By Jackie Camacho-Ruiz
Winning an award can change your life in a multitude of ways. Most notably, you will be able to add one, hyphenated, very powerful word to the description of your product or service. The word? Award-winning!
Winning an award elevates your products and services to a higher level, which naturally means that your customer’s expectations of you will also increase. If you’re like most people, your expectations of yourself will increase as well. After all, once you’ve climbed one mountain, you are more prepared to climb another!
It took me six years as a young executive to receive my first award, but I’ll never forget it. I was taking a Dale Carnegie Course and my class of 35 CEOs voted me as the person in the class who most exemplified the Dale Carnegie values. I still value my prize, a golden book of values from Dale Carnegie. Winning that award was an affirmation of everything I had learned. I also felt pretty good about myself to have been singled out as a young executive by the distinguished, experienced CEOs in my midst!
That was more than a decade ago. Since then I have won more than 25 awards from business groups (Chambers of Commerce, media companies (Reflejos, Daily Herald Business Ledger, Chicago Business Journal), trade organizations (CLUTCH Marketing), associations (Publicity Club of Chicago, Chicago Association of Direct Marketers), nonprofits (The Autism Hero Project Community “Hero Award), and others. One of my latest awards was presented to me in Belgium by the Seminar for Hispanic Entrepreneurs (SHE) in recognition of my promotion of Latinas in business. This time, the award was a complete surprise. I was there attending the conference and courting a strategic alliance, but I had no idea the award was coming.
As I took the stage to say a few words, I looked out into the audience of women, many of them I now called friends, and realized that the award wasn’t about me at all. It was about them and having the ability to serve them. I’ve come to realize that the power of winning an award isn’t about having a beautiful trophy on your desk to impress the next prospective customer who comes in your office so they sign the deal. Rather, it’s a responsibility to take your recognition and use it to serve others at an even higher level. Winning an award challenges us to go forth and do anything possible to better those within your sphere of influence. Being an award winner means you are a role model and example for others; you should always be creating evidence to support that position.
That’s one reason I added an award program to Today’s Inspired Latina. As the authors within my six-volume books series have bonded and become a community of friends, colleagues, and evangelists for Latina empowerment, I now name a “Latina of the Year” from the ladies most active in our movement. The distinction is an affirmation of their work on our behalf, but also a recognition of what we expect them to achieve in the future. I like to think the award gives them power, like a super-charged jet pack, to fly to even greater heights with everything they are already doing for our movement!
I’m thankful for all the awards that have come my way, but most importantly, I’m thankful for the people I have gone on to serve, empowered by the confidence and opportunity I received from winning those awards. I’m also grateful to have given out awards. It’s satisfying to place into the hands of others, in trophy form, my gratitude for those who have helped me succeed with their hard work and excellence. In short, receiving awards give us power. Giving awards bestows power. Go forth and use your power responsibly!