Nelson Searcy - The Greatness Principle: Finding Significance and Joy by Serving Others

Its not what you take but what you leave behind that defines greatness.

Edward Gardner

W hat if you opened the newspaper tomorrow morning and saw your own obituary? Would it make you reevaluate your life? Cause you to reconsider how you spend your hours? That is exactly what happened to Swedish inventor and chemist Alfred Nobel. Alfred was the man responsible for inventing dynamite. Even though dynamite is now synonymous with destruction, Alfreds original intent for the invention was that it would save lives. He wanted to create something so powerful that people would recoil from the thought of going to war with each other, thereby creating more peace.

Things in Alfreds life were moving along fine when, one morning in 1888, he opened the newspaper and saw his own obituary. As it turned out, Alfreds brother had died, but the local press had accidentally created and run an obituary for Alfred instead. That mistake changed Alfreds legacy. When he saw that the writer of the obituary had summed up his life and his work by giving him the moniker Merchant of Death, Alfred came face-to-face with the reality of how his days on earth had been spent.

Upset that he could be remembered so negatively, he decided to refocus his remaining time on his original goaldoing something that would help the world around him. With that decision, Alfred drafted a will directing over 90 percent of his net worth to the establishment of Nobel prizesprizes to be given to, in his words, those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. Shortly after his actual death, the first Nobel Prizes were awarded.

How will people remember you? Are you having the kind of impact on the world that you want to have? Have you found the purpose and meaning that your heart longs for? Are you achieving true greatness, or are you, like so many others, attaining small successes while simultaneously realizing that they lack real significance? Consider the words of author Stephen Covey:

People often find themselves achieving victories that are empty, successes that have come at the expense of things they suddenly realize were far more valuable to them. People from every walk of life... often struggle to achieve a higher income, more recognition or a certain degree of professional competence, only to find that their drive to achieve their goal blinded them to the things that really mattered most and are now gone. How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and, keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to do what really matters most.

Covey contends, as do I, that the way to manage our lives so that we are focused on what really matters most is to embrace the idea of principle-centered living. Internalizing and living by correct guiding principles is the only thing that produces long-term happiness and success.

The people in our lives and in our world who find purpose and achieve meaningful goals are those who live by a strong life-directing principle. Just think back over some of the greatest, most respected individuals of our time and you will see that they all lived by a guiding principle. Here are just a few to considermost you will recognize, though one you may not:

• Henry David Thoreau developed and lived by the principle of civil disobedience. His principled living had a hand in the end of slavery and influenced many after him to live by a similar guiding principle.
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. embraced the principle of nonviolence, originally inspired by Thoreau. Thanks to a life guided by that principle, King spearheaded and effectively led the civil rights movement in the United States.
• Mother Teresa lived by the principle of compassion. She devoted nearly half a century to working with the poor, sick, and dying in Calcutta, India. Even now, she remains an icon of compassion.
• Winston Churchill understood, lived by, and succeeded through the principle of persistence. In a 1941 speech at the Harrow School, he famously advised the students, Never give innever, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.
• Vince Lombardi oriented his life around the principle of winning. To him, winning wasnt everything; it was the only thing. And his widespread recognition as one of historys best coaches indicates that he was good at it.