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Taking Ownership of Your Success with Veta Richardson

We all dream of a huge paycheck or a major promotion, but how willing are we to commit to what it takes to get there? Success is more than our knowledge, abilities, and skills — it’s also about ownership. Because ultimately, we determine success for ourselves.

In this episode, we talk to Veta Richardson, an author and business strategist leader. Veta knew her potential and took ownership of her personal and professional success. She also shares her experiences as the 'different one' and how they shaped her into the great mentor and author she is today. Listen as she takes us through her journey to self-actualization and leaves an immediate and lasting impact on people.

Listen to the episode if you want to be inspired by Veta’s journey and learn how to take ownership of your success!

3 Reasons to Listen:

Learn how genuine intent in helping others achieve success leads to your success.
Discover the six habits to own your destiny, overcome challenges, and unlock opportunities.
Know how to take ownership of your personal and professional success.

Resources

Coach: A Story of Success Redefined by Tim Winders
Subscribe to the Seek, Go, Create YouTube Channel
Association of Corporate Counsel
Take Six: Essential Habits To Own Your Destiny, Overcome Challenges, And Unlock Opportunities by Veta Richardson
Take Stock Checklist
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
Learn more about Veta and her work on her website
Connect with Veta: LinkedIn | Twitter
Episode’s full-length episode
Episode’s short clip

About Veta

Veta Richardson is the president and CEO of Associate of Corporate Counsel, a not-for-profit corporation dedicated exclusively to serving chief legal and compliance executives. She authored Take Six, a book on habits to own your destiny, overcome challenges, and unlock opportunities based on Veta’s life experiences.

If you'd like to reach out to Veta, you can contact her on her website or connect on LinkedIn.

Episode Highlights

[04:26] Veta’s Mission

Veta's mission is to positively impact people — to see them step out of their comfort zones and think of their problems differently.
She is a firm believer in ‘paying it forward.’
Veta wrote 'Take Six' as a passion project to reach, mentor, and help more people.
However, she shares that the world has become so complex and divisive that making an impact feels like one individual at a time.
Veta encourages people to have conversations and strive for impact amid the potentially exhausting environment. She believes that impact will nourish our souls.

[11:56] Veta’s Biggest Life Influences

Veta's most significant influence is her parents. She grew up focusing on what's possible — the things she can control.
Veta had a strong sense of personal accountability and pushed herself to get good grades.
Veta's parents also taught her to become known for good things.

[12:39] "The only thing that we can control is ourselves and our own reaction to all the things that might go around us." - Click Here To Tweet This

[15:41] How Being ‘Different’ Affected Veta

Veta and her sister stood out for being the only non-white students at their school.
Being 'different' gave Veta a sense of fluidity. She can easily be comfortable in environments where she might be unique.
It also made her more empathetic for underrepresented people — individuals whose background, upbringing, race, religion, or sexual orientation were different from hers.
Despite being different, Veta never assumed the victim role.

[19:28] Veta’s Professional Development

Veta’s biggest takeaway from her professional development is self-ownership. She takes responsibility for her goals.
She is a business and management graduate but wanted to work in corporate law.
She sent out hundreds of application letters to corporate lawyers but all she got were rejections.
Eventually, Veta learned about Sunoco, but there were no positions available. She proposed a volunteer internship because she just wanted the experience.
She worked for Sunoco for ten years before moving to a non-profit organization, American Corporate Counsel Association.

[25:31] The Difference in Profit & Non-Profit

Profit organizations are people- and resource-heavy.
Conversely, non-profit organizations do not have a lot of resources, forcing people to learn to navigate and figure things out themselves.
Veta shares that there is more opportunity to impact non-profit organizations because there are assigned lanes for the employees.
Bigger organizations can afford more time and encounter analysis paralysis, whereas smaller organizations need to be nimble because of the limited resources.

[28:39] “Success is redefined when we go through what some may call a failure or a challenge or we're upended or something does not happen like we thought it would.” - Click Here To Tweet This

[28:50] Veta’s Definition of Success

[33:51] “When you are a net giver and you spend more time thinking about the people you’re going to invest in and help, you develop a muscle memory for problem-solving that helps you navigate your own problems so much quicker and easier.” - Click Here To Tweet This

Veta describes success as making an immediate and lasting impact on people.
She took inspiration from help she received from people throughout her life. Veta believes that we are all beneficiaries of the people who invested in us.
She also emphasizes the importance of knowing when to ask for help because it becomes increasingly difficult to request for assistance as we advance in our careers.

[37:53] "Look one another in the eye, have a conversation, and [don’t] look over your shoulder to try to see if there’s somebody better who’s coming along.” - Click Here To Tweet This

The more you help people, the more you can navigate your problems. You benefit from the advice you give other people.
Veta also shares the importance of a genuine interest in the people you converse with. Look at them and not through them.
She owned her success and took responsibility for her success. Remember that you do not deserve your job; you earned it.

[43:46] “We deserve to be treated with respect. You know, that’s number one.” - Click Here To Tweet This

[44:42] Take Six

Veta writes six essential habits: take stock, take the risk, take credit, take a hand, take a stand, and take command.
Taking stock is spending time planning your life. Identify your goals, find the gap, and set plans. You define what success looks like and feels like for you with where you are now.
Taking the risk is recognizing that you cannot stay paralyzed. Take the risks, be willing to change the status quo, and step outside your comfort zone.
Taking credit is all about learning and assessing your strengths and contributions.
Listen to the full episode to learn about the remaining three habits!.

[49:08] How to Start Your Journey to Success

The first step is to identify your gaps. Then, develop a plan to close these gaps.
Assess and capitalize on your education/training, current awareness/exposure, experiences, external networks, and unique skills/abilities.
The journey to success is a journey to self-actualization, setting goals, and defining success for yourself.
Download Veta’s Take Stock Checklist here.

[57:35] Major Takeaways from Take Six

It is a book for people at all stages of life.
Habits are good, especially for people who are just starting.
Be a net giver.

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To growing and becoming all we are created to be,

Tim