Hyrum W. Smith - The 3 Gaps: Are You Making a Difference?

THE 3 GAPS

Are You Making a Difference?

Hyrum W. Smith

The 3 Gaps

Copyright 2015 by Hyrum W. Smith
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
1333 Broadway, Suite 1000
Oakland, CA 94612-1921
Tel: (510) 817-2277, Fax: (510) 817-2278
www.bkconnection.com

Ordering information for print editions

Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the Special Sales Department at the Berrett-Koehler address above.
Individual sales. Berrett-Koehler publications are available through most bookstores. They can also be ordered directly from Berrett-Koehler: Tel: (800) 929-2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626; www.bkconnection.com
Orders for college textbook/course adoption use. Please contact Berrett-Koehler: Tel: (800) 929-2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626.
Orders by U.S. trade bookstores and wholesalers. Please contact Ingram Publisher Services, Tel: (800) 509-4887; Fax: (800) 838-1149; E-mail: for details about electronic ordering.

Berrett-Koehler and the BK logo are registered trademarks of Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

First Edition
Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-62656-662-0
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-62656-663-7
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-62656-664-4

2015-1

Cover designer: Nancy Austin

I dedicate this book
to my amazing wife of forty-nine years,
my six children, and my twenty-four grandchildren.
They have all consistently been there
to help me close
my gaps.

In George Bernard Shaws remarkable book Man and Superman the fictional hero, Don Juan, is faced with an interesting choice. He has been sent to hell and has to consider the consequences of his condition. He has been given a choice to return to heaven, but the devil is persuasively and deftly trying to get him to stay. Hell, in this instance, is described as a very nice place to besophisticated, pleasant, easy, and not the fire and brimstone of mythology. In the end Don Juan wisely chooses to return to heaven, a choice scoffed at by the devil, who asks why. Our hero simply answers that to be in Hell is to drift; to be in Heaven is to steer. The devil is rendered speechless.

Hyrum Smith has long held a special interest in the principles of productivity and achievement. Hyrum has been blessed with the ability to electrify and enlarge the minds and aspirations of his audiences. His energy forges a compelling pathway to something he calls inner peace; a profound by-product of achieving congruity between what is of most worth, based on the highest priorities and acts of behavior. As he explains in the following pages, incongruity happens when we veer off the path of what matters most and lose our way. You will recognize that condition; its a common malady in lifein his life, our lives, organizations, and, perhaps most especially, the life of our nation.

We live in a world of incongruity and confusion. Yet finding inner peace is a process that is surprisingly easy to learn and applythe remedy for much of the chaos lies within the pages of this book. Will being influenced by the wisdom shared here and applying it in our lives change us? Can our organizations become more focused and productive? Could it heal the nation? Well, that depends. Are we ready to change ourselves? If so, the fruits of that effort will be rich.

We, like Don Juan, can choose to drift or steer through our lives. Although this is not a book that offers heaven as a reward, Hyrum extends an emphatic opportunity for us to steer ourselves in the direction where our highest ideals, great accomplishments, and the contentment that comes from being whole lie in wait. Read on. Make a difference.

Richard I. Winwood, cofounder of Franklin Covey and Developer of the Franklin Day Planner

I lived in England when I was nineteen and twenty years old and had the opportunity of listening to Winston Churchill speak. In a speech that he gave just before his death, he indicated that he had been obsessed with the need to make a difference on the planet.

If anyone has made a difference, Winston Churchill has. After all, he probably saved the free world during World War II. As I listened to him speak, I felt like a baton had been passed to me that day, and I decided, You know what? Im going to make a difference, too.

The commitment to that value has affected most of my decisions over the past fifty years. So when the office of then mayor Rudy Giuliani called me three weeks after the events of September 11, 2001, and asked if my business partner Stephen Covey and I would come to New York to lead a workshop for the families affected by the tragedy, I said, Of course, when do you need us?

On October 18, 2001, Stephen and I flew to New York. Id flown into New York hundreds of times, but this time flying over the East River was a very different experience. The World Trade Center was gone. We flew in late at night and from our window we could only see lights and the smoke that smoldered on. It was a surreal sight.

The next morning at 5:00 a.m., a police van picked us up and took us to Ground Zero, where a tour had been arranged for us by the mayor. After getting through four police checkpoints, we stood on fifteen feet of compacted debris in front of the largest hole Id ever seen.

As we stood there, a crane pulled an I-beam out of the rubble; it was dripping molten steel on one end. The police officer told us that there had been over forty thousand computers in the World Trade Center and not one had survived the three-thousand-degree fire. It was still burning as we stood there.

Later we were shown into a hotel ballroom designed for a capacity of eighteen hundred people. Four or five hundred additional people stood in every available space. The event began with two police officers and two firefighters in dress uniforms walking in with the American flag. Just that was enough to wipe me out emotionally. The Harlem Girls Choir then blew the roof off, singing three patriotic songs; I have never heard more magnificent music.

By then I was crying like a baby. I was grateful Stephen was up first. When it was my turn to speak, I made my way to the front of the room, stepping over people sitting on the floor. Before I could open my mouth, a firefighter stood up and said, Mr. Smith, are you going to tell us how were going to get out of bed in the morning when we just dont give a crap anymore?

That began the toughest and perhaps most rewarding speaking experience Ive ever had.

I looked out at the expectant, shocked, grief-stricken faces and then said to the firefighter, If you remember one thing I say today, let it be these words: pain is inevitable; misery is optional