Believe you can do it

You can be successful by believing you can.  You will never out-perform your own beliefs.  The belief creates the confidence, skills and energy to make it happen.

Do you believe in your own abilities to acheive what it is you say you want to.

Staying Successful

When we are becoming successful for the first time in our careers or business, we are hungry, we appreciate and celebrate our wins, and are eager to grow.  Once we are “successful”, and the pace of relative advancement slows, we can become bored, complacent, and lose the edge that got us there.

You have to stay hungry and on the offense while maintaining what you have built so far.  The leadership job changes, but the drive forward shouldn’t.  String together successful years, and build on them, and don’t mess it up.

Becoming successful is one trick.  Staying successful is another.

Young and Naive

Young people don’t know what can’t be done. They don’t know people have been working on unsolvable problems for years. They don’t know anything about the old systems and are not emotionally attached to them. They just don’t know anything.  They don’t know what can’t be done.

So Albert Einstein invented the special theory of relativity at age 26.  Jonas Salk invented the polio vaccine at age 30.  Isaac Newton had his breakthrough at age 23, and Marie Curie discovered radioactivity at age 30. Galileo published big breakthroughs starting at age 22. The Apollo rocket engineers were all in their 20’s.

Experienced people can solve problems using their knowledge and wisdom.  But it’s also helpful to have some youngsters on the team – and let them loose on problems, and opportunities. 

Is your team diversified by age?

Crazy Ideas

The day before something is a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea. Sure, some crazy ideas stay crazy forever. But the ones that turn out to be fantastic innovations still camoflage themselves with the other outlandish, silly, and impractical ideas before they are developed by someone to bloom value.

Beware the crazy ideas – and beware ignoring them too.

Usable Design

We rented a house with a hot tub.  The hot tub had a remote control.  Why do I hate remote controls? Because I can’t figure out how to use them most of the time.  Well, we couldn’t get the hot tub to work. Then we couldn’t figure out how to turn the gas fireplace on.

I’m in the shower and I can’t figure out which bottle is shampoo and which is conditioner – they look the same. Don’t they know that people with less than perfect eyesight wash their hair, too? And we don’t wear our glasses in the shower! Why can’t they put a 4″ tall S on one bottle and a big C on the other?

I buy a new SUV.  The designers surely were geniuses – look at this thing – they must be very proud.  The problem is I am not as genius as they are. I need to attend a training retreat to operate my car.   For the life of me I can’t figure out how to set the cruise control!  And the mirrors fold in from time to time with no explanation, and I have to stop and concentrate to figure out how to fold them out again.  Do I even need the mirrors to fold in?  It came with the car, I didn’t ask for it.  I got along fine without them in my 1969 Buick Skylark!  And when I’m in reverse the back-up camera comes on the screen (fine) but the music (audiobook) I had on last starts playing automatically and I can’t stop it until I am out of reverse.  Why did it start automatically – I didn’t ask it to.  Etc, etc.  This is a GM vehicle, and I have two others around that are also new-ish ones – why are the controls different in each of them?  Why do I have to relearn where things are each time?  Why are they torturing me?

I get my propane or oil delivery and they give me this bill-that-is-also-an-envelope paper contraption.  Tear here, don’t tear here, detach this and insert there, and fold on this other line and read the directions to seal it.  Whattt?  I just want a bill and an envelope!  I’m not a dummy – just human!

If you need to read directions, that means a first time user, a guest, a renter, a friend – can’t just walk up to your product and use it.  This frustrates people and disqualifies many potential customers from doing business with you.

I love innovation.  But we must be careful we aren’t trying to be too clever and show how smart we are.  First, things need to be VERY USABLE.

Are your products/services/website/communications intuitive and easy to use?

Double Standard Revisited

A while back I asked if we can expect the same results from someone we pay $25,000 to, $50,000 to, or $100,000 to.  In terms of effort, yes we expect everyone to do their best no matter what their job is.

In terms of results however, we cannot expect the same of each.  If everyone produced the same results, what then is the basis for paying people differently?  How could a person get ahead based on their performance?  And how would the economy work?

We do and should see more marketable value created by people that we pay more to – because that’s why we pay them more.

Isn’t that right?

Happy employees perform better

Invest in your employees’ happiness.  It doesn’t have to cost a ton.  There are lots of ways employees will feel better – 

Appreciation, small gifts, public acknowledgement, communicating goals and issues so they are “in the know”, asking for their help, listening to their ideas, gifts, parties, shirts, putting them in charge of something, giving them a title, giving them business cards, painting their office or giving them a new desk or shelves – so many things would be appreciated!

What can you do today?

Your success shows up when you do

When will you be successful in business?  When you have created a team that works together with systems and processes to create value and deliver the consistently positive results that your customers are looking for…

…and not before.

Make it happen.

"Fake it until you make it"

This idea is important, but it refers to what’s going on inside you, rather than outside.  Of course the world doesn’t like an outward “fake”.  But to “make it”; to get results we don’t have yet, we have to be someone we aren’t yet.  

This transformation goes on inside of us.  All outward achievement is a result of what is going on the inside of us.  “Fake it until you make it” means we are changing inside, so that we can get the results we seek outside.  

Is it time to lead your next transformation from the inside out?

Millionaire in training

A million isn’t that much money anymore.  Heck, in some parts of the country the homes in nice neighborhoods cost more than that.  And a billion is just too much of a reach.  However much we call it, the idea of getting wealthy depends on delayed gratification, living on less than you make, being smart about handling money, and investing money to make it grow without losing it.

There is a lot of “expert” advice out there, but the basics aren’t that hard or complex.  If you aren’t self disciplined, you cannot become wealthy.  Avoiding doing stupid things with money will be a major factor if you are to achieve it.

Not everyone cares to strive to become wealthy, but if it’s something you want, how are you doing so far?