More About Hard Work

I am more convinced than ever about the importance of hard work.  How do I define hard work?  Simple.  Concentrate your efforts all of the time that you are at work on the most important task at hand.  Concentrate single-mindedly on completing your assignments in a thorough and timely fashion.

What leads me to this belief about hard work.  Well, think about the things that you can and cannot control.  You cannot control your competition and you cannot control your co-workers' performance.  You certainly cannot control your company's management and their policies and decisions.

If you want to be successful, what is the one thing that you can control?  Answer, your own efforts.  We are competing every day for success.  In our competition with others, we might be underpriced, we might be mismatched by the size of the competitors workforce or the size of their funding, and we might be disadvantaged for other reasons.  Maybe your competion is smarter, or more experienced, or more outgoing.

The one thing that we should never be if we want to be successful is outworked.  Just like in sports competition, you should never be out-hustled, you should never be outworked in your profession.  Be honest to yourself in the assessment of your work efforts.  Give your best effort always!

Avoiding Anxiety

I really think that we can all do better at this.  So many situations in life cause us anxiety but part of the solution is what frame of mind that we bring to the situation.

Often, small problems can be easily fixed without anxiety but we often take that anxious route anyway.  Try to ease your angst by taking a calm approach to every situation you face each day.  Think of the people with positive mental attitudes and take a lesson from them.

Your positive approach will then rub off on others which will further empower your own self confidence and control.  Give it a try.  We can all do better.

Happy New Year

The economic forecast appears to be promising.  Most markets are recovering.  With that being said, it is at least reasonable to start this new year 2011 with optimism for your business and your career.

If you believe in New Year's resolution, now is the time to take advantage of the opportunity to list the things that you realistically want to accomplish.  Realistic is the key word because anyone can set high goals and give up after a few weeks or months.

If you establish some clear goals for yourself and your business in 2011, write them down, and visit this list often, you may be surprised at this tme next year on just how much you have accomplished.  So take a little time and write down your clearly defined and reachable goals for 2011.

Happy New Year

Success requires a team

Just like the old saying "it takes a village to raise a child," it takes a team for any business or organization to realize success.  It helps to have star players but for an organization to succeed year after year, it requires a great team with great leadership.

I am a sports fan and a very frustrated one because all of the Cleveland sports teams are suffering right now from bad records and failure.  At one time, our biggest rival in football was the Pittsburgh Steelers.  We love to hate the Steelers in Cleveland.

However, if you take a look at the history and record of the Steelers, you will find an excellent example of what I am talking about.  They have an excellent organization that takes great pride in success as a team.  They manage and optimize every aspect of their organization and thus they have realized great success.

The same is true in business.  It is the overall organization that must be great in order for any aspect of the business to experience year-over-year success.  The top management must be totally behind every facet of the business, behind every employee, and aligned with the goals of every division.

Success requires a team, and that includes ownership, top management, middle management, and every single employee.

The End of 2010

I wish everyone a very happy 2011.  Economically speaking, 2010 has been a recovery year for the most part.  All indications point toward a continued recovery in 2011.

This is a great time to take advantage of new business and career opportunities as the recovery continues.

Happy New Year

Great Financial Advice

Almost 30 years ago I heard a story called The Richest Man in Babylon and it left a lasting impression.  It is a parable about gaining wealth.  Although, I didn't really view it as gaining wealth as much as being about common sense money management.

The story can be summed up in one sentence and it is; a part of all you earn is yours to keep.  The story goes on with rich detail about the lessons learned by a young laborer who wanted to be financially independent.  He was neither greedy nor a cheat.  He simply saved his way to prosperity over a period of time.

I recommend reading The Richest Man in Babylon because it makes great sense.

Clarity in all that you do

Another key lesson that I have learned from several career coaches is that clarity is so important to success.  We really need to understand what it is that we want to accomplish and what direction we are seeking.

This falls in line with goal setting because with good goal setting, we clarify the direction of our work.  With clarity in objectives, we can establish a plan on how to get there.  If we know what we want, we can put together a plan on how to get it.

If the goal is higher profit, then we need to clearly set a profit goal so that costs can be structured to reach that goal considering our revenue profit.  If increased market share is our goal, then we can carefully measure our company or product's market share now and at the end of a campaign to raise that market share.

If our goal is to be well liked by everyone we encounter, we need to gear our every action and word to reach that end.  Without knowing exactly what we want, it is difficult to impossible to get there.

Clarity in goals and expectation as well as clarity in plans to acomplish them are keys to success.