Your Secret Weapon To Success
Spending countless hours reading business blogs, books, going to seminars, and hearing a TED Talks of one of the brightest minds in the world, they might bring you closer to finding the secret weapon, or what it is. But you’re looking in the wrong place, like looking for love in all the wrong places. The secret weapon has one characteristic that most over look, and that’s the problem, we’re over thinking, over analyzing,. The book Think & Grow Rich is telling you what that characteristic is, the first time you read it, you miss it, you think the secret is still in the book. You read the book again thinking it’s still in there, it just hasn’t shown itself just yet.
The secret weapon is a scarcity, are you ready to learn what it is? It’s something no one in the world has:
IT’S YOU!
Now go show the world your secret weapon.
If You Could Teach The World One Thing
What would you like to teach the world today? The old song that used the line, “If I could teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony”. The idea had the right motive, we would love to collectively get along with everyone, and using the universal language of music seemed like the perfect way to start that movement.
If you ask yourself this question today, what would it be? Is about your work, what you do? Would you try to use this opportunity to talk about your business, and why everyone should do business with you. Does everyone need to do business with you, is it realistic, no they don’t, and you couldn’t handle the work load.
Setting an unrealistic goal doesn’t really move you closer to your objectives and desires, it does generate anxiety. If you could teach the world one thing, what would that be?
For me, it would be, to help you understand how special you are, and that you should dare to believe in yourself. So we could have the privilege of experiencing your passion.
The Choice Is Yours
The truth is, someone has to drive the forklift, someone has to drive the truck, sell cars, and so on. There will always be a need for manual labor no matter how much technology invades our world. There will always be a need for human interaction. While 60% of sales may be online, we will still have big box stores and specialty shops, and someone has to work in them.
No matter how advanced we get, no matter how smart, no matter how close we get to the singularity, there will always be a need for people to look each other in the eye, and for humans to do manual labor. The question is, are you one of those people, or do you believe you were meant to do something different, something your parents never had the opportunity to do because they had to provide the basics of survival.
We all have been conditioned to believe that there is one way to organize work, to be creative, and to deliver goods and services. Today, we come to realize that’s not the case anymore, we have options. I didn’t have the same options as a young man, Microsoft started in 1975, the year I graduated in a small town in Northern BC. I had never heard of or seen a computer, just a handheld calculator, who knew we would be where we are today! We all have the same 24 hours, and we all have to provide the basics for our families. Once you have those things in perspective and under control, the choice is yours.
Do you continue to do manual labor, there is no shame in it, or journey into the world of an entrepreneur, where security has a different meaning. You have it in you do either one.
Security Is A Dream Stealer
It’s easy to look back, to remember what it was like when you were a teenager, wishing somethings never changed. It’s easy to wish and wonder, but it’s much harder to look ahead and see what you must do to prepare, I know it’s harder, because most of us didn’t give the future a second thought when we were 17 – 20 years old. We might have thought, I wonder what I’ll be like when I’m 30, 40 or 50 years old, but that’s about it. I know, because I did it. The numbers are low for those who knew what they wanted to be when they grow up, and the numbers are even lower for those who aren’t in the profession they went to school to learn how to do. So it’s comfortable to look back, to reminisce about what might have been, or what you miss as a fully grown adult years removed from your youth.
One thing I’ve discovered about looking back, it has yet to move me forward, and it has yet to solve anything but bring about a sadness within. So why do we do it? It goes back to our collective human behavior, we love to be comfortable, where everything feels good, and is in its proper place. We say, I remember when…and it takes us back to a warm feeling, and puts a smile on our faces. I’m generalizing, but that’s most of us, some revert to unhappy places, but most of us want to remember happier times.
Looking ahead is much harder work, because we have trouble seeing the world in front of us, what it’s really like, and what it will be like 10, 20,30 years from now. Most of us can’t see next week let alone 30 years down the road. When looking ahead, it gets uncomfortable, and then it begins, the resistance, and the reason why we tend to get ready to get ready and never actually do anything. Because we are addicted to being comfortable, we can’t see, we can’t look ahead because what we fear is the unknown, and that makes us very uncomfortable.
You’ve heard of people being called change agents, they love change, they love making new things happen. The majority don’t like these people, because they set fear into their hearts of the comfortable, because they know something uncomfortable is coming. To embrace change agents, or the future, takes courage, and we all have courage, we tend use it when it’s safe to do so. When looking into the future, we tend to look with the wrong filter, we look for a preferred future over the one we don’t have control over. Control is the root issue. If we can’t control our future’s, we don’t want to think about it, we don’t want to open our eyes.
Building a business that will be a legacy, requires giving up control at some point on the journey. We have to see the world differently to design this business that last 30 years or more. Maybe you’re not building a lifetime long business, but if you are, you need to use the right filter, and see the world differently. The comfort zone we love holds us back, it prevents us from creating, differentiating, and delivering. Embrace the unknown future, and break the comfort zone pattern.
The comfort zone was built by the Industrial Age work and school system, it conditioned us into believing it feels like security, and we are seriously addicted to the feeling of being secure. That security is wrapped in money, which misleads us and takes us off course when our journey’s get difficult. That security immobilizes us, and it’s a dream stealer to.
If You Must Write A Business Plan
If you must write a business plan, you just can’t move forward without one, keep it simple. Don’t think in traditional terms, just do a simple business plan, something you can refer to as a guide. Here are 8 points to consider if you MUST write a business plan:
- Executive Summary – I would write it after you’ve done the next 7 points. Keep it short, one page.
- Company Description – Legal establishment, history, start-up strategy, etc.
- Product or Service – Describe what you’re selling. Focus on customer benefits.
- Market Analysis – You should know your market, customer needs, is there a need, where they are, and how to reach them.
- Strategy & Implementation – Be specific. Include management responsibilities with dates and budgets. Make sure you track results.
- Internet Strategy – For E-Commerce, include development costs, operations, and sales & marketing plans.
- Management Team – Describe the organization, and the key management personnel.
- Financial Analysis – Include your projected profit and loss, and cash flow tables.
You could have someone review this plan to ensure it’s a viable business, be sure this person or firm is capable of doing so. Be careful here, you could get stuck trying to make it perfect, don’t, just write as briefly as you can, unless you’re applying for funding, they want all the details.
