Having run youth leadership programs for over twenty years, I’m often asked by parents what advice I have for their graduating sons and daughters. With May upon us, here’s a graduation gift to pass along.
Click here for a downloadable PDF of the list!
Tommy’s Top Ten Life & Leadership Lessons:
1) Humility trumps arrogance – ALWAYS!
2) The more people in your life with different religious, political, racial, and economic differences, the more enriched your life will be and the greater perspective you will have.
3) Love is more powerful when it is shown, not spoken.
4) If your life and career are not filled with mentors, coaches, and teachers, then you are living and leading in a silo.
5) If you are doing a favor for someone, expecting it to be returned, then it’s not a favor. Giving is a one-way street.
6) Choosing Heart-Led Leadership as your leadership philosophy is one of the most important decisions you will make in your lifetime.
7) Hard work, character, and grit are more important than a GPA, SAT, or ACT.
8) Investing unselfishly in the lives of others is the most important thing we can do for ourselves, our organizations, our communities, and our world.
9) Freedom is not free. Volunteerism is the rent we pay to live in our free and democratic society.
10) There are three types of people in the world: Leaders, Followers, and Critics. Which one are YOU going to be?
BONUS: The four most important words in leadership: IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU!
It took me thirty minutes to write down these life and leadership lessons.
It took me thirty years to learn them.
It will take me another thirty years to live them.
Congratulations class of 2017!