Winning and Losing - December 2007.

Winning and losing,
and then preparing to win again
develops a mindset that is key,
not only to succeed in life,
but also to enjoying life.

There will always be periods of winning, periods of losing, periods of incapacity, but through all of these times we have to have the courage to view failure, or a loss, as a regrouping opportunity that boosts us on toward our next milestone.

At every level of achievement stands a ‘trophy’.
Some people will reach a certain level and then quit, because to keep going would demand too much commitment. Others take past failures personally, and are unable to move forward. Most people don’t realise that the ebb and flow of winning and losing teaches us to persevere and nudges us slowly onward towards achieving life’s ‘trophies’.
Winning in life is a process to be enjoyed – it only comes if we persevere. Failing forward – using failures to propel us to the next level instead of giving up – is a life skill, and is particularly evident in those people who are fighting debilitating illness.

Life dictates that on the horizon are peaks we have to climb and valleys that we have to go through in order to start climbing to the next peak – at times it takes great courage to just keep on going. Companies, teams, and families all need members with the courage to persevere. It is a dynamic of life that successes usually come on the heels of what at the time appeared to be near disaster – retrenchment; a company in liquidation; the death of a close associate; financial ruin. This is why it is so important to keep the ‘big picture’ in mind, never allowing a temporary failure or setback to stand in the way of forward momentum.

Quitting is a universal problem! When we hit a roadblock, human nature tells us to try to get around it or retreat. It is occasionally a wise decision to re-evaluate our direction at a roadblock but most of the time it’s only one of the many hurdles over which we must jump in order to reach the finish line. All too often we find that, if we retreat from, or circumvent, a hurdle, that same hurdle comes around again and again until we are forced to face up to, and conquer, it.
Mark Twain very eloquently put this reality when he said, “If a cat sits on a hot stove, it won’t sit on a hot stove again. The problem is, it won’t sit on a cold stove either.” Here lies the problem! Just when we need to get up from being knocked down, we say, “I’m not trying that again, look what happened last time!”

In every adverse outcome, every failure, there lies a reason as to why the outcome was regarded as unfavourable. You could very well have taken the wrong action, at the wrong time, under the wrong circumstances, and for the wrong reason. Instead of submitting to the emotional baggage we carry away from any failure, it is far more constructive, and psychologically healthy, to find the lesson we have learned from it. These lessons are like diamonds. Clutch onto them, discard the emotional baggage, and walk away with the diamonds in your pocket. Success, in whatever form, comes from the ability to go from one failure to another without losing enthusiasm!

We lose the respect of others when we shrink from a challenge, and nobody, especially those charged with the responsibility of leading companies, want people on their teams who shrink from a challenge. A loss, a failure, should not be treated lightly. Once the lesson that comes from it has been identified, the evidence of our ability to persevere lies in our ability to deal with the disappointment, turn around, and focus on the next opportunity – the next challenge. Things change, and life moves on!

Adopt the philosophy of ‘Park and Ride’ – park yesterday’s loss or failure, and ride towards tomorrow’s opportunity. Many problems are like bad dreams – they visit us over and over! The trick is to find a ‘Generic’ solution to the problem through establishing a rule, a principle, a procedure that addresses the route cause of the problem. By following the rule, principle, or procedure you have established, it is unlikely that the same problem will revisit you because the cause will have been dealt with and removed.

The two most debilitating words in the world are: “If only …”. Many people live their lives trapped in the “If only” – “If only I had studied … If only I had applied myself in that job interview … If only I had said the right thing …”. We’ve all done it! The problem with “If only” is that it keeps us focussed on the past.
The two most uplifting words in the world are: “Next time”. The solution to the “If only” syndrome is to turn every “If only” into “Next time”. “Next time, I will pass the exam because I will study harder!” “Next time” closes out the failures of the past and keeps our focus on the opportunity of the future!

Albert Einstein’s teachers saw him as shy and slow, a student who would never give the right answers to their questions, and felt that he was sometimes stupid. He was a daydreamer, and one teacher even told him “Einstein, you will never amount to anything”. What if Albert had responded by saying, “If only I had pleased my teachers” and wallowed in memories of his unsuccessful experiences at school? At the age of 26, while an unknown clerk in a Swiss patent office, he published the Theory of Relativity. Twenty-five years later, it was said that his theory was so difficult that only ten men in the world could understand it.

Avoid the tendency to look back at defeat – it only saps away your energy. Keep your enthusiasm through tough times by dealing with failure and not personalising it. A failed project is not a failed person! Keep climbing out of the emotional pit of perceived failure. Recognise that we are all just fallible human beings – we all face difficulties, and we all fail. The exciting thing is that, if we just keep on going and keep our spirits up, that next big success lies just around the corner.

Look trouble in the eye and say, “You’re not going to defeat me!”

( Thanks to http://www.streetsmarts.co.za/ )

Problem Solvers and DNA!

All business owners need problem solvers, because all businesses have problems.

The greater these problems, the greater the opportunity for the problem solvers.

Problem solvers are action orientated, they are effective in what they do, and they produce results.If an owner is not interested in creating value for his business, the very least he should be interested in is increasing his own worth to his business.

Always think of yourself as a product, and recognise the fact that a product with an enthusiastic, cooperative attitude has great value in the marketplace; a product that turns out quality work has great value in the market place; a product that completes projects quickly has great value in the marketplace; a product that can solve problems has great value in the market place; and a product that is effective and produces favourable results has enormous value in the marketplace.

What separates the best Businesses from the ‘also ran’ masses?

It isn’t products, services, or even price. Competition is fiercer today than it has ever been; yet a few businesses don’t just compete with the others, they blow them out of the water in areas like product and service quality, innovation, execution, and most important of all – the results they produce! They just seem to have the knack of giving the ‘total solution’ – they are effective in doing what they do!Your competitors are not geniuses, and those businesses that compete with you don’t hire only geniuses, even though at times you feel as though they do, leaving you with all the dunces. When your competitors develop strategy, the words on their flipcharts are not substantially more insightful than yours. In fact most differences between you and your competitors are intangible.

Yet there is one major, often tangible, difference – the best of the best leaders, businesses, and individuals live by an over-riding driver – Results Rule!

They have honed their effectiveness into habitual ways of operating and have modified their DNA (Discipline, Nature, and Attitude) so that everything they do is automatically replicated throughout their operations. People and businesses like this have the discipline to stay focussed and execute flawlessly.

They take ownership of what they do and have a nature of service and integrity that attracts others to them and enables them to build solid partnerships.

They have an attitude of accountability and such deep passion that they are automatically set well apart from those who merely talk the right talk.

These great achievers, whether they be businesses or individuals, choose to do seven simple things:

1. Tell themselves the truth. They value candour and honesty. The simple truth is that nothing changes, or will ever change, until we tell ourselves the truth about everything.

2. Pursue the best, over the easiest, in every situation. Do you pursue the best strategy for delivering meaningful results, or do you take the easy road and follow the lead of others? Do you make the best operational decisions, or do you cut corners to get the job done? If you aren’t pursuing the best, you have lost the plot!

3. Leverage the power of partnership both internally and externally. The difference between customers and clients is that a customer buys your product/service, while a client buys your product/service and refers you to others! If your customers are not voluntarily promoting you to others, you need to do some work on building clients. Little things mean a lot, and people and organizations who are results orientated, who are effective in what they do, and who openly hold themselves accountable for what they do, use every transaction as an opportunity to develop and cement relationships.

4. Focus their energy to make the main things the main thing. It was Thomas Edison who summed it up so well when he said “Vision without execution is hallucination”. The best align their purpose, values, principles, goals, and processes to ensure they are effective at delivering meaningful results.

5. Show the courage of accountability. Accountability, execution and effectiveness are far more important that strategy. A mediocre strategy well executed will almost always win over a great strategy that lacks accountability for action.

6. Learn, grow, and improve every day. Past success only proves you were right once. It is the now - today’s innovations - that become tomorrow’s expectation. A failure to anticipate and adapt to changing expectations is a well-worn path, no, in fact a well worn highway, to has-been status.

7. Learn the habits of effectiveness. By its very nature, effectiveness demands that positive results are produced. The best of the best do not strive to be effective because they learned the habits of effectiveness early on and allowed these habits to be the guiding beacons for all their actions.