Hope is a strangely human enigma. It can’t be handled but it can be shared. It can’t create anything on its own but it can pave the way for new accomplishments.

Whether you’re celebrating a new beginning (like the start of a new year), caught up in new adventure or struggling to maintain the status quo, hope plays a key role. Not only must leaders be positive (no one wants to follow a pessimist!), they must deal in hope that can be felt and transferred.

Here are several ways to grow and share your hope.

Cast a Fascinating Vision

Plans are critical to any leadership endeavor, but they aren’t inspiring. Plans and goals are actionable. A vision is a picture of what could (and should) be. It can be felt. It has the power to unite. But not all visions are created equal. Even if your goals seem routine, identify the better future they create and share it in a compelling way.

Humanize Your Message

Hope won’t spring eternal for a new sales goal. But it will for a solution to a human need. At the end of the day, every business is a people business. Resist the tendency to get lazy with your message. Find the person on the other end of your goal and make them a focal point for your message.

Blow it Up

Realist goals get approved but don’t inspire hope. Zoom out: how could you make your goal 10% bigger? 100% bigger? It takes discipline to think big – especially when many leaders are overloaded with putting out fires and managing the daily grind. Not every goal should be expanded, and none of them should be arbitrarily. Forcing yourself to think bigger not only ups the ante, it provides the chance to discover a game-changing new alternative.

Identify Your Kryptonite

Hope isn’t restrained by realism. But that shouldn’t prevent you from doing a risk assessment. What could prevent your hopes from coming true? How can you avoid this? How will you continue if it can’t be avoided? If you fail to identify risks, your hopes aren’t any better than whims.

History is filled with leaders who accomplished amazing feats with little more than hope. Even if your situation is much more “everyday” than the heroes in our books and movies, hope must be stewarded. As John Johnson said, “It’s the size of your hope that will determine how far you will go in life.”

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or follow him on Twitter.

I’m not sure if she ended up pursuing school in the years since or if she’s still waiting for that support. Here’s what I do know: having other people in your corner can mean the world – especially the ones closest to you. But unfortunately sometimes the support of others is unavailable. Then what?

It’s a popular belief these days that no one attains success on their own. There is always a supporting cast. In many cases this is true, but fortunately, not in all. If you’re on your own, you can still make it. Here are the top two reasons:

So Many People Have Done It

The list of examples of all the people who have succeeded on their own is a long one. Chris Gardener, who inspired the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, overcame incredible odds to become a Wall Street legend after being homeless. Carolyn Jessop escaped a cult with her eight children in tow all by herself. So many single parents survived hardship to keep their children clothed and fed and give them a chance at a better life. (Remember Kevin Durant’s “Real MVP” speech?). Millions have migrated to new lands of opportunity with little more than the clothes on their backs and managed to carve out a new life for themselves and their families.

On the other hand, many others were handed success with all the support and resources they could handle along the way but still managed to let things fall apart.

To Say Otherwise Places a Self-Imposed Boundary

The second reason you can succeed on your own is a little more philosophical. It’s this: for the person who truly has no support system, the notion that success is not possible creates a self-fulfilling belief. Obviously the support of others makes a huge difference – and sometimes all the difference. But its absence does not guarantee failure – unless you believe it does.

Henry Ford once said that “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”

Making it on your own may seem impossible. In some cases it’s infinitely more difficult than with the aid of others. Given the choice, it would be foolish to pass up the helping hand of others. But if you don’t have it, don’t give up. Stay in the game. You can do it.

“It’s not the color or your skin or the place of your birth but the size of your hope that will determine where you will go in your life.” – John Johnson.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

Last week’s leadership profile introduced America’s “Master of Motivation,” the late Zig Ziglar. Ziglar realized early on that if you are going to talk about motivation, it’s crucial to know what’s important in the first place. After mulling it over in excruciating detail, Ziglar finally identified eight things that all people want, no matter who they are. They are shared them in his book Success for Dummies and I’d like to share them here with you as well.

What People Want

People want to be happy.

People want to be healthy.

People want to be reasonably prosperous.

People want to be secure.

People want to have friends.

People want to have peace of mind.

People want to have good family relationships.

People want to have hope that the future will be even better.

What You Can Do About It

You’ll notice that none of these things can be purchased with money (like Mastercard used to say). So what can you and I do about it?

As I shared last week, Ziglar’s life motto was this: “You can have anything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” This means there are two specific things we can begin to do immediately.

Identify the people you want to serve. They could be your customers, employees, stakeholders, constituents, members, audience, spouse, children, etc. We rub shoulders with so many different individuals and groups of people each day. We may not be able to give everyone everything they want, but we can do something for someone. It all begins by identifying who we can serve.

Identify one of the eight things on the list you can make easier to attain. This is where leadership comes into play. There is always something you can do to give others what they want, whether it is through a product you sell, policy you set, legislation you pass, publication you write, words you speak, time you spend, or many other ways. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be an enormous stretch. You are probably doing something already that can be used to benefit others.

An Unexpected Benefit

So what does success look like for you? So often we measure success based on how much money we make, how much stuff we’ve accumulated, what title we have, or how many people we’re in charge of. Taking a fresh look at the things everyone wants – what’s intrinsically important – can help us gauge not only how well we’re serving others, but whether or not we are headed in the right direction ourselves. Instead of aiming for the things money can buy, aim for the priceless.

If you’d like to check out more resources available from Zig Ziglar, visit my previous post here.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.

Both Zig Ziglar and I will see you at the top!

Who was Zig Ziglar?

Zig Ziglar was born in Alabama in 1926 as the 10th of 12 children and grew up in tiny Yazoo City, Mississippi. He grew up during the Great Depression and following a stint in the military, began his career in sales. His fledgling performance took a dramatic turn for the better following some inspiring words from one of the company’s senior executives. Soon afterward Ziglar was promoted to the executive level and began giving motivational speeches on the side. Dedicated to helping others get everything they want out of life, Ziglar’s speaking career took off soon after that.  He routinely shared the main stage with former presidents, world leaders, business icons, authors, and celebrities while sharing his philosophy of character, attitude, skills, and faith. Ziglar eventually became a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame and wrote over 30 sales and motivational books, 10 of which became best-sellers, including his first book, See You at the Top.

What We Can Learn from Zig?

Because of the way Zig Ziglar connected with his audiences, perhaps the most impactful takeaways are some of the inspirational quotes he shared. Below are some of my favorites which represent the main flavor of everything Ziglar stood for:

“You were designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness.”

“Failure is an event. It’s not a person. Yesterday really did end last night. Today is a brand new day, and it’s yours.”

“You were born to win, but in order to become the winner you were born to be, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.”

“Positive thinking won’t let you do anything. But it will let you do everything… better than negative thinking will.”

“If there’s hope in the future, there’s power in the present.”

“Building a better you is the first step in building a better America.”

And my all-time favorite: “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

My friend Dan Black posted a list of additional Ziglar quotes here.

Ziglar Resources

The great thing about Zig Ziglar’s work is that most of his resources continue to be available to us. Here are the ones I’ve found to be the most helpful:

How to Stay Motivated (19 CD set) – I purchased this CD set in 2008 while on a military deployment in the Middle East. I have since listened to it over and over again. This is the resource I recommend the most highly.

How to Be a Winner (CD) – If you want to start with something shorter than a 20 hour series, get started with this one hour audio presentation.

Better Than Good – This is my favorite Zig Ziglar book.

Success for Dummies – The down and dirty guide describing how motivation works and what success looks like.

Confessions of a Grieving Christian – Although I have not read this book (yet), it’s reported the Ziglar family received more letters of thanks for this book, which Ziglar wrote following the death of his daughter Susan, than all the others combined.

Inspirational Tribute Video – This five minute video was created following Ziglar’s passing and includes a special message Ziglar pre-recorded for you!

Ziglar on Facebook – Receive periodic inspiration from Zig Ziglar in your Facebook news feed.

Ziglar.com – Visit Zig Ziglar’s corporate website if you are looking for professional training solutions, a speaker, or to sign up for the Ziglar newsletter. (I was fortunate enough to be featured in the Ziglar Newsletter last October).

How do you help other people get what they want? In my next post, I’ll share the eight things Zig Ziglar identified that ALL people want, no matter who they are.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.