Are You Your Biggest Road Block?

When I meet successful people and then later talk to people who want to be successful, there is one major difference that jumps out every time.  Simply put, the people that want to be successful are their own road block.

The argument is always the same. Those who want to be successful, have a list of reasons of why they aren't the success they want to be.  It is really an amazing phenomenon.  When Og Mandino wrote "The Greatest Salesman In The World", he covered it.  When "The Secret" came out, it hit this issue head on.  Napolean Hill talked about it in his series "Think and Grow Rich" and "The Laws of Success".

So if so many people that study success so clearly see the problem, why do people still fight it?  Why do they argue when they ask for advice?

The sad truth is that somewhere in their life, someone convinced them that something was true.  If you aren't seeing the success that you want in your life, maybe you fit in this group and don't understand it or don't yet see it.  You might even see this in other people without realizing that you have the same issues in your mind.

Be Good To Yourself.

Somewhere in your past someone might have convinced you that you wouldn't ever make it.  Maybe someone told you something like "You'll never amount to much" or "With grades like that you'll just be a janitor".  These words at a young age become seeds that grow in our minds.  When success is getting close, we make excuses to make sure we live up the the expectations set by others.

Here is the key, stop trying to live up to their expectations, and live up to yours.  In Og Mandino's follow up to "The Greatest Salesman In The World", he wrote 10 vows  that he believed people should live by in order to be successful.

Recently I said that success was a simple two step process.  First was to define your own success, and second was to get there.  The process is easy, the execution is what separates the successful from the rest.

The first vow in the second part of "The Greatest Salesman In The World" was to never belittle yourself.  In simple terms, never say anything bad about you to yourself.  Never do it.  When you do, you just add water and food to the seeds that someone else planted.  Never look in the mirror and say "I am fat", or "I am stupid" or "I am lazy".

A guy asked me one day about why I was so "driven".  Yes I work alot by most people's standards, but I have fun in all of my work, so to me it isn't really work.  I answered with a question.  I asked him why he wasn't.  His reply said it all for both of us.  He said "I am just lazy I guess."  After a moment of silence, he said "That's it isn't it?"

He waited for me to reply.  Eventually, I said "If you believe that is the problem, then yes, that is the problem."

He realized that the only thing that separated us was our beliefs in ourselves.  If you believe that you are lazy because someone told you that you were, you will become lazy.  If you don't believe them and work to prove them wrong, you will.

It is funny how many times I talk with people who can name a person they want to be like, and in the same sentence say they want to hang out with a group of people.  When I ask them if their ideal person or role model hangs out in that group the answer is always "no".

TV shows us people living "the life" and not working.  What they don't show is the hundreds or thousands of hours of work that they put into becoming the best at what they did.  Malcolm Gladwell did an excellent piece of research when he wrote "Outliers".  He not only covered the importance of being the best at what you do, he found the alignment of the stars that allowed certain people to catapult way out of the norm.

Being the best is half of the equation, being in the right place at the right time and seeing the potential in the future is the rest.  Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates couldn't have become what they did five years earlier or five years later.  Their drive to excellence would have made them a big success, but only the right timing allowed them to create Apple and Microsoft when they did.  In fact, if Bill Gates was just a week later in his meeting with IBM, we might not have ever seen the PC as we know it today.

As you move to make 2013 your best year ever, look at yourself in a positive light.  Take the negative words out of your vocabulary and bury them in the yard.  Don't be fat, be a plump 200 pounds working to 175.  Don't complain about your skin, be the person spending a few minutes each day getting better skin every day.

Start listening to how you think about yourself when you get dressed, look in the mirror, comb your hair and go out into the world.  Stop the negative thoughts, focus on the positive thoughts and you will see a change just around the corner.

Go out and make 2013 your best year ever with a little positive thinking about the most important person in your world, YOU.

When you start making progress, never look back because your feet start to go where you look.  Look forward, keep both feet moving forward, and you life can only go forward.

Life is a Beach, keep it fun!

Oh yeah, have fun doing it too.

How to Be A Success? Start At The Beginning

Success is a funny thing, we all talk about success, successful people, successful projects and successful businesses, yet we all define it a little differently don’t we.  Ask any three people to define success, and you will probably get three different answers.  This month, Inc. Magazine’s cover proclaims there are “11 Rules for Success”.

I probably have a different perception and therefore definition of success than you do.  Because I realize we are all unique, I usually suggest three different books to help people decide what their definition is.  When I am hired as a business coach, or if my company is hired as a marketing agency, our first mission is to understand what our customers call successful.  I overlooked this thought process in my first book and am now re-writing the book because of it.

In business, “more business” isn’t truly successful except maybe to financial “analysts” on Wall Street who have never run a business.  Each business and business owner will define success differently.  The IRS simply defines it as more profitable, which isn't a bad start, but how profitable is successful to you?

As a person, you can’t be something you can’t clearly define for yourself.  Therefore it is important for you to have your own clear definition of success.  Only then can you be “successful” in the eyes of the most important person in your life, you.

Success can even have different breakdowns in your life.  For example, you can have family success, financial success and athletic success.  For me athletic success might be an 8 minute mile.  You might want to run a 5 minute mile.  Maybe success is skiing at Northstar 110 days in one year.

We might both say financial success is being a millionaire or a billionaire.  What then defines a millionaire?  Is it one million in assets?  Gary Keller, a founding partner in the Keller Williams Real Estate empire, defines a millionaire as a person making a million dollars per year in income.  He is a little vague on net or gross, but he defines it as income.  So must a billionaire have a billion in income?

Success is like a puzzle, there are a lot of pieces that have to come together just right to complete the picture.  Each of us has a unique picture of success.

Defining success isn't easy.

In the 1930’s, Napolean Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich, had one of the first “Success Academies” in the United States and likely the world.  He taught a program based on his intimidatingly thick book, the Laws of Success in 16 Lessons.  The book is 1600 plus pages of wisdom.   I highly recommend it if you want to build a business that you can one day call “successful”.

Mr. Hill used the Rockefellers, Fords, Bells and Edisons as the examples of success.  His definition focused on the being the biggest in whatever field you chose.  Many people don’t equate success this way and have a hard time reading 1600 pages and remembering all of the lessons.  Since we can’t all be the richest man in the world, and might not even want to, many people who read the book only end with a view of success they don’t want.

Is The Greatest Salesman a Success?

A little later, a guy named Og Mandino wrote a series of short and easy to read books, with the most famous being “The Greatest Salesman In The World”.  He narrowed the rules of success down from 16 to just 10, and published a book of just under 150 pages.  A size just about anyone would be able to read.  

Mr. Manadino’s approach is along the lines of a fable.  A story about how the greatest salesman came to be and how we can all be great at something.  The greatest salesman teaches us that success isn’t necessarily money and things.  Something that many people believe today.  

The Humanetics Approach

Another great series of books that are little known for some reason are by Richard Wetherhill. Mr. Wetherhill was the founder of a business and wrote books for his employees to help them and his business succeed.  Today those employees own the business and give away the books at alphapub.com.  

Humanetics is the name Mr. Wetherhill gave to his approach to life and success.  Tower of Babel is probably the best book to start with in this series.  Since the books are all free, short and easy reads, I recommend them all.  If you don’t have a tablet, here is a way to save $100.  Buy the tablet, and download all the books for free.

In fact, the “Laws of Success in 16 Lessons” is also available as a free download if you do some digging.

So Now What is Success?

At the end of the day Success really is a two step process.  First you must define it, so you’ll know it for yourself when you get there.  Second you have to get there.

All of these books and articles offer some great ideas on how to get there, but until you know where you are going, getting there is nearly impossible.  Columbus was a success because he proved the earth was round, not because he missed his goal of sailing west to India.  Finding an entirely new continent was simply a bonus for being right.

Success starts at the beginning because that is where you define it.  

Simple Design aka The KISS Principle For Business

When I first entered the military in 1984, we got beat in the head with the KISS principle.   While I am sure you know that KISS means “Keep It Simple Sir”, I wonder if you have applied it to your business, your marketing and your life.  

Successful products offer a simple solution to a problem in our life. If the solution isn't easier than the product, the solution simply doesn't sell.  The same is true for businesses of all kinds. For some reason though, the entrepreneurial curse makes us feel like we must do everything.  The secret is to do everything in the background.  One of my early mentors said “list everything you do, down to the last wire and charge for it, show your customers where the money went.”  I did that for a while and it didn’t help at all.  In fact it just took up a bunch of my time and cluttered up my brain.

Instant Results, Limited Efforts

Let’s take the iPhone for instance, and even now the Windows phone with "Tiles".  They each do one job very well.  The job of these “phones” is to help you “stay connected”.  That’s it.  Nothing else.  All of the magic that keeps you connected is in the phone and the service.   Instant results, limited effort.

Yes, you have the choice to buy games and other apps, but the phone comes ready for you to connect.  Connect to friends, connect to customers, connect to the internet, connect to email and connect with text.  And all of this is easier than doing the same things on that little flip phone you used to have or you wouldn't have bought it now would you?

Windows Tiles for Windows phones and the Microsoft Surface is a hit because it takes one step out of the process.  Tiles  show you a picture of your world without you doing anything.  The flaw (Mr. Balmer are you listening) is that the purpose of a desktop pc or even a laptop isn’t the same as a phone.  Staying connected isn’t why I have a PC, it is why I have a phone and a tablet.  

SImply put, Tiles on a work PC don't work, because I need my PC to do work.

Single Purpose Wins.

Maybe a better example is the new NEST thermostat.  This is a very simple device that packs a lot of brain power in a small package.  It is All you have to do is turn it up or down to set the temperature you like.  It learns and eventually you do nothing.  No more programming schedules that leave you in the cold on those winter holiday mornings because it is Tuesday and you should have gone to work.  No more cooling the house while you are on summer vacation because you forgot to reprogram the thermostat.

The elegance of the design of the NEST is that on the outside, there is very little interaction, and on the inside is a massive amount of logic.  If you want to be the super nerd and watch your energy usage on the fly, the NEST will let you do that, but like all new toys, the novelty will wear off and the only time you’ll even remember you have a NEST is when a visitor says “What’s that?”.

The easier the interface is for the customer, the more likely they are to play along and also pay.  We can’t be experts in everything, and nobody really wants too.  Business is no different.  The easier you can make the connection to the customer, and the more “magic” you can take care of in the back ground, the happier your customer will be.  

As customers we all say we want to know what it going on.  The truth is, we just want to know the progress and know when we get what ever it is we bought.  Think about it.  If you file bankruptcy, do you care about every form, court date or filing unless you have to go to court?  No, you just want to know that the creditors will stop calling, and the nightmare is closer to an end right?  When you buy a car, 99% of us never have a clue what the engine looks like.  Why?  Manufacturers have covered it with a big piece of plastic to make it look nice.

I have a new voice activated GPS.  While it is pretty smart, it is no Siri.  I have four portable GPS devices sitting in my garage.  The one in my truck is simply the easiest to use.  It has XM traffic so it does magic while I just listen to music and drive.  I don’t care about the magic or how it works.  I could use my iPhone with Siri, but quite frankly, her new maps and navigation don't compare (Apple map guys are you listening?).  KISS doesn't mean make the product simple, it means make the inputs to and from the customer simple.

What is your "Secret Sauce"?

It is funny how many times a new client will ask me how we do it.  SEO clearly isn't that easy or everyone would do it.  

I just respond, “We don’t sell the secret sauce” and yet my book is right here for sale.  The big picture of what we do is all right here for under $20.  The difference is followup.  When you pay me, you will be reminded to simplify at every corner.  Your marketing is never put on the back burner and as you simplify your business, income will go up, relative costs will go down and so will your stress level.

What is your Secret Sauce?  Can you do it better and cheaper than you customer can do it for themselves?

If you still have that entrepreneurial urge to go out and do more, I can’t do a thing about it right now.  I took up Chump Car Racing, paddle boarding and bought a new bike.  What will you do?