Warren Buffet confounded a number of his observers when he donated a sizable portion of his personal wealth ($31 billion) to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. People wondered why he wouldn’t want to manage his donations himself. When asked, Buffet replied, “They can give it away better than I can. Besides, philanthropy isn’t fun for me. Running my business day-to-day is fun for me. Philanthropy just isn’t something I enjoy thinking about every day.”¹ It takes a great deal of self-understanding, strength of character, and self-possession to confess that philanthropy bores you. Buffet, known for his wisdom and talent, admitted, “Philanthropy weakens me, and it always will, so I am choosing to hand it off to someone who is strengthened by it. I admire the goals of philanthropy. In fact I admire them so much that I cannot allow them to be undertaken by a guy like me.”²

Warren Buffet understands strengths, and chooses to play his Royal Flush—his best hand possible—in the arena that makes the greatest use of his strengths. But he doesn’t stop there. He also chooses to apply his resources—the money he has earned through direct application of his strengths—to have a bigger impact in the world.

What about you? Have you ever asked yourself, “Am I making a real difference in the world? Am I touching as many lives as I can? Do I have an ache or longing to share my strengths further in the world?”

Throughout this book, we have challenged you to make a difference by applying your strengths at work. Now we’re challenging you to apply them in the most important game of all—the game of life.

In Chapter 8♠, we talked about the difference between a job, a career, and a calling. You may recall that people who view work as a “job” focus on the material rewards of work, not on meaning or fulfillment. People with a career orientation work for the increased pay, prestige, and status that comes through promotion and advancement. Those who view their work as a “calling” work for fulfillment and see the work as an end to itself, believing their work makes the world a better place.

If your work is your calling, congratulations! You experience the emotional rewards of well-chosen work and the financial rewards as well! If your work is not your calling, what is? Do you find your calling when working with children? In protecting the environment? Among survivors of domestic violence in your community? What passions have you put aside while pursuing gainful employment?

Now that you can genuinely use your strengths to further your career satisfaction, what contribution can you make to others? As a citizen of the world, with new knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses, you have a profound opportunity—and, many believe, a responsibility—to engage your strengths and positively affect people and the planet. In all walks of life and circumstances, individuals, organizations, and communities can benefit from the self-esteem and self-empowerment that occurs when we know and use our strengths. The slice of the world you have passion for awaits your leadership. We urge you, as a leader, to become an advocate for strengths.

We are eager to see how you choose to apply your innate talents and gifts, and we’re excited for you to teach others to discover their strengths! We challenge you to think broader and deeper about the affect you can have in the world. Of course, it’s your choice to accept or decline our challenge.

Anyone can participate in a walk/run event to raise money for cancer research; anyone can donate a personal item to a charity auction; anyone can volunteer to assist on a project with a good cause. As important as these contributions may be, if your contribution is not utilizing your unique gifts, you won’t have the same affect as if you contributed your strength to a project or program needing that exact strength.

A number of years ago, Carol leveraged her strengths—those of visioning and engaging others—to create with four friends a networking group for women leaders in St. George, Utah. The group meets quarterly for happy hour and dinner to support each other’s businesses, to mentor each other, to connect with intelligent minds, to boost each other’s spirits, to forge friendships, and so on. At its inception, the founding team committed to keep the operation of the group easy and joyful. They took the time to thoughtfully discuss the tasks required to administer the group and meetings, and they identified the key role each founder would play in order to leverage her unique strengths.

After five years, the group has grown to more than 200 members, and the founders agree that meetings continue to be both simple and delightful to manage. Each founder contributes from her strengths of vision, influence, connection, compassion, design, and/ or humor to welcome new members, facilitate meetings, and maintain an easy and effective Web presence. The founders feel honored and delighted to contribute their strengths to connect with and help other women. Their successful networking group brings value to the women of St. George, and it remains a smooth-running, virtually self-sustaining operation today.

So, don’t go out and spend time on a charity event or in a volunteer role just for charity’s sake.

Give the charity your strengths, and have a meaningful and potent impact by bringing your best to the most important game of all—your life.

We propose three broad ways for you to apply your strengths, and your knowledge about uncovering and developing them: mentoring, serving your community, and creating and leaving a legacy for those who follow. We realize, too, that these three opportunities may, and probably will, overlap. When you choose how to play your best hand—your royal flush—you may discover yourself applying your strengths across a broad range of situations and opportunities that had not previously occurred to you.

Mentoring is a natural application for your strengths knowledge. All around us there are worthy individuals who would blossom with a mentor to help them claim their strengths. Of course, you can seek and find many mentoring opportunities at work. You can look for younger or less-experienced individuals ready to benefit from a sagacious leader like you to help them learn the ropes, understand their strengths, and be enormously successful in their own calling.

Our client Gregory reached out to a woman in another department. Gregory interacted with Holly occasionally in project team meetings. Holly brought a unique skill set to the projects that Gregory led. Gregory could see that Holly was a diamond in the rough, who, with a little mentoring, would shine! He invited her to lunch and asked if she would be interested in a mentoring relationship with him. She enthusiastically agreed.

Gregory began by ensuring that Holly understood the larger context of her work and how it contributed to the organization’s mission. In their next session, Gregory asked Holly to assess her performance in her role—notably, where she felt she made the greatest contribution and where she felt less confident or competent. They discussed how she might gather more information from internal clients, her team, and her boss to add more perspective to her answers.

Gregory then coached Holly into a clearer understanding of her strengths, using the steps from Chapter 6♠. Gregory and Holly worked for a number of weeks on aligning her strengths to her role, expanding her role to make greater use of her strengths, and managing her weaknesses. Gregory did this because one of his strengths is developing people, and he experienced great satisfaction by supporting Holly. He also received the benefits of her expanding confidence and competence when she performed even better as a member of their project team.

A mentor offers advice and guidance to the mentee. In organizations, a mentor guides, supports, and enables by helping mentees assess themselves while they learn how to maneuver in the organization. A mentor may also provide access to key people in the organization or the industry because of his place inside the system.

A mentor-mentee relationship can also exist outside of the work environment. Another client, Paul, after gaining a thorough understanding of his strengths and crafting his job to maximize them, began to see that he had a perspective and knowledge to offer young adults as well. He recently became a Big Brother to a young man living in a residential unit for troubled teens. It is difficult to assess who gains more satisfaction from the relationship.

Chip Huge, a colleague of ours who is a certified coach, works with teens who have acted out through drugs or violence, and with young adults who want a greater sense of self-direction. Chip helps them see how great they are. In his coaching with these kids, he uses the Highlands Ability Battery (www.highlandsco.com), a tool that helps young people see—sometimes for the first time in their lives—their real strengths and talents. He helps them gain the self-awareness and confidence they need to act in ways consistent with what they really want to have happen in their lives. Chip assists them in becoming high-functioning and contributing members of society.

Just as important—and extremely important for these kids—Chip also works with their parents. He helps parents see the gifts, talents, and strengths of their kids, and he teaches them to support their children in becoming who they are capable of being. This requires parents to rely on their own strengths to communicate with and support their children. Thus, the strengths of both the young adult and the parents are the keys to this new way of seeing our children’s untapped potential!

Chip has carved himself a niche that makes full use of his own strengths, and he makes a very tangible difference in the world. We wanted you to meet Chip now, because he inspires us to wonder how can we, as strong leaders, do what he is doing in our communities. Who can we help grow and develop, by applying our strengths to their circumstances? Who do you know—an individual, a group, or an organization—that needs your care, your attention, your servant leadership, and your strengths?

It hardly needs repeating—utilizing our strengths in our communities is a powerful way to have a big impact in the world. And because using our strengths is fun as well as fruitful, community service need not feel like an obligation or a burden. Instead, we can build our competence in our strength while serving others.

There are, of course, many ways to define community, and an infinite number of ways to apply your strengths! It’s your choice. “Community” may be your neighborhood, or the city or town in which you live. You may see your community as a country, or even the world. Your community may be professional, or based on one of your passions. It doesn’t matter how you define your community of interest; it just matters that you do.

We have clients who see their community as the neighborhood in which their kids are growing up, such as IT professionals in this country; global bus and light rail providers; members of their church; the homeless in the city in which they work; or other members of AA. The definition of “community” is as varied as clients themselves. Which of your communities is ready for your strengths?

The stories we could tell are endless. Our friend Carolyn is motivated and inspired by her biggest strength of connection—having both a deep desire to connect with others as well as a commitment to connecting others. She not only started her own nonprofit organization, but every day she connects people in her community with others who might serve the accomplishment of their visions. One of our clients holds a corporate job and is an excellent musician. He created a program to build self-esteem through music, and offers it to advantaged and disadvantaged kids in his community. Another client is an orthopedist who just graced the front page of her local paper for her volunteer work with patients in Nepal. We have a client with strong organizing skills and a passion for animals; she started a rescue program for Brittany and Springer Spaniel dogs. Our friend Mark runs his own IT consulting business and also chose to run for city council. Mark’s marketing and organizing strengths are proving useful to a community dealing with significant growth issues. Our colleague, Mary, chose to apply her strengths of seeing the big picture and identifying strengths in others to join a volunteer board working with domestic violence survivors in her community.

Take a look at your checkbook. What non-profit or community service receives money from you, consistently and regularly? Think about where you’ve volunteered before, and ask what satisfaction you did—or did not—receive from it. Go back to the exercise you completed in Chapter 4♠ when you brainstormed a huge list of possible careers, roles, or jobs associated with your unique combination of strengths. What does your list reveal to you? How can you apply your strengths to your passion?

Your contribution can be big or small, life-changing, or simply life improving. It doesn’t matter. We don’t want you to contribute from a place of “I should”—but rather, from that deep place where your passion intersects your strengths.

We aren’t asking you to quit your job, stop providing for your family, or live off the grid. We are just asking you to look through two lenses—first is the lens of your strengths and second is the lens of your compassionate heart—and choose to serve your community from your powerful, generous, and strong self. The gift of our strengths is a gift of ourselves and is profound indeed.

We believe the seeds of our legacy are planted and nurtured by our strengths. You are leaving something behind for those who follow in your footsteps. What are you leaving? What will people say about you when you are gone? In what way will you leave the world a better place for having lived here?

The American Heritage Dictionary defines legacy as, “Something handed down from an ancestor or a predecessor or from the past.”³ There is a legacy inside each of us, eager to soar.

We each have a gift to give. Certainly, excellence in leading people is a gift. Raising happy children is also an extremely important gift. But what if there is more? What if there is something lying dormant within you just waiting to ignite?

It’s exciting to realize that we all leave a legacy—whether we are conscious of it or not. We leave something to a generation that follows, whether it is a physical generation—your children and your children’s children—or a community or professional generation.

A legacy doesn’t need to be so big or impressive that they dedicate a monument to you at the state capitol. Though it could be! It doesn’t need to be a great work of literature. Though it might be! Your legacy may be a new program or a better process in your organization. It may be unrelated to work—perhaps building a better skateboard park in your town, or making a difference in the life of a disadvantaged child.

When we ask people about their legacies, the reaction is typically a sharp intake of breath with an increase in anxiety. “How can you ask such a big question? I have no idea what my legacy will be!” However, we suspect a legacy is not something we decide on when we’re 92 years old. While you may be able to tweak it at that time, your legacy is something you leave behind every day. How is your world better because you are here? Are there people who have found new insights, resources, and strength because they know you? Have you shared your gifts and talents? Have you used them for your own good and the good of those you love—as well as to change a corner of the world? If you die tomorrow, what is the contribution by which you will be remembered? Did you inspire others? Perhaps you have cleaned up the planet in your own small way. Perhaps you encouraged young girls to enter science, or introduced city dwellers to the wonders of the wilderness. Or, perhaps you helped to establish a food pantry in your town, took in a scared, abandoned, pregnant teenager, or washed cars to raise money for the Humane Society.

What is the legacy you choose to leave, and are you choosing it consciously—or by default? Take a few moments and consider what impact you have already made through the unique strengths you have shared. Don’t be shy! This reflection just may embolden your legacy!

This conversation about mentoring, community service, and legacy inextricably links with life purpose.

A life purpose is foundational and, along with your values, passions, and strengths, serves to guide you as you make the rest of your life the best of your life.

Marty Seligman, the Positive Psychology expert, talks about three kinds of lives and their relationship to life satisfaction. The “pleasurable life” is about accumulating as many “kicks” as you can, and learning to savor and appreciate them. Pleasure comes from shopping, food, meaningless sex, and so forth. You may not be surprised to learn that research shows more pleasure does not correlate with more life satisfaction.

The “good life” is about understanding and using one’s core strengths and virtues in work and at play. The good life does correlate with measures of life satisfaction.

Finally, the “meaningful life” occurs when a person uses his strengths for the purpose of something larger than himself. Choosing to live a life of purpose or meaning has the highest correlation with life satisfaction.⁴

We’re proposing that you have an opportunity to increase your life satisfaction by declaring your life purpose. Not a bad challenge or opportunity! We ask all of our clients about their purpose, and most do not have an answer. Somewhere along the way, we learned that purpose is something given to us—a calling from God, a voice in the wilderness, a path that suddenly presents itself. Life purpose is not something you find, magically, by invoking a spell with your wand (ala Harry Potter!). Your life purpose is something you choose. You craft, design, and create your purpose from your experiences, intuition, interests, passions, values, and strengths. You create such inner clarity and focus that your purpose reveals itself. By the way, many of our clients who do answer the question will talk about their children—being the best father they can be, or raising children to be happy, contributing members of society, with strong values. We ask, “How well are you living today to demonstrate what a happy and contributing member of society looks like? Are you a role model of an adult totally aligned with his or her values, and intentionally choosing to live on purpose? Do your children see a purposeful life that contributes in whatever way its heart is called to contribute?”

A life purpose doesn’t have to be cast in concrete. After all, your life is a work in progress! Your life purpose, however, does have to be an over-arching goal that guides you to contribute your gifts in the most compelling way. For 20 years, Andrea saw her life purpose as “making organizations really great places to live.” Throughout time, her passions shifted a bit to her current life purpose, “ceating and holding space for leaders to grow.” It doesn’t matter that the purpose of her life changed. What matters is that she attempts to contribute and make a difference.

Choose your life purpose. Don’t wait for a calling. That phone battery is dead. You have to recharge it with intention, action, and choice.

The following are a few more questions you might want to explore as you consider how best to apply your strengths:

A classic question to engage your sense of life purpose is to imagine one phrase you choose to have written on your tombstone. What will it be? Really, stop and create that phrase right now. For what notion or cause did you take a stand?

What do you hope others will say about you at your wake? Especially consider what people will say who are not in your immediate family. What do you want your colleagues to say? Your clients? Members of your community? Your friends? Your enemies?

Our clients who can answer the question, “What is your life purpose?” often say, “To make a difference.” We emphatically suggest that that is not enough to guide conscious action. The question is, “What is the explicit difference you choose to make in the world?” The compelling answer is very specific, and weaves itself within the fabric of your strengths. (There’s more guidance on how to create your purpose statement on our Website.)

We invite, encourage, cajole, and urge you to discover your strengths and apply them in your world. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that playing to your strengths will bring you deep joy, satisfaction, fulfillment, achievement, growth, and profound success. As a leader, playing to your strengths is even more important, because you affect so many others. So, teach them to play to their strengths, and together we’ll create a better, stronger world.