“Who’s it for?” is a powerful question. It determines what it is we’re going to do. It guides us in the direction that we should follow. It advises us on how to get there. It influences exactly how far we’re going to push. It controls how successful we’re going to be. And it’s amazing how many of us have no …
Clarity
Clarity is defined as “the quality of being clear and easy to understand, see, or hear”. Clarity is an important concept, arguably the most important concept for a small business owner. It affects everything we do, and should infuse every aspect of our business lives. Without clarity, it’s almost as if we’re rowing a boat with only one oar. We …
I Was Mistaken
No one likes making mistakes, but unless we actually do make mistakes, it’s often difficult for us to learn. Author Bryant McGill said “A person who makes few mistakes makes little progress.” We’ve been told since we were small that we should learn from our mistakes. So, is it possible that we’re not making enough mistakes? Does a lack of …
Better, Better, Better
We should all aspire to learn as much as possible from our mistakes. Putting this idea into practice, however, remains a difficult hurdle for most of us to overcome. As humans, often with fragile egos, we try everything in our power to guard our self-image. Our default mode is to try and justify anything we do that could possible be …
Getting Ahead of Ourselves
Thinking back on when we started our new venture, things were likely different than they are now. We were new. We were hungry. We tried everything we could think of, every trick and technique we could get our hands on, try to get things moving in the right direction. But once we achieved some level of success, things changed. We …
A Stop on the Road
We all want to be good at whatever it is that we do, but the sad fact, the harsh reality, the underlying truth that none of us wants to hear is that we really can’t be good unless first, we’re bad. All of us begin our careers with very limited skills. We have to start out as a bad inspector, …
Negative Nellie
It seems that we’re all afflicted with the same innate, inborn, biologically driven negativity bias. We can have 20 people tell us that we did a great job, but let one person be less-than-satisfied and we’re liable to dwell on that one negative comment for years to come. If we’re ever to achieve success and be happy, we’ve got to …
Pay It Forward?
While the pandemic has taught us a lot about our world, one of the main things we’ve learned is that lots of people are able to perform their job functions in isolation, with many more people working from home than pre-pandemic. Lots of them have been successful and content in this position, especially those people who already experienced working in …
Screw Ups
It’s impossible to do any kind of work in the public eye without sometimes slipping up. Occasionally, these errors can hold grave consequences. But it’s unavoidable; we’re all human and we all screw up sometimes. The best of us try to learn from our missteps, working hard to minimize future errors, and quickly rectifying any damage done. We’ll never totally …
Confidence vs. Certainty
We all desire to be viewed as competent; knowing exactly what it is we’re supposed to be doing. We want our family, our friends, and our clients to hold us in high regard; to view us as experts in our field. All too often, in our quest to be viewed as the authority, we confuse confidence with certainty. Being certain …