What Are You Willing To Sacrifice In Order To Grow?

1 oz. of Gold from the Yukon

Friday night I attended a “Gold Rush” season premier party. For those of you not familiar with the show, it revolves around three groups of gold miners chasing their dream to find the elusive shiny mineral and strike it rich.

Part of my interest in the Discovery Channel hit is that I personally know some of the characters. For that reason, the “behind the scenes” footage always catches my interest.

Now in season four, we have watched the characters give up or “sacrifice” the life they have at home and head north in search of buried treasure. This season, one group led by Todd Hoffman and Dave Turin is actually mining in Guyana, South America.

The show is clearly a hit, but four years ago when these men left their families behind, they had no idea if they would find gold or not. They had to make difficult choices and had to be willing to sacrifice what they had for nothing more than the hope of hitting it big.

The “on-site” action clearly makes the show but the producers have done an incredible job showing what these ambitious individuals have had to give up. Everything has a price right? This season was no different as they showed the scenes of dad’s and husband’s saying goodbye for five months.

Aside from the pure adventure of gold mining, it is clear, at least to me, that these adventurers are not only living a dream but creating a legacy. If you are a fan of the show, you know that teamwork has been the key to their success. John Maxwell gives us some sacrifices that we have to consider when we want to do more and be more when working with teams.

Make Financial Sacrifices For The Team

Most of these people have leveraged everything to get started and to acquire the needed resources to become successful miners. Decisions had to be made and they all sacrificed the security that they had to become collectively successful.

Keep Growing For The Sake Of The Team

The shows main characters have stayed pretty much the same, but some changes have been made to make sure the teams are comprised of committed individuals that are willing to do what has to be done. Whatever that might be.

Empower Others For The Sake Of The Team

This is huge to me. I have watched the leaders face very difficult decisions, yet the vision was made clear and more importantly, shared with the rest of the team. Each individual knows that they are an important part of the team and sharing in the responsibility has empowered them to work together towards that common goal.

Make Difficult Decisions For The Sake Of The Team

Every season has had major challenges and each team has had to overcome major adversity. The leaders of each group have stepped up to the plate and made those difficult decisions and owned the results. Some of the choices made have not worked out, yet they continue to not fail, but learn and become better for it.

The bottom line is this, all these individuals have sacrificed on many different levels, but the leaders have had to sacrifice their pride when making the wrong decision. They have been quick to share the success but just as quick to own their failures and in doing that, have gained the respect from their teams.

The entire world might be watching on their television set but for these men and women, every day is real. They have made sacrifices to get there and they make sacrifices every day to get it done. The leaders set the attitude by being willing to do themselves, everything they expect from their team.

My question for you today is this: Are you asking your team to make sacrifices that you are not willing to make yourself? Doing so may explain the lack of commitment you are seeing.