2012 – Seven Steps to Extraordinary | Extraordinary Business
The year-end/start of the new year often marks a mile-marker for people in all walks of life. New tax year. New goals. New expectations. New resolutions. I believe that many of us create expectations for ourselves that we have every intention of pursuing, but neglect to think in terms of how to actually accomplish them. One of those has to do with personal or professional improvement. While it might be great to increase revenue or increase productivity, the “how” is often the debilitating factor. I am not suggesting that the goals are logically impossible or impractical, but rather, without evaluating the “whole picture” the goals are idealistic and success unlikely.
Have you ever been to a store or worked with a business owner or a business that seemed to have a “think-small” or “scarcity” mentality. What I mean by that is that there are certain business owners who spend so much energy simply trying to survive that they never get anywhere. It is as though they have a boat with a hole in the bottom and instead of investing in repairing the hole, they focus all of their energies on bailing water out of the boat. What they often miss out on is the fact that even if they don’t immediately have the resources to repair the hole, completely, if they are the only one bailing, there is no one sailing the ship.
One of the parenting techniques my mom and dad used after my “everyone else is doing it” line of reasoning was, “if all your friends were jumping off a bridge, would you?” I, of course, having been reduced to a cliché, would have to say, “no.” Great. Another one bites the dust. However, that cliché probably saved my butt more times than hot. (Note: I have only used that line a couple of times with my own children. On each of them.)
As I write this, I am sitting at the funeral of the man who greatly sparked my entrepreneurial spirit and attitude. I didn’t realize quite how deep an impact he’d made on my life until I was sitting here. You see, Larry had been an entrepreneur all his life…his legacy has rubbed off on me from the time I met him 25 years ago. Strangely, I hadn’t seen him in 20 years. Like a tornado, while he impacted my life only briefly, the experience is memorable for a lifetime.
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