The sky is falling!  

What is this,

Chicken Little?

     Enough of this doom and gloom crap, already. 

     The only ones out there who are doing their jobs successfully are the two-faced mainstream media alarmist exaggerators!  And they have become so effective at brainwashing public opinion that they’re making the rest of us look like fools! 

     U.S. business owners and managers everywhere are walking face down with slumped shoulders.  They’re tsk-tsk-tsking the same people they had been rah-rah-rahing to build their businesses just a few short months ago. 

     What is this, Chicken Little?  The sky is falling? 

The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Time, Newsweek, and majority of other U.S. propaganda news publications . . . plus ABC, CBS, NBC, TNT, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and majority of other propaganda news broadcasters have been doing their damnedest to paint our lives bleak and hopeless. 

     They have made every manipulative, conceivable effort to create unrest and depression.  Why?  It’s in their best interests; it serves them well: 

1. They’ve made the public hungry to find out more about this economic monster that’s crushing in around us on all sides, which sells newspapers and grows broadcast audiences (which attracts advertisers and commands higher rates).

2. They’ve made us search desperately for light so they can rally us to overcome the odds and revel in the brightness they think they can lead us all to, from out of the dark shadows they’ve created and wrapped around us.  (This is also designed to build sales, increase rates, and attract advertisers.) 

3. It helps them justify their years of relentless attacks on a President they despise, and pave the way for their annointed savior next month.  Unfortunately, nothing in their optimism could be more pessimistic.  (And this bit of shortsightedness may actually cost them money!)

4. Nothing (nothing) could be further from reality than the strategic roads they ride, but reality doesn’t sell newspapers or build viewer and listener bases — that command higher rates and sell more advertising. 

     What these great mind-bending institutions have failed to realize, however, is that they can never take away our freedom of choice.  And what we need to realize –to rise above the din of narrow-minded defeatest thinking that mainstream media representatives would have us wallow in– is that we CAN think and behave as we choose. 

     We can choose to simply reject all the nonsense the media would have us associate with their “recession” drumbeats.  We need only to look inside ourselves as business owners and managers, as key pieces to the business and economy turnaround leadership puzzle. 

     Finding fault doesn’t find the path out! Cutting budgets doesn’t create sales! 

     We need only to exercise our own intestinal fortitude as a nation of entrepreneurs, as a nation of businesspeople driven to achieve.  We are believers to the core.  We are people who exercise universal charity, who reach out to help the downtrodden back up onto their feet.  We see problems as opportunities. 

     We business owners and managers inspire by doing.  We do not accept the negative values that the media or others try to put upon us.  As a nation, we strive to be winners.  By charging forward to scale the heights, and by reaching beyond where others think is possible, we brighten the lights that bring hope to this planet.  halalpiar         

 # # #

  FREE blog subscription: Posts RSS Feed

  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

C’mon, everyone, let’s

play more and work less! 

     You know, I really look forward to the annual holiday slow-down many businesses  start to experience at this time of year.  It’s chance to finally catch up with all the “I’ve been meaning to” projects.  So, that’s a good thing. 

     But, I notice as I get older (is it just me?), that the workforce in our country gets . . . lazier(?).  When I was a kid, everyone’s parents got off early on Christmas Eve and maybe New Year’s Eve, plus Christmas Day and New Year’s Day (or maybe just one, and not the other). 

     And the week in between?  Work went a cog or two slower than usual and people drank a pint or two more than usual.  Kids played with their new toys.  Emotions were harp strings.

     When did this all change?  Can someone fill me in?  We no longer have a holiday week.  We now have a holiday season.  It starts with Halloween and runs through January White Sales!  Kids now play with new toys (and emotions now run fragile) all year long.   

     To be completely honest, I must admit I can appreciate that we all need that vital first week of the new year to collect our business selves and put them back together. 

     It is, after all, a great week to just fall off the calendar while we do lots of Alka-Seltzer, cover whatever we can find of our heads with our pillows, gargle mouthwash, eat mints, brush teeth and take however many deep breaths our lungs will tolerate. 

     So, okay, let’s chalk up that first week of January as necessary recovery time, and a period to re-learn to change the last digit or two of the year we write on checks and memos.  Good.  We took care of that one.  Now that period from Halloween to Thanksgiving, and then again from Thanksgiving to Christmas, needs some adjustment.

     I mean why not just start with making Valentine’s Day a week-long lovefest that simply dissolves into a heavy-drinking St. Patrick’s Week and then just cruise through to Earth Day?  Hmmm, only one day for the Earth?  Oh, yeah, and take off your birthday too! 

     Seriously, folks, we’ve already got 4th of July and Labor Day, both of which started as a day (Labor Day even says Day!) and then –as if by a miracle– both suddenly (like POOF!) turned into whole weekends, and are now both settling into a full week each.  Maybe we should just close everything for the whole summer.  I mean schools do it!

     Oh well, at least as we head closer to that great White Sale week under all those new sheets and pillowcases, we can be excited about anticipating all the new Christmas clothes we can start wearing (if they’ll still fit!) when we finally drag our sorry selves back to the reality of some serious labor . . .  at least until Ground Hog’s Day.  Maybe that could spread out some?  Hmmm, Ground Hog’s Week.  Sounds good to me.  halalpiar                                                       # # #

See Nov 29th post (below) for New Year’s contest prize and rules – Then GO FOR IT!  Emails to Hal@TheWriterWorks.com with “SOUNDS OF THE SEASON” in the subject line.  # # #

Check out and contribute to the daily growing 7-Word Story started 92 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to the “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

Gutless, incompetent, greedy

— the US Postal Service! 

     While everyone out there is busy flexing holiday business muscles by beating up on our gutless car manufacturers, incompetent government, and greed-saturated Wall Street, I propose we have overlooked the longest standing American institution of them all –which happens to be gutless, incompetent AND greedy– the US Postal Service!

     Whaaaat?  I LOVE my mail carrier. 

     Oh. yeah, well I have news for you: my Father was a US Post Office Special Delivery Messenger for over 20 years (and no gift to higher learning I might add, but I loved him nonetheless). 

     There is no Special Delivery designation or service anymore.  It’s been replaced by overnight delivery services and the Internet.  Whaaaat?  Yup, nobody in the P.O. (including the “Postmaster General”) had any B.R.A.I.N.S. or the foresight to see it coming.  And when they finally did, the solution was layoffs and stamp price hikes?

     Having Special Delivery service in the 30’s and 40’s, then closing it out as express mail options came on the scene, is like being ahead of the other team 25 to 0 in the first inning, and losing.

     I practically grew up in and around the stupidity that permeated the P.O. (or “P.U.” as my Dad routinely called it while holding his nose).  Add to that, the fact that my career has included massive direct mail experiences (including responsibility for 1.6 million mailings per month at one point, and annual mailings of 8-9 million at another), and I can tell you with some measure of authority that Postal Service management has gone from dumb to dumber in two short decades.

     What prompted this tirade, you might ask?  This week, I received a lunatic 4-page survey from the highly undistinguished Gallup Poll asking for multiple choice answers to 37 zillion stupid questions about how pleased or displeased I was with the US Postal Service.   

     First of all, the missive was addressed to my long-closed and dis-incorporated company of years ago and delivered (only heaven knows how the wheels of government turn) to my relatively new P.O. box in a different state! 

     I mean, I would love to hear the explanation of what the value is of how what I think of whether my P.O. box mail arrived before or after 10am in the last 30 days and if the carrier behaved pleasantly.  Duh.  Do you, in other words, make it a policy of tracking your routine mail deliveries by time periods and carrier dispositions?   

     What contribution are answers to these inane questions ever going to accomplish in helping this disintegrating giant of disorganization to rise up and slay the (now commonplace) successful overnight delivery companies of the world?

     Don’t the ninnies who run this establishment realize that while Fed Ex and others have been busily teaching their drivers that they are not just drivers, that they are account managers (and this, by the way, for more than 20 years!), and realize as well that the public has simply passed them by?  Are they blind to the fact that UPS has risen to the occasion and outperformed them? 

     Have they never heard of being competitive in the marketplace?  Do they still think they are viable?  Have they ever reckoned with being referred to as “snail mail” all these years of emerging Internet communications domination? 

     Oh, and who’s worse?  The Postal Service for being so blind and unbusinesslike for so long, or the Gallup Organization for taking advantage of the P.O.’s plight, to whip together this ludicrous questionnaire?

     $urely, this $urvey wa$ a big-ticket a$$ignment to Gallup.  Dear Postmaster General – You should know that I could have solved the problem (instead of prolonging the agony with meaningless surveys) for whatever amount was paid to this failing polling organization.  The solution is called strategic competitive marketing.  Surveys won’t show this! 

     The Postal Service obviously hasn’t a clue.  Gallup knows even less.  Maybe they deserve each other: two fading giants of the past.  Let’s hope someone wakes them up, shakes their boots, and gets at least one of them back to planet reality.  halalpiar        

# # #

See Nov 29th post (below) for New Year’s contest prize and rules – Then GO FOR IT!  Emails to Hal@TheWriterWorks.com with “SOUNDS OF THE SEASON” in the subject line.  # # #

Check out and contribute to the daily growing 7-Word Story started 87 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to the “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

This is the time

  between waves. 

     Have you ever noticed the utter serenity of the sea in between waves? 

     How much is that like your life and the work you do? 

     Thanksgiving visits and family were here in a tidal wave (perhaps more like a tsunami for some), and gone . . . tiny stones and shells aclatter, scamper down the beach in withdrawal as the tide turns low. 

     Business activity slows incrementally to more of a crawl each day between now and New Year’s when it all grinds to a halt.  Ah, but not for entrepreneurs or manufacturers!  Not for writers!  Not for retailers!  Not for emergency personnel!  Not for those forced out of work by economic uncertainty.   

     This is the time between waves. 

     Now is when small business owners and operators and manufacturing enterprise management can finally take a breather from the year-long pounding of phones, faxes, mail deliveries, media broadcasts, meetings, conferences, emails, text messages, trade shows, endless travel itineraries, and industry reports, and get some real work done.

     Now is when their attentions shift to strategizing, planning, scheduling, catch-up reading, assessing, courtesy-calling, audits and inventories, and getting ready for the next big wave in January. 

     Writers?  Yup!  Now is when writers can drop back from their day-to-day discipline and actually review what they’ve done; this time between waves is the perfect time to edit and polish and prepare to get the manuscript or feature story done, to get an agent, get a publisher, get a direction for developing more freelance work. 

     Retailers?  Let’s not even go there.  This between waves time is “make it or break it.”  No time even to think. 

     Emergency personnel?  We all know that emergencies never stop and, if anything, they increase dramatically during the holiday season . . . and afterward, especially during the depression-heightened month of January! 

     So holidays mean relaxing business ebbs for some, and ulcerous anxieties for others.  Where are you right now?  You’re definitely not a retailer or EMT or ER nurse because you’d never have time to read this. 

     So since you are reading this far, it might be useful to remind yourself to make the choice to take full advantage of being between the waves.  It’s easy to get caught up in nonproductive activities, but you won’t get this valuable “down time” back until –maybe– the end of next year!  DO relax, but don’t fade away.        

     If you’re out of work, don’t count yourself out and head for the bridge.  You have the ability to pull yourself back up, kick yourself in the butt (a bit tricky, but not impossible for most!), and propel yourself forward back into the job market. 

     Remember that every problem that a company has is an opportunity for you to find the job that’s right for you, either in that company or another.  Stop beating yourself up.  Get focused.  And go for it!  Make it happen!  You can do it if you really want to.  All behavior is a choice.  Choose to make it easy

# # #

FREE blog subscription: Posts RSS Feed

Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Beating Business Breakdowns

     Why should your business needs be any different than your personal needs?  Well, sure, I know there are different parts involved, duh, and that living/breathing humans are different than paper-based legal entities.  But . . .

     When your body, brain, or emotions break down, you get professional help to work out and then implement some kind of rehab plan.  (Or maybe you first go get what doctors today like to softsell as a “procedure” –less threatening sounding than “operation,” but otherwise the same thing– and then do the rehab deal. 

     Either way, because you want to restore your vitality and get back to some level of normal functioning, you engage the services of people who are trained and experienced at assisting and guiding your physical, mental, and emotional functions:

• PT (Physical Therapist)
• OT (Occupational Therapist)
• ST (Speech Therapist . . . yes there are some rumblings about switching the designation to Speech Pathologist, but not from my corner; therapists are helping professionals; pathologists deal with dead bodies!), and 
• Psychotherapists (who of course will deal with you whether you’re dead or alive).  Just a little humor here.

     The point is that businesses have physical, mental, occupational and emotional breakdowns too.  And these will usually require the retention of professional “rehab” services as well: 

• accountants
• lawyers
• turn-around specialists
• sales and marketing consultants
• management consultants
• technical consultants
• business development specialists
• human resource consultants
• financial consultants
• creative consultants
• IT consultants, et al. 

     The secret is of course being able to sort through the myriad of options and alternatives available and to select the combination of services that best address the rehab interests of your particular business needs. 

     Spend the time and energy to make it happen.  Cutting corners on this process can get so expensive or troubling that it can easily overshadow the original set of problems. 

     Remember that you get what you pay for. 

     Don’t worry so much about industry-specific experience or if the individual or entity you’re considering claims expertise in numerous related areas or has a solid track-record in diverse industries.  What’s important is to feel sure that the person or group has the right attitude and chemistry match to work with you and your support team. 

     Don’t be put off if you only get slim pickin’s for references since most business rehab people work with strict confidence arrangements.

     One highly successful business owner I know routinely brings in outsiders to assist with growth or repair issues.  He makes a point of taking prospective specialists and consultants to lunch or breakfast to get a better sense of the person’s real self

. . . I look to see if he or she says ‘please’ and thanks the waiter or waitress, offers to leave a tip when I pick up the tab, eats like a vacuum cleaner, orders alcohol, takes cell calls, etc.  There’s a lot to learn about how someone will work with you and your organization simply by observing how that individual behaves in a social setting.  I generally include an associate in the experience so I have four eyes and ears doing the sizing up,” says my business owner friend. 

     Periodic “how goes it” evaluations and recommendations from outsiders is also recommended when growth is part of your business goal.  Call if I can help you sort through and identify some best practice solutions: 302.933.0116     halalpiar

# # #

Check out and contribute to the daily growing 7-Word Story started 73 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to the “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

Kick your own butt? 

     Yesterday, we talked some about the importance of being genuine (apologies to all you Ernests out there), and we did a brief inventory to see how obnoxious we were. 

     We touched on some ways to shore up the self-indulgence landslide brought on by trying to impress others, by acting controlling, by exaggerating, by glossing over, by constantly talking and posturing, by trying to act like the boss instead of just behaving like a leader. 

     Being more authentic as a human being earns respect.  Being more of what genuinely makes you tick may feel risky at times but in the end, commands loyalty, sets powerful examples, and delivers sales.  That was the gist of the message.  Of course I tossed in a couple of spoonfuls of my Father for good measure. 

     Today I want to know how much more authentic you can be than you were yesterday?  How much more conscious of your need to grow in this direction are you, or do you need to be?  What will work best to kick your own butt?  Can you start being a more authentic person the minute you click off this screen?

     The point here is that no one can really tell you what you need to do or how you need to do it except you!  YOU are the only human being on the entire planet who knows the REAL you, who knows your real potential.  Are you measuring up to what you know you’re capable of? 

     Or are you feeling like a downed-out failure?  With thanks for the referral to worldclass Internet “HARO” network genius Peter Shankman www.HelpAReporter.com, try this quick-fix for your brain (P.S. Kathy says we should watch it regularly!):   

http://wimp.com/bigfailures/      

     Oh, and on your way to becoming the very best you can be, get in the habit of making something wonderful happen every day before you go to sleep –like right now! 

     No excuses.  What were you planning to do after reading this page anyway?  Take an extra minute.  Think of some outstanding happy thing you could do or say that could make the whole day a great one for you or someone else — some words or action that will make you grin as your head hits the pillow tonight.

     If you already did something wonderful today, congratulations and thank you and go to bed!  You’ll need the sleep.  Why?  Because when you wake up tomorrow . . . you will be facing the greatest opportunity of your entire life!  Halalpiar

# # #

Check out and contribute to the daily growing 7-Word Story started 70 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to the “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

This isn’t the movies and

you’re not in Hollywood! 

     What?  You thought you would be finding more hard core “sales-and-business” stuff here?  Well, working on your authenticity is the most genuine and arguably most important sales-and-business stuff you could ever set your sights on. 

     Businesses (and salespeople) succeed or fail based on how authentically they come across to their internal and external markets. 

     What your employees and suppliers think –for example– of the approaches you take to managing your business, or piece of the business you’re charged with, will positively impact your reputation, sales, and of course customer relations, even R&D projects!

     So, don’t be bashful; let’s take a little inventory.  How much of every day do you waste time and energy “playing the boss role” (making power plays, flexing your internal politics muscle, acting controlling, acting like a know-it-all, exaggerating your accomplishments, glossing over your errors) instead of just “being” the leader? 

     How much, in other words, do you try to influence others by attempting to impress them vs. simply gaining their respect by relating to them at their individual levels? 

     This isn’t the movies and you’re not in Hollywood. 

     Regardless of their stations in life, everyone in your daily path brings a certain energy to bear on each issue.  I grew up in an obscure, dilapidated, 3-room, third floor walk-up apartment next to the railroad tracks in one of America’s richest communities. 

     And if that sounds paradoxical, consider that my father was a mailman, whose advice was sought after daily by mayors, police chiefs, doctors, and Congressmen.  He was confided in by top “Fortune 500” corporate executives, and trusted by well-known authors, columnists, and artists. 

     He was a “closet confidant” to many big-name radio and TV personalities who lived in our low-profile, waterfront village north of New York City.

     How was this possible?  Harry escaped the ravages of genocide and came to America as a six year-old waif with a handful of rice.  He had no formal education, but he considered every encounter everyday as genuine and meaningful. 

     Harry listened carefully, spoke and laughed and cried from his heart, and never pretended to be someone he wasn’t.  He was quick to admit he didn’t have all the answers.  He was a character, all right.  He was the Norman Rockwell style   www.nrm.org/ personification of humility.

     He would have been a smash success at any business venture, but he liked who he was, he liked what he did, and he respected his “customers.”  In spite of his faults, and too much whiskey, he was nonetheless a success at being himself!  And he made sure his two sons grew up to appreciate the values of authenticity.

     In my thirty years of business coaching, consulting, and training, I can attest to this single quality as that which separates successful people and businesses from the wannabees, hasbeens and alsorans: authenticity.  It needn’t be perfect; but it does need to be vigilently practiced and consistently pursued.  How’s yours?  Halalpiar  

 # # #

Check out and contribute to the daily growing 7-Word Story started 69 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to the “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

What ARE you looking

to do with your life?  

     Okay, your business is your life, or at least a humongous chunk of your life, yes?  That’s great.  I love my work and consider myself fortunate to be doing what I most enjoy as my means to earning a living so we’re in this together.  BUT . . .

     When did you last break away from your job

and thinking about your job to . . . hug? 

     Renowned Gestalt-based family therapist/author/icon Virginia Satir www.advanta.net/ said it takes 12 hugs a day to grow emotionally strong.  And you do know that being mentally and/or physically strong enough to do your job effectively, and excel, requires that you also be emotionally strong. 

     What good are you as a business or professional practice owner or manager if your emotional scale is tipped too far to the left or teetering on the edge of a breakdown, temper tantrum, road rage, or worse? 

     So what does your scorecard look like?  How many hugs today?  You initiated them or someone else did?  Planned or spontaneous?  Real or token?  Pitter-pattery or bone-crushing?  Start keeping track.  You’ll learn a whole lot about others and your self.  And the more you know about you, the better you’ll deal with others.

     Ah, dealing with others.  Right.  So now that your cage is arattlin’, lets’ try another quiz: When did you last pat someone on the back for a job well done?  A staff member?  A peer?  A teammate?  An opposing team member?  A child?  A parent?  A stranger?  Your spouse?  A customer?  A partner? 

     People –ALL people (and most domestic animals too)– appreciate being appreciated, especially for performing small deeds and accomplishing routine little tasks that ordinarily go unnoticed.

     Try a pat on the back accompanied by: “Thanks for taking the responsibility to do your homework before playing computer games!” or “Thanks for the great dinner; I really enjoyed that salad!” or “Good job with that regular weekly report; it’s nice to see your efforts be so steady and reliable!” or “Good hustle, Harry; you were almost safe, and you did knock in that run!” or “I don’t ever mention it, but you should know I appreciate that you just automatically do so much laundry every week, and never even complain; thank you!” 

     Or just: “Thank you for helping me become the person I am” or “Thank you for helping me become a more authentic person” or “Thank you for helping me to grow” or “Thank you for being so supportive when I needed it!” 

IF WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE IS MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN LIFE, START BY MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE WAYS YOU SUPPORT AND APPRECIATE OTHERS. 

     In the process, you will “happily surprise” others, but you will astonish your self!  Guaranteed!  Thank you for considering these ideas! 

# # #

FREE blog subscription: Posts RSS Feed

Hal@Businessworks.US    302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

If today were

                                                    

the last day of my life,

                                                                 

would I want to do what

                                                                   

I am about to do today?”

                                                            

Apple founder Steve Jobs in an inspirational commencement address video my son sent me http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-3827595897016378253&hl posed the question above while noting that he asks it of himself every morning when he wakes up. 

To the young graduates he’s addressing, he says, “Your time is limited so don’t waste it living someone else’s life!”

How many of us wish we would have heard that advice when we were younger, and of course be able to be tuned in and mature enough to have acted on it?  There is, Jobs points out, “no reason not to follow your heart.”

The point is, it’s never too late.   

I met a 40-something-old plumber today (not “Joe”) who loves plumbing.  I met with two dedicated auto dealership clients (the 40-ish President and the 30-ish IT Manager) of www.igburton.com  and two bright young men (the President and an Account Manager) of www.Delaware.net (eCommerce Services, Custom Web Development, SEM, etc) who clearly enjoy the work they do and the world their business lives in. 

All in the same day, I also spoke with a 50 year-old mother of three who loves mothering, and bought coffee from a (looked to be almost 70) checker at WAWA who obviously liked being a checker at www.wawa.com. 

Unusual?  ABSOLUTELY.  I sometimes go for weeks on end without encountering anyone who’s happy with what she or he is doing. 

In fact, I’ve heard some study findings that report 90-95% of Americans are not happy in their jobs.  Even if this happens to be only half right, then the bottom line is that a majority (or close to majority) of people in the U.S. are doing lousy work!  What?  If someone’s unhappy at work, he or she is not performing well, and vice versa.  Now just look at this post again before you click off . . . it’s a whole plateful of food for thought!  Halalpiar  

# # #  

Check out and contribute to the daily growing 7-Word Story started 62 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to the “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

Do you work for a

bunch of pushers? 

Well, it looks like another big-time management theory has just bumped itself over the horizon by virtue of a new book, The Momentum Effect: How to Ignite Exceptional Growth, by J.C.Larreche. 

Larreche is an INSEAD Graduate Business School Marketing Professor.  He categorizes businesses as “Pushers,” or “Plodders,” or “Pioneers.”

• Pushers push their businesses hard traditionally seeking to drive sales through aggressive marketing increases. 
• Plodders are safety zone status-quo-invested businesses that maintain constant marketing-to-sales ratios. 
• Pioneers cut traditional marketing expenses to explore, discover, and cultivate other more creative and more effective avenues of growth, reducing advertising-to-sales ratios despite overall expense increases

The author contends that research he’s done uses Dow Jones Index markers and proves the revenue growth of Pioneer businesses measured over two decades ends up 93% better (almost twice as dramatic an increease) over Pusher businesses that spent considerably more in traditional “spend money to make money” marketing mindsets, while Pioneers and Pushers, both, left the Plodders in the dust!

Okay, so how does this translate for small business?  Slow down the push to be like everyone else in the market, and step up some new industry and community leadership approaches that will set you apart from the rest of the pack. 

If it feels like too big of a risk to suddenly start trying to do things differently, that’s a signal from the secure little competitive corner of your brain that you should do it!

Wasn’t it your Grandaddy that told you something like “Nothing ventured, nothing . . .”?

Remember that Momentum Leaders are, as Professor Larreche exclaims, “not lucky — they are smart.”  He says that managers often talk about “riding the wave,” but that Momentum Leaders aren’t so passive.  They believe you must first build your wave, then ride it.                   halalpiar 

_____________________________________________________ 

BE A CO-AUTHOR!  ENTER YOUR OWN 7-WORDS OR LESS TACK-ON to the “billboard discipline” story started 38 posts ago. The next 7 words could be yours!