Leaders That Last…

develop personal discipline.

put their confidence in God.

keep the value of material possessions in perspective.

recognize the danger of becoming a slave to pleasure.

seek and refresh God’s vision for their lives.

This comes from John Maxwell’s little book The Right to Lead and while it is targeted towards leadership, it is just as applicable for anyone who is working towards success, both to help them along the way and to help them as they succeed.

It’s obvious to me through studying Hill (who was himself a massive success and immersed himself in the study of those who achieved success) that he believed strongly in the power of prayer and that it was a common theme among those contemporaries he studied. As such, I rather enjoy the tongue and cheek nature of the last sentence of this paragraph!

“Integrity is the rock upon which we build our business success–our quality products and services, our forthright relations with customers and suppliers, and ultimately, our winning competitive record. GE’s quest for competitive excellence begins and ends with our commitment to ethical conduct.”- Jack Welch, Former CEO of GE

“So you begin with desire if you ever hope to achieve anything or gain more than you have now. It is the prime motivating force in all of us and, without an all-consuming desire, nothing can be achieved or gained.” Claude Bristol, The Magic of Believing

Humility helps you to be open to learning and growing your expertise.

Take care of your numbers and your numbers will take care of you.

To create a successful business you must first master the basics.

For a mentor to be effective, you have to be an enthusiastic and committed protege.

Always visualize your desired outcome ahead of time.

In sales and in every other business, you are constantly on stage–so act like it.

The old saying that “a mind is like a parachute, it only works when its open” has much truth to it. We live in a rapidly advancing age. Regardless of what you know, it is a fraction of what there is to know. My perspective is if we have not reached the pinnacle of success in whatever we are working towards, how can we possibly consider closing our mind to new ideas or potential for improvement?

Even Benjamin Franklin, who was obviously a pretty intelligent and successful guy, was willing to consider new information.

“Having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects which I once thought right but found otherwise.”- Benjamin Franklin

Never let ego get in the way of learning.

He gathers food for the winter.

In the summer, the weather is nice. Food is abundant. The squirrel could easily get out of his little squirrel bed, scamper down the tree, have some breakfast, and frolic all day with his squirrel friends, without a care in the world…except for maybe a neighborhood cat or dog of course. Anytime, the squirrel is hungry, there is plenty to eat. He or she, doesn’t have to worry about tomorrow. There will be plenty to eat then too!

But this is not what is going through that little squirrel mind is it? The squirrel knows that even though the weather is warm and food is abundant NOW, that it won’t last forever. Winter will eventually come, as it always does. There’s no food in winter. It’s bitter cold and not much fun to go outside.

The squirrel is thinking winter in the summer. Sure, you see the squirrels playing around your area….squirrels like to have fun too….but they don’t play ALL the time when things are good…they take time on a regular basis to prepare for when times get difficult.

So, I repeat the question…are you smarter than a squirrel? Or even as smart as a squirrel? When things are going well in your business, are you still putting something away for a “rainy day?” Are you still investing time in new ideas or looking for ways to improve?

Yes, you should enjoy life. Yes, you should enjoy some of the fruits of your labor. But at the same time, take a lesson from your inner squirrel, and do a little for your future beyond what you need to do today.

Which is another way of saying that it meets their needs. It is the single reason why people purchase products and utilize services in life. A key part of helping someone solve their problems is for the person to understand and acknowledge that they have a problem to solve and that your products or business can solve it.

There are two basic approaches that can be used to help someone understand what you have available to solve the problem: Verbal persuasion and stories. I prefer to teach people how to properly tell stories, but before I explain that allow me to explain what is happening in a verbal persuasion approach.

When we attempt to convince someone  through verbal persuasion we do this using factual information and logic. The challenge is that we are explaining from our point of view and our information and logic, and the other person is listening through their point of view based on their experiences and knowledge. Human beings by nature are self focused. We believe that our opinions are right, our actions are right, and what we know is right. Because we believe this we have an emotional interest in keeping things as we know them.

All people look at, and listen to, things from the perspective of “What’s in it for me?” When we try to use logic and information to get people to buy-in to our way of thinking and seeing things, we are essentially trying to convince them that we are right. The other person therefore, must agree that we are right in order to take action on what we are telling them. The problem with this is that the other person must admit to themselves and to us, that their way of thinking about the topic is wrong.

The “What’s in it for me?” thought process for the other person that we are trying to convince becomes holding onto their own beliefs. As a result they will be doing what is called “critical listening.” This means instead of listening for how you could be right, they will be listening for any error in your logic that they can find based on what they already know. Since they will be basing this on what they know, they will be able to eventually find some reason to keep you wrong and them right.

The other person is emotionally invested in remaining right about their view of things. Only the best verbal persuaders are good enough to make a living in any field through this approach. It takes years of practice and study, and you must enjoy confrontation for this to become an area of expertise. It is not enjoyable for most people, including me.

Telling a story on the other hand creates an entirely different situation. Whenever someone hears a story, they are creating their own image of the story in their mind. It is almost like they are watching a little movie in their head. By doing this the person naturally puts their favorite person, themselves, into the story. They are listening to our story as if it is happening to them.

This allows them to become emotionally involved in the story. They are not listening to the logic of the story; they are merely experiencing the story for themselves. Because they are participating emotionally in the story, they begin to think about how their life could be affected if what is going on in the story would happen to them.

Instead of thinking about how you could be wrong, they are thinking about how this story could be right for them. It allows them to ask you questions about how something could work for them instead of stating why they don’t think it could be right for them.

The bottom line is this; anyone can learn to effectively communicate the benefits of a product or a business through a story. Its fun, it’s easy, and allows others to more quickly see that what you have to offer can help them solve their problem. The key point of this is that when someone hears a story and begins to think that maybe this will solve their problem, they will pursue finding out how as if it was their idea. They will be emotionally invested in seeing how what you have to offer can help them. This is a fun way to do business and allows everyone to help more people and be more successful.

“To be 70 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old.”

Both of these quotes come from Oliver Wendell Holmes, and exemplify great wisdom in what type of mindset and attitude will carry us best in the day.