It’s okay to have personal ambitions.  But you have to take someone with you.  –Roger Staubach

It’s Christmas in July here at The Resilient Worker!

I have vowed to listen to more podcasts on the weekends, having fallen sharply out of my routine during the pandemic.  I always pick up one helpful nugget or slice of inspiration along the way.  And this weekend was no exception.

I randomly stumbled on the story of the creation of “The Elf on the Shelf” phenomenon.  For those unfamiliar, this is the business spurred by the story of a magical elf who flies back to the North Pole every night around the holidays to report on the behavior of the children.  And the accompanying lifelike and slighty creepy elf doll has since adorned millions of households around the world.

At first, the creators, Carol Aebersold and her two grown twin daughters, Chanda Bell and Christa Pitts, only sold a handful of books in the neighborhood.  They were pushing the story, and the business limped along for several months.  But then something magical happened.  They invited their customers to participate in the story.  Once they sold the back story of the accompanying elf, and weary and panicked parents from all over realized they had to move the elf every night, the concept exploded.  “The Elf on the Shelf” became a thriving business because its customers actively and willingly participated in the story.

That is a great way to create emotion and meaning around a  for-profit enterprise.  And it is a great way to live a fulfilling and resilient life!

Active Participation is Key

As entrepreneurs, offering stock options isn’t enough.  We have to take people on a journey.  Our employees have to willingly participate in our story, and the more we can include, the greater the chances of collectively succeeding in our mission.  And whether that’s getting to Mars, or selling more dolls, the world will be a richer place.

As managers, it can’t be about us.  We can have rules, and philosophies, and vision.  But if we are pontificating and not listening, that doesn’t encourage participation.  The best way to leave our mark on this world is to have others willingly embrace the philosophy and live out the examples on their own.

And the same is true in all aspects of our lives.  Loyalty and success stem from active participation.  Coaches have to trust their players to perform.  Players have to trust their teammates to deliver in crunch time.  Parents have to trust their children to eventually make the right decisions on their own.  Spouses have to trust their significant others to pay the love back or forward.  There is no success without active and willing participation.  We can set the blueprint.  But we have to encourage participation.

Resilience Takes a Village

And why is this so critical to resilience?  No matter how simple or complex our journey, we are bound to fall on hard times.  We will fail.  We will be the butt of jokes.  We will lose our financial solvency or confidence.  We will struggle.  We will feel all alone against the world.

But if we have asked enough people to participate in our journey,  if our mission is not selfish or self-focused, we will always recover. We will never be alone.  Our customers will rally behind our cause.  Our teammates will have our backs.  Our players will restore our faith in the system.  Our children will make us proud.  Our community will step up and give us hope.  These people believe in us even when we stop believing in ourselves.  And that will propel us forward in dark times.  We can’t always be resilient on our own.  Sometimes, it takes a village!

How Do We Impact the World?

We were not put on this earth to live in a silo.  We can’t spend our lives pontificating from a throne.  It’s not about imposing our will on the world.  We have so much to offer.  It’s about pulling others along to participate in our journey.  It’s about making connections and changing lives through our network.  It’s about creating as much positive influence as possible.

There will be bumpy roads.  We will lose faith and direction.  We will feel isolated at times.  But we have our safety net.  We have a dedicated following whom we have asked to participate in the journey.  It is not ours alone.  Just as we encourage resilience in others, they will encourage resilience in us.

Success, therefore, will not be an individual pursuit.  Success will be measured by how many people we encourage to participate in our positive story.