The Secrets to Long-Term Career Success

Speaker 1 0:33

I am so excited about this session with Mr Mark Ferguson , who is a dear friend of Shayne Mine , and this is an exciting opportunity for everybody in our community to learn from somebody who is a true super achiever , somebody who Shayne and I feel like is walking mindpower . This is an individual who is a former Coca-Cola executive , also is a longtime Mind Power community member , might be one of the members in our Mind Power community that's been around the longest , almost since the beginning days of Shayne and I , in the field of anything related to Mind Power . So a little background on Mark Ferguson . He was with Coca-Cola for and he just brought me up to speed here just a moment ago for 31 years , six months and seven days , but no one was counting . And I mean now that is called staying power , that is called relentless focus , that is called just perseverance and doing whatever it takes and sticking through it .

Speaker 1 1:50

But I have to say Mark is not only a dear friend of Shayne Mine , his whole family are dear friends of Shayne Mine . They've all been through the Mind Power Breakthrough Program , which is our eight week full immersion program , helping somebody get from where they're at to where they want to be , releasing all of their mental and emotional bears which we call running parachutes and truly maximizing their potential . And so he's got a family of like-minded individuals that all get Mind Power , and we're again honored and grateful that the Ferguson family trusts Shayne and I to help everybody not only with their mind but with their life . And you're a dear friend . I look at you not just as a member of our community , but really one of my closest friends is . I love all of our conversations . So , mate , thanks for being here .

Speaker 2 2:39

You're very welcome . What a gloriously wonderful introduction . I appreciate it . You earned it .

Speaker 1 2:47

You earned it . It's well deserved . So I tell you what you know . When Shayne and I wrote in front of our book which I know you've read a few times , I think and we said you know that we've learned so much from our teachers , mentors , clients , members , students , et cetera , you're one of the individuals that pops up for Shayne and I the most , like we . You're one of those individuals that we've had this great opportunity to teach and , at the same time , along the way , you're also teaching us just with your zest for life and desire for more . And so thanks for being here and thanks for sharing to our community some success secrets .

Speaker 1 3:27

Like I think , when we're you know talking about this , I'm like okay , it is rare anymore that somebody does something for 31 years . Oh , sorry , in six months it's seven days . No , it's rare that people do anything for more than three years , right ? So before you worked at Coca-Cola , did you already in your mind think like I'm , I'm going to conquer a career and I , my goal is to stay with it for the bulk of my career , and and so on and so forth ? Did you go into it thinking that , or or did it just happen to happen ? Or tell us about that and what are the themes and aspirations and what ended up happening ?

Speaker 2 4:20

Well , I mean , in fact , the reason I did that was because of what my mother told me . My mother said there are three very important things to , in her view , that makes success . Success , that's being married , owning your own house , having a company car and staying with the same company your entire career , because that will give you the biggest pension .

Speaker 1 4:45

So you listened to mum , I did .

Speaker 2 4:49

And of course in those days pensions were a little different than they are today . So you've had to find benefit pension so you knew what you were going to be receiving when you ended . Of course these days that's all gone . But that was the driver . And even when my job was eliminated at one point in London and I was offered a role in Brussels Belgium , I told Elaine we're going to Brussels Belgium and she said why would we do that ? I said because that's where the next job is at Coca-Cola and I'm staying with them for the rest of my career . So that's what we're doing .

Speaker 1 5:29

So , wow , ok . So 31 years , six months and seven days , to be exact , do you have it by the hour and the minute ? By the way , no , just to the . You're like . Go figure , stuff is going to challenge me . Now I've got to add in those numbers .

Speaker 2 5:49

Yeah , I haven't got that no .

Speaker 1 5:51

It's OK , it's not necessary . So I have to say in this world of if it's not working , just quit . Or if there's friction , it's not meant to be very much a thought process that's propagated by the New Age movement . You go against all of those types of mindsets and you see something through all the way to the end . I mean you're a living , breathing example of commitment and seeing something through all the way to the end . I mean I think there's a balance in it all In this day and age , yes , things are ever changing and so on and so forth . And of course , I'm sure if you would agree that if an individual was ever in a company and the company didn't have good values , or if the company was a toxic work environment or whatever , by no way shape or form are you saying , well , just stick with it . Probably not , but here's obviously clearly a situation where it was in alignment with your values for the length of your career .

Speaker 2 6:56

Right , yeah , I mean . The other thing that helped Steph was , of course , that every four to five years I got to move to a different country , so it made it unique . Yes , it did . Those opportunities , interestingly enough , I would think , what would I like to do next at the Coca-Cola company ? And that's what happened . And , of course , at that time I didn't understand the whole concept of ask the universe for what you want and the universe will deliver . And that's what happened . I can actually map out each job , each place that I thought about it and there were hiccups on the way . I wasn't first choice in a couple of them , but it happened . I kept focus on it . So , from Brussels five years there , to Vienna , austria , for five years . That was a fantastic location . And then we had nine years in Dublin , ireland , and then we moved to the US and we've been here for the last four years , 13 , 14 years all with Coca Cola .

Speaker 1 8:02

Yeah . So I think you know , in this day and age there are a lot of individuals that are in tune with themselves . We talk about in our book the Three P's , the Principles , the Passion and the Purpose . We even do the how to with you with that in the Mindpower Breakthrough Program , and I think a lot of individuals are like well , yeah , if a career was in alignment with my three P's , should I leave ? I mean , what do you think if somebody said that they said , if it was totally out of alignment with my three P's , should I stick with it through the end , or do I look at that as a sign and try and find something that is ?

Speaker 2 8:38

I would say it's a sign to find something , that if it's not an alignment with those three P's , then something's not correct and you shouldn't get yourself ill over it . Yeah , yeah , there's obviously something . The universe has got something else in mind for you .

Speaker 1 8:56

Yeah , I would say so Now . Now , yeah , and I wanna put in those kind of like thoughts and those , I would say , situations that somebody needs to consider . And I will say , for most people on the planet today , there's much better opportunity to stick through with stuff Like we are seeing too many people quit prematurely . It's in alignment with their three P's and the main reason individuals are quitting is just because there's friction or because it's challenging , and I mean I'm sure that you're 31 years , six months and seven days . I'm sure that there was challenges along the way and the difference that made the difference for you and why you were successful and at the level of success that you were , was because you broke through each one of those challenges .

Speaker 1 9:48

So , yeah , what I'm excited about today and we've talked about some of the things that you would say are secrets to your success , so to speak . What do you think were like three key secrets to your success and how you were able to have a very long and successful career in a Fortune 100 company ? I mean , coca-cola is a Fortune 100 company and , by the way , for everyone , just so that you understand , it's one of the top 100 largest companies within the United States , and Fortune 100 company means big fricking company . So what are three secrets to success that you think will apply , whether somebody is within a corporation , or they have their own business , or they even just work for themselves , like or what have you ? Anything that's in the career front ? Three major wisdoms , and then we'll unpack each a little bit that you wanna share with our community .

Respect and Success in Leadership

Speaker 2 10:48

Well , Steph , as we prepared for this discussion , I gave that some thought , and what I think it's distilled down to was , first off , treating everyone with respect . That was number one that came to mind . The second was empowering people to be free to make their own decisions to the benefit of the business , and then the third thing that I thought about was always acting with integrity . Those were the three key things I'd say were the pillars of the success , and would you ?

Speaker 1 11:24

say , when you're thinking about these three things , these are three things that probably you are utilizing and employing throughout the 31 plus years . I'm sure , yes , yeah , and I think that's key , I think treating everybody with respect , I mean , tell us about that , like when did that , when was your aha moment or breakthrough , with that being of importance , and then how did you employ it from there ?

Speaker 2 11:50

Well , interestingly enough , it was on day one . So I arrived at the office and I was assigned to a senior engineer and asked to accompany him to a factory , to a production plant where we were building a what was called a pattern , a palletizer pattern . So basically we were putting boxes onto a pallet of a new product that had just been introduced , and then we take that pallet out to the warehouse and have the faultless truck driver put it through its paces to see if the block stayed up where there was supposed to be . Yeah , yeah , the truck driver sets off with our nice new pallet , goes around the first corner and all the product ends up all the way across the floor outside in the warehouse yard . There was product everywhere , there was broken bottles , there was cardboard , and I'm thinking Carnage . Yeah , absolutely . And I'm thinking , well , we're going to have a big job here cleaning this up .

Speaker 2 12:50

The senior engineer turned to me and said , well , that didn't work , let's go and try something else . And we walked back into the factory and I'm thinking well , who's going to clear up the mess ? And of course I learned later that the particular engineer I'm talking about was not liked whatsoever because he would arrive at the factory and he would basically make a mess and he wouldn't be involved in tidying it up . It was arrogance , basically , or maybe it wasn't his job , and his job was to go and build up these pallet patterns that we were supposed to test . So I saw the disgruntlement and I felt badly about it . But it's my first day on the job . I thought , okay , I better go with this guy , and I went back with the senior engineer . So that was my first experience of not treating people with respect .

Speaker 1 13:43

Day one Day one yeah , okay . So how did that shape you as a leader ?

Speaker 2 13:49

Well , basically , I then , at that point I was what was called an individual contributor and my job was to eventually to go to different factories and work on different projects . And I thought I learned , of course , that head office if you like , central engineering were not liked by the people in the factories . We had seven different factories at the time , so I decided I was going to be the most liked person to go to factories and in fact it ended up with . If factories got a choice , they would ask for me to come to be the engineer in charge , because I would always make sure , when I got there , I would explain what I was going to do , I would go through it , I would always wait till the work was done and I would go back and tell the individual I was working with at the factory what had been done , if anything had gone wrong , what corrections had been taken , and built up a reputation for being someone that could be trusted , and it would add value rather than , if you like , making a mess . Yeah .

Speaker 1 14:52

So treat every person with respect . So how do you connect the dots on your success over the course of 31 years , and that being a principle that you consistently employed over the long haul ? How did it develop , how did it shift , how did it change , how did it morph and how did it shift from the mindset principles that you employed to make it that much more part of who you were Like share with us just kind of more Like . I always think this is good . Let's turn it into like almost like a how to based on your experience .

Speaker 2 15:33

Yeah , I mean , one of the things which the company had obviously was a talent system . So they looked at talent within the company and they were looking to develop talent Because I was shining out as someone that worked well with people . I got recognized and was offered the opportunities to be involved in other roles within the company and , in fact , was seconded on to a talent initiative which I helped to design , and that process enabled me to see what opportunities there were and also to help people take those opportunities . So it was a stepping stone , I think , for me to see where were the opportunities for me to go to next and that's how I managed to get in front of the right people for interviews for different roles .

Being Authentic and Genuine

Speaker 2 16:28

I'd say that reputation of being I use this phrase one of the good guys helped and being authentic and being genuine as an individual . That was a key success .

Speaker 1 16:46

So for a lot of individuals they hear be authentic . What does that mean to you ?

Speaker 2 16:54

Well , I think it's about being . To some extent it's being yourself . It's not trying to be something you're not . I don't have time for titles . I don't have time for people looking for accolades . I'm quite happy with what I've got and for people to respect me for who I am . I know you got the company . Certainly , when I first started , when you had a business card , you were not allowed to put any titles either side that you couldn't put doctor or you couldn't be SC or MSC , whatever it was , it was just your name . Sure , I noticed one individual putting all these titles afterwards and I asked him why was that important to him ? I want people to know that I've got these qualifications and I'm who I am . I'd rather people knew me from what they gleaned from talking to me and the experiences that they had with me . Sure , then I look at the card and say , yes , I'm very important because I have this degree or I have this title .

Speaker 1 18:00

It is huge . I hope everybody just got that golden nugget that got dropped right there Be yourself , be who you are , be remembered for who you are and how you make people feel not credentials behind your name . That's no disrespect for people who have the credentials that you could put behind your name , but it's one of those things that you're trying to almost force respect onto individuals rather than earn it , because what I'm hearing from you is you're like , regardless if I have letters that could go behind my name , I'm less concerned with that . I want you to just know me as Mark Ferguson . I want to earn your respect by treating you with respect . That's what I hear from you .

Speaker 2 18:49

Yeah . Now it brings to mind another little story . I was involved in a training program in Atlanta from Coca-Cola . The exercise started in the evening and we were all given an envelope 30 of us in the course with a picture in it . They didn't give you any instructions , but you had to open the envelope , take the picture out and everyone had a different picture . You had to go in the room and speak to people and ask them questions about their picture and somehow work out what the exercise was about . What was this fellow standing there ? I went up to him and I said where's your picture ? He just arrived in the room and he said picture , I don't have a picture . I said you need to get an envelope and get a picture .

Speaker 2 19:31

I moved on to the next person when we came to the end of the exercise and it was worked out by people more intelligent than me what the whole thing was about . We were then introduced to the fellow I had gone up to and said where's your picture ? As the new executive vice president , he was just joining them , coming to Atlanta to take up his next role . Wow , I had no idea he was an executive vice president , but now I was feeling terribly bad about the whole thing . I found a way to get introduced to him and I apologized to him . Unfortunately , he said I was delighted to be treated like anybody else that you have met for the first time , mark . Not a problem . I went on to have some nice exchanges and some nice interchanges with that particular executive vice president at the company .

Speaker 1 20:24

This is what's coming to me , mark . It's almost like everybody should have a goal . They have their . I don't have a business card with me , so we're just going to go with good old fashioned post-it note . It's almost like an individual should say , hey , I have a business card and my name is on it , and then there's a comma and there's just a blank line after it , almost like for the purpose that you give it to individuals and say my goal is to going with your principle number one , one of your first principles or secrets to your success treat every person with respect , treat somebody with massive amounts of success excuse me , with respect , and let them fill in the blank Like Mark Ferguson comma , one of the good guys .

Speaker 1 21:13

Mark Ferguson comma , authentic Mark Ferguson comma , genuine Aim to just treat someone with so much respect , respect them so much because , as you know , anything that you want you have to be , the most you want to receive you have to give . So if you want individuals to respect , you , respect them , care for them , love them , appreciate them , be grateful for them . So it's almost like to go in alignment with that and to go with the business card metaphor , like aim to give somebody a business card , just put a comma and then a line . Lead their space . Don't put all your letters there , because it buggers it up . It doesn't let them paint a picture to themselves of who is it that you are .

Speaker 2 21:59

Right , that's funny .

The Power of Knowing Names

Speaker 2 22:02

I agree with you . There's two other little examples . One when I was production manager at one plant , I made it my business to learn the names of everybody on the production line . Then I went out and I was going along saying hello to them and there were two ladies working the back of the washer on the line and I said good morning Theresa , good morning Mary , I think was her name .

Speaker 2 22:26

They stopped what they were doing . They turned around and said you know our names ? And I said yes , and they said why do you know our names ? I said because you work on the production line that I'm responsible for , and that one of them said I've worked here for 14 years and you're the seventh production manager I've worked for and you're the first one that's ever addressed me by my name . Wow , that's what I thought and that shocked me , but that's for me . That was very important . People's names are very important to them and you should address them by their names and , to your point , treat them with respect . Doesn't matter who they are working on the line or the executive vice president . They should all be treated the same .