The marketing books tell you: Examine the target diligently. Tailor your product and company to them.
The career guides note: Study the company carefully. Craft your resume (and life) to them.
Better to stop looking outside for direction. Start by doing what comes naturally. Then, the audience you seek can and will find you.
Most people willingly hand you a quick-fix solution on a silver platter. Why? A quick fix solution is easy. You see a product – a logo, website, brochure. You pay up.
The downfall? A quick fix solution is just that. It doesn’t stand the test of time. Anyone can produce it. Anyone can replicate it. It lacks real roots.
Few people step back to see the bigger picture and ask the greater questions. They lack a defined sense of strategy – the very thing that could give them the edge in their business and life.
The value of strategy lies in its mystery. It isn’t as definable, nor is it quantifiable. That uncertainty frightens most people away – which is precisely why you ought to embrace it.
It isn’t a weakness to redirect your course.
Altering your direction requires insight and strength. It’s better to embrace a fresh sense of perspective than stubbornly cling to a direction that you know isn’t right.
As you embrace flexibility to change direction, you’ll likely gain access to far greater doors.
[photo: Copenhagen]
[A note to the small business owner]
You started your business. You get to choose how to run it and how to guide it.
Which clients do you desire to take on? What processes will you follow? What will you communicate through your daily actions?
If you don't stop to ask these questions, you too are making a choice -- a choice to allow others to dictate these things for you.
I’m guessing that isn’t the choice you had in mind when you started your business in the first place, though.
So, start to ask the questions. If you don’t know what those questions should be, stop to ask for help.
The SAT continues to be the major measuring stick in our education system.
Why?
“The reason is simple. Not because it works. No, we do it because it’s the easy and efficient way to keep the mass production of students moving forward.” - Seth Godin, Stop Stealing Dreams [Section 10]
Our organizations continue to hold worn-out meetings.
We settle for mediocre work products instead of creating something of true value.
We ignore the voices in our head that tell us to strive for something greater.
Why?
The reason is simple. These responses too fall along that easy and efficient path. We’ve decided it’s better to check items off the list and keep things moving forward, albeit superficially, than to risk investing emotional energy to ensure real effectiveness.
But, imagine what might happen if we instead have the boldness to leap, embrace vulnerability and create what truly matters. It’s safe to assume - our world will be a bit of a different place.
Your work should fill you with energy, leverage your strengths and allow you to operate within your sweet spot.
This is necessity, not luxury.
If it all sounds foreign, perhaps you aren’t doing what you ought to be.
To reap the benefits, you have to commit.
Commitment to… risk, be vulnerable, start that conversation, let down the walls, declare those dreams, take that action, pursue that mission.
Decide to be all in, and you’ll uncover “all in” results. Park yourself on the fence, however, and expect only incomplete, fence-dwelling outcomes.
Do you ever feel as though you are being forced to conform to the world? Forced to operate on someone else’s schedule. Forced to adopt another’s priorities. Forced to pursue a foreign set of values.
Does it ever dawn on you that perhaps you aren’t being forced at all? Perhaps you can do more than simply surrender to those external forces.
We all have a choice to make. Instead of assuming we must conform, we can start saying no those priorities and beliefs that conflict with our genuine self.
