Thinking Big

I have to believe that all of us sometimes don’t think big enough. I think big, and that has allowed me things in life that others may not have the chance to experience, yet I was very humbled after I read a story about Steve Wynn. Steve Wynn built the first “Mega” Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada (The Mirage, which is now owned by MGM). When Steve built it he had a construction loan, and his goal was to pay off the loan in seven years. When he went to his accountants and all of his financial team, he asked them what it was going to take to pay off the loan in his seven year timeframe. After they did the math they told him that he would have to profit $1 million dollars a day, 365 days a year, for the next seven years. If that happened he would be free of his loan in seven years. $1 million dollars a day profit, after he paid all his staff, and all his bills he would need to have $1 million dollars left each day, every day for the next seven years. Wow! To me that seemed impossible, but to Steve it wasn’t. Steve set his vision, to pay the loan off in seven years, and then he shared his vision with everyone on his team. They put a game plan together (preparation), and began to execute. What happened after they began to execute their plan? Well, Mr. Wynn didn’t pay off his loan in seven years; he did it in 18 MONTHS!!!! A year and a half is all it took for him to pay it off, which means he probably profited $4, 5, 6, 7, 8 million dollars a day, every day!! The best part about it is that after 18 months, all that profit went back into the company’s pocket and he could do what he wanted with it; he could invest it back into the business, save it, or spend it! Now I am not saying that all of us are going to profit $1 million dollars a day, but I would say that this story is a great reminder for all of us to think bigger than what we do; also that taking time to prepare a great game plan is the first step to executing. As Steve said, “Doubts don’t build empires…..Imagination does.” So let your imagination run as you set your vision and goals. Stretch you mind, spirit, and body and you just might be amazed at the results. Sarah, who is my wife and best friend, and I have been blessed at a very early age in life, but we make it our mission to “stretch” our thinking, and we encourage you to do the same!

Happiness Helps Us Persist

Happiness is a choice, and when we are focused and happy it’s easier (not easy) to persist through obstacles. We must choose everyday to be happy, while at the same time know what our definition of success looks like and strive daily to move towards that definition. You need to get out of your rut, which is just a grave without the dirt kicked in. My question again is, are you truly happy? I believe that it isn’t necessary to have reached your definition of success to be happy, but you must be moving in the right direction. If the answer is yes, pat yourself on the back. If your answer is no, then start now and begin to move in the right direction of success for you. If you haven’t yet, start by defining what success is for you, it must be yours, and then take the first step. Remember; don’t try to reach success tomorrow. Persist through the obstacles, and be patient as you move towards success whether you move a mile or an inch, the key is to move in the right direction. If you’re doing that, you will eventually get there.

Living in the present also creates happiness and persistence requires us to live in the moment and have a short memory when it comes to our missteps. Quit living in the past, it’s over, stop worrying about the future (it may never come) and just live in the moment. Michael St. Lawrence once said to me, “where you are is where you should be." If we can all live by that statement, life becomes a hell of a lot easier. Rick Leffke once said, “The goal when it’s all said and done, is to look back and say, that was a hell of a great ride!” To do that you must enjoy every minute. Stop to appreciate all the great things you have in your life and stop worrying about what’s not right. Also, forget about what you can’t control. Focus on what you can do to make your situation or life better. St. Lawrence is a deep philosopher and he said that one can argue that nothing else is happening in the world than where you are, and that’s why where you are is where you should be. Enjoy every moment. Enjoy where you are. Live in that moment. Carpe Diem, seize the day. There is no better time to start than now. When you do this, persisting through any challenges you encounter becomes easier.

Productivity Is An Interesting Topic

Productivity (execution) in the workplace is a measurement that most companies look at and measure. Large companies have so many challenges with productivity that they probably waste an average of 10,000 hours a day, 50,000 hours a week and 200,000 hours a month! To make that relevant, if we work 40 hours a week, for 50 weeks a year for 45 years that’s 90,000 hours we would spend working. In two weeks large companies’ waste more hours than we work our entire life and that’s from a conservative view. Now, I must point out that these numbers are not scientific, and I have zero foundation to publish these numbers, but after working with very large organizations for over ten years, I have reached these very non-scientific numbers.

As I work projects with large companies I’m always amazed at how these large organizations make money. Now I understand that lost productivity is always built into the overall business plan, but what I see is absolutely absurd. Way too much time is wasted every day. What could we do with that time? Continue to waste it, spend it or invest it. You could cut the workforce by 25% and still get 50 % more productivity!

What we need to do is evaluate, who is doing what, and is what they are doing productive or just busy? We have a lot a people working in that “rocking chair”. Remember, a rocking chair has a lot of movement but never moves forward. Are we productive or just busy? Most people split time between the two, and to be productive 100% of the time is not realistic. That being said we must evaluate what jobs are truly productive and what jobs spend most of their time being busy. Most people should be doing at least 75% of productive or profitable action, and if not, we should think about eliminating the position, or finding a role for them that is more suitable for them and the organization. Wasting our time is what we do best. We could continue to waste time and most companies would continue to move in whatever direction they are moving in. Some will continue to grow, some will stumble, and others will go under. But what if we concentrated on spending or investing our time a little more wisely? Just say 10% wiser; I’m not even looking for a huge leap here. What could 10% more productivity mean to a large organization? To a small business? To an individual? Let’s take a look at a large organization. If they waste 50,000 hours a week, what if they could buy back 5,000 hours of time per week, 20,000 hours of time per month? That might be worth looking into don’t you think? What about a small business? What if a small business could buy back 40 hours a month (10 employees 4 hours a month more productivity)? That’s 480 hours a year. Not bad. What about an individual? What if we could be more productive by 15 minutes each workday to move our career in the right direction, or 15 minutes a day building our abilities, or 15 minutes a day spending more quality time with our family? To be conservative let’s say we only do this 4 days a week, leaving 3 days to do our same routine. That’s 60 minutes a week, 4 hours a month, 48 hours a year. Over ten years that’s 480 hours of being more productive. In ten years could you build a business? Grow your career? Grow your family? Build your marketability? Hopefully all of us will see ten years, so here is the question. If we do or if we don’t become more productive, what’s the cost? Ten years will come and go, so what are we going to do with our time, waste it, spend it, or invest it?

If I told you every day you wake up you would have $1440 in your bank account, you couldn’t save it, and whatever you didn’t spend you would lose, what would you do with it? That is how many minutes each day we have? How are you going to spend and invest your time?

WHAT ARE YOU TRAINING YOUR CUSTOMERS/CLIENTS TO SAY?

My argument is that we condition or train our customers to say NO. For example, the retail world has trained us to say no. What do you typically say when you walk into a store and a clerk says “Can I help you?” Most people will say, “No I’m just -----?” That’s right, “looking.” When we call into a service or sales center and someone says, “While I help you with that, I want to look at your account and check to see what other services are available in your area”, what do you immediately think? Most will throw up their guard and say “they’re going to try to sell me something.” We must change our mindset to figure out what we are truly trying to accomplish when approaching our customer. Our transitions can be the “tipping point” in our conversations with our customers. It’s not what we say, but more importantly how we say it; our transition must be “inviting to our customers”, we must make it easy for our customers to walk down the path of a sales conversation that allow our customers to “buy” and not have a feeling of “I’m being sold”. There is a difference between buying something and being sold something. For example, if I went down to a car dealership and was talked into buying a car, signed the paperwork and drove off the lot, my mindset would be one of “oh boy was I sold on that one”. Now same car dealership but this time they actually take the time to find out about me, what I’m looking for in a car, and help me find the right car for me. At this point I would sign the paperwork, drive off the lot, and my mindset would be different. This time it would be more of a “look what I just bought” mentality, and there’s a big difference. People love to buy, but hate being sold.

We must work hard to create a buying environment for our customers. How do we do that? First thing is we must stop being predictable. When our customers know our next move we are in a losing battle. We must keep our customers thinking about benefits to them when buying from us. Not, “Oh now here comes the part when they are going to try and sell me something” attitude. Start asking your customers questions that truly make them think. Consciously be aware of every question you ask and always have a purpose for the question you are asking or don’t ask it. Too many times we ask questions because we think that’s the right thing to do. Consciously think to yourself, “What information do I need to gather to provide my customer with the best possible solution for them?” Then ask the right questions that will get you the information you need to help them. Helping your customer is selling to your customer. A lot of times I hear, “I want to give them the best customer service possible, but don’t want to sell!” I can argue that if you don’t sell them what they need/want you are not providing great customer service. Also, when asking questions your tone of voice needs to be a curious tone. Gathering information must be a conversation, not an interrogation. This is the key when creating a buying environment. When customers and prospects feel that you are only asking questions to benefit yourself they will immediately shut down or be very guarded with their answers. They will only open up if they know you are truly interested in them. Quit training your customers to say no and start inviting them to say YES.