What stage are you at?

When I wrote Unfair Fight I included the different stages in the lifecycle of a business:

1. Flirting
2. Infancy
3. Child
4. Young Adult
5. Optimal
6. Stable
7. The Decline

Yesterday in a discussion with one of my staff members, I realised that this doesn’t just apply for businesses; it can also apply to units within businesses.

By not treating your entire business the same, by becoming more sniper accurate in the approach you apply to move each business unit forward, the more effective you can be.

It’s like marketing, you can throw enough shit at the wall and see what sticks, or you can aim before you fire.

The formula for success

Success isn’t that complicated, but it does take hard work:

• Do what you love because if you don’t you’ll quit
• If you can’t do what you love, how about choosing to love what you do?
• Don’t chase ‘get rich quick schemes’, create a great business that provides real value
• Work your ass off until you’re successful
• Change what is a ‘must’ for you. You get what you ‘must’ have, not what you ‘want’
• Raise your standards, then hold yourself to those standards
• Failure isn’t falling down, it’s not getting back up. Get up more than you fall and you’ll be successful.

You will never get this day back, you are running out of days, so make today your masterpiece.

“Get off your ass, write a plan, and take action.”

Be prepared to pay the price for success. Because it is worth it.

The price for not paying the price is intolerable.

“It’ ain’t about how hard you’re hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.”

No more excuses. You’re better than that. 

Character, or reputation?

Most people seem to really care about their reputation, about how others perceive them. Great people care about their own character, about who they are when nobody’s watching, and they let reputation take care of itself.

Old school, new school

Last week I highlighted a trap many entrepreneurs fall into; the need to innovate everything. Another trap is the need to make everything ‘new school’.

Jumping on the latest thing isn’t always smart, in fact sometimes it can be downright stupid. When assessing change you need to consider if this is a trend or a fad.

Most are fads.

Jumping from fad to fad is a great way to kill a business.

‘Old school’ has its place. Some things have stood the test of time for a reason. Some values are the foundation of good practice regardless of what time we are at in history.

In this TED talk by the late UCLA Bruins coach, John Wooden, he shares what I believe are the foundations of success in any arena. John Wooden is someone I admire and respect and this is well worth a watch.

Old school?

New school?

Innovation’s good, right?

A trap entrepreneurs fall into is feeling the need to innovate everything. The problem with this approach is that not everything needs innovation. You only need to innovate that which needs changing, that which will differentiate you in the marketplace.

The problem with innovating everything is that nothing gets finished, and you reinvent the wheel over and over.

In many areas of your business, standard practice is probably better that you already have, so use it.

But equally, don’t fall into the trap of using standard practice in the things that really matter, the things that need chancing, the things that will differentiate you.

Be selective with what you innovate and do the best you can.