Redefine Your Life

FROM CONVICT TO CEO
Jay and his father were very close and enjoyed hunting and outdoor sports. On one trip they were having a great time together hunting and drinking. Jay needed to return home for his son’s third birthday party. Still inebriated, he and his father raced home. Jay remembers waking up in excruciating pain in a hospital, in a neck brace. He saw his mother and his wife and they both had somber facial expressions. He knew something was terribly wrong. Jay’s mother told him his father did not survive the accident. Jay’s pain upon losing his dad, causing his death swallowed him up. He was in and out of a drug-induced haze and had nightmares when he slept. When he awoke, he realized the horrible truth had not changed.

One day, a street preacher Pastor Paul came to his bed to talk about Jesus. Jay accepted Christ into his life.  “All I know is that after that man left, I felt a whole lot better,” he says. When his wife Jule walked back in the room, he told her he had accepted Christ. She said he looked like a completely different person. Jay went home to recover. Three months later, he received a letter that said he was charged with vehicular homicide, a four-year-prison sentence. “I was forgiven by God, but not the state,” he says. He ended up serving six months with 10 years of probation. When he was released, he began his probation. He grew in his role as executive vice president of sales and service at Lawson, the software company he’d joined years before. The company grew to $150 million in revenue. Soon, he became CEO and grew the company to $430 million. After his time at Lawson, he became CEO of XRS Corporation and ended up selling the company for $170 Million. Jay says, “My story is  a story of perseverance, but more importantly it’s a story of hope and faith. It’s really not my story, it’s God’s story. The catch to the story is a lot of CEO’s become convicts. I went from convict to CEO.”

FIVE BOLD CHOICES
Jay Coughlin is often asked how he persevered to become successful. “I say, ‘Faith,’ and they respond, ‘Okay great! What else’ or ‘I prayed this morning. What do I do next?’” Jay had to figure out what, in addition to his faith, helped him succeed. He says as he reviewed the last 18 years of his life, he identified defining moments that required a bold choice. He says there are five areas that can be “stepping stones” in the journey toward success.

• Clarity - Jay says, “To find clarity you need to know your starting point and where you’re going and have an honest awareness of the obstacles in your way.” It is important to prioritize, have a vision, and set goals. Many people quit jobs and major endeavors because they have no direction.
• Balance - Jay says finding balance will make you a better leader in every area in life, both work and home. Without balance, you will destroy the people who mean the most to you.  Finding balance might mean making hard choices, like giving up a job opportunity, but in the long run your entire life will run more smoothly and be more enjoyable.
• Accountability - It’s important to keep people in your life that will hold you accountable. You should also assess your achievements as well as your failures as a part of accountability. A good way to stay accountable and productive is to ask, “What did I do right? In hindsight, what would I have done differently? What am I going to change?
• Adaptability - Ecclesiastes 3:1 states, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Jay says change is a natural part of life, but we don’t have to be overcome by it. If you are adaptable, change will work in your favor.
• Confidence - Both overconfidence and lack of confidence can be detrimental. Jay says it’s important to keep things in proper perspective. When you are overconfident, people won’t want to follow your leadership. When you lack confidence, you won’t reach for your goals.