F53-059: Circumstances for Success - How Little Things Go A Long Way

Show Summary: Today's show is about circumstances for success. It's not that hard to be that good. A number of times, you'll deal with clients or colleagues or even friends wherein they ask what I do or why I've found success in the things I've done. And the reality is... In playing football, you learned real quick that there are a lot of little things, if you do them right, you'll get yourself lined up. You'll be in a great position. And you're already set up for success. You don't have to be this stellar, stud athlete of which I am definitely not. But you're set up for success. You've created a circumstance for you to be successful. This is no different than it is in the business world - for the business you own, the people you lead, in entrepreneurship - any of these things, it's all the same. If you're an employee just trying to get a promotion or a raise or bigger accomplishments professionally, this works as well. So what are these circumstances for success? Being on time If you're on time all the time and you're a little early, it shows your desire to be successful. It shows your desire to be committed to the organization. And it also sets the tone for everyone around you whether you see it or not. I know it's new wave to be late or just sort of strolling when you want but I don't care how new age this organization is. If people inside of the organization see people strolling in, five, ten, or twenty minutes after when they're supposed to just rolling in whenever they want. That is not for me. There are circumstances where I like to have people come in, it's not a stickler for time. It's just a matter of being on time, ready to go, and moving. My personal style, as many of you know, is I have to be earlier or on time. I wasn't the best athlete so I didn't want punishment for being late. And being on time was an easy way to stay off the radar. Being honest and doing what you say and saying what you do I know this sounds simple but you'd be surprised if you really listen to your employees or really listen to your coworkers or really listen to your partners and vendors. You'll find that a lot of people say they'll do this or that and then they never do it, where they never respond back. They're just blowing smoke or just talking to make themselves look bigger. The people that say what they do and provide that value back to whomever it is inside of an organization, create some circumstances for success. You become reliable and dependent and people could count on you. And it's not hard. It doesn't have to be like, "I'm going to launch the next space shuttle at your organization." It's really small, obtainable task that would add value to the organization that you commit to that you provide and deliver. And it's not blowing smoke and not doing the work. Making eye contact I can't tell you how many people I meet with face-to-face won't look me in the eye when they're talking. In my belief, it shows a lack of confidence in the things that they're discussing. Whereas if you look someone straight in the eye and you tell them, "I do know this." or "I don't know this." and you pair this with that honesty part, it is very powerful. Your customers love to look someone in the eye and feel confident that they're working with someone that they can trust, that they can be a partner with for long term or even for short term. It does something emotionally with them and it does for all of us. You're just confident and you feel it and they can sense your honesty and your candor. So eye contact is a big deal. Building relationships Building relationships is the core equity you have in your business. And that goes with anyone, people that work with you, people that work for you, or you want to work with you - your customers, vendors, contractors, employees, peers, peers' wives. Building relationships is so critical to an organization. But to me, it's the only thing that really matters. And when you build good relationships, all these other things behind you fall into place. If you're building a good relationship, if you have an eye contact in your conversation, you're saying what you do and doing what you say, and all those things happen in alignment so that you can build a great business. But more importantly, it's because that's what you want to do. You want to serve and be a value to people and you do that through building relationships. There are businesses obviously that are one and done. They come into your place and buy your widget. And likely, they won't come back and buy from you again. I still don't think you should skimp on the relationships. The relationships are key to me. Circumstances for success are these easy things. These are all easily attainable. Everybody could do this but if you look around the people that you work with, the people that work for you, and the people that you're surrounded by, do a quick inventory. Are people doing these things? Are they doing them well? I would put money on it that they're not. They're falling down in one or two of these areas. So to be above everyone else, you literally have to just do these things. It's been a big part of my success and I didn't really realize it until I sat down and looked at what I'm doing. As I look back through my work history, I do those things and for me they just became circumstances for my success. It wasn't that I was trying to do these things so I could get a raise. It's just these are the things I thought a good employee or a good business owner did at that time.   Books, People, & Resources: eye9design - A boutique web design and WordPress agency that just celebrated 10 years in business (an eternity in the web design space). They built hundreds of websites for businesses of all sizes. Finding a web design company is hard. There are lots of options, lots of good ones but lots of bad ones. Let the team at eye9design take care of you. If you need a great website for a great price, visit www.focus53.com/eye9. Mention this ad and get 10%. Download the 15 Most Popular Tools Business Owners Should Be Using