What Do "Top Under" Awards Say?  
Jul 28, 2015 Share on LinkedIn Share on Facebook  Share on Twitter
Well unless it's Forbes, Harvard Business or Fortune or something where numbers count at that level, it's pretty much useless. Many of these awards have winners who won because of the great work they do, how awesome their business has performed and there community contributions quietly the others may appear the same and look great on paper but mom and dad, a few friends and the sack of cash which they come from to make them appear like the others. Unfortunately for the "David" of this group (ie. David and Goliath), "David" sometimes gets under played and "Goliath" looks like a super star with their pictures and work all over press releases - either of their own or people they got know by
attending those fancy expensive networking events. I'm not saying successful people can't be rich and popular to start with, I'm saying the greatest stories in business is the amazing journey of self-realization which drives them - either their push to drive themselves out of poverty, loss of a support channel which led their drive to succeed, or because they had parents were rich like Sharon Osborne's father who might not have been the easiest parent to have (and so forth). Now, don't get me wrong, not all of them are like this but there is a certain group of these types who to me are a flying a joke. Let me explain why and explain why real business people could/should careless unless your pick is some sort of self made Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet types...
THE WAY TO BREAK IT DOWN First.... To contend, you must be Nominated. This means that if your a secret millionaire/billionaire business brain child working away but you don't bother to make it known or keep few friends, you'll never belong here. This is an important point to remember. I have seen this time and time again in my family alone, I know more than 50 self made (or close to) multi-millionaire success stories which are people who came from very little or nothing who, started and run great free-enterprise operations, have given back and volunteered to help others, many times getting the family involved. Of my "friends" over the years, about that as well, nearly entirely public schooled kids from neighbourhoods which were working class parents.
I asked my father one day if I should network more to win awards and he said something like,
"You make enough, go buy one. Do yourself the favour because the only things that count at the end of the day is what you completed & what you have to bargain with, be it money in bank for your next business move, be it a medal in hockey in sports for next promotion, it doesn't matter. People measure people by their success, maybe but, People respect people not by the challenges put before them but their ability to overcome them. And their humility." So my reaction,
... total face-to-face networking from that day has been 1 Meetup Group and 1 event through a board of trade at a local board. Boards of trade are great networking places for career advancements, don't get me wrong. My networking has been entirely through marketing channels, business itself and cold calling. Pick your saddle and ride!
Second... Many Winners Already Have Money This means, of this group who come from money, they do the best. Let's say you didn't have a lot of money and you wanted to:
Win the Top 20 Under 20? Well got news for you, not many 20 year old's become big business award winners without money to start well driven businesses + paying for and showing up to networking events, some with membership fees.
Win the Top 30 Under 30? Well got news for you, not many 30 year old's, or even 20 year old's - who don't come from money can afford to network. Networking, joining boards and marketing a business you're doing on your own won't happen without money and time (which costs money). Not many 30 year old's become big business award winners without money to start well driven businesses + paying for and showing up to networking events, some with membership fees.
Win the Top 40 under 40? Ok here's a group that might not come from money but wait, they better spend a lot of money marketing themselves and going to public events, which costs money so this won't happen unless you come from money OR you've networked enough that you might even know the judges, etc.
Third... Understand how they measure up - the awards & the winners
* The "Measure" of these Award Winners The best business people usually are self starters, came from nothing or humble beginnings and of the ones which have money who start great businesses, they lay their credit there where it came. If someone has made huge strides in their business by 20,30 or even 40 but did not network because of their financial position at the time and came from a Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, Oparh Winfrey type of history, well no one gave them awards until they could afford the royalties which come along with that kind of credit.
it tells me that these awards don't measure the best in business - they measure how many friends you have and how financial capable you were when you started. That goes for most of the group - take a look at the research for yourselves. * The "Measure" of these awards This means that after you win the award, not only do very few people even care but of the ones who do, most of them either cash in on the event itself or sign-up/win the awards to feed their egos. If you're promoting yourself and your business, you've done well at it, you really don't need this award. But the ones who have self esteem issues..well..ya. Recently I was on the phone with this guy and he was mentioning how this business wins IT Industry awards being in a business which had little to do with Information Technology itself. The guy I was listening to to went on to say they sure win a lot of awards. So in roughly 20 years this brain has been in business, they have maybe 2 or 3 offices, if that, in a sector already saturated in this area and the others in group are these massive Fortune500 firms doing the same. This is a prime case no different than
many others - someone who networked a fair bit, got in out of default through their networking but they would have made the same amount of money and had just as good exposure not even showing up to know what half those awards are AND not need affirmation for their ego's.
Lastly... What to conclude... Other than a marketing tool for people who give this some weight, it really is negligent - it's not like you're on Forbes, Fortune or CNN Money and so forth. When you get to be at that stage, you would most likely be picked because your success where you probably were not a great student, you didn't have friends to nominate you, probably didn't come from a lot of money and/or had some other huge struggle to triumph where you're success can be seen despite nominations and you have philanthropic lectures you do to inspire and people will listen. But, even of this Forbes level group, these types exists - one of those types in my opinion is Donald Trump.
I often refer to that book by Jim Collins titled "Good to Great" when I talk about these types of people. The Levels of leadership Collin's points out from 1 to 5, where 1 being the lowest and 5 being the best leader which makes it easy to see for observation. Donald Trump is a Level 4 leader according to this way of theory. A show off in plain sight, spoiled and ego driven self loather. Trump comes from money and tells you who his friends are the minute you say the name of someone famous not to mention bragging his ego into that balloon brain of his. That is how I see people who live their
lives like this. This one might see most of these Award types with their nominations and so forth. Then there are Level 5 leaders like Jack Welch, Warren Buffet and Oprah Winfrey. These business leaders have humility and often praise others for their contributions before inwardly pointing at themselves for the need for credit. This is a Level 5 Leader. These people didn't receive the royalties of the privileged, let alone be thanked or known, until they were so far into the success category that they were hard to ignore. Buffet still calls Omaha home where his lives in his 100 year old house, Jack's mother was a housewife and father worked on the railroad in Boston (and Jack Welch was dyslexic) and Oprah needs no introduction after public exposure to her rigorous battle with life which speaks in high regard, of the strength she carried on with, despite the severity of her struggles.
I can't even watch Donald Trump increments of 2 minutes at a time. I think he's a spoiled kid who just got in everyone's face way to much. From my parents having to rise from nothing, to an uncle from dad's side who had head trauma during a political campaign from angry protesters, to my uncle from mom's side who was a single child in a new country who went on to represented Canada despite being of Panjabi heritage with parents from India in the 1976 Pam-Am games as a weight lifter to my cousin Amit, who despite coming from money goes
winning a Top Under awards and still goes out to beat the bank modestly and proactive in his approach - I've seen it, I've lived it through my own struggles and I don't care for it for these kinds of awards. Like Gandhi Says, "A sign of a good leader is not how many followers you have, but how many leaders you create".
For people who network, there are ways to win awards which don't require you to be from a rich family, educated in schools which monarchs pick their types from, having their lives put without real barriers to success win a bunch of awards and then brag about it all over their sites. Disgusting is what it is. Donald Trump is a far cry from Ross Perot, Ron Paul or President Ronald Regan who had the Recession Recovery Act of 1981 where Regan Commission brought to light people like Micheal E Porter
and Seymour M Hersh who propagated free enterprise and the American Dream through education and engaging with the public. I work for money and come from a middle class family but every year I'm amazed at this group of idiots who had life on silver plate handed to them And Then They Go Off Acting Like They're Business Brain Children when really their not the complete list of hardworking people (select few) but rather a bunch of Donald Trump-a-teers. And when people are winners, we'll still say that of this group of winners, the greatest of this group be the ones we notice while they work not while they market their success to let you know how well they have done. To the all winners, you did well but now you probably won't know why or how it will make you a dollar and for those in that group, I'm sure the wine was great! :) Author: Randeep Dosanjh A Rights Reserved with any reference to this article in whole or in part with the consent of the Author: Randeep Dosanjh
Written by Randeep
Dosanjh
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