STOP

“Thinking

   Like A Leader”!

“Thinking like a leader” may get you some pats on the back. Perhaps a few “Hey, Man, he really thinks like a leader!” comments. But leaders who are serious about the pursuit of their missions and the exercising of leadership to motivate others to get where they’re going, are those who are completely invested in BEING leaders.

BEING a leader means getting results through others instead of thinking or talking about getting results.

Of course leaders need to plan. But having a plan is like getting your foot in the door. Worrying about which way to go once you’re inside, doesn’t make the mission happen. Taking steps does. And as a true entrepreneur would respond, if the first few steps aren’t working, take steps in a different direction . . . and then again.

You will almost always get where you’re going faster by moving than if you were to sit still and analyze each direction because the momentum alone will fuel your pursuit. Not happy with that, huh? You don’t like thrashing your way through the jungle just to find out you missed the path? You need your analytical fix?

Okay, go for it, but limit it and target it to make the most of where you’ve been. After all:

HOW ARE YOU GOING

TO GET WHERE YOU’RE GOING

IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU’VE BEEN? 

Make it a quick review (not analysis paralysis!). The relevant past is useful to every leader because it can be an invaluable tool for learning from past mistakes and past success, true? So do it. Review it. Then take it –like a football game handoff– and run! The past is over and will not change. And dwelling on the past is a waste of the present.

What’s the rush? Motivating others takes momentum which requires timely and accurate communications. Timely and accurate communications dissolve rapidly when too much time and attention is devoted to past and future thinking. But both gather speed as the leader sparks and ignites. BEING an effective leader means taking action and teaching by example.

“Thoughts” I am told by psychologist friends, are “Things.” But “Things” are not “Actions.”

Leaders Act.

 # # #

THINKING BIG WINS!

I see small businesses every day that think small and stay small:

Vehicles and signs and ads and websites that show phone numbers without area codes; radio and TV commercials that fail to say what town a business is in, or what the address is; owners who resist free global promotion opportunities (like Twitter and LinkedIn and Facebook and BizBrag) because they think of themselves as catering to small town communities and local markets.

There’s no surer way to guarantee staying small and never earning the big-time sales you’re capable of.

If you want to get big, STOP THINKING SMALL!

For many, small, local business is a great way of life and a totally satisfying experience, but for those who seek to grow and generate revenues worth writing home about, it may be time to open some doors in your brain and realize that your body, your life, and your business are what you think they are. (READ THAT AGAIN!) Whatever you think something is, it is.

If you think of yourself as fat, you are and will be fat. If you think of your life as happy, it is and will be happy. If you think of your business as growing and successful, guess what? So the question is not what’s wrong with the business or the economy or with  you? It is instead what are you imagining it (or yourself) to be? And, how can you change that?

Start with accepting the three realizations that:

1.  Thoughts are things and what you perceive is what you believe.

2.  You are what you think about.

3.  Your behavior (in this case, your ability to think differently about things) is a choice. 

Be a detective about yourself and your motives. Why would you choose to think and act small? If your answer sounds like an excuse, it probably is. Why would you choose to offer an excuse? What can you do –starting right now– to confront the reality of what you think you’re capable of, and go for it? What mental roadblocks are in the way? How can you remove them?

Why do you think top advertisers say things like “DO IT!” and “IT’S INSIDE YOU”? The old Eagles song, “Take it to the limit” is yet another reminder. You have the choice and can choose this very minute to change, to make a difference, to start thinking BIG and HAPPY and THIN or whatever it is that you want. Thinking hard and consistently yields results!

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US              931.854.0474

Guidance to 500+ Successful Business Startups

Creating Record-Sales for Clients Since 1981!

Updated From the Best of Hal’s Christmastime Business Posts . . . 

EA$Y DOE$ IT ON

CHRI$TMA$ EXPEN$E$ 

                                                                      

“Down in Onunderoverup”? Huh? Oh: Down and in . . . Revenues and profits are down. It’s the worst holiday shopping season in memory. In and on . . . Brick and mortar businesses are getting killed by the invasion of online businesses. On, under, and over . . . Online businesses are being undercut by overkill retail sales events. Up . . .C’mon folks, let’s own up to the reality that this is a bite-the-bullet Christmas for probably two-thirds of all Americans.

 ~~~~~~~

IF — like many others this year who don’t work for do-nothing, free-spending government agencies or bailed-out corporate giants — IF you happen to be having a tighter Christmas ahead than those you’ve left behind, you may want to consider three points:

• Unless you choose for it to be (behavior IS a choice), you need not think that it’s corny, hokey, old-fashioned, ancient, not P.C., or “yeah, so?” (Thoughts are things!), to consider this first point…

1)

Here’s how it goes: choose for a minute or two to think that Christmas is not all about you, except as a a joyful celebrant.

While you’re staring at your screen right now, dismantle the whole holiday stress clog-up in your brain (take some deep breaths) so you can step back with a fresh perspective and see Christmas more realistically, for what it is: the celebration of the birth of Christ.

• Okay, now, flying on the shirttails of the first point, comes this second point to think on…

2)

How have you chosen to let others (and your self) set you up over your lifetime to choose over-the-top artificial representations of this joyful event to bump the real thing off into the wings from stage center?

How have you become victimized by decades of deep and hard-hitting commercialism? 

• Have all those sales, ads, commercials, endorsements, emails, txtmsgs, and “perfect family with perfect dog in their perfect home setting” images left you with the guilties because you can’t afford that surprise diamond or vacation gift for your spouse this year? Because the kids will have to settle for the cheap iPod and a slightly used Wii? Just one chew-bone and a single squeaky toy for Rufus?

3)

Welcome to reality. It’s the same place that many (probably the majority) of your customers have been quietly and more steadily inhabiting over the last couple of years.

It’s not just you. It’s not just them. It’s the vast majority of the world that’s actively downsizing 2011 Christmas gift-giving and expenses.

Well, realizing that you’re not alone sometimes serves to soften the edge. You should, by the way, also know that I am not a minister of any kind, nor have I any religious drums to beat . . . what then?

It’s Christmas!

Skimpy perhaps by past life standards, but this is this life, here and now.

We only go around in life once, and we’re in it together:

. . . business owners, partners, managers, employees, suppliers, investors, service and sales professionals, referrers, AND customers!

In a time of year that accents good will, “blame” is a nonproductive misfit. In a time of life that businesses struggle with the economy, fixing the economy becomes Job One for businesses.

What can yours do? What can you do? What can you do now, tonight, tomorrow, to take a major step toward righting your ship?

# # #

302.933.0116     Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Businesspeople down in

Onunderoverup

are too busy blaming

instead of solving.

“Down in Onunderoverup”? Huh? Oh: Down and in . . . Revenues and profits are down. It’s the worst holiday shopping season in memory. In and on . . . Brick and mortar businesses are getting killed by the invasion of online businesses. On, under, and over . . . Online businesses are being undercut by overkill retail sales events. Up . . .C’mon folks, let’s own up to the reality that this is a bite-the-bullet Christmas for probably two-thirds of all Americans.

IF — like many others this year who don’t work for do-nothing, free-spending government agencies or bailed-out corporate giants — IF you happen to be having a tighter Christmas ahead than those you’ve left behind, you may want to consider three points:

• Unless you choose for it to be (behavior IS a choice), you need not think that it’s corny, hokey, old-fashioned, ancient, not P.C., or “yeah, so?” (Thoughts are things!), to consider this first point.

1)  Here’s how it goes: choose for a minute or two to think that Christmas is not all about you, except as a a joyful celebrant.

While you’re staring at your screen right now, dismantle the whole holiday stress clog-up in your brain (take some deep breaths) so you can step back with a fresh perspective and see Christmas more realistically, for what it is: the celebration of the birth of Christ.

• Okay, now, flying on the shirttails of the first point, comes this second point to think on.

2)  How have you chosen to let others (and your self) set you up over your lifetime to choose over-the-top artificial representations of this joyful event to bump the real thing off into the wings from stage center?

How have you become victimized by decades of deep and hard-hitting commercialism?

• Have all those sales, ads, commercials, emails, txtmsgs, endorsements, and “perfect family with perfect dog in their perfect home setting” images left you with the guilties because you can’t afford that surprise diamond or vacation gift for your spouse this year? Because the kids will have to settle for the cheap iPod and a slightly used Wii? Just one chew-bone and a single squeaky toy for Rufus?

3)  Welcome to reality. It’s the same place that many (probably the majority) of your customers have been quietly and more steadily inhabiting over the last couple of years.

It’s not just you. It’s not just them. It’s the vast majority of the world that’s actively downsizing 2010 Christmas gift-giving and expenses.  

Well, realizing that you’re not alone sometimes serves to soften the edge. You should, by the way, also know that I am not a minister of any kind, nor have I any religious drums to beat . . . what then?

It’s Christmas!

Skimpy perhaps by past life standards, but this is this life, here and now.

We only go around in it once, and we’re in it together:

business owners, partners, managers, employees, suppliers, investors, service and sales professionals, referrers, AND customers! 

In a time of year that accents good will, “blame” is a nonproductive misfit. In a time of life that businesses struggle with the economy, fixing the economy becomes Job One for businesses.

What can yours do? What can you do? What can you do now, tonight, tomorrow, to take a major step toward righting your ship?

# # # 

www.TheWriterWorks.com

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Oh, yes, just what we need:

another pizza parlor in town

and another business acronym…

I really do need to stay away from search engines more. Every time I go to check something out, I end up sidetracked in 37 other directions. Hours pass, and by the time dinner’s ready or the dog needs to go out, I’ve forgotten what the reason was that started me off Binging and Googling in the first place. 

A recent such excursion was earlier this week when I –someone who prides himself on being totally on top of all the latest marketing twists and turns– went flying into Bing to check on a reference to “Synergy Levers” being billed as “THE latest marketing concept.” After all, thoughts are things.

 Well, not only did Bing bong, but it also clearly demonstrated that –if anything– I might be looking at some re-hash of a remarkably old marketing concept which had been re-packaged as “THE latest.” All of this means that “Synergy Levers” is simply none of the above. As the hot news flash went on to say, however, it (Synergy Levers) has something to do with SMEs. Whew! What a relief!

I was deleriously happy to discover that Synergy Levers didn’t turn out to be some kind of toilet flush handle brand!

So, okay, here I am, relieved to learn that we were not dealing with bathroom fixtures, but oh, are we ever so over-laden with acronyms, or what? 

I don’t mean to sound (ahem) overly sarcastic here, but this news came right on the heels of  the latest EPA reports on CFPA, CPSC, MDL, and FEC. Now, if I tell you that FEC is “Foreseeable Environmental Contamination,” you can probably deduct (deduce?) on your own that the other magnificent acronyms are not terribly critical to your day-to-day operations, unless you’re in a tree-hugging related business. . . or run a government agency (shudder) or corporate giant operation (double shudder!).

So –back to SMEs–who knew?– “Small and Medium-Size Enterprises.” Of course! What else could it possibly mean? Of one thing you can be fairly certain, SMEs are not the acronymical brainchild (You don’t particularly favor “acronymical”? Listen, if James Patterson can advertise his books as “unputdownable”) of someone who owns or manages a small or medium-size business.  

How did we arrive at this conclusion?

Because there’s not enough time in the day to be jerking around with some obviously governmental-birthed word-shortening letter grouping.

Yes, another one of those C-Span specials that means nothing, nada, zero, zip, 0! (Or maybe “z”? Hmmm.) 

Secondly, who (whom) do you know (besides the car rental agency) that refers to her or his business as an “enterprise”? Really.  

Alrighty then, the S in SME, which stands for “Small,” means (according to the bonged Bing: “fewer than 100 employees for “goods-producing businesses” and “fewer than 50 employees for service-based businesses.” The M in SME, for “Medium” according to “White Christmas” crooner Crosby’s namesake, means “fewer than 500 employees.” Oh, but all this “varies by country.” Well, la-de-dah!

Y’know what? It’s a whole lot more than I want to know. It’s also irritating. Who cares if they’re the owner of an SME anyway? The bottom line is –no matter the size or number of employees in your “enterprise”– are you surviving this terrible economy? Are you pushing out sales? Are you making your business work? Need a little help? Call me at TWW (TheWriterWorks)… SB (See Below)      

~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You,

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

You Become

What You Think About.

You’ve heard this from Napoleon Hill, Brian Tracy, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Earl Nightingale, Buddha, Stephen Knapp, Sanskrit, The Secret . . . and the list goes on. But what have you DONE about it?

“Thoughts Are Things” is also the title of a book written by Prentice Mulford in 1889. This great bit of wisdom in just three words (!) from Mulford came long before contemporary authors ever began writing about the power of thought.

“Okay, okay, so it’s been around a long time. So what? This is 2010, the economy sucks, and in my business, there’s no time for touchy-feely mumbo-jumbo stuff that doesn’t bring sales in my door!”

Aha! But it can. And it does. You, though, must first respect it enough as a way of life to follow, as an approach to adapt to yourself and your own business and personal pursuits, and make it be your own.

To work, you must remain committed to it (and to yourself and your purposes) night after day, and day after night!

Mulford explains that we each have two minds:

1) The mind of the body (Need a quick example you can believe? Talk with any cancer survivor.)

2) The mind of the spirit (Go back to the first sentence for a resource round-up to learn more, and as you Bing and Google it, tuck the pieces you get under your business hat. It won’t take much to give yourself a wake-up call, if that’s what you seek.)

Stephen Knapp in chapter 3 of his work “Your Thoughts Create Your Future” http://bit.ly/9PaXsp is an interesting source for more of where this concept direction can lead you on a personal basis, and is a great place to start . . . even for a 30-second zoom read of just a few sentences that pop up on your screen.

“In the course of our lives we may be bombarded with negative thoughts, energies or scenarios that may come not only from within us but also from outside ourselves or from others,” says Knapp.

“All around us is a network of people, businesses, governments, publications, movies and music, all telling us what has been going on, or what they think is best for us, what we should buy and do, or what we should think about something. As soon as we tune into the radio, television, or open a magazine, it all jumps out at us,” Knapp continues.

“Our minds,” he says, “can be receptacles of these thoughts and desires, or even criticisms, which then become a part of our own consciousness if we are not careful. These thoughts are like electrical currents which, although unseen, can be felt and produce internal effects.” More at www.stephen-knapp.com

Knapp theorizes that the more prominent people become in society, which certainly includes within your company, within your trade or industry or profession and the communities your business serves, the more that others “will focus their thoughts and energies on you. Some may simply be envious of you… blame you for their problems.”

Translated for business owners, solid evidence exists that the everyday misunderstandings that lead to business downfall can be prevented.

Knapp’s suggestion is to practice raising the consciousness of those who try to attack you. “First,” he so wisely points out,“there is no attack unless you accept it,” and he labels attack efforts as “calls for help” that we can best deal with by responding with help, instead of reacting.

Happiness is a state of mind. It is, in other words, a choice that each of us can control. We can choose to be happy and not be negatively affected by what goes on around us every day. Is it hard? Sure, if we choose for it to be hard. But we can choose for happiness to be easy.

That doesn’t mean it will be easy every day, or every minute, but happiness certainly will happen more often. The happier we are, the better leaders we become, and the more rapidly and solidly our businesses grow. Can’t we just do this for awhile ’til things get back on track? Can you stop dieting and exercising and sleeping right as soon as you start to improve and feel better?

# # #

931.854.0474 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!