What are you doing to understand the needs of others?

You realize that you were born with one mouth and two ears for a reason, don’t you?

The other day I was in an appointment with a prospective client. You could see that she was somewhat uneasy about me being with her. I am sure she was expecting a sales pitch, but it never happened. While I am a very passionate person about what I do, I asked her questions in order to find out the company situation. Her answers helped me tremendously as I found out particular areas of concern that she had in her company.

At the end of our appointment she had calmed down entirely and was more of a friend than she was at the beginning of our discussion. Isn’t this the best way to start a potential business relationship?

What can you do today to get people to open up more to you?

Choosing a successor for your business

A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business.

Instead of choosing one of his Directors or his children, he decided to do something different. He called all the young executives in his company together.

He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO. I have decided to choose one of you. "The young executives were Shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going to give each one of you a seed today - one very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO."

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed. Everyday, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.

Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure.

Six months went by -- still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however, he just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - he so wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest about what happened. Jim felt sick to his stomach, it was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right. He took his empty pot to the board room.

When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful - in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives.

Jim just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown," said the CEO. "Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!"

All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the Financial Director to bring him to the front. Jim was terrified.. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!"

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed, Jim told him the story. The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, "This is your next Chief Executive Officer!

His name is Jim!" Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed. “How could he be the new CEO?" the others said.

Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not possible for them to grow. All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive Officer!"

The moral of this story;
If you plant honesty, you will reap trust.
If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.
If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.
If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment.
If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective.
If you plant hard work, you will reap success.

Do you review and learn from your past actions?

In other words are you an active learner?

It has been my experience that if I make the time to review my past action, I learn from them. The review I am talking about is a written exercise to re-construct an experience that you’ve had, and then itemize what you’ve learned from it.

I can hear one of you saying ‘That is going to be a lot of work.’ Yes that is true, and if you want to grow as a person you need to do what successful people do. Successful people become successful by reviewing their past actions, so they don’t make the same mistakes again.

If you don’t like repeating your mistakes try this process;

1. Pick an experience you want to learn from.
2. Review in point form the key actions from the experience.
3. Draw some conclusions from your review.
4. Plan on how to use the conclusions in your life.

You want to become an active learner, don’t you?

When today can you take action on this?

Have you set inspirational goals for your life?

There is a saying by Lewis Carroll the author of ‘Alice in Wonderland’, that states, ‘If you don’t know where you are going any road will take you there.’ What this means is that if you don’t have a destination, you can wander all over the place and accomplish what you wanted – that is nothing.

It is the same thing with your business. If you can’t answer these questions right now, you need to answer them very soon;

• Why are you in business?
• Who are your prime customer’s?
• Why are they your prime customer focus?
• What are the results that you need to achieve this day?
• What are the results that you need to achieve this week?
• What are the results that you need to achieve this year?
• What will be the impact if you don’t achieve those results?

My final question is; when will you know the answers to these questions?

Will you ever be able to achieve your goals?

In other words are you physically and mentally capable?

It has been shown that people that are in a good state mentally and physically are more capable of working the long hours and applying themselves in the achievement of their goals.

It has also been shown that being physically and mentally fit also gives you the ability to have energy, enthusiasm and passion for what you want to accomplish.

If you are in a fine state both physically and mentally, my compliments.

If you aren’t what can you do today to take charge of your future by taking control of your body and mind?

Have you developed a game plan?

Do you know where you would like to take your business?