Tag Archives: success

Are You Too Impatient to Build a Great Business?

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Every week I wrestle with what to write. What should I share? Sometimes an idea might pop into my head and then I think “is it enough to write more than 900 words about this?” At times I am certain about what I want to say – most times I’m not. In the end I always feel a deep sense of joy at having completed that which started in utter chaos and as I hit the send button I feel like a champion for the day.

I wrote a column about two weeks ago about having your best year yet. I took on such a challenge myself – June 2012 to June 2013. I decided that I would use Napoleon Hill’s ‘A Year of Growing Rich – 52 Steps to Achieving Life’s Rewards’ as a companion guide on my journey.  It’s really a collection of some of Dr. Hill’s most popular articles that first appeared in the magazine ‘Success Unlimited.’ In the introduction the editor says “none of these articles are lengthy; none of them difficult to grasp. But they are challenging. After editing this anthology and reviewing its contents repeatedly, I can tell you what I am still struck by new inspirations each time I approach it.”

After reading this I was stoked and ready for my journey. The very first chapter is called ‘No One Drifts to Success.’ In a nutshell, you must have a definite purpose, a plan for achieving it, believe that you can achieve it, write it down, commit it to memory and begin putting the plan into action with fervour. I decide that until I fully had this first step down pat, I was not going to move forward. It didn’t matter if I stayed longer than a week – I would read the chapter every day until I got it ….and acted accordingly! I started on May 28th 2012 and am still reading that chapter. This is what I discovered.

We business owners like to think we KNOW a lot of stuff. We like to move fast. We want results. We don’t even want them today. We want them YESTERDAY! You know I’m not kidding. But it made me think. In my own haste to succeed – to win – to reach the top am I guilty of wanting to short cut through some patches so that just maybe, I might get to where I’m going faster? It’s like when there’s traffic on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway or on the Eastern Main Road, we opt to take the ‘back road’ – just to keep moving. We can’t stand being stuck in anything – including our businesses.

Here are a couple of back roads that we take:

  • We seek money first instead of figuring out how we could add value especially when month end is getting closer and we have not made our intended quota
  • We dabble through with the excuse that “we don’t have time” to get the knowledge we need to be successful forgetting that business is a discipline and we need to develop not just strategies for results but certain capabilities that are important for us to get into the rhythm of consistent profitable performance improvement
  • We get distracted by what everyone else is doing that APPEARS to be making money losing sight of our own strengths and talents. Fellow entrepreneur Tito Phillips Jnr says “Stop doing what every else can do and do what ONLY YOU can do exceptionally well.”
  • We adopt the “I can do it by myself – I really don’t need your help!” attitude. Great things are seldom achieved alone
  • We establish many goals and attempt to pursue all at once thinking that we’ll be that much richer, that much faster, if all come together simultaneously. But nothing beats a definite purpose…

…which brings me back to why I’m stuck on chapter one of ‘A Year of Growing Rich’.

If you truly want to build a great business, you can ill afford to take short cuts especially when you’re putting down the foundation. Perhaps this is why your business is shaky right now because you probably read that you should have a definite purpose, create a plan of action, believe you could achieve it, write it down, memorize it and act as if it were impossible to fail and then you decided that you KNEW what you were doing and just went in and starting DOING DOING DOING.

Usually I think we know WHAT we want to achieve. We may even put a plan of action in place but then we start taking the ‘back roads’ instead of following the plan. The plan is never integrated into the actions that we take on a daily basis.

Today as this column was coming together I decided to take a look at a video that someone had sent to me via email. When I first got the email I saw Anthony Ro…, assumed it was Anthony Robbins and said “I know about him already.” But God works in mysterious ways. Something prompted me to go back to the email, and realizing my error, I decided to take the time to watch the clip. It was about Anthony ROBLES – a one legged wrestler.

In the clip he was being honoured by Jay Leno as the 2011 Recipient of the “Jimmy V Award” for perseverance at the ESPYs. On July 20, 1988, the doctors were not prepared when, Judy Robles, age 16, gave birth to a baby boy who was missing his right leg. “The doctors could not explain what went wrong or why I was missing a leg. My mom raised me with my head in the clouds, so I believed I could do anything I set my mind to. This way of thinking compelled me to walk onto the Arizona State University wrestling team to prove to them, and the world, anything was possible. Through trials and hardships, both on and off the wrestling mat, I finished as a 3-time All-American and the 2011 NCAA National Champion.”

Anthony had a definite purpose, a plan of action, a strong belief in his own competence, the love and support of an extraordinary mother and excellent coaches who helped him along the way. When he started he was the worst wrestler – but he kept his focus and worked at his purpose. People pitied him initially and felt that he was at a disadvantage. When he started to get better – they started to say that he had the greater advantage because of his upper body strength. It didn’t matter – he stuck with his plan. .

Napoleon Hill asks us to memorize our definite purpose; to read it aloud first thing in the morning and last thing at night. How many of us would find this childlike and silly? Yet as Hill says – “The person who acts with purpose and a plan attracts opportunities. Only with definiteness of purpose will you be able to overcome the defeats and adversities that will stand in your way.”

And my point is simply this: whether you’re writing a column, building a great business, working at experiencing your best year yet or pursuing champion status in any sport the principles remain the same – the struggles will almost always present themselves but with a definite purpose and perseverance you’re bound to come out smiling in the end. Just as Anthony did and just as I am now that I’ve finished this week’s column!

Do You Know Your True Self Worth?

Posted in Developing the Possibilities Mindset, Practicing Self Mastery by

“We are not being paid enough!”

“My take home pay doesn’t take me home!”

“If sales could increase – that would be great for business!”

Regardless of whether you work for someone or own a business – making more money is a thought that is in everyone’s brain. The question is always: “How can I make more?”

In his book “The Strangest Secret” author Earl Nightingale says “Your success will always be measured by the quality and quantity of service you render. Most people will tell you that they want to make money, without understanding this law.

The only people who make money work in a mint.” I laughed at this the first time I read it but isn’t this the truth? He goes on to say:

“The rest of us must earn money. This is what causes those who keep looking for something for nothing, or a free ride, to fail in life. Success is not the result of making money; earning money is the result of success — and success is in direct proportion to our service. Most people have this law backwards. It’s like the man who stands in front of the stove and says to it: “Give me heat and then I’ll add the wood.” We’ve got to put the fuel in before we can expect heat. Likewise, we’ve got to be of service FIRST before we can expect money.”

Many employees are distracted by others in similar jobs, who are getting more than they are. Everyone knows what the minimum wage is and what they should be getting. Others recognize that while the cost of living is going up and up their salary has flat lined. Many after talking at the boss for months on end decide to do something about this aberration in their pay packets and seek out organizations to negotiate on their behalf.

Business owners on the other hand keep hounding down the magic bullet. They employ tactic upon tactic to make a difference in their bottom line from hiring smooth talkers who walk on water, discounting prices that it no longer even makes sense on a ledger to severe cost cutting measures that only introduce new problems and cost more in the long term.

On both sides of the fence, whether employee or boss – you are so obsessed with how to get more money that you’ve completely missed the point that you must first be of service.

Return on investment (ROI) is a phrase that has been used so much it has lost its meaning. Right after you’ve finished presenting you cringe as you’re asked “so what’s the return on this investment?” Fair question but then you ask “How are you measuring this now?” And there is no response. Silence.

The truth is that we have been able to measure ROI on quite a number of things but have also used “what’s the ROI?” as a way to stump ill prepared sales representatives and stop the sale. But how do we measure our contribution? How do we measure the return on ourselves? What are we bringing to the table? And “no” showing up for work, on time, doing what you’re required to do, without ever being sick is NOT the answer.

In “Put Your Mindset to Work” authors James Reed and Dr Paul G. Stoltz says “The greater your true overall contribution relative to the entire cost of employing you, the larger your personal ROI (Return on individual) will be.”

Calculating personal ROI is among the most important calculations employers can consider for any employee. This helps them help you answer the question why YOU should be kept over everyone else. Not because over at company X someone in your position gets Y and you’re only getting Z. This is NOT a good argument.

In chapter 9 of “Put your Mindset to Work” a formula is provided for calculating personal ROI. It is a percentage that can be calculated as a function of the total value of your work, ideas, and impact and your total cost to your employer:

ROI = (work + ideas + impact – resource) x 100/resources. Work is anything tangible you put effort and energy into that contributes to the company. Ideas are the suggestions you offer that when put to use can hopefully create value for others. Impact is the net effect (plus or minus) that you have on others or put another way – are people happy to see you when you walk in a room or do your colleagues cringe and get quiet? And finally resources – the cost of EVERYTHING provided to you and/or consumed by you at work.

Approaching your own self worth this way completely changes the conversation. Everything you would be discussing would be in the context of your own contribution and the value of that. Earl Nightingale instructs “Don’t concern yourself with the money. Be of service … build … work … dream … create! Do this and you’ll find there is no limit to the prosperity and abundance that will come to you!”

You’re cheating yourself if you don’t calculate and understand your value and worth. You’re living life at a much lower level than you deserve. Convince yourself that you’re worth your greatest effort and you won’t have to try to convince others. They’ll know it. They’ll see it. They’ll feel it. And most of all they’ll pay you more for it!

 

Go, go, go shawty It’s your birthday

Posted in Developing the Possibilities Mindset, Practicing Self Mastery by

And so it is. Today is my birthday and for some reason, perhaps because the word “birthday” is in the lyrics I remembered 50 cent’s ‘In da Club’. Of course the only part of the song I really ‘heard’ or for that matter understood was:

Go, go, go, go
Go, go, go shawty
It’s your birthday
We gon’ party like it’s yo birthday
We gon’ sip Bacardi like it’s your birthday
And you know we don’t give a f**k
It’s not your birthday!

But curiosity got the better of me this morning. And because I now understood that there’s much more behind the words for 50 (I read the 50th Law – that’s how I know) I delved into the lyrics for some inspiration on my special day.

50 describes the good times…drinking champagne…the girls…the fact that although he’d been shot it didn’t keep him down…that while he thought some folks would be happy about his success…that they were the ones wanting to hold him back…that people would gossip that he was mad…but strategically he knew exactly his intention regarding the rap game…that there would always be haters around…but that’s ok because he was still in business and making money.

What stood out for me above all else were these two lines:

I’m feelin’ focused man, my money on my mind
I got a mill out the deal and I’m still on the grind

I feel focused today like never before. Money IS on my mind and all the good that I can do with it.

And hey I’ll be like 50 – even after the million – I’ll still continue doing what I’m doing coz that’s what God put me here for – and I’m having a great time!

Save Time and Energy – Read the Instructions!

Posted in Developing the Possibilities Mindset, Practicing Self Mastery by

Had to laugh at myself this morning. I was assembling a garden bench. “This should be suck-eye (‘simple’ in trini vernacular)” I looked at the diagram, made sure I had all the nuts, washers, bolts, spanner and allen key and set out to work.

Well when I tried to attach the seat – it couldn’t fit. So I thought perhaps I wound the sides too tight – let me loosen all round, connect the seat and then finish up with the back. That went fine, except now it appeared as if the back was too short! What! I have to return this! They sold me a defective garden bench! Jeez!!!!!

After about ten minutes of effort- forcing the back to fit – lol – you guessed it right :) – I returned to the instructions.

Have you ever seen labels on things and just figure they were there for factory purposes? Well upon re-reading the instructions I found this line that was actually first in the paragraph of overall instructions “Please be noted that the leg with a sticker marked with “A” is the RIGHT LEG and “B” is the LEFT LEG. Bingo. Me found za problem! D-uh.

Up until my epiphany, I was working (and dripping with sweat) for a steady 45 minutes.

Once I found my error I had everything up in less than 15 minutes!

I started to think about what I had learned from the process. So here are my lessons which I know you’ll benefit from as well:

  1. Read the instructions. No – don’t look at the diagrams, gloss over and think that you know. Read it for understanding. Are you clear? So many times in life we skim over things for the gist and conclude that “we know” about x or y. “No you don’t!” Until you understand thoroughly the information on hand you still just have a vague idea as to what needs to be done.
  2. Follow the instructions. Sometimes even after reading the instructions we then proceed to do it our way which I’m not sure is just an ego thing or sheer stupidity lol. It’s one of those human quirks: “sure it says to attach back D to legs A and B first but I think it could be completed by attaching seat C first – it doesn’t really matter. Yes it does. Details matter. Assume there is a good reason for doing things in the way outlined.
  3. When things don’t work out take full responsibility. In my case I did read part of it, thought I understood based on the diagrams and because I assumed that the sides were the same I ran into a lot of problems, and spent more time on the project than I needed to. Sure I could blame the manufacturers or the instruction writers but the truth is it was my own damn fault!

We must all beware of our shortcut mentality. Because we want to get through it fast we make assumptions and throw in our own steps. As you see, this does not work and we end up not saving any time and expending far too much energy.

So in the 13 steps to riches outlined in Think and Grow Rich – eliminate one and risk sabotaging your own success.

When I tell clients that before they go into business for themselves they need to be clear about their business choice and not just talk about ‘doing something with the environment’ or ‘ starting a store selling sweets’ – sometimes I can see them get a little anxious. They just want to get into the  growing the business part. More needs to go into this step – the first step. If ignored, again, you will most likely not succeed in business. And usually this is where people will tell you that it’s the economy, or the market is saturated, or someone else in the same line of business knows more people than they do. But remember you have to take 100% responsibility. The reason the business did not work is because you forgot out, or glossed over a step.

Think about it.

Read

Follow

Take responsibility

Now go build it (whatever ‘it’ is) – it’s much easier this way than doing it ‘your’ way – TRUST ME!

cartoon from http://www.cartoonstock.com

Success is…

Posted in Developing the Possibilities Mindset, Practicing Self Mastery by

Well first I want to talk a bit about synchronicity. You see life ALWAYS delivers. Thoughts are so powerful. You think a question in your head and voila! the answer shows up in someone’s blog post, or in a conversation that you’re overhearing or in a sitcom. You never know where you answer will come from which adds to life’s mystery and excitement.

And so it was for me regarding success. I ask myself all the time – “why aren’t you doing what you know you supposed to be doing? why do you always seem to sabotage yourself? are you afraid of success?” Sounds so simple. I am afraid of success and that’s why I haven’t been successful so far in my life.

But Molly Gordon, in her blog post today, digs deeper – how do YOU define success? If what you’re pursuing is not in congruence with your own definition then you will always find success elusive.

Yesterday I had a conversation with my sister. She was sharing with me her thoughts on my writing  – that it was insightful, accessible, friendly, open and kind…that she was really proud of me.

Feedback is VERY important and for a writer doubly so because not often do people provide feedback. You are in isolation as to if they’re reading or not and whether what you are writing is in fact affecting them in any way.

But feedback should be like icing on the cake.

Recognition and reward is an important value for me. I DO want to be recognized for my work and my contribution but what I realized after reading Molly’s article was that I need to define success in my own words so that I could identify and be aware of it when it does show up. If not then I might be passing it by, while pursuing someone’s  definition of it, never to truly FEEL as if I’m accomplishing anything – while telling myself  – perhaps you’re afraid of success.

Now I know the truth – I AM afraid of success that is not uniquely mine.

Read Molly’s post and then do yourself a favor – define your own success!

image from http://www.essentialkeystrokes.com

Go Ahead, Admit it: “You want SOMETHING MORE in your life…”

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Tell me why things have to get bad first before you decide to make things better? Is it that you have become so attached to the phrase “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”? Why wait for it to be broken if you already realise that this is the direction that it’s going in anyway?

Here’s the thing:

You don’t have to have a job that sucks before you decide to pursue another avenue.

You don’t have to be miserable before you feel you deserve to be truly happy.

You don’t have to have a bad marriage to want a better one.

Yet we settle. We settle and wrap ourselves in the comfort of “I’m doing better than most; my life is OK; I should be grateful, things could be worse;” Of course I am not saying that we should not be grateful human beings but we need to be on the lookout — using gratitude as an excuse to remain stuck.

There’s an anecdote that carries a wonderful lesson. It appears that a party of hunters, being called away from their camp left the campfire unattended, with a kettle of water boiling on it. Presently an old bear crept out of the woods and seeing the kettle with its lid dancing about on top — promptly seized it. The boiling water scalded him badly; but instead of dropping the kettle instantly, he proceeded to hug it tightly — this being a bear’s idea of defense. Of course, the tighter he hugged it the more it burned him; and the more it burned him the tighter he hugged it; and so on in a vicious circle, to the undoing of the bear.

This illustrates perfectly the way in which many of us have learned to hug our difficulties to our bosoms constantly rehearsing them to ourselves and to others. We’re sometimes getting ‘burnt’ but want to be thankful that it’s not as bad as the woman down the road. Is that really a good reason to do absolutely nothing about your own discomfort and pain?

Admitting that you want something more than what you’re presently experiencing is the first step. Believing that you do deserve something more is your second. However I must caution that sometimes the ‘more’ is elusive especially when what we define as the more that we need is not necessarily what we were after in the first place.

I once described to a potential client that finding out who you really are and what you want is a lot like going on an archaeological dig. It is painstaking and requires discipline and determination but just like Rome — you won’t get the answers you seek in a day. Think about how wrapped up and challenged we’ve become in today’s consumer-oriented, instant gratification world. We thrive on external benchmarks thrust at us — by income, bonuses, net worth, job title, size of responsibilities etc. We define each other by what we do for a living. And if we are in the company of someone we think is important then we’re only too happy to say that this is so and so the Managing Director of X Conglomerate International — my personal friend!

Clothes and brands are another way we keep score. Look around at all the faux brands being sold today and look-a-likes so everyone can ‘look like’ they could afford it. With all this keeping up, your voice is muted and you go along — only having enough energy left over to convince yourself that it’s alright and you are sorta, kinda, happy, compared of course to others who are ‘ketchin’ their behinds — but are you really?

One thing’s for sure — the desire for something more is not going to let you be — even if you won’t admit it aloud. One French teacher described her student, an impressive corporate attorney in her forties whose French wasn’t half bad, but she’d never been to France. It was her dream though at the time she seemingly lived the dream of a good job, husband, two kids, two cars and a house in a well to do neighbourhood. What she never had was the sort of life experiences that she could afford but because of her rigid life plan, never allowed herself the opportunity to travel to France (her something more). I know you’d tell me now about sacrificing for kids etc but my point is simply this: there has to be a powerful element of living life in the present in any balanced personal definition of success. We cannot pretend to know where our life is going to go. We are making plans after we’ve done X and Y and Z assuming that there’s an after!

Now is all you have and ‘something more’ is what your soul desperately needs. Why not go after it?

Image from http://www.ross.typepad.com

Are you afraid of the ‘deep end’ in your life?

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When I was growing up and learning to swim, I had a lot of respect for the deep end of the pool. I could see where the shallow section ended and the deep started and I avoided the deep like the plague. In his book A Year to Live Stephen Levine says “We are motivated more by an aversion to the unpleasant than by a will towards truth, freedom or healing. We are constantly attempting to escape our life, to avoid rather than enter our pain and we wonder why it is so difficult to be fully alive.” To be fully alive means to explore below the surface level of our lives and delve into the deep. But this is scary. How would you live if you knew that 2011 was going to be your last year?

How did that sentence make you feel? Uncomfortable might be a likely response. The question is why? Most times when things make us feel uncomfortable in our lives we busy ourselves with stuff to do. We distract ourselves. We numb ourselves. We fool ourselves into believing that we can outdistance ourselves yet every time we think we’ve succeeded, we look over our shoulder and find that we are still there, all the baggage, all the issues, unfinished and unsolved.

My swimming instructor didn’t just drop me into the deep end when I was learning to swim. He wanted me to enjoy swimming after all. What he did was to provide me with some reassurance in the form of arm floats which would prevent me from my greatest fear at the time – drowning – as I got accustomed to my new territory. Back in the shallow, I learned to tread water and so now in the deep with my newly acquired skill I could practice.

Life is not that simple. The layers are more complex and numerous. There is not just a shallow and a deep end but perhaps a shallow and degrees of deep compartments moving from “oh this is not so bad” to “I don’t even want to remember what happened.” The thing is if we want to let go of anything in our lives we first need to accept it, acknowledge its presence, name it and then finally let go so that we don’t drown. Living at the surface of our life is no insurance that we would not drown in the very issues that we avoid. Learning to “tread water” in our own lives requires that we become more fully aware.

Awareness will begin to heal us – moment by moment – as we become more and more courageous to dive a little deeper below our surface every single day. Awareness unveils our deepest potential and gives us the clarity we seek. Guy Finley says “Before something genuinely new can appear in our lives, something old must pass. There must be a discontinuation of our familiar sense of self from which we look out into our world in order to find something we believe will renew us.”

“Real prayer”, says Guy in his essay ‘Stop running away from Real Life’ “the soul-transforming kind, is self-discontinuity. It is a conscious act of self-suspension arising from the wish for something new to occur, an act of higher understanding born from knowing that being wrapped up in the old can only produce more of the old.”

We are busier and busier chasing down our moment in the sun, and have forgotten what it means to look up and feel thanks for the light that makes our life possible. It is impossible to rush, to want to feel “important,” and to appreciate life at the same time. Commit to living a profound life. Take responsibility for being alive. Take it seriously and understand that you have the ability to respond. Your life will no longer be ruled by your compulsion to react.

Start living your life first-hand. Taste the food you eat – eat consciously – enjoy what’s in your mouth. Don’t cloud your mind with calories and thoughts of fat. Listen to the music that you have in your collection – REALLY listen. Quit fast forwarding and flipping through stations. Allow yourself to engage and experience. When you speak and when you listen, stay mindful that the fear which limits greater openness also limits self-awareness and obstructs the completion of unfinished business.

Celebrate each get together, and each birthday as though it were the last remembering that love is a great gift worth giving! Break out of the dreamlike quality of a half-attended life. Just as the exploration of the deep end of the pool started slowly as I gained the skills to cope, let us take our time in remembering that we are life itself, unfolding with each thought, each layer exposed, each feeling felt as we evolve into who we truly are, unafraid of our own depth.

Giselle Hudson is a speaker, author, and Possibilities Coach™, planting possibility seeds and helping individuals through the process of taking “NEXT STEPS” in their lives. We all have the capacity to achieve so much more in our lives than we give ourselves credit for.There’s the thing you do for a living – and there’s the thing you were born to do. If your dream is to make them one and the same – discover what’s possible for you. Get your “How to e-guide” . Place your email in the box (top right corner) and click on subscribe

pool photo from http://www.djtechtools.com

Fake it till you make it – is this really good advice y/n?

Posted in Developing the Possibilities Mindset, Practicing Self Mastery by

Depends on how you look at it. I’m sounding like an economist. I think it was Paul Zane Pilzer who said, the world would be a better place if there were more one-hand economists since when forecasting you’d often hear them say “on the one hand…..but on the other hand…..” But back to…

Someone shared a story with me about a young woman who dresses like the epitome of success yet everyone she runs into somehow senses and immediately shares with  her that she needs some work in the self confidence department.

I understand the philosophy behind faking it till you make it but I think most people focus on ‘looking’ successful – the power suit, the car, the trappings of success and not on the internal stuff that needs the attention and ultimately makes the person.

image from http://www.liveinthephillippines.com

What Advice Would You Give Yourself at this Time in Your Life?

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I’ve been thinking about my life – its significance – am I doing what I should be doing?

For the first time it feels right. I’ve done things that I COULD do but didn’t necessarily enjoy doing. I’ve been paid for many  projects but was not fulfilled by the work.

Now I get to choose and that’s because I started to give myself different prerequisites…like

I must have fun

I must be able to make a difference

People must want more for themselves than I want for them

People must share my values

Clients must respect me and value my services

Now I’m giving myself some other tips.

Clients must have an exceptional experience when they interact with me. They must feel motivated and excited to explore ALL possibilities in their lives. Whenever they’re around me they must get a good feeling inside.

My advice to myself as I head into 2011:

Remember it’s a business that you’re running at all times. It’s OK to make money as you make a difference. The fees you charge announce your value and expertise – never be ashamed or bashful in quoting your fees. You may cause more damage to yourself and to the person you’re trying to help by giving away your services for FREE. This does not mean that you NEVER give. Simplicity is key. Always have in front of you your simple business formula. Ensure that you reflect every day on your mission, and values. Ensure that you don the right mindset for daily success. At the beginning of each day write down your number one goal and spend some time brainstorming at least twenty ways to achieve it. Don’t let business slip through the cracks. Maintain and update your client database often and design a one touch a month system for each person on that list. Be memorable. Be remarkable. Live your philosophy!

What advice would you give to you?

Image from http://www.scarletstarstudios.com