Yesterday my partner Leo Bottary posted an article about how a peer group can be a gym for leaders. Many years ago Jack Welch was responsible for introducing to me the concept of a business “workout.” Not that I know Jack personally, but I was honored to meet him once! I talked about it in an episode long ago.

Jack’s GE workouts involved problem confrontation and change acceleration. Welch wanted to break away from the bureaucracy and all the associated behaviors that accompany it. Instead, he fostered continuous focus, efficient decision making and fast execution. According to an article published by Booz & Company in 2003, “all but 9% of the approved ideas were followed through.”

Getting to the heart of the matter in fast order was a major objective. Speed kills. And Welch knew it. His workout idea took form in 1987 and was incorporated into the fabric of GE up to the time he walked out the door in 2002.

I bring up the GE workout because it’s why The Peer Advantage is the greatest opportunity for you to grow your business, your leadership and your life. It’s a workout. It’s designed to elevate your fitness.

Welch’s GE workout involved multiple people from various sectors of the company. He wanted diversity because he fostered a degree of combustion he knew teams didn’t always foster. Jack wasn’t trying to create strife, but he want creative tension provided by various viewpoints.

Who you surround yourself with matters. Leo Bottary used that for the tagline in our first podcast, Year Of The Peer. The notion has more ancient origins. 1 Corinthians 15:33 “Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals.”

Your mom and dad knew it. You passed it on (or tried to) with your children. Who we hang around influences us. For good. Or bad. Show me a person’s closest friends and I’ll be able to see, with a high degree of accuracy, how that person likely lives.

The Peer Advantage is intentionally diverse. Entrepreneurs from various industries, backgrounds, and experiences provide high value. This is how blind spots can be overcome. Multiple viewpoints provide combustion that isn’t destructive, but one that behaves like an engine, it moves us forward.

GE workouts were conducted and led by a senior leader who was part of the workout. This person wasn’t a silent observer, but rather was part of the process. Facilitation is critical. Group discussions – effective group discussions – require effective leadership.

As the chairman of The Peer Advantage my role is to help the group form and live up to the values established. My role isn’t to hold forth or to make unilateral decisions. Instead, my role is to help keep the discussions on point and moving forward knowing that every individual member’s contributions add to create the whole. The power is in the collective and that includes the guide (chairman, facilitator, etc.).

Now the GE workout was about problem-solving within a single corporate environment. This is where The Peer Advantage differs dramatically. At GE the workout leader was empowered to quickly approve or disapprove of ideas. Speed was the key.

Speed is also the key with The Peer Advantage, but since everybody at the table is running their own company, there’s nobody who is going to quickly approve or disapprove of anything. The speed is in the process to help each member of the group – and the group collective – to figure it out.

Do you own a small business in the United States? Are you a US-based entrepreneur? I invite you to check out The Peer Advantage by Bula Network, a forum where 7 entrepreneurs and I come together to elevate your business, leadership and life.

All our meetings will be conveniently conducted online via a video conferencing platform. This isn’t a networking, back scratching group, but a true, honest peer advantage group where business ownership is the tie that binds. You can read all the details at ThePeerAdvantage.com. Just click the apply button, complete the short questionnaire so we can jump on a phone call together where I can find out more about you and your business. I’ll answer any questions you may have, too. I look forward to speaking with you.

 

From the inside out, we’ve all got a number of voices in our life. When we talk about the important voices in your life we’re not necessarily talking about the LOUDEST voices. Frequently those voices are the least important. That makes them really tough to handle. Sometimes it seems impossible to quieten them.

Let’s start with YOU and YOUR VOICE.

Your life has formed a narrative, a story. Neuroscientists teach us that the events of our life don’t necessarily determine our story, but the meanings we ascribe to those events. Easier said than done. We’re not very good at disconnecting ourselves from the things that happen to us.

Look around at the people who have experienced horrific events. Some of the most awful circumstances imaginable. But they not only endure it, but they also overcome it. They embrace behaviors that fuel them to be among the highest achievers. They determine to have a positive impact on others. Examples abound. And I’m not just talking about famous names. There are plenty of people most of us haven’t heard of, but they’re making a big impact in spite of the horrible things that have happened to them.

What makes them different? So resilient?

Wish I knew.

We can apply all kinds of rational and logical thinking to it, but some of it is probably beyond explanation. They just have such mental toughness, and mind made up that they don’t talk to themselves the way others do. While others might lean into being a victim, grow bitter and lament their plight — these folks figure, “What’s the point? How’s that gonna help?” They don’t get bogged down listening to the inner voice of “woe is me.” Quite literally, they build a bridge in their mind and get over it. Their inner voice helps them advance.

Yesterday we talked about energy. Losing it. Or increasing it. The winners in life – and I don’t mean financially, but I mean winner in a much larger sense of it – command the voice in their head. The voice they hear mirrors their made up mind. And that may be the key. They’ve made up their mind that this thing – whatever it may be – isn’t going to stop them from being or trying to be their very best. And that made up mind has a voice. A voice worth listening to. So they do, listen to it.

What about you? What’s your mind made up about? It’s likely the voice you’re listening to in your head is THAT voice. If you want to change the voice in your head you have to first change your mind. Make up your mind that today you’re going to aim better, and higher for your life.

Outside voices can impact our own.

It’s not always bad. Or negative. Sometimes the voices outside are exactly what we need. It happens when we surround ourselves with people who care about us.

Look at your life right now. Look at yourself. Look at the folks who surround you, the ones you spend the most time with.

Who do you fuel?

Who fuels you?

Who do you drain?

Who drains you?

You know the answer. We all do.

I suppose there are people in our lives who are innocuous, but we don’t spend much time around them. If we did, they would cease to be innocuous. By innocuous, I mean they’re neutral. Safe. They neither fuel nor drain. They just are.

Most of the others who surround us are one or the other. But let’s keep going with this exercise.

We’re all capable of draining energy in ourselves and in others. We’re all capable of being providers or fuelers of energy, too. I don’t imagine any of us are 100% one or the other, but one or the other dominates our character. Without being so nitpicky, start with yourself. Which are you? Pick just one that best characterizes how you see yourself. Do you drain? Or add?

Do you care which one best characterizes you? Do you care how others see you impacting their lives? Does it matter to you if people feel one way or the other about you?

Well, of course it does. At least if you have any degree of emotional intelligence and any desire to be a good influence on others!

Let’s stay with you for a moment. What is it about you that causes you to draw this conclusion about yourself? What do you DO that compels you to see yourself as a drain or as somebody who adds energy? (By the way, it’s pretty terrific if you’ve got such high self-awareness you’re able to admit you’re a drain!)

List out the things you do – the actions you take that contribute to your drain/add identity.

I’ll help get you started – and if you’re wrestling with which you may be, these may help:

Are you critical? Do you always find fault?

Do you “should” people? Or “should not” people? Do you second guess everybody thinking you know best?

Do you care more about what you think and what you have to say than listening to others? Are your ideas and opinions always best (or right)?

Do you lack curiosity about others? Are you indifferent to understanding others and why they think or feel as they do?

Do you draw conclusions with limited information?

Do you consider others valuable?

Are you interested in your growth and in helping others grow?

Do you regularly find ways where you can improve? Do you regularly look for opportunities to serve others by helping them improve?

Do you give compassion easily to others?

Are you interested in the feelings, thoughts, and opinions of others?

Are you curious about what others think?

Do you search for evidence before jumping to a conclusion about others, or about situations?

I know such things aren’t binary, but let’s look at them that way. Yes or no. Sure, we all have our days. Even jerks can have a good day where they’re kind. And the most kind among us can have a bad day where they’re jerks. But again, we mostly live our lives in a default way. I’m challenging you to figure out your default as it relates to energy – you either drain or you add. Which is it?

Now, what do you want to do about it? Anything? Maybe you don’t care. Maybe you feel how you are works, so why mess with it?

I’m going out on a limb to say you’re interested in growth and improvement. Otherwise, I don’t know why you’d even be listening to a podcast entitled, Grow Great.

Harry Truman said that.

The reward of suffering is experience.

He was right, of course. Failure, pain, and suffering can be our best teachers. It’s up to us to leverage them properly. Not an easy thing to do.

Figuring it out involves time – often times extended time – when we don’t have it figured out. Up to the point where we finally do figure it out, we spend much more time failing. Success is on the backend.

One of my grandsons has a pogo stick. My granddaughter saw it for the first time and instantly wanted to try it. She’s a few years younger than her pogo stick riding cousin. She hopped on it, gave it try and failed. This went on for a bit. Minutes. Had I calculated it, I’d have figured that every second or minute spent trying resulted in failure. But that experience was paying off. She just couldn’t see it. Yet.

More minutes passed. More experience being gained. We watched from the kitchen table through the back glass doors as she attempted to balance so she could find some sort of rhythm to the mad contraption. Still, it could have been computed as 100% failure.

Until it wasn’t.

Such things reinforce why one of my favorite sayings is…

Everything is hard, until it’s easy.

Suddenly, she’s jumping up and down on the pogo stick. At first, two hops in a row, then a fall. Then three hops before she falls. Pretty soon, she’s on it and hopping as long as she wants without falling.

I’m a fanboy of guitar playing and guitars. No, I don’t play. But I see interviews with guitarists by other guitarists and a common question is asked.

How long have you been playing?

People answer. Mostly in terms of years. It’s likely they started measuring the time when they first began to learn. My granddaughter could answer that question about her pogo sticking. She’s been doing it for about a week. Fact is, she’s been vastly more successful in the last week than she was at the very beginning. Experience paid off. So it goes with guitarists, too.

If the reward of suffering (or failure) is experience…and it is…then the reward of experience is figuring it out. How do you price that? You can’t.

Those first painful months (or years) spent learning something new (in my granddaughter’s case, those first few minutes) are necessary. You just can’t get from here to there without enduring the suffering.

It’s easy to speak gloriously about such things, but it’s not much fun. Many times, it’s downright painful. That’s why Harry’s quote is spot on. It’s SUFFERING.

Proof that suffering is the price we must pay for success is found in my not being able to play the guitar. I got my first nice guitar about 40 years ago. A Martin acoustic. But I didn’t enroll in lessons, instead opting to try to teach myself. And this in the pre-Internet days. No YouTube videos to watch. Just books to review. It was boring. And physically painful. You don’t learn to play guitar – or much of anything else – without enduring some pain. For guitar playing, you need callouses on your fingertips so you can properly fret the instrument. You have to keep practicing in order to get the callouses though. And I never did put in enough time to do that. Eventually, I gave up. But I’ve owned an acoustic guitar for 4 decades now. Some days I imagine, “What if I’d stuck it out? Can you imagine how accomplished I might be after 40 years? Why I bet I could play most anything I really wanted to.” But here I am with a nice guitar in a nice case sitting less than 10 feet from me and I can’t play a single chord.

On Sunday’s CBS 60 Minutes’ show, there was a profile on Samuel L. Jackson. During the interview, reminiscing about winning movie awards, he said, “Winning an award won’t move the comma on your checks. Only putting butts in seats will do that.”

What does the audience want to see? That’s his approach to his work. No wonder he’s the highest grossing actor of all time!

What about you? What does your audience want? Are you devoted to giving it to them?

It’s a maxim old as dirt. Find out what people want and give it to them.

What promptly follows are mentions of the innovations that people didn’t ask for. Enter the Apple iPod, Ford’s Model A, Sony’s Betamax and a ton of other new products.

But people overlook the obvious. People DID want to take music with them. The Sony Walkman was displaced by the technology of the Apple iPod.

People DID want to be more mobile. The horse and buggy gave way to the Ford Model A.

People DID want to record TV shows so they could time-shift their viewing. That inability gave way to the ability enabled by the Sony Betamax video recorder.

More modern advancements of innovation are the result of human desires and human challenges. Technology serves both the desires and challenges. We can grow too fascinated with the tools or tech, but at the root of all marketing is our desire to have something we don’t, or to fix a problem we have.

What’s your equivalent of butts in the seat? What are you doing to improve that?

Sometimes I work with city governments or non-profit organizations. Unlike entrepreneurial based enterprises, they don’t focus on sales or revenues. But they’re still serving an audience. So no matter what type of organization you’re leading, you have an audience to serve. How well you do that will determine your success. Make application as it suits your operation.

More. Bigger. Better.

That’s the goal. You’ll have to figure out the measurements. Maybe it’s more customers. Maybe it’s more patrons or donors. Maybe it’s more sales tax revenue via economic development.

Maybe it’s bigger sales. Or it could be a bigger impact.

Better could be more efficient. More effective. It could also more profitable. It’s not being complacent with current results but focused on striving to make anything, or everything better.

Samual L. Jackson has been intent on maximizing his earning power as an actor. He’s been focused on delivering performances that please the audience. Jackson knows where his bread is buttered. Fans pay his way so he’s intently focused on making them happy.

He’s been quoted as saying that not everybody goes to the movies to have their life changed. The man knows he’s an entertainer. He’s good at it, too. Which is why his movies have grossed over $12 billion globally. He’s number 1 for good reason.

If you want to move the comma on your checks – either personally or for your organization – then you have to know who and what you are. Jackson knows his job. He also knows his audience.

Figure out who you are. Figure out what you are. Stop trying to be something else. Lean in hard to own your uniqueness.

Figure out who your audience is. What do they want? What do they need that you can provide? Don’t challenge it, or argue with them. That’s a surefire way to lose. The market gets to decide, not you. Give the market what it wants.

That doesn’t mean you compromise what you believe or what defines you (or your enterprise). It means you figure out how to make it fit with the demands of the market. Samuel L.

Friday night during the halftime studio show of the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament on CBS (a game between Duke and North Dakota), Kenny “The Jet” Smith made a comment. He said he’d commonly say something to the teams he played on.

We just need to win the next ten minutes by 4 points. If we do that every 10 minutes of the game we’ll win by at least 16 points and it’ll look like a blowout.

Breaking down a challenge into smaller, bite-sized approaches proves effective no matter what we’re trying to accomplish. It’s especially helpful when we’re battling something that seems bigger than we are.

Entrepreneurs can most easily do this with sales/revenue goals. A million dollar monthly goal spread out over 24 selling days in the month means we need to hit a daily target of just under $42,000 in gross sales every day. Sales managers are notorious for figuring out such things and leveraging that info with the team in hopes they’ll maintain the energy necessary to hit the monthly goal.

The psychology is fairly simple. We can conceptualize achieving $42,000 in a day easier than achieving a million bucks in 24. And Kenny’s basketball teammates could see themselves achieving a 4 point lead in the next ten minutes. Thinking about blowing out an opponent by 16 at the end of a game? A much tougher mental feat. Yet they’re pretty much the same thing. Certainly the same result.

Mind games are important because how and what we think matters.

I don’t claim to understand how the human mind works. I just know that it does. And that it works differently in each of us, but we’re all able to see the reality of smaller achievements. It’s the benefit of thinking small.

I’m in the early stages of a startup, a human development company. It may never get off the ground, but we’ve got lofty plans for it. Our concentration is on one single customer at a time though. The focus is at the smallest level so far as scale goes, but by concentrating on a single point where we touch a customer, we’re embracing the power of thinking small. The impact will be made bigger.

We want to make sure we’re not underestimating the power to positively help one person. It’s hardly the stuff that makes folks excited about a startup, but we’re contrarians like that. We don’t care.

Our longer term goal is to impact more than one life, but there’s just no point in getting ahead of ourselves. Fact is, if we’re not able to have the impact on a single life – the impact we believe we can deliver – then nothing else matters!

What are you hoping to accomplish today? This week? This month? This quarter? This half? This year?

For years I’d track sales per hour in retail stores. Days were made up of hours. Helping people focus on this hour kept energy and urgency that could contribute to achieving daily goals.

Getting ahead of yourself when you fall behind can be tempting. Don’t do it. It’s easily seen in sports when a team falls behind. Panic never helped anybody achieve more. Or better.

When you fall behind is the ideal time to think small. Get one small win. Frankly, many times any win will do. Folks are currently obsessed with their NCAA brackets. We’re down to the final 16 teams. Some games have been close. Others, not so much. In a basketball game, teams get on a scoring run. If you’re subjected to an opponent who has momentum, you just need one basket. Or one defensive stop. Then you build on it. We see it happen every year in the tournament. Many times.

Thinking small can help you win big when you’re pursuing momentum.

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(Yikes! Look! A video version. Don’t get used to this. It’s a one-off because a few of you asked. Your wish is my command. -Randy)

“Coach me and I will learn; challenge me and I will grow; believe in me and I will win” is the quote from Dr. Robert Halgren, Michigan Science Olympiad Site Coordinator. And I like it very much. I also agree with it. Not just for athletes, but for entrepreneurs and leaders, too.

Confidence is mysterious. I don’t claim to understand it. I’m not sure anybody does. But I am sure it makes an E-N-O-R-M-O-U-S difference in our outcomes. I’m equally sure that expressions of confidence – within ourselves and the expressions of others in us – have a big impact. A positive impact.

Over at the hobby podcast – LeaningTowardWisdom.com – I’ve begun a project called Craving Encouragement. Sparked by the many interactions I was having with high achievers I began to direct questions and conversations about times when people had been encouraged in a meaningful way – a way that was so powerful it changed an outcome in their life. As I watched people’s eyes widen, and their cadence quicken, it was obvious every single person understood the value of encouragement – expressions of belief.

I broadened the conversation to include anybody and everybody. Ordinary folks. People like me. People like you. People seen by others as financially successful. People seen by others as not so financially successful. People with a long list of accomplishments. And people who struggle to list much of anything.

I discovered something I knew was likely true, but something I hadn’t thought of so deeply until I began this effort. No matter who we are, or where we come from, or what education we have (or lack), or how accomplished and financially successful we are (or aren’t)…we all CRAVE encouragement. It quickly resonates with every single one of us.

Are expressions of belief in you so rare that you can instantly think of THE time when somebody encouraged you in a way that impacted your life? For many of us, the answer is, “Yes.” Yes, they are that rare.

I wondered why. Why is that true since we all understand the value it? Why is this true when we’ve all experienced our own positive impact by the expression of belief others offer us? It’s so powerful and so universal…why don’t we do it more?

Entrepreneurs and leaders were asked, “When is the last time you offered such strong encouragement to somebody that you walked away confident it would make a positive impact in their life?”

Thankfully, sometimes I get a fairly quick response. But sadly, more often than not – the same people who just told me of a time when somebody encouraged them – these people struggle to remember a time when they did it for somebody else.

Why?

They don’t know.

Many are too embarrassed to try even though it comes naturally for us if we’ll just lean into it. Others have such a jaded view of the world and others, they honestly find it difficult to find something worthy of encouragement. Such a cynical viewpoint is deadly to productive output. They’re like that little boy in the movie, Sixth Sense. Everywhere they look they see idiots, not dead people. The idiots have done nothing worthy of encouragement. “I think you’re an idiot. Keep it up, I believe in your ability to constantly disappoint me.” That’s not quite what I’m going for.

A problem prospects have and don’t want

A result prospects want and don’t have

Most businesses operate in one or the other. A few may operate in both ways.

Over time we often get complacent and stop looking at such basic things. Big mistake. Fundamentals are often where the real power is found.

Over time we lose sight of our business fundamentals because fighting fires become our habit. And each day has a variety of distractions that must be managed. Like taking time to do important things – like rest or exercise or meditating – our schedule forces us to concentrate on the urgent, pressing matters. That’s why perfectly intelligent people – like us – can neglect our health and wellness. We know what to do. We just don’t discipline ourselves to take the time to do them. Often, until it’s too late.

Today, I’m urging you to get on with it. “It” being putting the fundamentals of your business model back in the foreground of conversations.

Let me suggest something to you – an exercise to conduct with your leadership team. Carve out 45 minutes of uninterrupted time between now and the end of next week. Give this meeting one agenda item – just one: to discuss the value we provide our customers.

Write it on the whiteboard:

A problem prospects have and don’t want

A result prospects want and don’t have

Don’t dominate the conversation, but lead it. Pose the question, “Where do we provide the most value to our customers?”

Listen carefully. Make notes.

Let the team engage in debate and dialogue. Disagreement is fine. You may learn something. So may your team.

Does the team see it the same way? If not, is that a problem?

Where are the constraints and challenges?

Where are the opportunities?

How can we do better?

I’m a big fan of Jack Welch’s view of strategic planning. It’s just two questions and this discussion is a great time to ask your team to wrestle with them.

* What can our competition do within the next 18 months to nail us to the wall?

* What can we do to our competition within the next 18 months to nail them to the wall?

Your customer base is the business coin. It’s where the real value is in your business. There are two sides to that coin: the haves and the have nots. Get your team very clear on those and then turn people lose to evangelize it throughout your company. It’s time to take your business to a whole new level.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

RC

Tap the brakes. I’m not talking about you domineering everybody in your life. And I’m not talking about how wonderful people are who refuse to submit to anybody over anything at any time. I’m talking about the most dreaded factor in our daily lives.

FEAR

Business owners – excuse me, entrepreneurs – often feel like they’re supposed to be immune. It’s like we all lined up at some secret clinic and got vaccinated with a vaccine unavailable to ordinary folks. That’d be great, wouldn’t it?

Culture presses on us unprecedented glorification. In my lifetime I’ve never seen business ownership or business startup glorified more. It’s the grand panacea for what ails you. Start your own company and all your wildest dreams will come true. Leave your 9 to 5 and enter the land of Utopia.

The reality is very different. Statistically, most don’t make it. Failure rates are extremely high. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t go for it. It just means culture paints an unrealistic picture that sets very unreasonable expectations.

For those already in the game, it can press us to think, “My life isn’t like that. What’s wrong?” The average business owner isn’t living an Instagram kind of life. Fear is real. Fear that we’re failing. Fear that we won’t find success. Fear that we’re not as successful as we should be. Fear that we’re not measuring up.

Thankfully, there is an increasing volume of attention being given to the mental and emotional health of entrepreneurs. It’s a far cry from being able to offset the negative, fictionalized viewpoints, but it’s a start.

Do a Google search for the word “fear” and here’s what you get…

About 1,230,000,000 results (0.58 seconds)

The first results are definitions. Mayo Clinic defines fear as…

An unpleasant feeling triggered by the perception of danger, real or imagined.

But Merriam-Webster defines it as…

fear is the most general term and implies anxiety and usually loss of courage. fear of the unknown dread usually adds the idea of intense reluctance to face or meet a person or situation and suggests aversion as well as anxiety.

I’ll join the many who refuse to look at fear as the absence or loss of courage. That just adds to the negative pressures and imposes on us an unhelpful viewpoint.

It’s shallow to think that courage can’t coexist with fear because courageous people often confess their fear. Look in the mirror. You’ve exercised courage before. And you’ve done it in spite of fear. Courage is more likely doing what we need to do – or what we should do – anyway. In spite of fear or any other threat.

Let’s narrow our fear focus this morning. Let’s take aim at an action that has grown increasingly fascinating to me for the last few years – judgment.

Judgment

I’ve grown fond of a statement that I think is so ridiculously accurate. There are variations of it and I don’t claim to have originated it, but it’s brilliant and I rather wish I had.

just because you came into this chapter of my life doesn’t mean you know my whole story

But people think they’ve got it all figured out. We may think we’ve got others figured out. We judge each other. Easy to do because we’re not living their life. So we can second guess everything they do. And enjoy it.

That’s a real fear. A really big fear. Fear that people will judge us. Think less of us. Not be impressed by us. Blah, blah, blah.

Guess what?

They’re doing that now about you.

One of the first rules of personal finance is to keep track of your expenses and income. That’s how you know where the money is. And where it’s going.

Knowing isn’t enough though. Nothing changes simply because you know that 18% of your money is going toward dining out. But without knowing that…you’re powerless to do much about it.

What your KPI’s? What key numbers are important to you?

Think about driving your car. Look at the instrument cluster on your dash. Do you pay equal attention to every gauge? Nope. Because some of them are unimportant. In fact, I’ll bet you don’t even understand some of them. Those are the ones you ignore completely.

Speedometer. It matters.

Fuel gauge. It really matters.

Check engine light. Yep, that one matters, too.

There’s 3. But we’re talking about your car, not your business. Both have more nuances that first meet the eye. In spite of the complexity of our cars, they’re mostly very simple to operate. That’s where the metaphor breaks down. Our businesses can seem simple, but we know how complex they truly are.

What are the three big measurements inside your business? The ones that really let you know what’s going on?

Sales / Revenues

Most owners will mention this first, and for good reason. No sales mean no customers. No customers mean no business. It’s the oxygen we need to keep our businesses alive.

There’s a problem. Sales and revenues don’t tell us how healthy our business is. Worse yet, these numbers can fool us into thinking things are okay. Even terrific. And merely tracking sales doesn’t necessarily reveal why sales/revenues are going up, or down. We just know it is what it is. Why is still a baffling question.

Profits

Gross. Net. Track both and now we’re getting a clearer picture of the health of our business. More is better, but simply tracking the number doesn’t indicate why it’s going up, or down. Again, the why can evade us.

Expenses

Tracking where the money goes and now we’re closing in the why of it all. Why is our cash flow being pinched? Expenses can tell us.

Why aren’t we keeping more profits? Expenses provide the answer.

What’s our customer acquisition cost? Without knowing our expense (investment), we have no way to calculate it.

Data is your friend, but you have to see it clearly. And for what it is. Tracking whatever matters is just the price you pay for the opportunity to improve the number. It shines a light on the thing (whatever THE THING is) so you can focus on it.

Track it, improve it centers on measurement, analysis and asking lots of questions…most of which revolve around, “What can we do about this?” Put another way, “How can we improve this?”

Improvement after tracking is an assumption we must make as owners. Don’t assume it can’t be made better!

Feedback

There are trackable things that have no gauges. You’re back behind the wheel of your car tooling to work at 60 miles an hour. Suddenly, a small vibration begins. You can’t tell where it’s coming from, but you know something is wrong. You slow to 50 miles an hour, but the vibration worsens. No warning lights go off on your dash. Nothing would indicate there’s a problem, but your senses don’t lie. Something is clearly wrong. So you pull off to the shoulder to have a closer look where you discover one wheel is loose.

Paying attention pays off. When we’re driving a car our eyes, ears and other senses help us navigate safely. It’s why developing autonomous vehicles has been slow coming.