Success Mantra: Live Life Like You Mean It

Eric Kulikowski  is a leadership development coach, a dynamic speaker, and recovering engineer who specializes in helping manufacturing and technology leaders thrive in their chaotic world by making change and continuous improvement possible. He also works with entrepreneurs and solo-preneurs to create businesses of significance from the ground up. From his responses to our SHOW UP AND SHINE questions below, you'll discover why his success mantra is: Live life like you mean it!

photo credit: faungg's photo

SHOW UP AND SHINE Questions:

If you boiled life down to one philosophy that brings meaning and adds value to your life no matter what circumstances you face, what is that philosophy for you?

My success mantra is: live life like you mean it. Ensuring we extract the most benefit from the events, relationships, and experiences in our lives will bring fulfillment to both us and those around us. Additionally, when things are seemingly not going your way, adopting the attitude “if this is the worst thing that happens to me today, I am really blessed” helps you be centered and rational in moments of chaos and despair.

What are one or two keys to success for you? 

I'll give you more than one or two.

• I succeed because I involve other people in my ventures and adventures. Collectively we are smarter than we are by ourselves.
• Being curious has been a trait of mine since a young boy—I used to break things just to see what was inside!
• Benchmarking and learning from others is a critical key to success in life and business.
• Oh, and on the back end, being gracious and thankful to those who journeyed with us is a key to success as well.

What is one of the biggest mistakes you've made and what did you learn from it?

One of my biggest professional regrets was not recognizing early enough how valuable professional development was for me. God bless the folks who worked for me early in my career—it was too much about me and not enough about them. Upon having this epiphany, the results we achieved together as a team skyrocketed and we are all better today because of it. People matter—as their leader, give them reason to believe it!

What is your best advice for people who want to SHOW UP AND SHINE? In other words, what would you say to help people live into their bigger story?

Be curious. Give yourself permission not to be perfect all the time. Step over the line that defines your comfort zone and be significant in the eyes of others. These things become much easier (and way more fun) when you aren't always striving to be perfect. Go ahead and be amazing. I dare ya!

 

Question: Wow, Eric shared so many keys to success. Which idea did you need to hear most today and why?