gathergreatness.com

When I first entered the workforce, I began with the philosophy, ‘in order to really succeed I had to work harder and longer than anyone else.’ I upheld this belief for many years, more than I would like to admit.

I took a job that I could work as many hours as possible, one in which I could work toward aquiring overtime pay on a regular basis. It seemed like the smart thing to do. Earning time and a half pay seemed to be what all the seasoned employees were doing. They were the ones with all the newer and more expensive cars and homes.

They all seemed fairly happy, but a good amount of their time was spent at work. I have nothing against hard work, but it seemed to me that there should be a little easier way to make a living. Somewhat discouraged by the status quo (that’s the way life is) lifestyle, I started to notice the most successful people were actually the ones that seemed to have quality pay and quality time.

They were the ones that had managed to be working smater not harder. They had somehow cracked the code to getting more while appearing to be giving less.

How was that?

They were the ones that had leveraged their education, their talent and/or their leadership abilities to elevate themselves above the masses. They were the doctors, the lawyers, the skilled technicians and craftsmen, the CEO’s and the upper management.

What did they have that others only dared to dream?

In hindsight, they were the individuals that had the vision, the ambition, the mentors, and maybe the most important of all, the knowledge that leverage is the key to real success.

Leverage is the Key to Success.

Whether we choose to leverage time, people or money, we need to understand its power.

In effect, we need to spend less effort trying to do everything by ourselves and instead solicit the help of others to get things done. Isn’t this the way big companies get things done, and how managers accomplish their objectives? The more we can achieve without our direct involvement, the more we can accomplish.

When you go to the doctor, does the doctor greet you when you arrive, verify your appointment, check you insurance coverage, and show you to examining room? I’m sure he could do all these tasks, but how would that affect his practice? Would he be able to treat as many patients? The successful doctor, or other professional, understands that it is in his best interest to do what he does best. He leverages other people and leverages time to accomplish more by actually doing less himself.

The initially planning, the attracting of the right group of individuals and getting everything to mesh together may take some time and a lot of effort, but the future can be much brighter for this type of individual.

The successful entrepreneur will know when he has arrived. He or she will be the one that is able to achieve more and more with less and less.

Number five, in my list of 10 ways to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, is living a purpose driven life.

Perhaps the greatest gift we were given, excluding our gift of life itself, is our individuality. Out of the countless millions or billions of people, each of us have our unique physical and mental genes.

Even identical twins have their differences.

This is what makes us, who we are.

That being said, it stands to reason that we all have something different to contribute.
Logically speaking, we all have a life pupose which can only be fulfilled by us. We have unique life experiences and talents which no one else, no one living, dead or not yet born, has, had or will have.

Pretty profound.

And if this is true, don’t we then have an obligation to share these talents with others?

Do you have a gift or talent that your are really proud of? Maybe there is something that you can do that comes almost effortless for you, while others around you struggle to accomplish even half as well.

These things make up your uniqueness and define who you are.

These are the things that make you different and which make you valuable to others.

The traditional job can provide you with the ability to sustain your physical existence, and possibly provide you with the luxuries of life. The purpose driven career will afford you the satisfaction of making a difference in your life and in the lives of others. This is a key element in choosing an entrepreneurial approach to your life work versus the way of the masses, working a job.

I believe we all have a special purpose.

For some of us, our purpose is revealed to us quite early in life. For others, it seems that realizing our life purpose comes only with a lot of struggle and hard work, if at all. By following your God-given talents and approaching each day with the intent of helping others, I believe we all will discover and fulfill our special purpose in life.

Every business has one main objective, to make money. Simple as that, if you can’t make money, you won’t be in business very long.

Am I right?

So what’s the best way to make money? Another simple question to answer, you sell your customer something they need or want.

Am I right, or really right?

And what do people need and want?

It may be a new car, a place to live, or something as necessary as something to eat. You are basically satisfying their immediate desires. You are solving a problem that they have. You are becoming a problem solver for them.

If you create a product that nobody needs or wants, what do you think the chances are that you will become a success at selling this particular product?

Not very good, I would say.

Now, as an individual (you) venture out from the familiar job into the unknown area of becoming an entrepreneur, what data might you need in order to make your transition a little easier and the results more realistic.

If you are going to become a problem solver, you definitely need to evaluate where you stand with the following:

1. Do I have a clear picture of who my customers will be? (What problem will I solve?)
2. Did I ask (survey) my potential customers what they want, to make sure that the problems that I perceive are actually the things that are important to them?
3. Will my product or sevice be valuable to them? (Will it solve a major problem for them?)
4. Do they have the resources (money) to pay me for the product or service? (No money, no business).
5. Are the number of people looking for my solution, in large enough numbers to sustain my business? (If the people that need my help are only a handfull, better look somewhere else).

These are not only important questions, but vital questions.

Failing to get the answer to just one, will most likely mean failure of your business.

The most important step, the most essential step, is to begin. Find a problem that you can solve and start the process of becoming the problem solver.

Everyone has similarities with their fellow man.  You may be good at fixing things, creating things or discovering new ways of doing things. You and thousands of others may enjoy similar likes and similar dislikes.

So what do you have to offer that can really make a difference to anyone else?
What makes you special?
But what makes you different? 

What if Michael Jordan had chosen to become a professional realtor instead of a basketball player?

What if Michelangelo had become a goverment official instead of a painter?

What if Julia Roberts had become a secretary instead of an actress?

Would they all have been as successful? Would we even have heard of any of them? They all had gained noteriety by pursuing their point of difference. Any of them could have chosen a different path. What made them stand out from the crowd was their uniqueness. They all had developed a skill or talent to the point of perfection. They were obsessed with one specific goal, to become the best in their field of interest.

They all had a passion for achieving their greatest self.

These were exceptional individuals, but so are each one of us. We are the best at being us. Think about it, no one else can ever be as great as you are at becoming who you were meant to be.
You and only you, therefore, can bring your unique talents and strengths to the workplace.

So knowing all of this, how will this knowledge help you to advance your career? In what field are you the expert?

Discover and develop your point of difference and become your greatest self.

Have you ever stopped to think just how much you contribute to your company or your boss.
If you really dig deeply into the heart of your company, you will discover that YOU are the one that controls and defines a good part of the customer’s perceived value.

You and every other worker, right down to the least significant employee, shape the overall brand.

So, how much are you worth?

I guess it all depends on how much you actually contribute to strenghtening and promoting the brand, and the positive results you and your department make to increasing the bottom line sales and profits.

It may sound like a lot of effort for the amount of pay you actually receive.

So, how do you achieve maximum benefit for your work?

I like to think about it like this. My boss has given me the resouce to make a living, but I am also given the opportunity to advance myself as well. I saw a short video by the well-known public speaker, Nido Qubein, that really has caused me to think and to set somewhat of a new direction to my activities during my day.  His video entitled Why Immigrants become Millionaires really brings home the point that, it is not the circumstances in which we find ourselves, but ‘the choices we make’  that determines our future.

We must work harder at building our own brand, than that of the company. 

The real bottom line for you will be defined by your success in your own self development. You must learn to “Work harder on yourself, than on your job.”

Work harder on The Brand called YOU.

Bill

“Helping You Achieve Your Greatest Self”

In order to succeed in life or in business, I believe you must stop and step out in front of the crowd. There comes a time when you must establish yourself by becoming the master in your field.

There comes a time when you are prompted to stop following and start leading.

I believe we were born with all the basic information that we need, in order to become the best in our niche.
We all have unique talents that only we possess, and are valuable in some way to others, if only we believe in ourselves and take the time to develop these skills.

The bad news is, most of us loose interest, for one reason or another, long before any serious plans are made to realizing our dreams.

The I can’s and I will’s are all too often replaced by the
If only’s,
and the
Wait till tomorrow’s
of getting things done.

Too many are content to dance to the beat of someone else’s drum, either afraid of failure of content with mediocrity.

The entrepreneur must be willing to rise above both. They must have a strong belief in self and an unsatiable desire to create a business of their own. They know and truly believe that through consisitent effort, they can achieve whatever they set out to accomplish.

By taking small steps each day, they are inevitably moving toward their goals.

They are so strongly driven and focused on their desire, that nothing stops them from realizing their dream.

The die-hard entrepreneur will push through all obstacles and barriers on their way to success.

Most all of us have worked for someone else along our journey. The entrepreneur just reaches a point in their careers where they understood that thier maximum potential can only be achieved by creating their own destiny and building their own business.

They understand that only then will they reach the pinnacle of their greatness.

I used to be stuck in what others have called, ‘The Employee Mindset.’

This is the the mindset of the 2000, 1990, 1980, 1970’s employee.
They traded hours for dollars.
If they wanted to have more,
get ahead,
increase their income,
they had but two choices:
1. Get a raise, or
2. Work more hours.

From my perspective, the only people that lived comfortably were the doctors, lawyers or the business owners.

The regular guy on the street was living from paycheck to paycheck.
Personally, after knocking my head against the wall,
trying to ‘please the boss’ and working two jobs,
I finally resigned myself to the fact that, well,
“that’s just the way life is.”

That is, until now.

Even though I am still working in this outdated mode,
my eyes are focused on something different.
I believe there is ‘a better way.’
I am presently working on re-evaluating my options.
I am developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset, if you will.

An Entrepreneurial Mindset, you ask?
What is that?

Let me explain by pointing to 10 statements that come to mind when I visualize this new mindset:
The way to really succeed in life and business,
will be to:

1. Build you own business instead of someone else’s.
2. Develop your Brand - the brand called ‘You’
3. Pursue your ‘point of difference,’ not similarity.
4. Become a ‘problem solver’
5. Remember that you are here for ‘a special purpose.’
6. Begin to use … less and less, to achieve more.
7. Create multiple streams of income.
8. Action is what matters.
9. Every level of income demands a ‘different you.’
10. The future belongs to the ‘Bold’, not the timid.

Starting today, and continuing for the next several months, I will be examining the process
of achieving my greatness by developing my entrepreneurial mindset.

In all my haste to share my most successful ways of managing my time, I almost forgot one very important skill that I had not mentioned.

I came home from work today to find my office to be just the way I had left it this morning. A pile of mail, a stack of books, some scattered papers with my latest projects, and barely enough room on my desk to place my laptop computer.

Yes, it was all right where I had left it. I knew precisely where everything was, well almost.

I guess it wasn’t so bad, but I realized that my concentration level was not very good. As I started to work on an article that I promised to write, I couldn’t help but see an envelope with a past due invoice for a recent doctor visit. This led me to opening my online banking site to determine when I had last paid on the account and the balance due.

Of course this led me to my on-hand-checking-account-balance. After a few minutes of perusing my other bank withdrawals and calculating whether or not I would have extra cash to pay on this bill, my original plan was now totally derailed.

The only good thing that had come from this exercise was the hard core realization that keeping my workspace neat and organized was not an option. It was obviously a requirement.

Just this one piece of mail had cost me a good hour of my time before I could refocus.

Right then I decided to do something to make a difference. I put away the distractions and organized my books. It really felt as though a huge weight had been lifted from my creative genius. As it turned out, I was able to write the article in half the time that I had alotted to getting it done.

So here is my advice to you.

Is your office cluttered or in need of some serious cleaning and organizing,?
What are you waiting for? Take the time up front and get it cleaned up.

If you want to manage your time, manage your workspace first.

Bill
“Helping you Achieve your Greatest Self”

911, What’s your emergency?

It’s serious busness only, and I do mean serious. That should be your mindset and your concentration level, as you sit down to work on your business.

I don’t know about you, but I find the new buzz of ‘multi-tasking’ to be a big problem when I need to get things done.

Truthfully, I need all the concentration I can muster. My time is too valuable to waste, trying to juggle more than one or two things at the same time. I have so many people and projects that demand my attention on a daily basis.

Let me share a few with you.

I have eight major jobs:
1. a full time management career,
2. a wife
3. four grown children
4. seven grandchildren
5. a house to maintain
6. a part time internet business
7. church and social commitments,
8. and maybe, just maybe. a little alone time.

I’m sure you all have a list.

So how do you keep a balance of all the things that need to be done?

For me, the best working method that I use, comes from a slight revision of the Day-Tight Compartment Model used by the great Dale Carnegie.

My day-tight compartment looks like this, ‘focusing on one task or one person at a time.’

If I’m writing an article, I block out the time I need, and spend that pre-determined amout of time exclusively on the article. I don’t check my emails, I don’t answer the phone and I don’t try to entertain one of the grandkids at the same time.

On the other hand, If I decide to help one of the children with their homework, I’m not trying to watch TV or work on a part of my business plan at the same time.

For me, really focusing and living in day-tight compartments has helped me professionally and personally.

To be honest, multitasking has been more of a disaster than a help.