GOLDEN RULE #9: PATROL OFTEN
Spider-Man swings through Manhattan looking for trouble. Batman tours Gotham City in the Batmobile, ensuring its citizens’ safety. Even Superman uses his super-hearing to monitor the police band. They do this to increase the probability that they will be in the right place at the right time. Their goal, of course, is to thwart villainy.

Business Superheroes, whose goal should be ethical business success, likewise need to set themselves up to be in the right place when opportunity presents itself. The easiest way to do this is to network, network and then network some more. First, compile a list of industry events that are relevant to you.

Give each event a score on a scale of 1 to 5 for:

1. Participation. Will there be speakers or attendees you’d like in your network?
2. Content. How many topics on the agenda appeal to you?
3. Leverage. Business Superheroes don’t just attend networking events – they get involved. Rank your ability to assume some leadership position over time. Through first-hand experience, I’ve learned that the value of the networking event is much greater if I participate.

Now, sit down with a partner, boss, mentor or sidekick and examine your findings. Pick one or two events that have the highest overall scores. These will be your starting points.

Once you have attended the event and determined that it fulfills your needs, meet with the administrator of each event (usually this is a mid-level employee) and offer to volunteer. Work your way up until you are in a leadership position and are fully enabled to leverage your new network.

GOLDEN RULE #10: OVERCOME ADVERSITY
Benjamin Franklin said that “In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” I’d like to add adversity to that list. No one can go through life without facing adversity. The key is not how much adversity you experience, but how you handle those experiences and how you choose to be shaped by them.

Matt Murdock, more commonly known as Daredevil in superhero circles, was the son of the famous boxer “Battlin’ Jack” Murdock, who was a contender in the last throes of his professional career when the story of Daredevil begins. In his retelling of Daredevil’s origins, comic artist/writer extraordinaire Frank Miller included a quotation that I’ve never forgotten. It takes place hours before Jack Murdock is killed by the mafia for not taking a dive. Jack is trying to comfort his son, who was recently blinded in a toxic spill. Jack takes Matt aside and says, “Son, the measure of a man isn’t how many times he gets knocked down; the measure of a man is how many times he gets up.”

That quote has always stuck with me as one of the keystones of being a Business Superhero. Adversity will come, but how you handle it – that’s what you will be measured by. The Green Lantern overcame a fear of failure. Batgirl became a much more powerful hero, called Oracle, by overcoming her confinement to a wheelchair. Then there’s Thor, who reminds me of the founders of Home Depot, who turned adversity – getting fired – into the start of their greatest success.

The essence of a hero isn’t the powers or the costume, but the choices made. I once interviewed a world champion mixed martial arts fighter. In his youth, he was a world champion, but he ended his career with a series of losses. I asked him how losing made him feel. “If you never lose a fight, you aren’t fighting tough enough guys,” he told me. That’s the point that Business Superheroes should embrace. Dark clouds aren’t valuable only for their silver linings; they are themselves proof that you are living up to your highest ideals and still fighting the right battles. Listen to Batman Was a Businessman, Pt. 1, an interview with Wise about the superhero business.

To learn how to create your destiny (Hellboy), stay focused (Wonder Woman) and find opportunities (Thor), along with exercises that will increase your own business superpowers, pick up How to Be a Business Hero.

This story is adapted from How to Be a Business Hero by Sean Wise, by arrangement with Perigee, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. © 2008 Sean Wise.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 1:35 am and is filed under Career Track, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.