Are you working towards your master?

To be considered a master of your art (and every trade is an art) you need to sacrifice and be willing to be its student for long periods of time doing the manual laborious work. If you want people to appreciate your art and enjoy the work that you bring; then you need to be willing to put in the time, totally commit and be persistent.

When you do all these, along the way you get respect.

What do they respect you for?

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Are you loving them?

People have favourite quotes. Some people have favourite founders too. They quote these on social media and wax lyrical at parties and presentations. I wonder if they live them?

Write these quotes somewhere and revisit them every week. If it is too extreme, revisit them every month. It may actually take away the feeling of being a hypocrite and an imposter. You are welcome.

Do you live them daily?

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Can it bring you further?

Experience has a huge disadvantage. It is egoistic sometimes because it has a lot of assumptions built into it. These assumptions can make you blind to the changes that have taken place and the changes that are needed to improve (because what got you here can’t get you there). When experience creeps in over the years, keep swallowing a big dose of humility. To remind yourself, “I don’t know what I don’t know.”

How much further can you go?

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Why aren’t you achieving it?

The challenge is to choose a few good principles and advice and stick to them and make them work. Give them time to work, too.

The problem with many people is that they read, listen and do everything they hear. They are so distracted with the noise they can’t tell which is a signal. So they end up doing a lot or they end up doing nothing because they are still searching for the right answer.

Choose a path, choose a few good advice and principles. Then go work the hell out of them. After a while (your mileage may vary, but do give it time), discard those that doesn’t work and add new one.

Think that may work?

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What value are they looking for?

Everything that you sell to someone has to have more worth than what they paid for. That value can be an emotional one, an ego-expressive one or a functional one. But it has to make the buyer feel it was really well worth the price she paid. Otherwise, the sale isn’t made.

What value are you delivering?

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Shouldn’t you have figured it out?

A few of us met over the weekend. All past 50 years old. One of us said, “You are half a century old, shouldn’t you have figured it out? Because from now on it’s all downhill and you got to know.”

Some of us nodded. I shook inside. Because I don’t think I have it figured out. Well, I suppose some things - yes. And I would add - for now.

I think some s#*t just takes time and is a constant discovery.

When should you figure it ALL out?

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How far will it take you?

If every time someone passes a comment that you don’t like or don’t agree to, and when you are ready to fire that rebuttal but stop to silently say to yourself “I know nothing”; imagine how much smarter would you be?

Would people love you more?

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How can you falter?

We always tell prospects that if we are engaged as their consultants, “We tell them what they NEED to hear and NOT what they WANT to hear.”

A prospect told us recently right after I said that, “What if we know what we really want and just need you to execute it?”

I was a little taken aback with the arrogance. The lack of marketing humility is so important in any marketing plan's success.

Perhaps she has not heard of an old term in the military called “red team” recently made famous by General Stanley McChrystal.

What’s the weak point in your plan?

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Is it that good?

You want to know if you have a good idea? Expand it on a piece of paper and keep building. Most times you realize that you don’t have a good idea.

The idea in your mind looks big. Once it is written you realize that you can’t even get past an A4 page with 12-point size fonts.

Think your idea is that great. Start writing. If you can’t expand on your idea; imagine trying to execute it.

Have you got it written?

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What should you be taught?

I will give you the map, not the terrain. You will only know the terrain when you use the map. When I developed the map I went down to the terrain. I know it so well that I could map it for you. But you need to use the map to know the terrain.

Everything you learn is theoretical until you practice it. No matter how many cases and examples I give you; they are still theoretical until you do it on your own. You have to take action.

What should you learn on your own?

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Are you an author?

Whether you like it or not, you are the author of your life. Choose your story well and be choiceful with your words. You are also the artist of your life, how you visualize the picture and then choose to paint it, is your choice. The colours that you choose is all in your hands.

Are you an artist?

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Do you have time?

It’s not working.

It’s not working because you didn’t give it enough good effort and you didn’t give it enough time.

Try playing the long game. Give yourself a longer timeline for whatever you are working on and see if it will work. When you have a longer time horizon, you become more patient. You are more willing to invest time and you are willing to invest effort to get better.

Time changes everything.

How long before it works?

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Did they fence you in?

The barriers are there to keep everyone out. That includes you. The barriers are there to filter out those who want it bad enough that they think of a way to surpass them so they can get on to the other side. It keeps everybody out. You can self-select yourself to be the lucky few to cross that barrier. The only requirement is that you want it bad enough.

Did they wall you out?

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Will it make a difference?

Plan ahead. Execute the plan. Then let go.

The last-minute addition of two additional pages to the proposal isn’t going to win the business. That’s not the critical bit. Increasing the font size of the headline when you have additional time to make adjustments isn’t going to increase the sales. Sprinting down the field to kick the ball across even with all your might isn’t going to score the goal.

It sounds like I am asking you to give up. Not to give it your best shot. I am not. I am saying plan everything ahead. Plan it well. Do the work well. Then stop. That’s why you plan well and execute well in the first place. So you have buffer time to say, I did it well and I didn’t have to rush. You are ahead. When you slot in last minute stuff, it says you didn’t plan well and you like the illusion of control.

Should you just sit back?

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Is the water clear?

Two ways I find really helpful in keeping your mind sharp is:

Reading, a lot. And writing, a lot.

One feeds the mind with knowledge and information. The mind then has a unique way to connect ideas and thoughts. Your pond gets filled up with a lot of water.

The other helps your mind sort out the information and clarifies it. Sort of like a filter. Clearing out the dirt and connecting the relevant parts together. Your water gets clearer.

Have a reading schedule. Then create a reason to write consistently. See how your mind gets sharper each week.

Is the water deep?

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Is marketing everything?

Marketing is not everything. But being market oriented is everything. That means being market driven or customer-centric. If your organization is too sales driven it means you expect to educate the client on how to adapt to your products and services. Your idea of marketing is to sell them the features and focus on the cost. Being market driven means you focus on the benefits and value you deliver.

It all begins and ends with the consumer.

Who is the king?

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Is your learning clean and crisp?

You are the blessed few if everything you learn, you learn clean and crisp without any mistakes. The rest of us, we make mistakes and we make a mess. Progress is messy. We make mistakes and we keep doing. That’s how you master a skill.

If you accept the mess that comes with progress, eventually what you want to learn becomes cleaner and crispier. Before long, they call you a master at it. But not before you have gone through the messiness for a long time.

Do you like the mess?

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Want to feel rich?

Teach. Empower others with your knowledge and give more than they expect. Someone somewhere wants and needs the knowledge and skills you have. Generously share it. It doesn’t make you poorer but it makes you happier.

Do you have more than you can give?

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Is this applicable to you?

One big mistake I have seen clients do is to always scoff at the examples and cases that are presented to them as lessons to learn. More often than not, the common excuse is that, “this is not applicable in my case, my category, my brand, my (insert your favourite excuse here) …”

The idea behind reviewing cases is to look at the principles that are at play. To be able to see that, you need to read between the lines. Look at the commonalities, look at the variables and dive into how they are relevant at what level. You don’t need to believe them. You just need to reflect upon them.

The lesson will appear when the student has vision.

How would you know it is not for you?

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