We're a few days away from The Price of Becoming being published (July 21). If you've enjoyed The Learning Leader Show over the past 11 years, I think you'll like this book and find it useful. I did my best to make it entertaining AND practical. Buy it wherever books are sold.

Since I launched my podcast almost 11 years ago, I’ve kept a diary of things I’ve learned from interviewing more than 650 of the world’s most productive achievers. I’ve published a lot of those learnings in my books. Here are a few more… 1. WHO FIRST– Your life will be measurably better or worse based on WHO you’re with. Life can be a series of transactions, or you can build relationships. Transactions can give you short-term success, but great relationships make for a great life. 2. Have a bias for action – “We learn who we are in practice, not in theory” (Herminia Ibarra). The world is full of talkers. Be a doer. 3. Wake up early – It’s hard. Some days it sucks, and you don’t feel like it. Do it anyway. The people who put a dent in the world usually choose to do hard things. 4. Push your edges – Excellence happens as you expand your current zone of comfort and competency. Take the improv class, do the triathlon, and push beyond your current capabilities. That’s where you grow. 5. Interested > Interesting – Ask more questions than you answer. The opposite of judgment is curiosity. Lead with curiosity. 6. Move your body – You get one body. If it fails you, nothing else matters. Do whatever you can to take care of it. Push yourself physically. (Also: Never sit down in the weight room. Ever.) 7. Read books – For $20, you can peer inside the heart and soul of someone who dedicated their life to a topic. It’s the greatest bargain in history. I’ve yet to meet an excellent leader who doesn’t read a lot. 8. Lead with trust – You don’t have to earn it. You have it. I’ve found that giving trust before it’s earned attracts the type of people I want to be with. 9. Never waste an opportunity to be generous – Praise others, write thank you notes, and speak kindly behind someone’s back. Tell their loved ones how awesome they are. Be a good gift-giver. Giving is more enjoyable than receiving. 10. Be grateful – Leave people, places, and things better than you found them. (The Girl Scout Rule) 11. Be the hero, not the victim – Take ownership of your success and failure. Don’t blame others. Nobody wants to hang out with excuse-makers or complainers. In a world of lifters and leaners, be a lifter. 12. Value excellence – Set high standards for yourself… And work to consistently exceed them. Try to surround yourself with others who do the same. 13. Choose extra work – The minimum requirements are table stakes. Choose to do more. I’ve rarely met someone who leaves a dent in the world who doesn’t choose extra work. Extra work = passion (Brook Cupps) 14. Be easy to work with – Be responsive. Be proactive. Be kind. Think of what’s needed before it’s asked. Do it. Be the type of person that others want to work with. Make it easy on them.

Be a Pro Early in my career, an older mentor told me, "Be a pro." I nodded like I understood, but I didn’t know what he meant. As time has gone on, I’ve learned more about what it means to be a pro. Being a pro is about recognizing that everything you do sends a signal about who you are. Show up early. Proofread your emails. Make your slides clean. Respond quickly. Be helpful without being asked. Be proactive. These seem trivial until you realize most people don't do them consistently. And consistency is where trust is built. The person who always shows up prepared becomes the person others want on their team. Small standards compound into big reputations. When you're sloppy, other people pay the price. Send an email with typos, and the reader has to decode what you meant. Show up late, and everyone else's time becomes less valuable. Run a disorganized meeting, and you've wasted collective human attention. Every time you make someone else's life worse, you're making a withdrawal from your reputation account. Every time you make their life better, you're making a deposit. People gravitate toward those who improve their lives, not those who create extra work. Good lighting and audio for your Zoom calls aren't vanity. They're the basic tools of modern work. When you can't share your screen or your audio cuts out constantly, you're signaling that you haven't learned the fundamentals. It's like showing up to a construction site without knowing how to use your tools. The people who master these basics are showing respect for everyone else. The biggest myth about professionalism is that you have to choose between being fast and being good. The best professionals are both. They respond quickly because they've built systems to do it. They deliver quality because they've practiced enough to make quality their default. This is about being intentional. The benefits of being a pro compound over time. The person known for running great meetings gets invited to more important meetings. The person who delivers clean work gets more interesting projects. The person who makes collaboration easy becomes indispensable. Better opportunities lead to better skills. Better skills lead to better opportunities. The gap between professionals and everyone else widens over time. Being a pro is a choice about how you want to move through the world. You can see standards as constraints that limit your authenticity. Or you can see them as tools that amplify your impact. You can think details don't matter. You can also recognize that details often separate good from great. You can believe being casual makes you more relatable. Or you can understand that being reliable makes you more valuable. The older mentor who told me to "be a pro" understood something fundamental: professionalism isn't about impressing people. It's about creating the conditions for everyone to do their best work. In a world full of people who are just good enough, being great consistently is a superpower.