What is a signature event?
A signature event is the last final major achievement in your life, for what you wish to be remembered, and potentially the last challenge of your public life.
Perhaps it is a challenge, if you’ve been financially successful in life, with a social component like the betterment of man, or the elimination of hunger in the world.
Perhaps it’s some goal that necessitates using all of your current experience and personal skills to achieve, but it’s a chance to give back to mankind in appreciation for all that a successful career, a great life, and good health have provided you and yours. Perhaps it’s the achievement of your 15 minutes of fame, or your last hurrah, the final fight before you retire from the battlefield forever! Have you considered such an idea?
I have, and I want to share my thoughts with you. Maybe in sharing my aspiration, I will arouse your imagination and interest. I believe in the value of a positive point of view regarding the future, so at this time in my life I believe I can do about anything that I set out to do, and I believe in the power of one man to change the world.
Other men have done so; some for good, some for bad. I have a dream. I believe dreams lead to visions and big visions to big plans and potentially to big achievements. I believe dreams and visions are the cornerstones of inspiration and, when coupled with planning, organization and focus, result in a powerful force.
It was perhaps these beliefs that brought you from where you were early in life to where you are now in the present: a successful, mature, knowledgeable leader and experienced observer of the human condition. You believed. You made others believe. In the end, you made your dreams become reality!
You had the ability to initiate a vision, gather all the necessary intelligence and resources, and focus upon converting the vision into an organized plan. Then, you were able to enlist the manpower and other support requirements, achieve consensus on strategic directions, as priorities and budgets, as controls and timing in a comprehensive, detailed and organized fashion. Then you initiated action, measured results, and initiated changes to strategy and tactics as needed to achieve desired results.
Perhaps you are retired or semi-retired and discovered, as many of us have, that retirement isn’t everything you thought it would be; in fact, too much of it may not be good for your health. Maybe you missed the excitement of your past career, the satisfaction of leadership, the esteem, recognition of peers, family constituents, the thrills of competing and winning!
If you do miss these emotional highs, you may wish to search for your signature event.
Gerard Dion
Author of “Cuba Unchained”
