, starting in June the primaries. And then in November, of course, the general elections. So every two years we have elections of a great magnitude in this country with the representatives and senators whose positions are up for vote. And you don’t hear a lot of humility this time of year. So I want to talk a little bit this morning and share with you some great stories of how you can crush your big, hairy, audacious goals while yet remaining humble. And so for the next few minutes, this isn’t, my goal is that you’re gonna do great things. You’re gonna have the goals you set back in January are going to be, but they’re going to be accomplished with a degree of humility that others wish, and that are attracted to your success.
Humility though, is it’s such a valuable personality trait that Benjamin Franklin, one of the founders of our great country included humility as 13th and final virtue to self-improvement. This was suggested by a friend of his, he had only had 12 and he was so thankful for these 12. And if you would, the word proud would be used that he shared his 12 virtues of life that he wished to live, to set a focus on how his behavior would be as an example to others. And he read these 12 out to one of his friends and as he read them, the friend was gaining the understanding that perhaps Mr. Frankly, could use one more virtue. He said, those are all great virtues. Perhaps after you’re through bragging on them, you might wanna include one more. And frankly asked, well, which would that be? And he said, how about humility, Touche, Shay, right?
That is the one that really helped Benjamin Franklin in life because he had accomplished so much and remained so humble during his lifetime. His definition was a good one as well. He said humility to him was to imitate Jesus and Socrates very short, but understandably, a powerful definition. Well, as you may know, I am a voracious reader. I love to read. One of my favorite genres is biographical. I love to study successful people from all parts of the globe to learn. There are positive traits that empowered the him to achieve greatness in their own time while avoiding the trappings that caused them setbacks while in pursuit of their goals. One of the best leaders of the past 200 years strictly on the Jimmy scale here was sir Winston Churchill. You’ve heard me speak of him many times. His story just simply fascinates me of all that he was to accomplish from a man whose own father and school teacher said he would never amount to anything worthwhile.
He was unable to sit still and study his self deprecating humor and lack of hubris. Tim lead the United Kingdom through the most destructive period of recent decades. Yes, world war II. Many may not know that Churchill was very wealthy during his time as prime minister, but became so cash strapped in years after he left office or should I a was voted out of office that he had to sell his ancestral home to the government to even sustain a place for himself to live. He recreated his lost income though through numerous books that he had written that were bestsellers paintings that he had him self created and his speaking honorariums for those around the world that wish to hear the man of greatness. That was so humble in doing so to reflect his humility to the world. He stated we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
Woo man, that just gives me chills listening to it. You see the beauty of this statement is the fact that you are working so hard providing for your family, trying to do the best you can with the skills you currently have while growing more skills to gain even better value in the marketplace. And there is not one I O to of wrongfulness in doing so. As a matter of fact, I encourage you to be the best, best, biggest, and boldest person. You can be take whatever course, listen to whatever audio you must to gain more skills, practice, greater disciplines, to gain your value that you can bring to the marketplace. You see his statement alone, out, making a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give that alone exhibits, tremendous humility in the life of Churchill, who has someone who fought against Nazis and tyrants of all types had earned the right.
If anyone had to brag a little on his, his accomplishments, but he let others brag for him and history has proven it right? That he was a most humble leader. Another of my favorite quotes is humility is a virtue to ity is an illness by Jim Ron. When we grow as a person, our mindset and confidence should be more mature to acknowledge our growth, but not in a manner that yields boasting. It is often the person that has accomplished the most that goes unnoticed by the crowd that is now staring at the individual who is making the most noise in the room, but impacting the fewest lives for their own growth. In simple terms to me, people seek out the knowledgeable and humble leaders who exhibit greatness in their actions and not only their words as my dad often said, talk is cheap. It’s easier to talk a good game than it is to put a in the time on the court and prove to the millions watching that you are a great athlete.
Of course, I’m talking about number 23 and I’ll tell you how great he is. You only need to say his number and people will know immediately. I know that man, representing that number, Michael Jordan world, famous basketball player, never got his humble beginnings in basketball. Now his life in North Carolina, wasn’t one as humble as some of these basketball greats of today and of the past. He had a very stable family and he had the opportunity to enjoy sports and had a nice a home to study in. So his grades were decent, but I’m not certain if the story is true, but Michael had been reported that he failed to make the roster of his high school basketball team. His sophomore year, the time of humility for him, forged him, a burning intensity become the best basketball player in the world, hours and hours each day, practicing the game.
And he continued to main humble even after winning numerous NBA MVP awards still to this day in 2022, he is held to be one, if not the greatest NBA basketball player of all time, he was asked what made him such a great competitor in basketball and life? His response is pure humility for someone that had accomplished so much whose net worth is unparalleled in the world of sports. He said, this I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times. I’ve been trusted to take the winning game shot and missed I’ve failed over and over in life. I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something, but I can’t accept not trying. Woo. That is powerful. MJ, as he affectionately is called, is someone who always believed that if the wall were in front of him, there was no backwards to his stance.
It was, is merely over, under or around it that he would find a way. This is the type of person that not only shares his greatness with others. Michael Jordan has gifted millions and millions and tens of millions of dollars to charity over his career. And he is still worth millions more, but the humility he gained at an early age, when failure was recognized in that sophomore year, I believe planted a seed in him that has to this day, continued to produce the fruit of humility. His humble attitude winning the MVP award was shown on that court. Humility you see is not a common trait sought in today’s leaders too often. You listen for just only a few moments to a political leader, or you listen to just a few moments of a world leader, and you will hear more braggadocia than you hear accomplishment bragging about oneself does nothing for the listener, except confirm the weakness and lack of true accomplishment by the speaker.
I have been fortunate to be recognized in my profession. Many times it is an honor to be awarded recognition and each of the acceptance speeches, I did my best to be humble and thankful to all of those who contributed to the recognition being received. My compass capital management team, my family, my colleagues, the leadership of the granting organization and others. We are not great for the sake of simply being great. We should strive to be great in helping others achieve their very best. And then them reciprocating to others to continue the chain of serving in a humble mindset this week. Your challenge is simply this. We offer a difficult challenge for many of us, and that we wish for you to examine your words, actions, and thoughts this week to gauge your level of humility. Were there opportunities to be humble in which you missed the mark? You can be the one person that achieves greatness in your community and remains very humble in the process. Go ahead, live your life by design.