Let's Be Successful Again!

Managing your time

Sometimes I don't know how very successful people do it. How do they run fabulously profitable businesses, win gold medals or achieve incredible goals with only 24 hours in a day? Here I am running my small company, working at 7.30 at night with plenty more to do before turning off the lights and turning in for the night. I will be at my desk by about 7.30 in the morning and off we go again. 

I am not complaining. I love my work and always look forward to getting to my desk or to see a client in the mornings.

But what about all the paperwork, keeping up with emails, attending meetings and thinking?! Getting everything done is one thing. But thinking about things is another. And it is often the thing we consider dispensable. We believe we can do our thinking in the evening, in the car, when we are brushing our teeth. It is true that ideas often come when we are doing something unrelated. But relying on that or giving that as an excuse for not setting aside thinking time is a mistake.

In fact, the thinking time is vital and must be protected. It is hard. I know myself. But finding dedicated time to think, to sit by the river and let ideas come, to stare at the sky, to meet with friends or colleagues and discuss your thoughts...this is fundamental for success.

Thinking helps you anticipate problems actually saving you time in the long run. It helps you get clear about the options available so you are most likely to choose the right one (obviously saving time). And it is energising, meaning you can return to your activities and be that much more focused (meaning you get more done in the end as well).

How do you create thinking time? Do you even think it is possible when you are under pressure?

Do you trust?

A survey of Americans in 2002 by Golin-Harris found that 69% of respondents agreed with the statement “I just don’t know who to trust anymore”. Roughly half of all managers don’t trust their leaders. And four out of five members of the public have “only some” or “hardly any” confidence in people running major corporations.

 

In poorly adjusted environments people find it even harder to trust other people and will demand more of their leaders before they bestow their trust.

 

I certainly feel less willing to trust these days although that is also quite liberating. Instead of just handing over my trust I demand a certain amount of evidence that it is justified.

 

How has your trust level been affected by the recession?

 

(P.s. no more blogs for a little while as I am off on holiday at the end of the week. But keep your comments coming. And I will have a lot of thoughts to share on my return!)

It's not me....

Something I am hearing a lot of these days (even more than normal due to the recession) is It's-Not-My-Fault syndrome,

Here are some examples -

"It's not my fault"

"I didn't ask for this"

"Someone needs to do something about this"

"What are you going to do about this?"

I was struck by this yesterday when I heard Gordon Brown on Jeremy Vine's lunchtime phone-in on Radio 2. An angry caller was complaining to Gordon because his mortgage interest rate was 6% and he was tied in to a fixed rate deal and other people were paying less and he wanted Gordon to do something about it. This wasn't a man whose situation had recently worsened. He still had the same job as he had before, he hadn't been directly effected by the recession as far as I could see. If anything his fuel and food prices had gone down recently.

But the recession has provided a perfect excuse for people to blame others for decisions they made of their own free will. Times have changed that is for sure and some people have been directly affected. They are certainly struggling right now and, where possible, they should be eligible for help while they work their way out of their situation.

But most people are unaffected in any negative way. They just want to shrug off responsibility at a time when it is socially acceptable to complain about how hard done by you are.

People who achieve success don't do this. They always look to themselves for the answer to their problems.  They believe they create their own results, even if they can't control everything in their lives. They know that the choices they make every day impact the results they get and they take ownership of those, even when they make mistakes.

It is easy to be influenced by all this doom and gloom and sit around bemoaning your lot. Much harder, but much more effective, is spending your time focusing on what you can influence yourself and doing as much as you can to change that.

A moan occasionally to get things off your chest is one thing, but when we constantly blame others for choices we have made, we are actually setting ourselves up to fail.

Is it really all in the mind?

As I start publicising my newbook with a vengence (The Recipe for Success, out in May) I find myself getting in to lots of debates about success. Now, I realise that I might be saying something a little controversial when I argue in the book that success in this world is basically about mindset and that those who achieve great things have brought that success upon themselves...but I had no idea it was going to be so controversial especially against the backdrop of the current recession.

The debate I found myself part of yesterday was one where many people felt angry that I was saying that mindset played such a significant part seeing as friends of theirs, through no fault of their own, were losing their jobs or failing to win contracts. This must be proof then, they argued, that it was as much to do with luck as determination or positive outlook.

I disagree. People who succeed have been through rough times. Take a snapshot of Richard Branson's life or Duncan Bannatyne's life and you may discover a time when everything looked hopeless. Right now those people are doing very well and overall they appear to be successful. But there were times for both of them when the chips were down.

Bad things can happen to people through no fault of their own of course. But it is how you choose to respond to those bad things and how you create opportunities out of those that makes the difference between success and failure (or just average-ness). I would even argue that mindset can help you avoid a lot of difficult times through preparedness and the confidence to make changes rather than waiting for change to happen to you but I am sure that will be even more controversial!

This isn't just true in our relatively rich Western world. People everywhere have been capable of remarkable things. They have fought for their rights, they have worked themselves out of poverty, they have wheeled and dealed to get basics for their families...They may not have been able to be millionaires by our standards but they have used whatever little power or influence they had to change their situation, even if in small ways. There are significant limits for most of these people but many use what they have to make things just a little bit better.

My question to anyone who feels totally at the whim of life is to ask whether they are taking every opportunity, using any piece of influence they have? Or are they just resigned to a life where they take no control and no responsibility?  

What's wrong with the apprentices?

I have a confession to make. I am a fan of almost any reality TV show. Strictly Come Dancing, Big Brother and even America's Got Talent. I put this down to my fascination with human behaviour (although that might just be an excuse for what is basically a shameful indulgence!)

So I make it my business to watch The Apprentice as a kind of test of my commercial mindedness and my people observation skills.

Watching last night I realised one way that the apprentice hopefuls go wrong EVERY SINGLE TIME.

They start with questions like "What is easy?", "What is cheap?", "How can we make the most money?"

In business we generally start with questions like "What is already out there and where is there a gap in the market?", "What do people really want, that they are willing to pay for?" and "What can we excel at?" Profit margins matter of course, but you only make money by meeting a need.

Apprentice contestants start with the premise that the public (or their clients) are idiots who won't notice when they are fobbed off with low quality and poor service at a high price. They talk the talk in public but behind the scenes (where it actually matters) we see their true values. 

Of course, this is partly because of the way the exercises are set up. There is no need for customer loyalty, a long term strategy or team building skills. Team work isn't rewarded - it is everyone for themselves in the end. 

But as a lesson in what not to do it teaches us a lot!

I would love to know what you've noticed - positives and negatives - as the series progresses.