A humorous story is told about a photographer for a national magazine who was assigned to get photos of a great fire. Smoke at the scene hampered him and he asked his home office to hire a plane. Arrangements were made and he was told to go at once to a nearby airport, where the plane would be waiting. When he arrived at the airport, a plane was warming up near the runway. He jumped in with his equipment and yelled, “Let’s go! Let’s go!” The pilot swung the plane into the wind and soon they were in the air. “Fly over the north side of the fire, yelled the photographer, “and make three or four low level passes.” “Why?” asked the pilot. “Because I’m going to take pictures,” cried the photographer. “I’m a photographer and photographers take pictures!” After a pause the pilot said, “You mean you’re not the instructor?”

Funny stories can help illustrate important life and leadership lessons. Below are 3 helpful principles extracted from the story about the photographer.

It’s Good to Get a High Level View

When setting a goal or getting assigned to a specific task, it’s good to get a higher level view of what needs to be achieved. While some would say the phrase, “30,000 foot view,” is annoying and over used, the intent is simply to get a bigger picture understanding. Individuals and teams need various perspectives with regard to what is considered a successful outcome. Most importantly they need to know what is considered a success by their manager, supervisor or leadership team. Getting a “big picture” view along with perspectives from those “on the ground” will go a long way in achieving success.

It’s Good to Have the Right People on Board

In the story above, imagine the thoughts running through the minds of the pilot and the photographer when they realized neither one of them could be very useful to the other in a critical moment of need. No leader wants to discover they have the wrong team member when things begin to heat-up or when the project is on the line. Whether it’s a short-term project or long-term employment opportunity, locating and attracting the right talent is important.

With the right mix of personalities and experiences, team members will depend on one another, challenge one another and bring out the best in one another.

Brian Tracey, author and speaker, said, “Transformational leaders pick the right people, match them to the right jobs, achieve mutual clarity on the desired results, and then they get out of the way and leave the individual with maximum freedom to perform.”

It’s Good to Communicate

Good communication is the key to success. Most issues in relationships, personal or professional, can be traced back to a breakdown in communication. The breakdown may be in the form of a misunderstanding, a lack of information or a lack of clarity. Either way, taking steps to ensure communication has occurred is critical if we wish to avoid what George Bernard Shaw once identified as the challenge in communication saying, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

Asking questions, seeking more information and ensuring all parties understand what’s been communicated will help us to keep from hearing this statement, “I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”

On Sept. 11, 1992, the strongest and most destructive hurricane to hit the Hawaiian Islands made landfall on the island of Kauai causing a path of destruction including water, wind and dirt.

Hurricane Iniki hit the United States on the heels of the destruction caused by Hurricane Andrew in Florida and Louisiana. Iniki pummeled the south shore of Kauai destroying about 1,500 homes and damaging hundreds of others. Beachfront shops and businesses were also destroyed by 20 foot waves and sustained winds of 130 mph. In all, Iniki caused an estimated $1.8 billion in damage.

The storm lived up to its name Iniki, which means sharp and piercing winds in Hawaiian, as it battered Kauai with wind gusts up to 160 mph. The storm’s high winds accounted for much of the destruction. Twenty-one years later, Hurricane Iniki remains one of the costliest hurricanes to ever impact the Eastern Pacific.

One local shop keeper, a screen printer, was hit hard by the hurricane with hundreds of t-shirts drenched with water and stained with red dirt that had been churned up in the storm. What could have been a disastrous and devastating blow, causing financial ruin and ending the dreams of store owner Randy Williams, turned out to be a boon for business. Liking the reddish color and turning a seeming catastrophe into an opportunity, Randy developed a dirt dying process and sold the shirts with an, “I Survived Iniki” design. Since then, the company has grown to a worldwide brand known as the Original Red Dirt Shirts.

The company still has a factory in Kauai where they produce 10,000 shirts every month. At the other factory in Mesa, AZ, nearly 100,000 t-shirts are produced monthly. The dyeing process is 100 percent natural from the red dirt and other food grade products used to set the color through the design process to finalize the shirts’ appearance.

Efforts by Randy Williams to overcome the challenges presented by Hurricane Iniki are leadership lessons for everyone.

Disasters Don’t Have to Be Disastrous – Just Ask Others

Everybody and every business is going to face challenges, obstacles and difficulties somewhere along the line. Challenges often times are the trigger points that help develop our character, hone our skills and inspire creativity.  A Dutch proverb says, “The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials.” Problems may arise and cause delays in schedules and plans but delays are not denials. In his effort to develop a nickel-iron battery, Thomas Edison tested over 9,000 experiments without getting positive outcomes. While at his work bench continuing in his effort to achieve success, a long-time associate expressed his regrets to Edison for not getting any results. Edison quickly replied, “Results! Why man, I’ve gotten a lot of results. I know thousands of things that won’t work.”

Going it alone can be lonely and discouraging when working through difficulties. Seeking input, guidance, and counsel from trusted advisors can help you to see things from a different perspective, develop a strategy and stay focused on a solution.

When Life Hands You a Bowl of Dirt, Develop a Process For Making Shirts

You may need to ask yourself a series of questions in order to develop a process for overcoming the challenges, problems, or obstacles you or your team are facing. What good things are happening within the project that can be highlighted? Who needs to be notified of this problem or delay? Have others dealt with a similar problem, if so, how did they handle it?  Are there other potential problems that might be created through our effort to solve the existing problem? Is there another viewpoint, solution, or perspective we have not considered?     Sometimes, mind mapping a problem can help lead to a solution.

Optimism Beats Pessimism

In their Fall 2013 newsletter, Employee Assistance Program, LLC commented on research regarding optimistic people saying, “According to psychologist Suzanne Segerstrom, optimism is not just about feeling positive. It’s also about being motivated and persistent. In her book, ‘Breaking Murphy’s Law: How Optimists Get What They Want From Life – and Pessimists Can Too,’ Segerstrom explains that optimists tend to deal with problems head-on. Instead of walking away, they plan a course of action, seek advice from others, and stay focused on solutions. Segerstrom also says that optimists tend to expect a good outcome, and even when they don’t get it, they find ways to learn and grow from the negative experience. Optimists believe their actions shape their destinies.”

There Must Be a Pony In Here

It’s kind of like the story of the twin boys had who had developed extreme personalities — one was a total pessimist while the other was a total optimist. Concerned for their children, the parents took them to a psychiatrist.

First, the psychiatrist treated the pessimist. Trying to brighten his outlook, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with brand-new toys. But instead of being overjoyed, the little boy burst into tears. Confused, the psychiatrist asked, “What’s the matter?” “Don’t you want to play with any of the toys?” “Yes,” the little boy cried, “but if I did I’d only break them.”

Next the psychiatrist treated the optimist. Trying to discourage his outlook, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with horse manure.  But instead of wrinkling his nose in disgust, the optimist was delighted. Then he climbed to the top of the pile, dropped to his knees, and excitedly began digging out scoop after scoop with his bare hands. “What do you think you’re doing?” the psychiatrist asked, just as baffled by the optimist as he had been by the pessimist. “With all this manure,” the beaming little boy replied, “there must be a pony in here somewhere!”

Success can sometimes be buried beneath a lot of dirt, mud, and manure. Keep digging!

Poetry can often be interpreted differently by different people. “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost, shown below, is a great example. Whether one interprets this poem to be about making difficult choices, individualism or the paths we take in life, it causes one to stop and think about 3 take-aways from the paths we take.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

One thing is for sure, we will all travel down various paths in life. Some will be easier than others, some will bring different rewards, some may even appear to be dead-ends, no matter what, we can learn valuable life lessons from the paths we travel.

Every Path Has Challenges, Obstacles and Opportunities

Every opportunity has a difficulty but it doesn’t mean the opportunity doesn’t exist. Every difficulty has an opportunity but it doesn’t mean difficulty won’t be part of the journey toward success. The difference between an obstacle and an opportunity may have more to do with our attitude toward it. For some, the first sign of difficulty means the opportunity is over or never really existed in the first place. In his effort to develop his beacon light, Thomas Edison made between 1,000 – 10,000 attempts that went nowhere. His response to the repeated failures? “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

A Dead-End May Simply Be an Opportunity for a Miracle

The Bible tells of one leader who led his people into a dead-end situation only to experience a great miracle. In their escape from Egypt, Moses found himself and his people trapped against the Red Sea, a body of water with an average depth of 1,600 feet. With an angry army approaching from one side and approximately 10 miles of water on the other, all seemed lost. While the people grumbled, complained and lost all hope, Moses remained ever confident. According to the Exodus story, God opened a path through the water and Moses successfully led his people to the other side. A dead end does not mean permanent defeat. It may mean it’s time for a dissection of your direction. Take your time. Don’t panic. Look around and you may find a path you didn’t know existed.

Napoleon Hill said, “Opportunity often comes in the form of misfortune or temporary defeat.”

No Matter the Path in Life, Enjoy the Journey

It’s easy to get into the mode of simply going forward with our head down, racing to reach the destination, achieve the goal or accomplish the task. All which are very important and in many cases, what we get paid to do. However, we’ve all heard others say, it’s not the destination but the journey that brings the most joy. It’s along the way that we develop friendships, get and provide encouragement, gather information, expand our knowledge, grow as individuals, and gain new insights.

Author Ursula Le Guin may have said it best, “It’s good to have an end to journey toward, but it’s the journey that matters in the end.”

Early pioneers who helped settle and tame the Wild West had to overcome many challenges as they made progress toward success. Planning enough food and water, avoiding wild animals, maneuvering through Indian territory, overcoming disease, and arriving safely and successfully before inclement weather hindered their progress were just a few of the factors to consider before loading up the wagons and heading out. Those who headed west were driven by the desire for opportunity and were inspired by the dream of land ownership, farming and freedom.

Helping to spur the migration west was a newspaper editor by the name of John O’Sullivan who wrote, “…the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and possess the whole (land) of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federaltive development of self-government entrusted to us.”

From the mid 1830’s to the late 1860’s hundreds of thousands of settlers, ranchers, farmers, miners, fur traders, missionaries, businessmen and their families made their way through a network of emigrant trails. Following trails blazed by others was beneficial to those pioneers who traveled from the mid-west, however, they also had to avoid the ruts that were cut into the trails by the thousands of wagons before them. It’s been said that at the entrance to one trail a sign was posted that read, “Avoid this rut if you don’t want to be stuck for the next 25 miles.”

Much like pioneers of old who had to carefully avoid the ruts in emigrant trails, today’s business professionals must avoid ruts in life’s paths if they hope to achieve their goals.

Develop a Routine Not a Rut

Some people begin each work day by planning and listing the priorities that need to be done while others plan their day the night before. Some will take the time to review their day’s work and see what was accomplished and how well it was done. Some take notes, make adjustments and look to see how they can improve. At the age of 20, Benjamin Franklin developed a list of 13 virtues (which can be found online) in order to continually improve his character. Regarding his work, Franklin wrote, “Industry. Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.”

A daily routine will help you to be more focused, waste less time and be far more productive.

Develop Goals

It’s good to have goals. What do you want to accomplish by the end of the year? How many sales calls do you want to make each week? How much money do want to have for retirement? When do you want to pay off a certain debt? Which musical instrument would you like to learn?

Setting goals increases one’s motivation, drive and achievement. Those who set goals have a tendency to demonstrate greater persistence and creativity in pursuit of those goals as well. Zig Ziglar once said, “I don’t care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants.”

Developing, focusing, and working toward goals is one way to avoid falling into a rut.

Develop an Accountability System

From Bible studies to CEO peer groups and everything in between, accountability keeps people accountable. Inviting trusted individuals into your life for the purpose of accountability increases a sense of personal responsibility, improves performance, and helps to achieve potential. When a family in a covered wagon found themselves stuck in a rut, others came along side and assisted in the effort to help them out. Allow others to assist you in your effort to avoid falling into a rut, limiting and delaying your success. Trusted relationships are important in the advancement of one’s career and the development of their character. As Charlie “Tremendous” Jones said, “You will be the same person in 5 years as you are now except for the people you meet and the books you read.”

In the diaries of the pioneers who traveled the emigrant trails, they often referred to those trails as, the dusty road, steep road, rocky road, long road, endless road, tiresome road, and winding road. You can’t help but to get an image in your mind of the difficulties and challenges those early pioneers faced in their effort to reach their goals. In making your way through life, your professional career, and in your effort to avoid life’s ruts, remember to always take the high road.

Image credit: MPI/Getty Images