Half Dug Wells

It takes a long time to take an idea to its full flowering. Years of effort, one successful step added to another, until you have accumulated the knowledge, wisdom, resources, network and team you need to make it really go. And then you should keep it going to produce fruit since you went through all that trouble and all those years to make it happen.

But leaders who lose personal interest in an endeavor, and career jump, opportunity swap, and get distracted by other shiny objects, will have to start all over again with the new thing. Keep doing this and you may never see the full potential of anything you do, because you just can’t or don’t stay at it long enough.

While many don’t choose the right path for themselves the first time (difficult to do), and therefore should do something else, eventually you should find the right thing for you and become the best at it – and that takes time. 

Connecting the World

In 2010, 1.8 billion people were connected via the internet. Today, three billion people are connected.

These people have access to the world’s information via Google, the world’s products via Amazon, massive computing power via Amazon Web Services, crowdfunding for capital, and crowdsourcing for expertise.

Imagine that. 1.2 billion more active participants in the last seven years.  

1.2 billion more creators, contributors, customers.

In the next 7 to 10 years, every human being on the panet will be connected – 8 billion people.

Breathtaking. What does that mean for your business?

Errors of Omission and Commission

If a key team member says “I didn’t get to it, I was afraid, I didn’t do it, we weren’t sure, we weren’t ready…” Those are errors of omission, and are not excusable.  

On the ther hand, if they say “We tried this, we thought it was the right thing to do and it didn’t work, so we killed it, and we are doing this now”…  Those are errors of commission, and are the good kind of errors.

While we must think first of course, we must act to learn, not procrastinate or imagine how everything may not work out, and be paralyzed.

"IDK"

When’s the last time you said “I don’t know”?

If you aren’t saying that fairly often, you probably aren’t talking to people who are smarter than you, aren’t learning much, and aren’t out of your comfort zone much.

Changing people

Can you change people?  

Only if you use their own beliefs to do it.  If you try to change their beliefs, it’s not going to work.

If you show them how their current situation is painful and changing will remove pain, and it does not voilate their beliefs, you have a shot.

How can this idea be applied in your marketing and motivating your employees?

What questions are you asking?

Your focus is largely diven by your beliefs, which determine what questions you ask.

Do you ask “Why do I have these problems?”, “Why can’t I get good people to work for me?”, and “Why don’t these people get it?”

Read those above questions again, and notice where your mind goes.

Or do you ask “What is the solution? – because I want to find it right away”, “How can I get the best to work on our team?” and “How can I engage people better?”

Notice where your mind goes to those questions.

Perceive the difference?

What questions do you ask?

Learn to Say "No"

Entrepreneurs and ambitious people are optimists and see opportunity everywhere they look.  

But our strengths have a habit of becoming weaknesses. We only have so much time. If we say yes to every opportunity, invitation and possibility, we spread ourselves too thin and jeopardize our ability to follow through on anything to the best of our ability.

Saying no is okay, because it allows us to be better at the things we said yes to.

What do you need to say no to?

Entrepreneurs with Character Flaws

Not reliable or even mannered? Short fuse? Disrespectful? Greedy at others’ expense? Disloyal? Dishonest? Drink too much? Vengeful? Don’t care about people? Don’t follow through? Poor example? Talk down to people?

Entrepreneurs with personal character flaws will always have trouble of all sorts.  

Trying to fix external results is futile until you become the kind of person you need to be to attract success.

Who are you being to other people in this world?

Delegate the old you

You can’t get new results and be the old you at the same time.  

Delegate the old you to others, and be the new thinker, speaker and actor you must to get different results.

Purple Heart

Who in your business stepped out of the box, went out on a limb, and risked their job, or at least the good favor of other people in the organization, to point out how things aren’t going right? Who had the audacity to say the Emperor had no clothes and paid a price for it?

Let’s celebrate these who were wounded by trying to look out for all of us in the organization. Perhaps a Purple Heart Award at the next meeting is in order.