Everything Counts: 52 Remarkable Ways to Inspire Excellence and Drive Results

Chapter 50. Contribution Counts

"Focusing your energies on how you can contribute affects the quality, content, and impact of your work."

When someone does something so right, so honest, and yes, so commendable, attention must be paid. A focus on unique contribution allows one to make deposits into their sphere of influence in such a way that looking away is not an option.

We must individually and collectively replace the pursuit of success and material objects with the pursuit of contribution and generosity. For this to occur, the critical question must move from, "How can I become successful?" to "What can I contribute that will significantly impact the mission, performance, and overall results of the institution or community I serve?" By focusing on what we can contribute, we automatically become successful.

Focusing on contribution places a premium on responsibility. As the key driver of effectiveness, our contributions to others allow us to do well by doing good. This is only accomplished by looking outward from our workload and upward toward more noble goals and objectives. However, the great majority of people miss this important point. They tend to focus inward and become preoccupied with what they feel they are "owed," what others should do for them, or what they can get out of any given person or situation. This type of thinking is shallow and self-centered, and eventually, the afflicted party renders themselves ineffectual and unwanted. You must instead concentrate your ...