Beware: Best Practices – Part 2
Exploit Their Uniqueness: The ultra successful companies and people know what makes them different and they use it to their full advantage. Most businesses and people try to be all things to all people. They try to please everyone. They are afraid that by being polar they will alienate their market. The truth is that real success comes from being "for" a specific group of people and “not for” others.
Specialization and customization win the day, garner more attention and ultimately attract the most success. Every person believes their situation and problem is somehow different and unique. They believe that a custom solution is needed to fix it. They don't want a one size fits all, "canned" solution. What they want is a customized solution from an expert person or company that specializes in helping people in their specific circumstances, understands exactly what they are going through and can relate to them.
Ask Better Questions: Many people think the super successful have all the answers. That may be the truth but they didn't get them from just divine intervention or from guessing. They get the answers from asking better questions. Finding what to do takes asking hard questions of yourself, your business, your industry, your employees, co-workers, customers, peers and family. Average people tend to shy away from asking the tough questions because they are afraid of the answers they might get. It's like not going to the doctor because you're nervous about what you might find. The successful people face new challenges head-on, ask the tough questions and tackle them regardless of the answers.
Read: The ultra successful realize a need to continue to educate themselves. School's never out for the pro. According to the Jenkins Group, 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year and 42 percent of college graduates never read another book in their lives. Successful people devour information, read books constantly, listen to tapes, audio programs and attend seminars on a regular basis. They are addicted to information, positive thinking and improvement. Jim Rohn sums this point up brilliantly when he says, "Poor people have big TVs, rich people have big libraries."
Take Risks: Risk tolerance is a success trait that is hard to ignore. Super successful people understand that with risk comes reward and they are willing to take chances. But they aren't stupid. They hedge their bets with high quality information and research. They put the work and time necessary to plan for and research the viability of a risky decision. It's still a risk but a calculated one. They don't make decisions based on a wild hair or whims unless they’re willing to lose it all.
The hyper-success minded also understand that with every failure comes a learning experience. They know how to gain extremely valuable information from their mistakes and failures. They analyze the situations and extract as many lessons as possible from their disasters. Then they synthesize this information and create better plans for going forward. They don't wallow in the misery of their failures and stick their head in the sand to hide. They pick themselves back up and move ahead again. This time armed with new information.
Fight: The average person tries to avoid confrontation at all costs. They hate to cause trouble, make a scene or have to get in someone's face. This happens even to the point of missing out on something they are entitled to, paid for or are owed just so they don't have to confront the situation. They’re happier practicing avoidance than strength. The overachievers on the other hand don't follow that thinking. They make it a point to engage in battle to get what they want, deserve or are passionate about.
The successful people are not afraid to hurt some feelings and be open, honest and blunt about what they think, want or need from anyone. They are willing to fight for what they believe in, their passion and their ideas. This is a leadership quality that allows them to achieve more, accomplish more and have others working for them and with them to accomplish everything they need to give achieve high degree of success and happiness in life.
Leverage Time: We all have the same amount of time in a day. Some people just do more with it than others. The "Trumps" of the world know the value of time and how to leverage it to get more accomplished. The average person thinks about time as a renewable resource not a precious raw material to success. They measure their success on money collected per hour or per year and think of time as something you exchange for money. An even swap. This thinking delivers standard returns and mediocre wages.
The truly successful know how to leverage time and how to stop trading it for dollars. They don't buy into a tit for tat mentality when it comes to the exchanging of time for money. They create systems that they build one time that work for them for eternity. They don't engage in projects that have small or non-leveragable returns. They seek out and get involved with opportunities that are scaleable and deliver returns for long periods of time. Action and ideas are the currency of the rich.
