I was reminded the other day of how important an idea can be. Jennilyn has been doing this little group each week that she calls "important conversations". She takes one of the ILG talks to this meeting, They play it and then discuss the content. Last week she chose to play a short talk on finding financial resources for your business. She had listened to it and hadn't got much out of it. But she felt that she should use it anyway. She went and played it and one of the people there took two pages of notes. They had a wonderful discussion as they discussed how to find financial resources to save a business here in town. Sometimes an idea is all you need.
I was listening to Steve Siebold yesterday on I learning Global. He was talking about creating networks of people around you to help you accomplish your goals. He had three or four methods or plans to make this happen. His last method was to become a recognized authority in your area. This way the people who you wnat to network with come looking for you. They see value in knowing who you are. He said the best way to become recognized as an authority was to do public speaking. You need to speak whenever you have an opportunity and whatever forum you can find. He also said writing and publishing was a good way. This has rang true to me and It is an area I can grow in.
This is a little off topic for this blog, but I found it interesting. I was listening to Kim Kamando on the radio on Saturday and one of her discussions was on how to make $75,000 a year blogging. She had three or four points, but one of the points that stood out to me was that she said you needed a 100,000 unique visitors in a month. I manage a couple of internet sites on a daily basis and they don't get that kind of volume. It sounds like something I need to work toward.
I was listening to Brian Tracy the other day and he said something that has stuck in my head. He said that 3 activities in the day, week, month or year creates 90% of my results. This statement has been bugging me because I think it is true. I spend 50% of my time each day doing things that are important, but should be delegated. Delegating is hard because I have to invest a lot in training. I need to make it happen. I also need to look for parts of tasks that I can delegate now without a lot of training. (I just thought of that and an example that I could do).
The other part of this question and the hard part is to identify the three activities that pay the most. Sometimes (especially lately) I am working on projects that I may or may not see a return from for a year or more. It's like the old 80-20 rule. 20% of your activites create 80% of your results. It's hard sometimes to decide what 20% I should be working on. I will have to continue to think on this one.
Optimism always wins, even when the pessimists are correct
I was at a conferance a few weeks ago and the question was presented "What is the purpose of business?" The common answer was to make a profit. I have been thinking about this question for a week or two and I think the answer is more fundamental. The purpose of business is to serve. We serve our customers. If we do it well (serve) we make money and are allowed to do it again and make more money. If we do it poorly we are not allowed to do it again and we are eventually put out of business.
We as people of leadership in business serve other people as well. We serve our employees. We provide a good enviroment where people can grow and be productive. Where they can add to society and be rewarded. If we serve our employees well then we are rewarded handsomely. If we fail to serve them then we eventually fail.
Service to others is very important in our personal lives. It should be a major part of our professional lives as well.
This is my first blog and I hope it is useful both to the reader and writer. I have been a person who enjoyed learning my whole life. I enjoyed reading and learning about many different and varied subjects. As I have matured I have realized that to learn something is one thing, but to truly master something you must teach it. I hope this blog will help me master things by me teaching them. I also hope that anyone who stumbles upon this blog by invitation or otherwise will participate, that we may all grow and learn.
