Regardless of what you sell; whether you are a freelancer or business owner, you can either do it to profile yourself or you can make a huge profit off it. Better yet, you get immense pleasure from selling your service/product.
But regardless of profile, profit, or pleasure, they all come with some form of pressure.
When you need it, it may be too late. I think the current crisis should have taught us that. The skills that you need are varied. Life is varied and throws circumstances at us. Being a general specialist has its benefits. Learn a lot about a lot of things. It doesn’t just allow you to prepare for different situations, it makes you more creative. The ideas, knowledge, and skills you have within you have a unique way of connecting to each other. They breed new ideas.
When do you need it?
I talked about turning up and doing the work before. But I have seen people who turn up for practice, work, training, rehearsals, and yet they did not benefit themselves or their teammates.
Turning up isn’t about getting your card punched. It’s not walking through the door. It’s not getting your attendance taken.
Turning up means having your whole presence at work. Being focussed on the task at hand. Anything short of that, you are doing the people you are doing it with a disservice. More importantly, you are shortchanging yourself.
Turning up means being present. Paying attention to your work. Expecting excellence from yourself. Delivering it to the others that rely on you.
Are you paying attention?
Not some time, part-time, when you have time, you try to squeeze time.
You want extreme results? It’s making time, all the time.
Sounds tiring. It is. But well worth it. If that’s what you want.
Always remind yourself that starting well is good. But it’s not the best, and neither is it the end. Starting well must always be followed by keeping good consistency. Rarely are things in sprints. Even when they are, it is a succession of sprints.
You need to be consistently good to maximize the results. Then end strong.
I think the bowling scoring system teaches this very well. Your scores differ greatly when you start with a few frames of strikes, score badly later and end with a few frames of strikes at the end. Versus if you strike at the first few frames, then have a chain of spares till the end.
How consistent can you be?
A friend asked for some advice as her business is going through some tough challenges. These are the few things we discussed at length. I suspect it will serve you well too.
Let your conscience guide you.
Give it time. Give people a chance. Where would we be if it wasn’t because someone gave us a chance? Be that person to others. Pay it forward.
You need to do the toughest job yourself. You cannot delegate it. If your business depends on it, you do it.
Focus on the future. Envision one where you achieved your dream. When you focus on the future, you will decrease the chances of asking why this is happening. You will ask, what do I do next to get where I want to go?
What’s in the future?
How do you give it a new life?
When something breaks, fix it. Just because you have taken time to build it doesn’t mean it won’t break again. Things are created, they age, they break-down and their lifespan ends. It’s a universal truth. You as the creator can fix it, change it, remodel it, innovate and improvise. Of course, it is painful. Of course, it is hard work. Of course, it is your work.
The same hard work is what makes it a beautiful experience when you overcome it – a battle-hardened business person with war scars to show.
How do you give it a new life?
Be persistent in pursuing your goals. But don’t be stubborn in not adjusting, innovating, and improvising your strategy in order to get there. Persistence doesn’t mean being stubborn and stupid. It means, stay the course but improvise. Be focused on your goals but look for new ways that can bring you closer to them.
What’s not working?
One day an acquaintance asked a friend whose company provides daily free lunches to his staff – what is the ROI?
I know the staff are really happy with this perk. It keeps motivation up.
I am not sure how one is supposed to measure the ROI to that. I was so tempted to quote William Bruce Cameron, “… not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted”.
I didn’t. I wouldn’t be able to measure the ROI of my retort.
How do you measure kindness?
If it is crucial, you need to do it yourself. It doesn’t matter if you are working for someone or you are the boss if it is crucial. If it's your company’s survival, your job’s at stake, you need to do it yourself. No matter what it takes. You can’t surrender your life to someone else.
Who does your survival depend on?
You may not believe it. But it will all work out for the better. Give it time. Sometimes you need to give it more time than expected. But it will all work out.
It’s ok to not know what you are doing. Everyone gets lost sometimes. Everyone gets confused sometimes. You are allowed.
There is a process that gets you to perfection. It’s called progression. Progress often comes with confusion and misdirection.
How do you think you will progress?
Love everything that comes your way. You dislike pain and discomfort so much that you avoid it. But will come anyway. Pain alters you in a positive way if you allow it to.
First you have
to acknowledge it. Then allow it. That’s how it alters you for the better.
You can ignore
a lot of rules, guides, tips, secrets, principles, whatever if you are focused on
doing good work.
Churn out good work, focus on what truly brings you fame and fortune.
Don’t get
distracted.
What’s your
laser focus?
