Tag Archives: Challenges

When Do You Figure It All Out?

When do you have it figured out?

When do you have it figured out?

When I was younger, I’d meet business professionals and business owners and I’d ask myself, “I wonder when they figured it all out?” I found myself wanting to know what they knew.  When did it click?

I paid very close attention to their success (or perceived success in my mind) and wondered exactly how they got where they were and if the path was repeatable.  What did they do?  Who did they know?  What books did they read?  How did they choose to spend their time?

Now looking back on my foolish and much younger self, I found the answer to the question.

When do you figure it all out?

Never.

The answers is never!  You never have it truly figured out.  Those that say they do are either completely satisfied with everything they’ve ever achieved, or they’re naive to the competition lurking in the weeds waiting to snatch up their precious market share because they’re still hungry.

The more I spend time with other high achievers, the more I learn about their quest to learn more and to deliver a better solution, no matter their craft.  What also stood out to me is the overwhelming number of people who say they didn’t have all the answers when they began.  They really didn’t have any answers, but they started and they learned.

Their lives are filled with the same fears and lack of understanding mine is, but they attack the fear. They take a chance and understand the worst that can happen is they start over.  Following the likes of Grant Cardone and Tony Robbins has taught me many things.  First off, they successfully attack opportunities with massive action.

Massive, determined action

Massive, determined action

Secondly, they successfully embrace the culture of continued learning and new challenges.  They thrive in uncertainty and most are ok with failing as long as they learn something in the process.

Contrast this with the average or mediocre (I hope every time you hear these words your body shakes with disdain).  Challenges cause the mediocre pain, fear, and drive the person to quit.  They live in the comfortable middle where the only challenge that exists is figuring out what label to put on their boredom.  These people have it figured out!

Are you trying to figure it out today for yourself?

Wonderful.  My advice to you is to stop figuring and simply START.  Start your path in a direction and see where it takes you, but 100% don’t be afraid of the ninth step when you haven’t taken the first.

 

Start

Start Today. Not Tomorrow

ACTION ITEM: The more you start, the more comfortable you will be operating in the unknown and uncertain waters of achievement.  Start.  Start today and stop trying to figure it out!

I Hate the Word Customer

One word you won’t  hear me use is “customer.”  Just the sound of it makes me cringe and sends shivers down my spine.  It should make you feel the same way and I’ll tell you exactly why right here.

Customer Concept

My mom used to say, “Hate is a strong word Zachary.  You really don’t hate something.”  She is right, but I do hate the word customer.  Here are four reasons why:

  1. Customer – sounds and feels cheap
  2. Customer – is transactional and might as well mean one and done.  Wham bam thank you ma’am.
  3. Customer – means nothing long-term to me.  I’m not interested in short term relationships.
  4. Customer – every time you think of using this word, please substitute the word “client”

As a community, we are in search of clients and client partnerships.  Customers are expensive with your most valuable asset, time.  Investing a great deal of your time in a “customer” better yield a very sustainable profit opportunity.  Otherwise, I suggest we shift our mindset to prospecting, pitching, winning, and servicing the hell out of clients.

After asking a few people about the word customer, one popular response I received is, “What about companies like Apple, Amazon, and Zappos?  They rave about customers.”  I’ve read a great deal about product evangelists and to me the terminology and mindset screams client to me.  Repeat buyers focused on attributes outside of just price alone as a differentiator.  These legendary companies listen to the challenges their clients present in their lives and the provide solutions to solve them.

All that said, how will you know when you’ve found a client and not a customer?

Client relationships aren’t one-sided and demonstrative.  This is extremely important.  A great client relationship should feel good in your gut.  Each of you have something to benefit from the solutions you’re providing.  A client relationship will be open and share valuable information with you and your team.  This information will guide your focus on the client’s KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and plans to continually move the business forward.

The number one element of a great client relationship in my mind is the presentation of new challenges from the client.  This is what I live for.  Give me or my team the opportunity to help the client ease a pain, fill a need, or monetize an opportunity.  Bring it on!  Clients will challenge, customers will demand.  Customers will brow beat, throw a fit, curse your services, or tell you how lousy something is working.  This equals ZERO motivation and sometimes distain for the relationship.  Clients understand your value and will challenge you like a great coach working to get more out of his star talent.

ACTION ITEM:  Change your mindset today and stop using the word customer.  Today you will start looking for and working tirelessly to serve CLIENTS.  It’s much easier to grow the business you currently service than to always be relentlessly be focused on a new customer every day.  Keep them coming back for more!

Know Thyself

know-thyself-Socrates-quote

This post was the most challenging and most liberating posts I’ve written to date.  I needed to put into writing what I’d been thinking.  To be immensely successful personally, professionally, and spiritually in 2014 I needed to do an intense self analysis.  I needed to spend some time knowing what I am, and more specifically what I am not.

The purpose of this community is to sharpen our mental tools, be more positive, and to get better on a daily basis.   Negativity on the other hand makes the news and is around us at every turn.  This is NOT a negative post.  It’s an honest one.  There is a difference.  Below is a list of my challenges and how I choose to think about them in 2014.

Embrace Fear – I’m just as afraid if not more afraid as everyone else reading this post.  I’m most afraid of not being successful so I push on.  This is one of my biggest challenges and it prevents me from slowing down on a daily basis.  New ideas are needed.  New clients are needed.  New products are needed.  The more I embrace fears and take them head on, the stronger I become.  I will continue to be afraid, but I’ll embrace it and channel it as aggression with a focused direction.  I will not be consumed by fears I create.  The body and mind know the difference between real and created fears.

Be Myself – I’m guilty of always looking for more information and looking for a new angle.  It’s in my DNA.  A new book, podcast, or blog rich with information is always at my fingertips.  What I must remember is who I am, what do I believe, and what do I stand for.  How can I help others?  My friends and close relationships chose me for who I am, not who I’m trying to be.  What others think of me is their business.

Confidence Coefficient – I’m guilty of being cocky.  It’s in my DNA and a personality flaw I’m challenged with frequently.  I believe so much in achievement and confidence in my efforts it can quickly cross the invisible line into cockiness.  It’s really a double edged sword.  The more I win, the better and more invincible I feel (hence the confidence coefficient).  Without confidence however, winning doesn’t happen and I HATE losing.  I’m challenged weekly to remain confident without getting overly confident.  The key to maintaining a confident persona without getting cocky is to reflect frequently and to remember this.  The second I think I’ve arrived, I’ve already lost.

Be More Thankful – I’m an achiever addicted to winning.  I’m addicted to making the next move or knocking down the next big obstacle.  I don’t stop often enough to appreciate things.   Appreciate family, friends, relationships and a wonderful lifestyle.  I have so much to be thankful for, I need to stop and smell the roses more often.

Be There – I made a promise to myself in 2013 to “be there” more often no matter what for others.  Friends will need me.  Family will need me.  Peers will need advice.  Be there.  Nothing is as important as these pieces in my life so get moving and be there.  I found some of the most joy in 2013 by making this a focus.  It’s payed wonderful dividends.

Own My Talents – There can be much time invested and little return expected in focusing on what I’m not.  The same time however, will yield 10X returns if invested in what I am and where I can be most successful.   As previously stated, it’s extremely easy to find what we don’t have or what we lack.  To take a quote from Top Gun, “The list is long and distinguished.”  I’m going to invest (expecting a return) my time into what I’m really great at and watch the massive results happen!

Live Passionately – Compliments of the late Jim Valvano, “If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”  Few things move me like his 1993 ESPY speech.  I often admire the vibrancy and passion Jimmy had for life and how he shared it.  He wasn’t afraid of his emotions and embraced every day with those he shared it with.  The reason I bring this up is I struggle to share my emotions.  I believed it to be sign of weakness.  If you ask my wife privately she’ll tell you I’m not the most open person with my feelings.   I don’t know if I’ll ever be great sharing my feelings, but I can get better.

Give – I’ve always been a bit selfish with my time.  I struggle to know why this is, but fall short on answers.  This is getting better and will be my best year ever in 2014.  I’ll give more time to others and not just give with monetary means.  I have a goal set to volunteer a specific number of times in 2014 and I plan on crushing it.  I friend of mine Juan Teran (who I asked if I could mention in this post) challenges me every time we speak to share more of ourselves with others.  I’m thankful for his challenge and I will answer the bell!

ACTION ITEMS:  I challenge you to do a similar self analysis.  Be realistic and honest, but not hard on yourself.  The goal is not to leave yourself battered and bruised.  I’d really love it if you could share one of your challenges with our community so we can all get better.  Lastly, if you know someone who will benefit from reading this please share.