bizRichard

There are several schools of thought about personal strengths and weaknesses.

One reckons on “working to eliminate your weaknesses so that you’ll become better in those areas” - to become so accomplished that you’ll be virtually ‘unstoppable’.

The other reckons on the opposite view, “work on your strengths and have someone else do all the other things” – things that you either don’t enjoy doing or the things you’re simply not very good at.

Which camp are you in – making yourself more accomplished, or getting someone else to do it for you?

Stop reading for a moment – just pause a while and think about what you do.

Then let me tell you where I’m going with this one.

I used to be in the first camp - I loved the challenge of learning and improving on those things I wasn’t too good at – and I still do. But, increasingly I’ve switched camps now - because I realise that working on your weaknesses is probably one of the most imprudent things you can waste time on. It is not only unproductive, but it costs you time and money – and time is one of those most precious and irreplaceable resources that once spent, can never be replaced.

Here, let’s take a closer look.

When you focus on your weaknesses, unless it is something you really want to do, not only is it taking your time, you’re probably always going to be in a state of conflict and dissatisfaction with yourself until you reach ‘perfection’. And nothing is more damaging or crushing to your own self-esteem and feelings of accomplishment than continually feeling dissatisfied with yourself and your performance.

I’m not saying to ‘stick your head in the sand’ and ignore your weaknesses – no – clearly you, must continually strive to learn and improve yourself – to stay in command of your life. But what I am saying is that to set your whole focus on improving your weaknesses, to the detriment of getting on, is seldom going to get you anywhere effectively or fast.

The amount of time you spend trying to get better at something you’re simply not good at is, in all probability, time wasted – it uses up valuable time that could have been used more effectively working on something you’re extremely good at.

Would you rather spend 10 hours laying bricks, for example, something you’re not particularly good at and may regret doing, or would you rather spend those 10 hours writing a piece of software you can sell, or 10 hours doing something else you thrive on?

Which of these activities makes you feel better and allows you to achieve more in your life and your business?

The derivative of what we are discussing basically comes down to the relative opportunity costs. How much will it cost you to hire someone to do your bricklaying, or whatever - versus how much you could earn applying your energies and time to the things you are good at? Or even spending precious time with family and friends?

At the end of the day, it boils down to common sense and a willingness and open-mindedness to do things differently. And doing things differently is the ONLY way to shift your earnings, and your mindset, upwards

And, life’s too short to do the things you don’t like. And since, in theory, you’re in control of your own life, why would you want to do things any other way?

Get out there and run your life the SMART way

Richard C

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Many of my clients, and you, the readers of my blog and web-site, will know that the one ‘big essential’ to business success that I have always kept harping on about is having the right ‘mindset’.

I’ve worked with many dozens of ‘would be’ entrepreneurs over the years, but few ever achieve their ideals. Most are full of superficial dreams but have little genuine belief or passion, and often even less application – the result, a demoralising self fulfilling prophecy.

But for those that have the right mindset – WOW! For them even the sky is no limit and I just love working with these guys.

And I will let you into a little secret here, something that few people know – I got so frustrated at one point about 10 years ago that I even got myself qualified as a ‘DISC’ behavioural analyst and started putting some of my clients through the psychometric testing process to try to find out what was ‘blocking’ their paths to success. But even that didn’t change the final outcome.

But why am I telling you all this?

Because your success is important to me, so important that I want to share with you something different. It’s some recent work done by Paul Gorman.

Paul is a UK based ‘business guru extraordinaire’ with many years of front line experience. I’m fortunate to know him personally – and he’s a true inspiration to all who come into contact with him. He’s someone, I believe, who has so much to offer in the world of, not only in business achievement but, achievement in life generally.

But guess what?

He too discovered, and was deeply saddened, that the vast majority of his seminar attendees never achieved what they declared they wanted.

So he began digging deeper – into the mind.

And what he discovered so amazed him that he decided to wind down his ‘business marketing’ services as a ‘waste of his precious time’.

He will be a great loss to the business community. But on the plus side he will be concentrating on something much more fundamental to business success. He’s become fanatical about solving this ‘problem of mindset’ and is now truly resolved to encouraging us to learn how we can develop both ‘the mind and the person’ so that we can identify and achieve what we truly want in life.

How else do you define ‘success’ other that it being the achievement of what you set out to do.

Below is an extract from one of the pages on his web-site.

This Is Why Only 1-2% Of Seminar Attendees,
Including Business Owners, Ever Apply And Benefit
From What They Learn

I do not believe that I can teach you one thing. You shouldn’t believe that you can teach me one thing.

However, if I look to draw forth from you your individual interests, fascinations, passions, joys and desires to be, to create, to achieve, then and only then am I a value to you as an educator.

This reveals why—no matter how much business or marketing strategy and technique you ‘learn’—no matter how much effort, time and money you invest in trying to make your business a success—and no matter how deeply even I were to counsel, advise and help you—you will not benefit unless what we are doing is drawing forth your true passions and desires.

This is why entrepreneurs attend business and personal development training programmes until the mass of information they have had pumped in is so great they almost burst, yet only 1 or 2 percent actually apply and benefit from it all.

This is why you have, by degree, not been able to realise your dreams of success and wealth despite putting in extraordinary effort for years, even decades.

It is about to change for you, rapidly and for good.

Do visit his site, The Science on Natural Achievement Ability. Click here - http://scienceofnaa.com

And this, Paul says, is only scratching the surface. There is deeper stuff still that he’s not even begun to release – but will in time.

If nothing else, his words will get your mind working.

After which, resolve to achieve, and get out there and let the money come to you - that’s the smarter way.

Richard C

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It often happens happens, but never was it more poignant than a few years back when I was caught in yet another traffic jam – with an important meeting to attend.

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “You’re going so fast you’re standing still” - a phrase amusingly thrown at someone rushing around in a frenzy, but hardly achieving anything. And I’ll wager a bet that it often applies to you also – during your busy busy days at work.

But back to my traffic jam!

I’d left with plenty of time in hand and had been making good progress towards my destination – my driving mind on auto-pilot as I considered the issues and the outcomes of the meeting ahead.

Suddenly the brake lights on the vehicles ahead started flashing blindingly as the traffic slowed – and slowed - until it finally stopped. A little judder forward as the cars bunched up – and then nothing.

Five minutes went by – I switched off my engine. Then it was ten – then twenty. Extreme agitation set in as I reached for my mobile phone to contact the venue – I was now very tight for time. But suddenly the traffic started moving. With an audible sigh of relief I started my engine, raced forward 30 yards - and stopped again – nothing was moving.

I picked up my phone, dialled the number – but the absence of a dialling tone soon made me realise I had no network coverage! I was never going to make the meeting now – and I couldn’t even tell them why. I felt sick – literally.

So I pulled the car over to the side of the road, got out, and strolled across to the roadside hedge. There was a farm gate, which I opened, and closed slowly behind me as I looked for somewhere to sit down.

Deep with worry – I’d spent weeks setting up this very important deal – I found myself settling down beside a thicket of trees. I shut my eyes, depressed, and resigned to failure. If only I’d left a little earlier – gone a different way – organised a different venue – later in the day - if only – if only . . . .

A flurry of wings just above me made me look up. It was a pair of blackbirds, and their loud, persistent, and variable conversation took me away from my problems as I watched them flit playfully from branch to branch.

I hadn’t noticed until then, but the day was a glorious spring morning – full of sunshine and warmth.

The field in front of me was littered with contented grazing ewes, their spring lambs bouncing around as they tested their new-found legs. The bigger lambs were playing games together, interspersed with panic-felt bleating when they realised they had ‘lost’ their mothers – all of them oblivious to my problems. My attention was drawn to the graceful and majestic flight of a heron as it glided down to the river below – the river it shared with a couple of busy mallard and their young fledglings that scurried in and out of the reeds.

The uneven rustle of leaves above in the gentle breeze completed the peaceful chorus of the countryside, as did the delightful spring flowers beside me complete a tranquil picture.

Here was pure nature, a part of me, a part of each and every one of us, that I had forgotten about and ignored as my business increasingly consumed my life. I thought about my wife, and my young children, growing up with a father too busy to give them the love and time they deserved – lost years I would never recover - unless I changed the way I did things.

It was late afternoon by the time I had picked myself up to walk back to the car.

And I drove straight home – I’d not been home this early in years.

And, instead of my usual “goodnight” to slumbering bodies, I found alive, joyful, loving children, their hugs just so wonderful and free. We all ate supper together, played games, and enjoyed ‘the moment’ late into the night. And the next day I took off too - to spend exclusively with the family.

Thanks to that traffic jam, on that fateful day some years ago now, I’d been forced to ’slow down’ - just long enough to realise I had all my priorities upside down. Life, with the family, should come first - work is just a means, not a purpose.

I did win that contract (and still have it), even though I didn’t make the meeting – they were chasing me - and I was then the one ‘in control’. And when you are ‘in control’ the decisions you make are more rational, strategic and effective than those ‘reactive’ short term survival tactics applied when working under pressure.

Make no mistake, I still continued to work hard - but never again did ‘work’ consume or intrude into MY time. My ‘appointments’ with myself and the family were as important as my appointments with my clients.

So, my ‘advice’ to you, if you are finding life hectic, is to ’slow down’ and check up on your priorities - before it’s too late. Take some time out, on a regular basis - I still do - to think about and re-assess your position and your longer term dreams - and what you need to do or change to get there.

Do that, and you will discover something very remarkable - that the more time you give yourself, the more strategic and efficient you become, and the more profitable your business becomes.

So, on that note, go work smarter

Richard C

PS - Whenever I hit a traffic jam now, I simply smile, say ‘thank you’, and relax - just try it a couple of times! (Remember, it’s not the event that causes stress - it’s your reaction to that event that is the stress.)

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One of the topics that keeps coming up in discussions with clients is how “difficult” or “impossible” they find so many things.

And yes, maybe that’s true of some things. What worthwhile goal was ever achieved without some degree of effort?

If it was that easy, then everybody would get to live their ‘dream life’??

What gets done quickly seems easy. But then comes “difficult”. And then the next stage – and there’s a huge difference - between things being “difficult”. .. and finally becoming “impossible.”

Why is that?

Unfortunately, because certain (possibly many) people seem to become preoccupied or focus on the “difficult” aspect of things, they eventually convert these to ‘impossible’ - in their own minds. And then, because it’s “impossible”, it then never happens.

So here’s a little secret about what you want to concentrate on when you’re trying to get something done.

Change the paradigm – focus on the beginning, not the ‘end’. Obviously you keep the ‘end’ in mind, but you focus on ‘one step at a time’ - nothing more.

When Warren Buffet started, he focused on making his first investment, not building one of the largest insurance and holding companies in the world.

And when Bill Gates started, his passion was developing his operating system, not on building the biggest software company in the world, or on becoming one of the wealthiest people in the world.

So focus on the beginning, and on each step along the way. Each individual step, each ‘bite-sized’ chunk, is rarely overwhelming on its own.

And then you will find that ‘almost nothing’ (within reason) is impossible – unless, of course, you choose to make it so.

So, easy? difficult?, or impossible? It truly is up to you – it’s your choice.

Now think about it, get out there and make more money the SMART way.

Richard C

If you enjoy reading these ‘posts’, do two things for me please:
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My apologies for this unusual blog posting.

But it is to make you (especially my UK readers) aware of an email phishing scam that I’ve been warned about today and have passed on to all my clients – it’s allegedly from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

The email to me, from a fellow professional firm, reads as follows:

“A number of our clients have received emails purporting to come from HMRC advising on refunds of tax. They look official and have the correct logo and a very convincing website address.

However, clicking on the link can either entice you to give sensitive information or, as in one case, cause severe damage to your computer.

HMRC will never contact you directly via email about tax matters.

Should you receive any such email which you consider might be genuine, please telephone your usual contact at the firm to enable us to make enquiries on your behalf.”

Likewise, if you have any worries, do let me know.

End of Alert

Richard C

PS. To ensure you receive important ‘alerts’ of this nature, be it tax, investment, or any other aspect of business, etc, sign up right now to my blog alert - see top right of this page.

I’ve been away several weeks for a ‘well earned’ break but, back on the scene again, I’ve discovered, following on the theme of my last post “Hands up those who know the answer . . . . because I don’t!” that other people are equally puzzled about how things are panning out in the current economic conditions.

Why puzzled?  Because, the increase in ‘new business start-up’ numbers is defying the multitude ‘credit-crunch’ reports that have recently been forecasting doom and gloom for businesses in the months ahead.

The new research, from Barclays, suggests that ‘entrepreneurs’ are far from being discouraged by reports of an economic slowdown – there were an estimated 98,000 new start-ups formed in the first three months of 2008.

Although this number is not as high as the record-breaking business formation figures seen in 2006 and early 2007, the first quarter of 2008 shows the highest number of start-ups in the last three quarters.  It should be noted that the number of new businesses formed, and the number closed, was roughly the same in Q1 2008, but previous quarters saw much greater number of closures - in the last quarter of 2007, there were 86,4000 start-ups, and 111,900 closures for example.

According to the statistics, the most popular industries for start-ups were business and financial services (27,500 start-ups), construction (15,100) and the retail sector (10,700) – the later two clearly at odds with the reported downturn in construction and difficulties on the ‘high street’.

John Davis, Marketing Director for Local Business at Barclays, said: “Small business entrepreneurs are finding opportunities in the market place. They are entering in reduced numbers, reflecting an uncertainty over short-term economic prospects, but clearly there’s a feeling there is never a bad time to start a good business.

For those of you who like figures, the statistics for Start-ups and Closures over the past year 2007-8 are as follows:

The above figures are supported by another new survey, conducted by Deloittes, suggesting too that the UK’s entrepreneurs remain confident about business growth despite the current economic uncertainty.  Their survey, “Entrepreneurship UK: 2008″, offers an insight into the mindset of the country’s entrepreneurial business talent and suggests that entrepreneurs are actually bullish about their future with 45% predicting revenue growth in excess of 20% in the coming year.

So, optimism and opportunities for all. 

But with plenty of competition still entering the field, make sure you are always the best at what you do – that way, you build market share, while others lose it!   Seize the opportunity now, get out there - and get your share . . . and then make volumes more  money the SMART way

Richard C

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And sure as hell, all those ‘adviser’ type guys with their fancy crystal balls don’t either.

“Credit Crunch!” - the current financial ‘buzz word’ – is nothing more than an euphemism (to disguise and to deliberately and politically shift the blame) for the expected downward trend of the traditional business cycle – see my blog post dated 15th April 2008.

Here’s the story in a nutshell. Lots of people (and not just those on low incomes) ran up lots of debts. Then the ‘credit crunch’ happened. Now some of those people can’t pay their debts.

And who is to blame - not the banks who encouraged reckless borrowing, nor the governments who did nothing because it increased the national ‘feel good factor’ during their regime? No! It’s clearly the ‘credit crunch’ that is to blame.

This story sort of makes sense… up to a point. But let’s not ignore the bit that happened before the credit crunch. The bit when lots of people were sucked into euphorically signing forms that said ‘Give me a loan’ - ignoring the small print - the bit about paying it back!

But it does astound me how quickly the credit crunch bogeyman has become a handy, off-the-peg blame shield. If a business is slow in paying its debts, or has to issue a ‘profit warning’, then it happened “because of the credit crunch”.

Never mind that other factors may be at work — bad management. . . a flawed business model. . . failure to keep up with a changing market. Or plain bad luck.

The ‘crunch’ is merely the mechanism by which common sense has returned to the credit market. But in so doing, it marks the cyclical slowdown in the economy, the reduction in consumer demand, unemployment, a tightening of belts, mounting bad debts, crashing house prices, etc, etc? It’s happened before! . . . and more than likely it will happen again.

And for some this might be what is happening right now!

Credit is tight (for some) and economists are still predicting falls in house prices of about 10 percent this year. Bank of England policymaker David Blanchflower has warned prices could dive by about a third unless aggressive, immediate action is taken.

BUT . . . . The property website ‘Rightmove’ now tells us that average asking prices for property in England and Wales rose to a record high in May - 2.2 percent (on a year ago between April 13 and May 10) to hit an average £242,500, compared with a 1.3 percent annual rise in the month before – and expectations are for house price inflation to accelerate despite ‘a much weaker housing market this year’.

BUT . . . . Interest rates are unlikely to come down fast given worries over inflation and, after a decade in which house prices nearly trebled, Bank Governor Mervyn King has indicated a moderation in prices is probably needed. (Has somebody just woken up?)

BUT . . . . On the stock market the FTSE 100 is ‘climbing strongly’, recently heading for 6400+ (only 300 points off its all time high of 6700 last July) having recovered from 5300 (several months back) despite the financial press’s very best efforts at predicting doom and gloom over the past 18 months. (Note, the FTSE is an averaging index and does not segregate the better performing ‘out of the ground’ type shares from the lesser performing ’high street selling’ type shares.)

So, is it really true then, what we’ve always thought, that “recession exists only between the ears”?  Maybe it is!

Or are we in a ‘different’ world where people either don’t understand, or don’t know what to do if they do understand, or are just not interested and don’t care anyway?

Perhaps the following quote sums it up?

“Drive-in banks were established so most of the cars today could see their real owners”. (E Joseph Cossman)

Everyone seems to ‘be on credit’ – so what!

Except, being positive because I know you and I can, there remain some big opportunities out there still - if the ’so-what’ consumers are still ‘spending’ money like water it must mean that we can still keep ‘earning’ volumes of cash!!

So banish the thoughts of ‘recession’, seize the opportunity and get out there . . . make volumes more  money the SMART way

Richard C

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One of the UK’s less admirable gifts to world culture is the “chav”.

For those lucky to be confined to the sleepy lanes of Hampstead (or, even better, resident overseas), I should perhaps explain that the “chav” is a particularly loathsome breed of local youth, whose semi-illiteracy is matched only by the predictability of their clothing (cheap, derivative), diet (cheap, fast, chemical) and cars (cheap, rusty, excessively noisy). They also shout incoherently a lot, even in normal conversation, in a dialect which is part stolen from elements of US rap culture, part made up, and part absolute drivel.

Undeterred, Martin Baum, with the aid of his 13 year old son, has re-written 15 of the Immortal Bard’s (our William Shakespeare’s) greatest works into ‘chav-speak’. Quite what the point of his doing all this is, evades me somewhat. Anyway, if you fancy sampling the revised works, you will find them on Mr. Baum’s web site (and can buy the complete 15 works for anyone you really dislike). I note one of the masterpieces duly mutilated is “Romeo and his Fit Bitch Jools”       (My thanks to Ewen Cameron for the above) 

However, despite the humorous element of the above, there is a very serious point to be made here – and that is the importance of ‘effective communication’.

We all know that languages, dialects and accents do change and evolve over time due to a number of reasons (none of which there is any point in touching on here). But, do take 10 minutes out from your heavy schedule to look, objectively, at the way you write your letters, your reports, and your advertising material.

Does your communication look old fashioned, the same as it did when you left school? Is it too flat, too serious, too light, too technical, etc etc? Or is it more modern, daring, and grammatically challenging? Does it reflect YOU, as a character, your role in society, or your position the business community?

And, most importantly, does it resonate with your audience – your customers, clients or patients?

If you can’t communicate with your customer - and in using the term ‘you’ I include all of your team members in your business - then what hope do you have of generating that ‘wow’ factor needed to keep your customers. You need your customers to keep talking about you, to keep coming back to buy more and more, and they will only do this if they like you, get on with you, and enjoy communicating with you?

So go out there – be smart, speak the right language to your customers, and keep them for ever!

Richard C

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“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality”
Albert Einstein

Clearly I can’t let the week go by without joining in with a ‘topical’ comment of some sort!  After all, those who know me will understand, although I’m not anything of a political animal, how irresistible I find the opportunity.

In this increasingly bizarre fiscal scene, occupied (controlled) by Gordon Brown, even the numbers seem to work differently, depending on where you stand. In Prime Minister’s Question time, accused of the highest taxes in British history, GB said that the current tax take was only “around 37% of GDP”.

But the Office for National Statistics reckon it’s 39%! 

And the IMF, who have probably got it more accurate still, say it’s 42.5%.

Oh well, what’s 5% of GDP between friends.

But, as proof there’s still some justice in the world, the week ended, of course, with Labour’s most comprehensive drubbing in the local elections in forty years. Gordo, unsurprisingly, said he was “disappointed”.  Not for the few, but the many, naturally.  (Perhaps someone ought to let him into a ’secret’ and tell him that we, as an inteligent nation, are able to think and do work things out for ourselves sometimes!)

PS.  If anyone can get a copy of the week’s most notable P45, I (and a few others too) would love a copy.  It’s easy to identify - the employee’s name “K Livingstone” will be the giveaway.

Now, go out there and make some money – the SMART way – which includes minimising taxes – It’s what you keep that matters most!

Richard C

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I was reading an article in the Times today – that the job of ‘Director General NHS IT’ is to be split in two following the resignation of it’s present incumbent – but are they going to split the £275,000 salary cost in two? Of course NOT!

But it wasn’t actually the poor taxpayer ‘footing the increased cost’ that got me thinking - it was the ‘why’? Admittedly, as jobs go, this one’s a biggie; but how can you have TWO people doing ONE job?

But then this IS the civil service I suppose! And haven’t we been seeing this phenomenon evolving everywhere we look in the NHS – more and more managers, multiplying like the very viruses they are ultimately seeking to eradicate?

And it’s this curious phenomenon, which I know you too will have experienced for yourself, that I wanted to discuss today.

It’s called “Parkinson’s Law”, a humorous observation (not a scientific law) that states that “work expands to fill the time available”. The observation was first articulated by ‘Cyril Northcote Parkinson’, appearing as the first sentence of a humorous essay published in The Economist in 1955, later reprinted together with other essays in the book Parkinson’s Law: The Pursuit of Progress.

And guess what - he derived the dictum from his ‘extensive experience in the British Civil Service’.  Now isn’t that a coincidence?

So here it is – this man, Parkinson, says that it will take you as long to do a task, as you have time to do it. So basically, the amount of work you have will expand to fit the available time you have, or the available time you give it.

And here is my point – when you need to achieve something, setting yourself deadlines becomes very important.

You see, without deadlines and time pressure, you rationalise your tasks within the parameters of Parkinson’s Law.

And, short-term deadlines are far better and more tangible than long-term deadlines (or goals) - long-term goals are just too distant to be real enough to need reacting to. Not that you shouldn’t set long term goals - I do - but for effectiveness, a series of short-term goals is very likely to be just the motivation you need.

So get out there, set your deadlines, keep up the pressure, and watch your output improve.

Richard C