About Illens Dort
I learned many important lessons from my father at a very early age. My father was a farmer. As a child, I watched him wake up very early in the morning to go to work and work long hours. He worked hard to be the best farmer he could be and to provide for his family.
As a very generous person in the community, he was well-known and respected. I wanted to be a farmer like him; however, my father wisely counseled me to focus on getting an education.
The first lesson I learned was the importance of helping people you lead to focus on a higher vision and lead them to a path that will transform their vision into reality.
The second lesson I learned from my dad occurred when I was working with him on a farm close to our house. We were taking a short break to enjoy some delicious mangos we just picked from our trees. After I was done eating, I threw the the leftover mango seeds on the ground. My dad, with his gentle voice, said “Son, it would serve you well if you dug a hole in the ground and planted the seeds. The seeds will grow and one day provide fruit for you and your family.”
At that time, I was not thinking about planting seeds. After all, we had plenty of fruit trees with more fruit than we could consume. Fruit trees were all around me and as a child, I could not image a time when the fruit trees would not be there. My father’s suggestion to plant the seeds marked a pivotal point in my life that changed my thinking forever. I began preparing the future in all aspects of life.
It is easy to get caught up in the pressing needs of today while losing sight of the needs of tomorrow. Even worse, we often take for granted things that are readily available to us. We have deadlines to meet, new customers to acquire, and quotas to reach.
Perhaps the need most impacted by our busy life is the need to develop and maintain relationships. Finding time to establish and cultivate relationships that last can be a daunting task. But, any wise mentor or leader would encourage us to take time to nurture our relationships with others.
Why is it important that we take time to work on our relationship with others? There are several reasons. First, we need one another to succeed in life. George Burton Adams says it best, as quoted in Keith Ferrazzi’s national best selling book Never Eat Alone, “Everything we do, we do because we care about the human race”.
Second, there is no such thing as a “self-made” man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts and thus our success.
It is our life experiences that make us who we are and give our life meaning. My life’s work focuses on helping each of us realize our potential and begin to believe again. It is my mission in life to help business owners become visionaries, employees become partners and the less-fortunate become producers.
I invite you to walk with me on my journey to make the world a better place for everyone.