The Key to Everything: Unlocking the Secret to Why Some People Succeed and Others Don't

By Matt Keller

For two decades, pastor and leadership consultant Matt Keller has worked with hundreds of influencers, and he has learned that the greatest enhancer or greatest limiter to a person’s success is whether someone is teachable. In The Key to Everything, Keller shows how teachability isn’t something that some people are born with and others aren’t. It is a characteristic that can be learned and grown. In fact, the only way to succeed in life is to possess teachability in an ever-increasing fashion, and The Key to Everything reveals how to do just that.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Release date: Sep 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781400204991

Matt Keller

Matt Keller is the founder and lead pastor of Next Level Church in Fort Myers, FL, and is the founder of Next Level Coaching, a leadership resource company. He lives in Fort Myers, Florida, with his wife, Sarah, and their two boys.  

Book preview

Preface

Who Do I Think I Am?

I know what you’re thinking right now.

At least I think I do.

You’ve just picked up this book and looked at the title. And you’re thinking: Really? Considering the hundreds of thousands of books that have been written since books were invented, does this guy honestly claim to offer the one principle that can change everything for me? The Key to Everything? Does he have any idea how arrogant that sounds?

I do.

I hear you.

And I’ll admit it does sound arrogant.

In fact, I’ve been in that skeptical place myself—and not only about writing this book. I, too, have stood over a table at a bookstore, looked at a title, and questioned what it claimed. I’ve thought the same thing about samples I’ve downloaded on my iPad, only to be less than convinced by what I read.

So, yes, I recognize that making a claim as big as I am making sounds a bit ridiculous. I recognize I am setting myself up for the classic overpromise-underdeliver thing. And I recognize that I may have just given you every reason to shut this book or delete the sample on your eReader right now.

But I’m willing to take that chance.

I’m willing to go all the way out on this limb, make this claim, and try with all my might to convince you to hear me out.¹

I DON’T KNOW YOU, BUT I KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT YOU

If there’s one thing I know about you, it is that you want to succeed. Deep inside all human beings is the desire to improve their lives and make the world better. You are no different. Whatever you are setting your mind to, whatever you’re pointing your life at, whatever goals you’re working toward or dreams you have in your heart, I know you want to succeed. We all share that fact in common.

But simply wanting to succeed isn’t enough, especially these days.

Because the world has changed—and not just in a My kids don’t call me anymore, all they want to do is text kind of way (although that may be true).

While we have been careening through the technology revolution, there has also been a shift in how we humans interact, and that shift has impacted everything about our lives. The rules of the game have changed. Consequently, the way we get to success in our lives has changed as well.

Did you get that? In today’s world the desire to be successful has not changed. But how we get there has.

Success no longer automatically comes to the one who works the most or tries the hardest. Success no longer hinges on who you know, what you do, or where you come from. The game has changed, and the doorway to success in your world today is predicated on one single thing. One key holds the power to unlock the success you desire in your life. In whatever way you desire to be successful, there is one element that matters more than all the rest.

IN TODAY’S WORLD THE DESIRE TO BE SUCCESSFUL HAS NOT CHANGED. BUT HOW WE GET THERE HAS.

But here’s the funny thing. This element isn’t laid out in most job orientations. It doesn’t live in the mission statement on the wall of your place of employment, and it didn’t come in the owner’s manual you got when you left the hospital with your first kid.² It’s not on the front page of many corporate websites, and it certainly wasn’t in your marriage vows on your wedding day. But this one principle is the key to success in all of those areas I just mentioned.

THE ONE THING THAT’S MISSING

Now don’t hear what I’m not saying. It’s not that all the things that used to be linked to success—hard work, discipline, grit, willpower, determination, perseverance, even chance—don’t matter any longer.

They do.

They just don’t matter first.

Before all of those things come into play as factors to our success, something else matters first.

And that’s teachability.

Even as I type this into my computer, my word-processing app doesn’t recognize the word teachability. It’s got it underlined in bright red as if to say, What the heck do you mean by that? I actually had to add the word teachability to the dictionary of my computer to make that little red line go away.³

Perhaps the lack of teachability on my computer is indicative of the greater point I’m trying to make. We live in a world that lacks the one thing it needs in order to be successful. We live in a world that has failed to add teachability to its lexicon. And therein lies the problem, not just with our world in general, but with so many of the people who are striving to succeed within it. Because teachability truly is the key to everything!

Now, here’s where your skepticism might kick in again.

Really Matt, you’re trying to tell me that some word you apparently made up determines whether I succeed or fail?⁴

Well, I didn’t make the word up. It’s been around a long time, and thought leaders like John Maxwell, Seth Godin, and Roger Seip have begun to popularize the term more and more in the last decade or so. Our world just doesn’t recognize its power quite yet.

But yes, I wholeheartedly believe that teachability describes the difference between those who succeed and those who do not in today’s world. Because of the increasing rate of speed at which our world is moving today and the overwhelming volume of change happening on a daily basis, teachability will be the only way for you to succeed in the next half century. It’s as if our world is a moving walkway, like at the airport, and the minute we step off and stop moving, growing, learning, and adapting with it, we are going to be left behind.

Right now there are people around you who are well-educated, creative, hardworking, and crazy talented. But without teachability, their ability to go where they want to go in life will be limited. Hard work will only take a person so far. The same is true of talent, creativity, and the right connections.

Without teachability there is a better-than-good chance that they will never see their dreams come true. Without teachability you and I will never reach our full potential or leave a mark on the world as we all desire to do.

A LACK OF TEACHABILITY WILL HOLD YOU BACK

I see so many people, young and old, who have so much potential but aren’t living up to it because of their lack of teachability. A year or so ago, I was talking to one of my wife, Sarah’s, friends about a dating relationship that had suddenly ended. When I asked her why she had broken things off with her boyfriend, she said, He just wasn’t teachable.

Those four words told me everything I needed to know. Sarah’s friend understood that a lack of teachability would quickly put the lid on her relationship. Ending it sooner than later was the best decision she could have made.

About six months ago Sarah and I were out to dinner with a couple who had recently had a baby. Over dinner the struggling new mom began to open up about the difficulties she was facing with her newborn. My wife listened carefully. Then she asked some questions and offered a few suggestions for how the young mother could approach some of these challenges. But the young mother immediately threw up a defensive wall and refused to be open to anything my wife was trying to say. Of course, as this was happening, the poor husband was locking eyes with me as if to say, I don’t know why she won’t listen right now. I could tell he was desperate for his wife to hear what Sarah was saying, but he lacked the ability to get his wife to embrace teachability in that moment.

One final illustration of the importance of teachability is in our work with leaders. Each year we work with hundreds of leaders who are in the entrepreneurial start-up phases of their organizations. As we are getting to know these new leaders and assessing them, it doesn’t take long to identify the ones who possess teachability and the ones who don’t. We have learned that people’s level of teachability is the greatest determinant of their long-term success. And interestingly, we can usually detect their level of teachability in less than fifteen minutes.

Teachability matters in every area of life, from career advancement, to our dating relationships, to marriage, to how we raise our kids. It breaks my heart to see so many people with so much of the right stuff lack the one thing that could set them on their path to success and keep them going.

Teachability is the new key to everything in life.

The person who taps into the power of teachability is the person who wins. The person who grabs hold of teachability is the one who becomes great. No matter what they want, where they want to go, or what dream they have for their future, the people with the most teachability will have the most success in life.

And here’s the best news: teachability is for everybody. It’s not an inborn talent or knack granted only to a few. Every person on planet earth has the potential to develop a lifestyle of teachability. It is a choice and a learned trait. Which means teachability is available to you.

A LITTLE ABOUT ME AND A DISCLAIMER

Before we go any further, let me tell you a little about myself.

I have spent the last twenty years of my life working with people, and I have seen this teachability thing up close and personal. I am privileged to pastor a great church in Fort Myers, Florida, called Next Level Church, which has grown from a handful of us in a coffee shop in 2002 to nearly four thousand people now in weekly attendance. Obviously, working in such a setting gives me a lot of opportunities to see the effects of teachability on a daily basis.

Personally speaking, teachability has been a defining characteristic of my life. In other words, I love to learn. Since I was a teenager I have had this teachability thing going on, and I didn’t even really know what I had. But as I’ve already mentioned, teachability isn’t something that some people are born with and others aren’t. Teachability is a characteristic that can be learned and grown in our lives.

Additionally, for the last decade, I have had the privilege of working with hundreds of leaders each year as a coach and consultant across the United States. In my work with influencers and leaders through the years, I have observed that teachability is hands down the greatest enhancer or greatest limiter to a person’s success. I have long said, Give me someone who is teachable and we can change the world, but give me someone who already knows it all and we’re done for.

When it comes to learning about teachability, there are many modern-day examples we can examine, and we will, but some of the most powerful examples can be found by going farther back in history. In order to illustrate different insights about teachability throughout this book, we are going to look at a few case studies of historical figures whose stories are contained in a book called the Bible.⁵ In addition to being a religious resource, the Bible contains many valuable case studies in leadership. In fact, some of the greatest and most timeless leadership lessons the world has ever known show up in its pages, and I consider it an invaluable resource.

But before we go any further, I’d like to offer this disclaimer.

If someone has put a bad taste in your mouth in the past by teaching the Bible in some objectionable way, I sincerely apologize. Unfortunately, some people in my line of work have been guilty of that. I hope this book will help reshape your impression of the Bible, at least in a small way. I would humbly ask, as you read this book, that you not tune me out or dismiss the points I’m making just because they have Bible references attached to them. I assure you, the data is factual, the events are historical, and the information can be extremely helpful.

If you are not comfortable with the Bible’s being God inspired, I completely understand that. For the purposes of this book, it’s not necessary. I would simply ask you to embrace its historical viability as confirmed by both religious and nonreligious experts down through the ages.⁶

Finally, let me say that regardless of your religious background or beliefs, I hope to take an angle on these biblical examples that will not be offensive in any way. My purpose, as I have said, is to reference a few great examples of teachability—or in some cases, the lack of it. We all have much to learn on this subject, and I have found these examples are great studies. Thanks for trusting me to teach this subject without bias and with integrity.

I WANT YOU TO REACH YOUR FULL POTENTIAL

Though I don’t know you personally, I am betting that you’re the kind of person who wants to be as successful as you possibly can be in the areas of your life that matter most to you. I know you dream of a better marriage, raising great kids, and leveraging your full potential in your workplace. I wrote this book for you. You’re the one who is looking for that key to everything that can take your life to the next level.

I believe you can do it. Yes, it will take hard work, talent, energy, focus, time, determination, and so much more. But before any of those other things, it will take teachability.

Ironic, isn’t it? A book on teachability that starts out by asking you to be teachable. I’m not guaranteeing this book will be an easy read. In fact, I’m hoping there will be a few places where you see yourself in a new light and it messes you up.

I hope you will get gut-level honest with yourself through the pages of this book. That might mean facing pain or insecurity you haven’t been willing to face before. Or it may mean forcing yourself to apply the insights to yourself and not to somebody else in your family or your workplace. If you’ll do that, I believe this book will change your life.

WHERE WE’RE GOING IN THIS BOOK

The layout of this book is strategic. It is broken down into three parts that contain five small- to medium-sized chapters each. And the book is written is such a way that it actually speeds up and moves faster the farther in you read. My hope is that you won’t read this book in just one or two sittings. I hope you will take three weeks to read this book, a chapter a day for five days.⁷ I want you to think of reading this book as like meeting a good friend for coffee every day and discussing a little more about the topic every time. Or maybe you’d prefer to think of it as letting me join you on the treadmill every morning for the next few weeks. You walk, I’ll talk. But, honestly, I hope I won’t be the one doing all the talking. I