The Transformation is within me!
By Peggy Brockman
John C. Maxwell is known as the “leadership guru” of the world. He is one of the most internationally respected and highly regarded authors and experts on leadership and personal and professional development and I am a member of his training and coaching team.
As John says in his book “Becoming a Person of Influence”:
SUCCESS is when you work hard to better yourself.
SIGNIFICANCE is when you work hard to better others.
Two years ago I had the opportunity to travel to Guatemala with John on a transformational leadership mission trip. On my flight from Atlanta to Guatemala, I was given a hint of just how significant the journey would be. I sat next to a young Guatemalan business man and I asked him about his family, his business and his country. Now let me sidestep here for just moment to tell you that I speak NO Spanish…NONE! I had ordered a program that would teach me to speak Spanish in ten days about a month before I left. It arrived at my home the day before I left! I never even had time to open it up.
Fortunately, my new friend Jose` spoke very good English. He asked me why I was coming to Guatemala and I asked if he knew who John Maxwell was. His eyes lit up and he said “YES! I love Mr. Maxwell. I have read his books”. I explained to him that I was part of his coaching team and that we were coming there to train 20,000+ Guatemalan business, faith, government, educational, military and family leaders on a program called “La Transformación Esta En Mi!” Our mission was to teach the leaders how to facilitate a 30 week values based round-table program. Fifteen of the values came from a needs survey of over 12,000 Guatemalans and fifteen came from John’s book on The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth.
As I spoke of our mission my new friend had tears in his eyes. He looked at me and said with a heartfelt voice, “Thank you Peggy, thank you. My country needs you.” My heart melted. I knew that the next week was going down in the book of significance.
We did experience significance on that journey. It changed the lives of every single person selected to go. It also changed the lives of the 20,000+ Guatemalan leaders we trained that week. We were invited to visit the President’s Palace for ceremony and dinner. We worked with Guatemala Prospera and through them, 86,000 Guatemalans are in the program today and over 250,000 have experienced it. The values based program continues to change lives as those leaders spread what we shared out to hundreds of thousands of others in their impoverished country. Many trainers can say they were a part of transforming a company, however, I still pinch myself when I think about the fact I was part of transforming a country.
For those who would like to experience the teachings of Mr. Maxwell, my John Maxwell Team partner, Barbara Britt and I are hosting Live2Lead on October 9th from 7:30am to 1:00pm at the Ft. Walton Beach Civic Auditorium by City Hall. John Maxwell and 3 other international leaders will be speaking at the live simulcast. Conexión is one of the sponsors. Information and tickets are available at www.L2LEmeraldCoast.com.
**Peggy is the author of “10 Feet from the Edge: Stuck in the Comfort Zone” available on Amazon. This article is an excerpt from Chapter 11 on Success Vs. Significance. Peggy is a John Maxwell Team motivational speaker, corporate trainer and life and business coach. Connect with her at by email at [email protected] or by phone at 850-259-8356. Her website is www.peggybrockman.com.
