The Brutal Truth About Maturity & Leadership

Potential Leader Lab

How do you perceive the idea of time being more valuable than money?

Perry introduces a poignant poem titled "The Valuable Time of Maturity" by Brazilian poet Mario de Andrade. This poem serves as the main thread throughout the episode and is used as a lens to examine the essential truths about time and maturity. The poem resonates with concepts of self-reflection, prioritization, and what it means to live fully.

Key Themes and Reflections

Time is a form of currency we constantly trade, often without realizing its true value until late in life. Recognizing the finite nature of time can bring a new level of clarity and urgency to our decisions.

The significance of using time wisely by choosing activities and relationships that bring genuine fulfillment. Question your daily routines and interactions, and consider whether these are aligned with your core values and long-term goals.

Quality versus quantity. In the realm of leadership and personal achievement, focusing on the quality of our actions and relationships often leads to more meaningful and impactful results.

Simplicity is portrayed as a catalyst for clarity and effectiveness both in personal and organizational contexts. Perry highlights the tendency to complicate matters to appear more knowledgeable or significant. He references Miyamoto Musashi’s idea of achieving greatness by mastering simplicity, advocating for a more straightforward approach to problem-solving and leadership.

Top Takeaways

Perry outlines four actionable steps to help listeners implement the episode's insights into their lives:

Audit Your Time - He advises conducting a time audit for a week to identify how and where time is being spent. This exercise aims to reveal if current habits are aligned with one's true priorities.

Say "No" More Often - Perry emphasizes the importance of discerning what deserves one's attention and energy. Saying no to trivial distractions and focusing on the "vital few" can lead to a more purposeful and focused life.

Seek Deeper Connections - Encouraging deeper, more meaningful connections, Perry urges listeners to move beyond surface-level interactions. Whether at work or in personal relationships, striving for depth can enrich one's experience and understanding.

Act Your Way Into Being - Align actions with values and goals. Perry encourages embodying the changes one wishes to see, making intentional decisions that reflect one's true aspirations.

Key Moments

00:00 Sharing ideas helps reinforce and retain information.

05:18 Seek genuine, humble, and honest human connections.

08:13 More past than future; universal life principles.

10:47 Quality versus quantity: timeless and universal debate.

16:48 Meaning is created through deep human connections.

20:07 Be selective with time, like money.

22:52 You always choose how to spend time.

25:06 Prioritize vital few, discard trivial many.

27:41 Seek questions, not answers, for tomorrow's choices.

Perry Maughmer believes the world deserves better leadership; that in every human interaction there is the opportunity to either build others up or tear them down; and that leadership is the choice we make in those moments.

These beliefs led Perry to create the Potential Leader Lab. He wanted to offer those who share his beliefs the space and safety to explore transformative ideas, experiment with new behaviors, and evolve into the leaders they were meant to be and that the world needs.

This is a framework he has used again and again with his Vistage peer advisory groups and companies like Turn-Key Tunneling, Convergint, Haughn & Associates, I Am Boundless, Ketchum & Walton, LSP Technologies, and Ahlum & Arbor.

Perry lives and works on the shores of Buckeye Lake in Ohio, in the mountains of northwest Georgia, and on the beach in Anna Maria, Florida with his amazingly creative wife Lisa. They have 2 rescue dogs and are intermittently visited by their 3 wonderful children throughout the year. Perry & Lisa are living life in crescendo and focused on exploring, experimenting, and evolving their vision of a life they have no desire to retire from.

Copyright 2024 Perry Maughmer