Posts tagged - life lessons

We All Need To Try Something New

Posted on: September 18, 2013, in: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If you’re not successful, you’ve got to change something. Funny thing is that if you are successful it helps to change something. Trying something new is good for all of us. It could be regarding how you generate or create business. It could be how you organize your workspace. It could be stopping at the corner coffee shop in the morning and meeting your neighbors or other professionals and business owners.

Back to if you are not successful or are on a bad streak. The problem is you, but not in the way you think. Odds are it is not your work product. It is that you are stuck in routine and maybe with things that used to work. We are in a new world: post-recession, surrounded by technology twenty-four hours a day, sucked into interactions with or through machines that used to happen in person, or at least by phone. Change something.

One idea is to reconnect with people. I know people thirty and younger may be rolling their eyes, but life previously didn’t involve texting, Facebook and twitter. Make a list and call someone from that list each morning. All it takes is three to five minutes a day, but that personal touch means something. If not that, change something else, regularly.

Don’t let lack of success or success define you. Interact with people. For most of us, it is those people and their memory of you that will define us, not a witty tweet…

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Know the Rules

Posted on: September 06, 2013, in: , , , ,

Only ask for a favor if you’ve got something you can give in return. Because favors are expensive. And if you don’t acknowledge or return favors, don’t expect those people to do any for you in the future. Really what we are talking about is the golden rule: do unto others as you have them do unto you; In modern language it means treat people how you want to be treated.

You know you have skills, but you have to know the rules. Last night I watched a Denver Bronco defensive player intercept a ball, go straight to the end zone, but drop the ball half a step before he crossed the goal line. He almost had a touchdown. My kids remind me that almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. That player had the skills, but didn’t know the rules.

There’s more information out there than ever on how the game works. If you want to work in any industry or profession you have to know who the players are, learn about where they started out, and then not only how they got to where they are, but where they are going. This will take work. But the payoff is great. For most of us, the areas in which we are trying to find success are not new roads, but old, well-travelled roads. Desire and will only go so far. While traveling down those old, well-travelled roads there is no reason to reinvent the wheel. And by the way there is a reason why clichés became clichés, but I will leave that story to another day.

If you want to discuss the rules, or anything else, feel free to contact me.

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