The Code: a leadership driven blueprint for success

By Tony Berenyi

A leadership-driven blueprint for success: What makes for a great leader? Tony Berenyi, Citadel MIT graduate, distinguished military commander and successful entrepreneur, draws on the breadth of his life and work experiences to write The Code—a leadership-driven blueprint for success. The ten are not abstract concepts. Each has been honed by Berenyi through his lived experience while he’s built relationships with mentors, peers, clients, friends and associates. In plain language and with a no-holds-barred approach, the examples he uses include both exceptional leaders and those who had no business leading in the first place.

Readers can read and then test their own strengths through probing questions that test their own leadership strengths. For the leader, or someone who believes leadership potential lies within, The Code isn’t just a starting point. It is a guide for life.

“It is my sound belief that if someone wants to become a true leader who takes his or her team to higher success and satisfaction, The Code will take them there.”—Tony Berenyi

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tony Berenyi
• Release date: Nov 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9780692553022

Tony Berenyi

Raised on a farm in Montana, Tony Berenyi was a teenager when he moved with his family to Union, South Carolina, where he attended high school. Following a degree in civil engineering at The Citadel, Tony went to graduate school at MIT, receiving a degree in structural dynamics in 1987.Tony also has a distinguished military career. After The Citadel, he accepted a commission with the US Army Reserve and attended Engineer Officers School. Just months after setting up his own company in 1989, duty called; Iraq had invaded Kuwait.Tony was called upon to command a 250-man unit in two countries during Operation Desert Storm. He earned the Bronze Star for his combat experience. Eleven months later he returned home and restarted Berenyi, Inc., a Charleston engineering architectural construction firm.At Berenyi, Inc., Tony has led the Berenyi team in the design and management of many industrial construction projects in Charleston, across the United States, and more recently, in Africa. The work in Africa combines three of Tony’s core beliefsfrom The Code: an unending search for excellence in quality, challenging work, plus caring for others by providing much needed, dependable infrastructure projects.Tony lives in Charleston with his wife Cokie. They have four daughters. His first book, Secrets for Savvy Business Owners, was published in 2007.

Book preview

Advanced Praise for the Code

"I’ve watched Tony Berenyi succeed and set the example for leadership in both the military and business for over 20 years. In The Code, he puts in writing those basic leadership qualities that have served him well and that can serve as a guide for anyone wanting to improve their leadership skills."

Van D. Hipp, Jr.

Chairman, American Defense International, Inc.

No one builds a multi-million dollar global enterprise from scratch without tremendous leadership skills. Tony Berenyi is a self-taught astute leader who purposefully and continuously hones his leadership skills. His rigorous discipline, application and study of success principles extend beyond and encompass a wide array of life lessons stemming from immense background diversity. From his toils in the US Army to negotiating highly complex infrastructure deals around the globe, Tony has created an easily digestible leadership guide for those who want to achieve what most deem unobtainable. His down-to-earth style and straight-forward advice has benefited me in my leadership capacity and continues to serve as my go-to when I face directional dilemmas.

Jeffrey McWhorter

President & CEO Palmetto Railways

"Tony is an experienced entrepreneur and leader, and all those in business would be wise to read The Code and apply it to their lives."

Robert Faith

CEO, Greystar Real Estate Partners

"The Code is an outstanding book that addresses the leadership skills that are necessary for long term SUCCESS. Truly a must-read for existing and future leaders."

Curtis Loftis

South Carolina State Treasurer

The Code

THE CODE

TONY BERENYI

Published by: Motivated Publishing Studios

Copyright © 2015 Tony Berenyi

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without the written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Author Contact: [e-mail]

ISBN: 978-0-692-55302-2

Printed in the USA

Smashwords Edition

First Edition, August 2015

Edited by: B. Parker

Proofreading by: R. d’Eon

Interior layout by: R. Schulhauser

Cover design by: R. Schulhauser

Cover photo by: Amy Berenyi

Project Management by: Rod Schulhauser

Dedication

This book is dedicated to God, my loving and patient family, and to all the many people—the good and the bad—that I have come in contact with over the years, since all of these unique experiences forged into me the virtues of humility, forgiveness, fortitude and most importantly being present.

Quote

A leader is in the people development business–an undertaking that requires time, energy, discipline and thought. But when all else fails, just remember to be kind and to genuinely care.

Tony Berenyi

Acknowledgments

There are many individuals in my life who have shaped my ideas on leadership and demonstrated through their lived experience the ten attributes I developed for The Code. I am grateful to each one of you—thank you.

In particular, I want to acknowledge the following for lessons learned:

COL Thomas Dion, Professor at The Citadel. Always leave the back door cracked and the art of you can’t ever over prepare.

CPT Guy Blanton, ROICC Charleston. Being in the present moment and just being are very critical for sound leadership. This principle helps you not think about other things when you are talking to others—at a time when there is nothing more important than what is going on with them now.

Bob Faith, Chairman, Greystar. Hire likeable people who others want to help to succeed, and then step back and let them do their jobs, also, states the importance of humility and allowing your team to receive the accolades for the overall success of the group.

Chris Warburton, Neal Brothers, United Kingdom. Effective Leadership is never easy and takes a tremendous amount of effort. This is why good leaders are in such short supply in the world.

Jeff McWhorter, Palmetto Railways. Create a vision for the future and then create the plans to achieve the goals that will eventually get you to that vision.

Gustav Berenyi, my father. Trust and honor is something that has to be earned. It is not something provided by a title or a particular position.

Danny Rowland, CMMC Security. To be an effective leader, you must surround yourself with an effective team and then let each member do their job.

Stan Doobin, Harvard Maintenance. To be an effective leader one must hire exceptional people and then spend lots of time training, teaching and planning in order to properly execute the vision. Even then this does not guarantee success.

Dan Sullivan, The Strategic Coach™. Focus your energy on doing what you do well and delegate the rest. Why spend time doing the things that you are not good at? There are lots of things a good leader should be doing; and lots that they should not be doing.

Mayor Joe Riley, Charleston. Don’t ever compromise with quality or take short cuts to devalue whatever you are doing or working on. Think long term because what you do has a lasting impact on others.

James Wigfall, Vice President, The Boeing Company. Don’t you ever let the team see you sweat. Keep your composure during the battles. Being a leader means that you operate in a fishbowl; thus, everyone is watching you! Remember to have exceptional self-control of your emotions.

Jon LoDuca, Founder and CEO, The Wisdom Link. You must have confidence and believe in what you are doing. Those following you can tell if you don’t.

Stephen Coker, my father-in-law. Kindness is key in the world we live in. You can never go wrong as a leader by trying to outdo the other person with appreciation and kindness.

Van Hipp, President, American Defense Systems. To be a good leader, you must be an exceptional communicator. To do this, you must be even better at being an effective listener. Seek to understand first and then worry about being understood.

Jaymin Vinson, Nucor Steel. Care is not an intuitive human instinct to show others how much we care because we tend to focus on ourselves. To truly gain the respect and trust of others, you must show and demonstrate to your team that you genuinely and wholeheartedly care about them.

Neil Kruse, friend. Take the time to clear your mind since it makes is easier to make long-term quality decisions.

Howard Kruse, Blue Bell Ice Cream. No one ever gets lost on a straight road; therefore, honesty is the best policy.

Darius Rucker, musician. To maintain and to keep your long- term success, one must strive to maintain a high sense of HUMILITY. The fans want you to be that someone that they can relate to and that is also grounded.

Jerome Connor, MIT Professor, Structures need to be intelligent and serve their purpose at the same time with Motion Based Design.

Joe Rice, Motley Rice. Surround yourself with trustworthy people that have different unique abilities that compliment yourself and then empower them to make the business or team a success.

I would also like to give a SPECIAL THANK YOU to Motivated Publishing Studios for their assistance during this process of writing, researching and publishing The Code. They made the process of writing this book a seamless and pleasurable one.

Introduction

What is your code? First ask, ‘Am I doing right? How did I do today?’ Go to that place in your mind, to listen, and the answer will come to you.

Tony Berenyi

Building of the Code

In many ways, I am no different today than I was growing up as a young boy. We lived on a family farm in Montana where we grew sugar beets and raised sheep. Our house was a log cabin without running water or indoor plumbing. It wasn’t the 1800s—this was 1960s mid-west America. What we grew, we lived on, which meant sometimes I went to bed hungry.

This surprises some people. They see me as the head of a successful Charleston engineering and architectural firm with customers that include Alcoa, Boeing, Symrise, Palmetto Railways, Daimler, Owens Corning, BP Amoco and Nucor Steel. They don’t know me as that young boy who cleaned up after livestock, dug ditches in the fields, and fetched water from the well—remembering to strain it first in order to remove the bugs.

But the values I learned growing up on that farm formed the basis of a sound set of principles in my life—moral and ethical values I work and live by to this day. Attributes such as integrity, hard work, problem solving and working toward a common goal—these all applied the same way then as they do now. What I learned on that ranch, working at my father’s side, formed the core of who I’ve become and what motivates me, day in and day out.

Lessons from the farm

My first lessons were the importance of education. Even though we were poor, my father always said, In today’s society, you have to have an education to make it in the world. Even when we were digging a ditch, he would remind me, An education will open up doors, and once you get it, don’t rest on your laurels. In addition, I learned that being smart was not enough. It was the direction of your thinking that guided your actual intelligence.

As a result, I was always determined to learn as much as I could. At a one-room schoolhouse, our lone teacher taught all grades, one through twelve. Mostly it was basic reading, writing and math. I kept my long-term goal in mind and soaked up everything I could. I never used lack of individual attention, farm chores or distractions from other students as excuses for not getting my schoolwork completed. When I did get good grades, I still pushed to do even better. Excellence became something I would seek continuously, not just for a day or a term but for the rest of my life.

Being part of a farm family also showed me the importance of being part of a team and working toward an overall mission—in our case, to keep the family fed. Responsibility was never shifted to a sibling. No one wasted time debating who was supposed to do it. If a job had to be done, you stepped up to the plate. Once I was old enough to contribute beyond farm work, I was expected to get a part-time job. Whether it was working at Pizza Hut or on construction jobs, when I received my paycheck at the end of the week I simply handed it over to my mother. It was all part of doing my share.

Doing farm work meant I learned never to shy away from hard work. Our tasks weren’t the kind you