Today we’d like to introduce you to Bill Hendricks.
Bill, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
When I finished my second graduate degree at age 30, my wife said, “Okay, enough schooling! I want to stay home and have babies. You get out there and make some money.” Fair enough! Except that I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. Everyone was telling me, “Oh, Bill, you’re so bright! You went to St. Mark’s, and then Harvard. You have two master’s degrees. You can do anything you want !” Maybe, but like a LOT of bright, educated people—then and now—I didn’t know what I wanted to do.
Fortunately, a very successful friend whose advice I regarded highly introduced me to a consultant working with his company who had a rather ingenious way of helping people figure out what they were born to do. So I went through this process. And it was as if I had been in a pitch-black room stumbling over furniture, bumping into the wall, tripping on the carpet and falling down—and suddenly someone flipped a light switch, and instantly I could see what it was I was trying to do with my life! It was amazing! It was nothing short of transformational. My core strengths and the driving motivation of my efforts became quite clear and defined—so much so that I was immediately able to get some direction and start pursuing career options that fit me.
About ten years into it, the gentleman who had developed that giftedness assessment process that I had found so helpful was trying to get a book written on the subject of giftedness. He was a man of tremendous insight, but he was not a writer. I am. So I offered to help him, and he agreed. Working on that book project, I realized how taken I was with the phenomenon of human giftedness. So I re-invented my consulting practice around that theme and began helping people think through their life and career directions in a meaningful way, based on their innate gifts. In short, I began helping them get paid to do what they are born to do—and frankly, love to do.
By now, I’ve personally worked with about 2,000 individuals at The Giftedness Center, from all ages and stages in life—college students, young adults, young professionals who wake up and realize they’ve made a huge mistake, people in mid-life who’ve burned out and want to change careers, women in transition (from raising kids, or getting divorced, or being widowed), entrepreneurs who are cashing out, retirees looking for purpose, and almost every occupation imaginable: doctors, lawyers, athletes, musicians and artists, homemakers, politicians and civil servants, corporate executives, trust fund babies, teachers, network television reporters, golf course designers, race car drivers—even a bookie who wanted to go honest.
Everyone’s looking for a purpose. Everyone seeks meaning. But as Jim Collins says (Good to Great), it’s very difficult to find meaning apart from meaningful work. The good news is that every one of us was born to do something. I specialize in helping you discover what you were born to do, and then go do it.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
This path has been anything BUT smooth! In the first place, I do not have anywhere near a “normal” job. Nobody handed me a franchise manual or marketing plan for doing what I do. So I have basically paid tuition for the past twenty-some years to figure out what works and what doesn’t work, and how to make it pay. That tuition has been very, very expensive. But it’s been worth every penny, because I now am one of the very best in my field—which is a statement of confidence, not arrogance. I know that because my clients repeatedly tell me that. My opinion counts for nothing, but their opinion counts for everything.
Another significant challenge has been the fact that about a month after I committed to doing this work, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. That led to a seven-year battle with the disease, to which she finally succumbed in 2000. Some would say that to pursue a start-up consulting practice when your wife is dying of breast cancer is close to insanity. I wouldn’t disagree.
Which brings us to the next huge challenge, which was that when my first wife died, I was instantly plunged into this thing called “single parenting,” for three daughters who, at the time, were 15, 13, and 8. For the next eight and a half years, I raised them into adulthood—all the while working to support our family through The Giftedness Center.
You might ask: why in the world would you do that? Why didn’t you just get on someone’s payroll. With a Harvard undergraduate degree and two master’s, surely any number of employers would have welcomed you to their team. The answer is simple, and it’s twofold. First, being on someone’s payroll would NOT have fit my giftedness. And secondly, I honestly couldn’t think of anything else I wanted to do. I found so much satisfaction in helping people find and follow their purpose in life that I couldn’t imagine NOT doing that. It was too fulfilling—and it was too effective! People were thanking me right and left for the work we had done together. To quit that and go do something else would have felt like betraying all those people whose lives had been transformed—just as mine had been transformed by the discovery of my own gifts.
In short, the struggles—difficult as they have been (and “difficult” is a profound understatement)—have only served to prove my deep commitment to this work and stiffened my resolve to stay at it.
The Giftedness Center – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We help individuals of all ages and stages of life discover what they were born to do, and then use that insight to make life and career decisions that fit them. The key is found in harnessing the power of their “giftedness.” Every person has their own unique giftedness. The best way to discover it is not through a test or an inventory, but from one’s own life story.
Through a proprietary interview process, we develop what amounts to a pesonal “owner’s manual” on you that describes how you do life: what you do best, what you need to do that, who you need around you to be effective, and countless other details for optimizing your functioning. We then use that information to reverse engineer specific career scenarios that describe you in real-world settings that will prove the most productive and the most rewarding.
Aside from the personal, customized work we do with you as an individual, the reports, and the “money-back guarantee” that stands behind everything we do, our value proposition boils down to two main things: confidence in making key life and career decisions, and a sense of direction for where you need to go next.
As a practice, we are most proud of the countless “raving fans” we have—people who have gone through our process and then come back to tell us, “This has changed my life!”
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
We define success through what happens to our clients. Someone comes with a major life question, seeking direction, clarity, and the confidence to make a decision. We take an X-ray (or more like a CAT Scan) that shows them they key factors of their wiring that they need to pay attention to. On the basis of that, they then go make a decision—and good stuff starts happening!
On about a weekly basis, we get a phone call, an email, or some other communication from someone who says, in effect, “You may not remember me, but I worked with you a while back. And I never thought it would happen for me, but I feel like I’m in the perfect job for me. Thank you!”
When we hear that, we know we’re doing a good job!
Pricing:
- Our premier service costs $3,000
- We have an abbreviated version of our service that costs $1,500
Contact Info:
- Address: The Giftedness Center
Spaces
1919 McKinney Avenue
Dallas, Texas 75201 - Website: http://wwwthegiftednesscenter.com
- Phone:469-480-2054
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