Embrace Don't Chase

Back in the Internet boom days companies were attracting billions of investment dollars even though many of the companies had never turned a profit. The fervor over what might be, based on the irrational and unrealistic quest for easy and sky-high returns on investment lead many investors off the cliff. The commotion that the disruptive "Internet-introduction-change" caused, had a profound effect on the logic that had previously served so many so well. People began to chase and not embrace. They followed, very quickly, in the reckless direction that the masses were going and failed to recognize the Pied Piper in the front. So, off the cliff they went. Thousands lost everything and yet the Internet thrives.

Whenever you are faced with dynamic and light-speed change you should stop and look before you cross the quantum-leap street, lest you be run over by a fast moving change that does not have much substance. Following for the sake of following, because you are afraid that everyone else will beat you to the punch, places you in the reactive position and then you are no longer in control. Others are making the decisions for you, without your best interest as a consideration.

Allow pragmatism and logic to help you make decisions. When things appear too good to be true, guess what?

Change is going to come and you MUST embrace it. However allowing change to disrupt your common-sense train of thought can be reckless. Embrace change, don't chase change.

Take a Step

The system has never failed me.

Whenever I am faced with a project that keeps getting bigger the more I think about it, the less inclined I am do to anything about it, because I have made a mental mountain out of a literal mole-hill. When I employ the failsafe system of simply Taking a Step in the direction of the project, everything changes. No longer am I facing a huge matter that keeps getting bigger, now I am facing a manageable portion of the project, and I find that if I keep moving, things get done. Once a piece of the project is complete, I move on to the next square and make additional progress. Even when mistakes are made, they are made and overcome while I am moving in the direction of a satisfactory conclusion.

It is in the "doing" where discoveries are made and those discoveries will likely cause modifications to the steps we are taking, because the piece we are working on proved more or perhaps less challenging and time consuming that previously thought. The good news is that we now know more than we did before we got started and we got started by Taking a Step.

The possibility of not "doing" always exists, especially when we are venturing into territory that we have never been before. While we are fretting over the job that must be done, we build up our justifications for not "doing" even though we are perfectly capable. You will never know what you are capable of accomplishing if you allow the fear of the unknown to stopping you from "Taking a Step".

There Are Only Two Ways

No matter the business or organization, they all have this in common when it comes to employees and the value they represent. Employees either save the entity money or they make the entity money. These are the only Two Ways to justify your existence.

If you are in a revenue generating function the evaluation is pretty straight forward. Your worth to the organization is equal to the revenue you generate. For every dollar they pay you, you must generate between ten and twenty dollars in sales at a minimum. This is called the; "cost-or-sale" and will have dynamic range based on the industry, company's development status, competition and other factors. That is why; if you can't sell, you can't stay.

If you are in a position that does not directly generate revenue you must be so productive and flexible and adaptive that the company does not need to hire someone else to help you get your job done well and on time. Demands on companies change all of the time and these changes will absolutely result in your function changing. To the extent that you are willing and capable of adapting, your worth will be measured and improved.

Companies and organizations are only as good as the people they employ and the people they do business with. The difference is where the control lies. Companies control the people in the building (employees) and have no control of the people outside the building (customers) and that is why they can only have two types of people in the building; they that make the company money and they that save the company money. Which are you?

Mother

My Mother was, without question, the most influential person during my formative years. She reared six children without much help from my Father. She worked, at times, three jobs to make ends meet. She always looked professional and was always on time to her job. She rode the city bus and took her meager lunch in a brown paper bag. Every day she would get up and prepare breakfast for her six children. We ate a loaf of bread and consumed a gallon of milk every day for breakfast. Often the milk was the powdered kind because it was cheaper. Mom either made us lunch to take to school or would give us enough change to buy lunch or she would buy a book of lunch-tickets. Mostly in the early years of school, we took our lunch because it was cheaper. Mom cooked dinner.

My Mother always had too much to do but she never missed a Little League game, or school play or open house or teacher conference (although I wished she would have taken a pass on the stressful teacher conference events) or a Boy Scout important event or a speech tournament or a choir performance or anything that was important to me and I was one of six. Mom never missed signing my report card or responding to the teachers when I behaved badly, which was far too often. She never missed a chance to discipline me when I deserved it. I was probably the most challenging child she had, but she never let me know it. She was the ultimate multi-task driven person. We never missed a meal and we never wore dirty clothes. She had a washing machine and a dryer but she often hung the clothes on the clothes-line to save money. We had one phone and one bathroom and she regulated and directed traffic for the use of both of these critical areas of our lives. She took me to work and picked me up.

Mother always expected more out of me than I gave because she saw more in me that I did. Now many years after she is gone, I am writing to tell you and remind me what a remarkable person she was. She taught me to get up every day, put your left foot in front of your right foot and start walking.

Mother prayed continually for me and her prayers were answered. The answer has a name: Norma. She taught me to dress and act like I owned the place and always behave like God was watching, which of course He is.

Discipline

There is simply no getting around it. If you are going to be really good at what you do you are going to have to do, whatever it is, repeatedly and improve every time you do it. Additionally if you are going to endeavor to learn something new that will add to your skill-set, you are going to have devote time on a regular basis that is focused on that effort. Both of these objectives: getting better at what you do and learning something new, are going to demand discipline.

Discipline means that you are focused and dedicated and that you are going to accomplish your task without allowing anything to get in your way. One step at a time, always moving in the direction of your goals, will demand-discipline. When you have made the connection to the value of discipline you have made a giant step in accomplishing your goals and becoming more successful. In order to get something you are going to have to give something. When you are disciplined you are committing to a greater level of achievement because you are willing to focus and make the time to make thing happen. Giving up a few things that are less important and devoting the time to new and more important efforts, is a great trade, one that will require tour discipline, focus and commitment. Discipline of the right kind, creates good habits that will serve you well in life and in business.

WAIT is a Four Letter Word

I read a thought provoking print ad the other day with the headline: WAIT is a Four Letter Word.

Businesses and business people can deal with, Yes or No. What is extremely challenging for anyone to have to deal with is when the answer is, "I don't know-Not now-or We are going to WAIT. "

Giving careful consideration to any decision makes good sense. Once the facts are presented, the decision becomes much easier and making sure you have all the information you need is vital. However don't get so involved in the analysis that you are driven to paralysis. The opportunity may not be as potent if you WAIT too long to decide, especially if the decision is YES.

The emotional piece of any decision is often deepest in the beginning. It is then that everyone is excited about the possibilities that are manifest when the choice is made to move forward with something different. Every decision should be tempered with facts and emotion. When the facts are compelling enough to do something different don't WAIT so long to decide that you kill the powerful emotional commitment that is resident in the affirmative response. One of the biggest challenges we face is when we decide to say yes, which results in us having to make something different work to our collective advantage. The positive response must be accompanied with a commitment to do what is necessary to make it work!

Very few plans follow the path that is initially laid out. Situations, people and circumstances change and these changes will often require a strategic modification to every plan. Be prepared to make the modifications that you feel are best based on where you are in the process, but don't WAIT. Make changes quickly because the situation calls for changes and then continue moving. There will be times when you may move laterally or even back-up a bit. Don't get discouraged, keep moving and don't WAIT.

Well I Think...

Think about how frequently you tell clients and prospects what you think, and in response, they tell you what they think.

How different would your conversations be, and how much more productive would you become, if you kept your opinions to yourself and dealt with only the facts. Everyone you know is busy, at least they appear to be so, therefore if you can make your point without wasting their time, you can put yourself in a better position to achieve a desired result.

Business conversations should be a productive and progressive dialogue between people with common interest and goals. If you accept this as the objective of each business conversation you must endeavor to stay on track with your progress and not allow the discussion to move too far off the path. Of course you need to spice discussions up with the occasional personal experiences, etc. but you cannot allow valuable time to be consumed by what you think. Clients and prospects do not really care much about what you think, at least not until they are convinced that you really know what you are talking about. Conversations are indeed two-way, but the client should be doing most of the talking and you should be doing most of the listening. When your time to talk is afforded, speak to the facts and leave the opinions out.

Even though you may have been working with a particular business for a long time, the time you are spending with that client is still very valuable so don't take it for granted. You may be so familiar with them that you lose your edge and become complacent. The competition is not complacent and they are after your client by presenting factual reasons, not opinions, on why your client should become their client and do more business with them and less with you. The competition is not wasting valuable time by giving your clients their opinion. They know that sharing what they think is not a productive use of their time and certainly not in the best interest of the client.

Taking your opinions out of your pre-call preparation and business discussions will help to ensure that you remain focused on the reasons clients should use you and not your competition. Don't spend valuable time telling people what you think, tell them what you know because the harsh reality is that people don't care what you think.