For it’s through the losses…

…that we find the path to success.

My Dad was a great encourager.  I had failed miserably at an academic endeavor.  He could see my pain and the doubt I was experiencing.  That’s when he said “It’s a temporary setback.  What are you going to do now?”  It was all the encouragement I needed.  I quickly established a plan and followed it to great success.

Over the years as “failures” and disappointments challenged my resolve, his words echoed in my mind “It’s a temporary setback.  What are you going to do now?”

As I’ve studied the lives of those who have achieved exceptional success, I’ve noticed that they don’t just have a solid methodology for overcoming their temporary setbacks, they position themselves to experience those setbacks.  Why?  Because it’s through challenging themselves beyond their current capabilities that they learn how to become better at whatever it is they do.

If we don’t position ourselves to lose we cannot grow – personally or professionally.  Of course we need to be prudent in how we position ourselves for loss.  We don’t want to bet the farm when we’re positioning ourselves for that next growth spurt and the initial loss we’re likely to experience.

There is another advantage to positioning ourselves for loss.  The more frequently we experience temporary setbacks, the less likely they are to rock our world.  The more of them that we experience, the more mentally and emotionally tough we become and the easier it is for us to overcome adversity.

It’s counter-intuitive, but if you want to be incredibly successful, regularly position yourself to lose.

The 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE program is designed to help you see more effective ways of doing business – ways that dramatically improve your bottom line while making your life easier.  In today’s blog I used Step 1, Contributory Negligence, and Step 5, Contrarian Mindset, to demonstrate how our natural avoidance of “losing” limits our success.  For more information on the 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE visit www.furtwengler.com/7steps.htm.

If you’d like to receive a weekly email reminder with a link to The Invaluable Leader blog or if you’d like me to address specific topics, please send me an email at dale@furtwengler.com.  Please share your experience with our readers by posting a comment.

Productivity enhancer…

…or creativity killer?

Over the years I’ve heard conflicting advice about rituals.  People who employ them, without exception, tell me that they achieve their goals more quickly.  That’s why people who:

• build time for exercise into their schedules, enjoy good health
• devote some time each day to personal reflection, enjoy greater self-awareness
• spend as little as 15 minutes a day reading, expand their knowledge

I’ve also been told to:

• take different routes to and from work
• mix up my daily routine
• do things for the sheer enjoyment of doing them

The latter advice is purported to help me avoid boredom, enhance my powers of observation and creativity.

So which is true?  Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz in their book, The Power of Full Engagement, say that “Far from precluding spontaneity, rituals provide a level of comfort, continuity and security that frees us to improvise and to take risks.”

What Loehr and Schwartz are suggesting is that, once we’ve established a ritual, our subconscious minds take over allowing our conscious minds the freedom to deal with whatever we’re facing.  By freeing the conscious mind we are able to respond more quickly and creatively to any challenge we’re facing.

As I reflect on the wisdom of their words, I realize that rituals help us avoid wasting time and energy by limiting the number of choices we make each day.  If I’ve built time for exercise into my schedule each day and have made it a ritual, I don’t waste time or energy trying to decide whether I should be exercising, making a few more phone calls or writing next week’s blog.  The decision is already made.

It’s counter-intuitive, but rituals allow us more time and energy to devote to creative pursuits because they’ve taken the decision making out of things that should be daily routines

The 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE program I offer is designed to help you see more effective ways of doing business – ways that dramatically improve your bottom line while making your life easier.  In today’s blog I used Step 6, Eclectic Education, to gain insights into how Loehr and Schwartz help world-class athletes and performers enjoy even greater success through rituals.

I also used Step 5, Contrarian Mindset, to demonstrate that the common belief that rituals (routines) limit creativity is a myth.  For more information on the 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE visit www.furtwengler.com/7steps.htm.

If you’d like to receive a weekly email reminder with a link to The Invaluable Leader blog or if you’d like me to address specific topics, please send me an email at dale@furtwengler.com.  Please share your experience with our readers by posting a comment.

Are you having a difficult time closing sales?

Do you feel guilty because you know you can help the prospect?

If so, you’re problem lies in your inability to say “No” to people. This tendency could be the result of:

• a sense of scarcity
• a passion for helping others
• a desire to please others

A sense of scarcity makes you look hungry during the sales call. Buyers sense your need and naturally withdraw. Who wants to work with someone who is struggling?

A passion for helping others often causes you to overlook the prospect’s desire to change. Just because you know that you can help someone doesn’t mean they’re interested in being helped.

If you’re a pleaser, if your goal is to make others happy and you’re willing to do whatever they ask, you’ll cave to the prospect’s demands – often to your detriment. Again, buyers sense your need and take advantage of your nature causing you to do a lot of work with little compensation and even less customer satisfaction.

Regardless of the reason, your inability to say “No” sends mixed messages to the market. If you’re experiencing scarcity, buyers sense that and find it difficult to believe that your offerings are as great as you say they are. When your passion for helping others causes you to say “My offering can help anyone,” buyers become skeptical – they know that there are no panaceas, no one-size-fits-all. If you’re a pleaser and you keep changing your offerings to accommodate buyers, you cause then to question the value of your product or service.

What’s the solution? The secret is to say “No” to people who don’t value what you have to offer. You know which of your customers bring you great joy and which drive you bonkers. Discover what those delightful customers have in common and use these characteristics to define your ideal customer. Then learn to graciously say to the others “I don’t think I’m the right person to meet your needs.”

Indeed, you can take this one step farther by telling prospects, in the sales call, who your ideal customer is. Amazingly, when I use this approach, some people have asked “Do I qualify?” This simple question allows me to have a candid conversation with the prospect that allows them to participate in a self-evaluation that helps them and me make a more informed decision about whether or not we should move forward.

It’s counter-intuitive, but if you want to:

• attract more business
• close more sales
• become more effective in serving your customers

learn to say “No.”

Buyers want to do business with people who:

• demonstrate confidence and success by their willingness to walk away from business that doesn’t make sense for them
• have a clear understanding of who their ideal customers are and communicate that information clearly and effectively
• who aren’t willing to compromise the value of their offerings to please others

The 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE program I offer is designed to help you see more effective ways of doing business – ways that dramatically improve your bottom line while making your life easier.

In today’s blog I used Step 1, Contributory Negligence, combined with Step 5, a Contrarian Mindset, to demonstrate how our inability to say “No” makes us less attractive in the marketplace. For more information on the 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE visit www.furtwengler.com/7steps.htm.

If you’d like to receive a weekly email reminder with a link to The Invaluable Leader blog or if you’d like me to address specific topics, please send me an email at dale@furtwengler.com. Please share your experience with our readers by posting a comment.

How can one individual become a World Champion in both chess and Tai Chi Chuan?

More importantly, how can his insights help you?

Josh Waitzkin, a world-renowned chessmaster and Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands champion, in his book, The Art of Learning, says:

“A key ingredient to my success in those years (his youth) was that my style on the chessboard was a direct expression of my personality.”

Later in the book Josh often references how he adjusts his approach to Push Hands competition to reflect both his personality and his physical capabilities.

What does this have to do with social networking?  Today’s latest craze has spawned a plethora of “experts” who tell us exactly what we need to do to attract opportunities using the overwhelming number of social networks available to us.  Each, of course, has enjoyed great success with his or her model.

Personally, I have wrestled with this advice.  Logically, it has merit.  Emotionally, I find myself resisting the effort.  What’s going on?  The advice I’m resisting doesn’t fit my nature!

As soon as I read Waitzkin’s words, I knew what I had to do.  I had to embrace those bits of advice that felt good to me, adapt them to my nature and run with them.  The other advice, while good, won’t help me because it drains my energy.  It doesn’t feel good so I’m not going to make a worthwhile investment to make it work.  Armed with that knowledge, I know I’ll get much better results with activities that fit my nature.

It’s counter-intuitive, but when you’re getting advice, regardless of what that advice is, if it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it – even though what you’re hearing makes perfect sense.  Instead, examine the advice you’re getting to determine:

1. What makes sense about this advice
2. Why you are resisting it – what is it that you’re not likely to do?
3. How you can adapt the approach to fit your style
4. What alternatives exist, if you can’t adapt the approach to your style

Success is a function of clear, concise and consistent effort.  You can’t achieve any of them if what you’re expected to do goes against your nature.  Be true to yourself and you’ll enjoy greater success.

For more information on Josh Waitzkin, visit www.joshwaitzkin.com

The 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE program I offer is designed to help you see more effective ways of doing business – ways that dramatically improve your bottom line while making your life easier.  

In today’s blog I used Step 6, Eclectic Education, to gather insights from a World Champion chessmaster and Tai Chi Chuan master, and combined it with Step 4, Seeing Similarities, to demonstrate how to overcome the challenges many of us face in dealing with the explosion of social networking tools available to us.  For more information on the 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE visit www.furtwengler.com/7steps.htm. 

If you’d like to receive a weekly email reminder with a link to The Invaluable Leader blog or if you’d like me to address specific topics, please send me an email at dale@furtwengler.com.  Please share your experience with our readers by posting a comment.

If you’re like me you understand the importance of a niche…

…you’re just not sure what it is or how to find one.

The Nametag guy, Scott Ginsberg, to the rescue!  In his latest book, Stick Yourself OUT There (actually it’s two books in one),  Scott describes two types of niches:

1. Niche expertise
2. Niche market

Here’s how Scott defines these niches:

1. “Niche expertise means you know a LOT about a SPECIFIC TOPIC that applies to a WIDE AUDIENCE.”
2. “Niche market means you know a LOT about a SPECIFIC GROUP OF PEOPLE to whom you apply many topics.”

What’s fascinating to me is that I’ve often been told that I need to find a niche market when I’m really a generalist.  I’ve worked with people in defense contracting, toxic waste disposal, railroad sidings, professional organizations, fast food, automotive suppliers and rubber extruders to name just a few of the industries I’ve served.  

Not only do I enjoy the variety being a generalist affords, I find that I can port ideas from one industry to another for my clients’ benefit.  That’s why I found the idea of a niche market so puzzling.  Thanks to Scott, I realize that I’m employing the “niche expertise” model.  

It’s counter-intuitive, but, whether you are a specialist or a generalist, there are niches available to you.  If you, like me, have been wrestling with the concept of a niche and losing the battle, follow Scott’s sage advice.  For those of you who would like more information about Scott check out his website at www.hellomynameisscott.com/landing.aspx

The 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE program I offer is designed to help you see more effective ways of doing business – ways that dramatically improve your bottom line while making your life easier.  In today’s blog I used Step 6, Eclectic Education, in the form of Scott’s message and Step 1, Contributory Negligence in exploring my contribution to the problem of identifying a niche to help guide me, and hopefully you, toward even greater success.  For more information on the 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE visit www.furtwengler.com/7steps.htm. 

If you’d like to receive a weekly email reminder with a link to The Invaluable Leader blog or if you’d like me to address specific topics, please send me an email at dale@furtwengler.com.  Please share your experience with our readers by posting a comment.