Be Different or be dead

July 19, 2019

How to stop failure from breaking you

Let’s say you are teaching your baby to walk.

He trips and falls and can’t even seem to stand up.

How many attempts will you give your baby before you say “Nah that’s enough, you are not walking”?

You will let the baby try as many times as it takes.

Because you interpret his falling over (failure) as a learning experience. And why not do this with everything else in your life?

Failure can be harsh.

If it’s perceived in a certain way. It can make you give up on yourself.

I failed a lot.

I struggled with weight loss — kept failing on my diets.

In relationships — couldn’t make anything work long-term.

In my business — I made videos for one year and nobody watched.

In my studies — I dropped out of school.

This was me “failing” right? How did I stop failing?

My life changed when I changed my interpretation.

#1 Change your interpretation

I changed my interpretation to this is me trying and experimenting.

I stopped saying; “I am a failure, I just don’t follow through.”

I started saying; “Look at all these things I learned by failing”

In weight loss; I learned that it’s about burning more calories than you consume.

In my business; I learned I have to find ways to generate traffic.

In my relationships; As long as you are vulnerable and honest things will work out.

In my studies: Well, they weren’t for me anyways.

The interpretation has to change to experimenting, experience and growing.

You can’t keep fueling the swaying negative self-talk and expect a different result.

If you label everything as a failure —“Oh I am never good enough” well then you are a failure and will stay one.

Because you are interpreting everything as a failure.. failure ..failure.

#2 Learn the lessons

If you didn’t fail and you won’t have a reference point to learn from.

When a baby falls, it learns; Maybe not lean so far to the left…. don’t take long steps…

It has to fall over and over to get the whole picture.

So will you, if you want to achieve something.

#3 Be patient

Instead of being caught up in; “Oh I don’t have what I want yet, will I ever get it?”

Why not grant yourself some patience?

“We are gonna get it. We just have to stick through. Everybody goes through this. It’s one step at a step.”

Why not talk to yourself like that?

If things in your business aren’t popping out for you, maybe it’s okay to be patient and stick through.

You don’t need that instant result to make you happy. And it’s okay to keep going.

We get so obsessed about getting our goal that we forget it’s one step at a time.

And If you don’t step out of it, you will stay stuck and never get what you want.

The moment I said; okay I am going to stick with this. It’s one step at a time. Things started to change.

#4 The wrong thing

If you are working on something you don’t care about then good luck being positive.

No wonder you would be easily discouraged or would want to quit.

Good luck; if you are trying to get a degree to make your parents happy. It’s not going to make you happy.

If you are going to fail at something, fail at something you love. Because on the other path there is no salvation.

Listen to your heart and work on something that matters to you.

If you are doing what you love then make sure to swap your interpretations and success won’t be hard.

#5 Be different

When you get impatient and you seem to keep failing, remember it’s a learning experience.

This is how you get better.

And if you are not okay with going through this then you don’t deserve success.

The world isn’t a crazy place where you get rewarded for doing nothing.

The things that you want will take effort and sacrifice.

You have to be different than other people. You have to be willing to wait and fail and fail until you get better.

Because if you don’t then you are just like the rest of the masses.

They want things but aren’t willing to go through with this and there dreams wither away and die.

Live a life of unrealized potential or go through this transformative journey of giving your best effort daily to achieve your wildest dreams, the choice is yours.

It seems hard to put effort with no instant results but it’s not if you use the right interpretation.

Live in an upward spiral and the journey will get way easier.

When you put in the effort with the right interpretation and have patience — you will get what you want.

— Rafael Eliassen is Life and Business Coach. He works 1-on-1 with business owners and helps them get astonishing ROI’s by making the most of everything. Want to take your life and business to the next level? Book a 30-min consultation call: Rafael Eliassen

• Posted 7.19.19 at 04:41 am by Roy Osing
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June 24, 2019

5 simple steps I took to have a rewarding and successful career

Source: Pexels

5 simple steps I took to have a rewarding and successful career.

I have had a long career.

Over 50 years in many roles — from analyst to entrepreneur to president to consultant to author — and in many different types of organizations — from a regulated monopoly to an intensely competitive data and internet company to a small business on my own.

And I am frequently asked what were the key things I learned about success.
The question asked is: if I could distill the hours, days, months and years I put in “at the office” down to THE few specific learnings that had the greatest impact on my success, what would they be?

It’s a tough question to answer because there are so many variables at play that determine what works and what doesn’t: the leader that one serves, the economic environment that one operates within, the demographics of the employee population and the rate of technological change all work together to influence the performance of a team of professionals.

That said, I believe that these 5 principles that I learned and applied throughout my various careers had, in comparison to many others, the greatest impact on my overall performance and were my critical success factors.

1. Competence is serving others

There are two types of people in life: those who like to control those around them and those that love to serve others.
One stems from the historical command-and-control model; the other from a belief that if you enable someone to do their job as they know how, their — and the organization’s — performance will soar.

It’s the servers who are the most successful because they understand that when you are in the serving mode, others respond enthusiastically to what they are saying and to what they want to do.

Servers connect emotionally with humans and create a bias to action that results in amazing outcomes. Servers lose their ego because it gets in the way of getting things done.

Success isn’t about what YOU know, it’s about how well you mobilize what OTHERS know.

2. Execute first; plan second

Ideas represent 20% of what gets done. It’s not the idea or the plan that has value, it’s the execution.
So-so ideas that are miraculously implemented with tenacity and passion become revolutionary and are game changers; “great” ideas without hell-bent implementation become road kill and never see the light of day.

Most people don’t get this. They’ve been taught that the development of the plan should be the priority focus; that rigour must be applied to “get it right”.
The problem is, the plan is never right because that would imply that all variables affecting the plan have successfully been accounted for. And in a world of unpredictability that is impossible.

One of my key learnings was to get the plan “just about right” and apply maximum energy to executing it,  and tweaking it based on what works and doesn’t work along the way.

While others spend their time trying to perfect their plan — the impossible dream — you are creating something that actually works based on the realities of the marketplace.

3. Success demands giving up

Success isn’t just about what you do that’s new, it’s also about what you give up that’s no longer relevant or productive — it’s not about what you take on, but rather what you are prepared to give up.

It would be great if we had an unlimited amount of time to pursue all of the possibilities that face us. But we don’t, so it is extremely important that we tackle the truly critical tasks that will pay off handsomely and that we eliminate the baggage from yesterday.

I constantly observe people toiling away on projects that don’t contribute to their goal, but they are happy to continue them because it’s their comfy zone.
I suggest you constantly question the relevance of what you are doing; be “in your face” on whether the project adds value to your end objective or not.

And be ruthless in expunging this resource wasters — #CRAP — and replace them with task that positively contribute to the end result you expect.

4. Change needs emotion

The prerequisite to this is that your brand needs to carry a strong change agent dimension; people need to see you as someone who wants to make changes that are consistent with the dynamics occurring in the environment around you.

You don’t want to be seen as a hanger-on who is reticent to accepting the inherent risks of doing things differently.

That said, to be an effective change agent requires that you excite the emotion in people; waking up the logic isn’t good enough.
I can’t tell you how many times a good theoretical solution died on the vine because no one was excited by the prospects it posed.

Change doesn’t come easy and it is definitely NOT as a result of intellectual energy. Change happens when people’s emotions are stirred by the new vision.
The lesson for change agents is to appeal to people’s right brain when change is the agenda. Pump ‘em up with the possibilities.

5. Mistakes are vital

Avoiding making a mistake is not as important as what you do after you’ve made it.
Mistakes will always be made; people and technology are not perfect. But if you do an amazing job at recovering, people will forget the actual mistake you made and remember only what you did to rectify it.

A colossal screw up with little or no follow up action to recover stays a colossal screw up whereas one that has a brilliant recovery that leaves you breathless makes it a colossal success.

How do you turn an OOPS! into a WTF?
The formula for an unforgettable recovery is: fix the OOPS! fast (it must be within 24 hours or don’t waste your time) and surprise people with what they don’t expect.

The surprise factor is the secret ingredient to a mind-blowing recovery because everyone expects the mistake to be fixed but they don’t expect to be taken on a magic carpet ride during the process.

They will remember the magic; the mistake disappears from consciousness.

5 rather simple things that punch above their weight in terms of deciding between average and unmatched performance and career success.

They made a huge difference for me and they will for you.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 6.24.19 at 04:59 am by Roy Osing
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June 17, 2019

Why is emotion really important to a winning business plan?

Source: Unsplash

Why is emotion really important to a winning business plan?

Without emotion, you’re business plan is lifeless and probably useless.

What makes one organization wildly successful and another either fail or achieve lookalike mediocrity?

There is no shortage of opinions on this. Academics, consultants, subject matter experts and thought leaders all weigh in on the ingredients necessary for an organization to outperform their competition and solidify themselves as consistent long term winners.

A good business plan

Having a strategy, of course, is important and it should conform to these guidelines:

—  It should be simple. It should define in simple language the end game the organization has in mind;

— It should be just about right. It should define in loose terms what must be achieved in order to be successful. A perfect strategy — one that management spends copious amounts of time developing with the belief that if more time is invested, the plan will be ‘more perfect’ — doesn’t exist;

A strategy is formulated with the best information and insights available when it is created, and by definition this is a flawed process. No sooner is the strategy finished, the world changes and some part of the information used to develop it is no longer relevant.

— It should be driven to carve out a unique space in the market. Value propositions that are similar to the competition will likely fail because they don’t provide a compelling reason why a potential customer should buy from them as opposed to their competitor.

The special sauce

But even a strategy built in the image of these principles won’t guarantee success unless it is mixed with a special sauce.

A strategy is useless unless it captures the hearts and minds of the people on an emotional level.

If people intellectually understand the strategy they won’t necessarily be compelled to deliver it consistently day-in and day-out.

They may understand that ‘unleashing the power of the internet’ is the strategic intent, but unless they are emotionally driven to act on it, execution is dysfunctional and lacklustre and no real progress toward realizing that goal is made.

A strategy without emotionally charged people to execute it will fail. The good plan on paper won’t progress beyond that stage if the special sauce is absent.

This is definitely NOT an OMG! moment for the reader; it’s not a revolutionary thought that you’ve never heard of before. Quite the contrary; the “we need motivated employees” notion is promulgated ad nauseam by the pundits of strategy.

So, if highly motivated people is a well known requisite to effective strategic execution, why are there so many strategies that fail?.

Here are 5 reasons.

1. There’s no ‘energized visioning’

Energized visioning is needed to get the juices flowing.

Communicating strategic intent must be an emotional experience for the employee audience. They must be excited and moved by the picture that leadership paints about the journey that awaits.

Pedantic, monotonic and left brained people have no place articulating the chosen path, for it will turn people off and do nothing for execution.

2. There’s no line of sight for people

Line of sight clarity is necessary for people to know what to do.

When people know specifically what to do to support strategic intent, magic happens.

The problem most organizations have is they don’t spend the time to translate what the strategy means to each function and each position in terms of the new outcomes expected and the old ways that must be discarded.

3. There’s not enough action people

Hiring people who love to do stuff as opposed to think about stuff is critical.

Pontificators block effective execution. They love to talk about possibilities rather than get down and dirty to start doing stuff.

You can’t train people to cast off their intellectualization proclivity; you must hire people who have a natural bent to do it — action must run through their veins.

4. There’s no serving leaders

Leadership by serving around unearths the grunge and barriers that get in the way.

Leaders in the workplace asking “How can I help?” separates the hyper effective executioners from the bland ones. Brilliant execution is all about a “clean” internal environment where barriers to getting things done frustrate people who want to deliver what is expected of them.

And this happens when leaders get out of their office or the boardroom and assimilates with the crowd of employees charged to implement. They discover what’s preventing amazing execution and they fix it (and people love them for it).

5. There’s not a ‘tries’ culture present

The more tries that are made, the greater the likelihood of success.

Strategic intent is never deterministic; it never turns out the way it was originally conceived. Despite the rhetoric of the academics, real progress is made when people try things — a lot.

The end game may be clear but the way to get there is not; and this requires different tactics: some work and others don’t.
The truth is, however, if you’re not maximizing the number of tries you’re making you’re unlikely to arrive at your desired destination.

Strategy is important but it is smoke unless it’s infused with passion and emotion.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 6.17.19 at 04:43 am by Roy Osing
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June 3, 2019

6 important reasons why I really don’t like some types of salespeople

6 important reasons why I really don’t like some types of salespeople.

If you think about it, competencies in any craft are distributed in binomial fashion. At the far right are those precious few individuals who excel, while the crowd hugs the middle of the distribution curve and bulges around the vertical or y-axis.

Then there are those who linger at the far left of the curve. These are the people who are in a role but don’t display the skills or attitude necessary to satisfactorily practise their craft.

And you see it in every industry and in every discipline, be it a medical practitioner who lacks empathy and a caring bedside manner or a landscaper who fails to remove their grass cuttings and debris after they have completed their work.

But the profession that really annoys me when I am confronted by a left winger in sales; those individuals who profess to be salespeople but lack the human fundamentals to back their claim.

They leave a bad taste in my mouth because I have such respect for people who practise the art with perfection. And they, unfortunately, reinforce the stereotypical view of sleazy sales held by many.

These 6 things people to the far left practise that really p*** me off.

1. They grin me

The big grin that masks how they really feel. It’s false, phoney, plastic, superficial and painted on.
It’s the bait to lure you in; to grease the skids for them to push their wares at you.

These phoneys obviously went to grin school where the focus was on how to display a perfect grin while at the same time hiding their indifference.

I hate the grin because I have seen it at least a million times and know what’s coming. It’s disgusting and I can’t believe how they get away with it.

Lesson: if you see the grin, run.

2. They don’t listen

Lefties want to consume the airwaves with their words not yours. I honestly think these people have an insecurity issue because they don’t seem to be comfortable in a conversation unless they are transmitting rather than listening.

I hate this type of sales behaviour because they have zero ability to understand what your needs are when words are spewing from their mouths in abundance.

And I have no idea where they have learned that it’s acceptable; certainly not from any credible sales teaching source I know.

Lesson: shout back and leave.

3. They don’t care

The extreme left represent the epitome of narcissism; their energy is all about them and no one else.
With such an inward focus how can they care about anyone else? They can’t.

Getting their own needs met consumes them; they have nothing left to give to others — even if it occurred to them that such an act was demonstrative of appropriate sales behaviour.

Lesson: Stop them in this mode. Put your hand up with your palm facing them and say “Stop! It’s about me!”

4. They intrude in my space

It’s kinda like an incoming mortar attack. You try to protect yourself and you just want to be left alone, but here them come with their intent to beat you up with their agenda.
It’s a barrage of words and (what they think) are clever one-liners to get a conversation started.

They don’t trust that you will stop and engage them in a conversation, so they try to impose themselves to start one.
This slippery slope tactic from left learners never works and is always unpleasant for me. I hate it.

They show no respect for me; they really don’t care about what’s on my mind at the time. All they want to do is intervene on my reality at the time and push their narrative.

As I’m motoring past a sales rep on the beach path, he launches his words in an attempt to grab me: “Hey how long have you owned at the Marriott? Want to look at a better option at the Hyatt?

Lesson: Don’t stop; don’t answer; keep your feet moving.

5. They malign their competitors

Salespeople on the left constantly berate their competitors.
The only way they know to communicate their value proposition is to discredit the opposition. And it shows they really don’t understand the competitive strategy of their organization.

Rather than advocate an element of value they offer — service level, product features, warrantee — they talk about what is wrong with what their competitors offer.

This approach is so egregiously inappropriate, it proves that the salesperson doesn’t know their left from their right.
I hate it.

Lesson: ask what they offer and why is is better than what their competitors offer.

6. They make me feel stupid

“What’s the matter (with you)? Don’t you want to save money?” I’ve actually had numerous lefties blurt this at me when I have pushed back on what they were trying to sell me.

This is their version of trying to find a cost effective solution that more than meets your needs.
But it puts you down; like you are incapable of appreciating a deal.
Rubbish. I hate it.

Lesson: Suggest they learn some manners and walk.

There you have it. 6 traits of salespeople who occupy the extreme left of the normal distribution curve.
They don’t deserve to be in the profession.

So why do we hire people like this?

I suspect it’s because besides being the antithesis of what respectable sales is, they’re clever like a laser raptor.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 6.3.19 at 04:06 am by Roy Osing
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