Accountability Is Over-Rated

Ha, ha … gotcha! I know what you were thinking when you read the title of this article. The old guy has lost it! He has flown over the cuckoo’s nest. The Texas summer heat must have finally done him in.

For years I have been extolling the virtues of focus, accountability, consistency and execution in achieving world-class results. Why then the sudden change of heart? Why do I now believe that accountability is over-rated? To be clear, I don’t. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

Have you ever stopped to think about why the word “accountability” carries such a negative connotation in our modern society? Even the very definition of accountability is punitive and makes it sound like one of those bad four-letter words we were told not to say when we were children.

“Accountability is not a bad four-letter word.” Continue reading…

Don’t Give Away Your Power

“If you think you have power, you have power. If you don’t think you have power, you have no power.” – Michael Korda

Our brains are vast neural networks comprised of knowledge, experiences and thoughts, both good and bad. It has been scientifically proven that negative thinking and chronic complaining, can rewire the brain. Likewise, 12 minutes of daily prayer over an 8-week period can change the brain to such an extent that it can be measured on a brain scan.

Let go of ‘stinking thinking’.

When I consider how negative thinking and chronic complaining can affect our lives, and infect the lives of others, I’m reminded of the Israelites. According to Scripture, they were enslaved by their Egyptian rulers for 430 years. When they were finally able to obtain their freedom, it took them 40 years to travel from Egypt to the Land of Canaan (the Promised Land).  A journey that should have only taken approximately 30 days.

Why did it take the Israelites 40 years to travel 250 miles to reach the Promised Land? Continue reading…

What’s Your Wild Rabbit?

Five years ago, Hennessy first launched its $70 million award-winning Wild Rabbit advertising campaign about the drive and determination needed to accomplish goals. The commercial featured Boxer, Manny Pacquiao. His Wild Rabbit was to “Fight the fights that really matter”.

More recently, Hennessy’s “Wild Rabbit” campaign has featured father and son, Auguste and Jacques Piccard. In 1931, physicist Auguste Piccard became the first man in history to reach the stratosphere (in a pressurized capsule and balloon). Nearly three decades later, in 1960, his son, Jacques, became the first person to reach the deepest part of the ocean. Truly extraordinary accomplishments.

“What’s your Wild Rabbit?”

In your drive to accomplish your goals and achieve success, what is it that you are reaching for? While it may not be to fight the fights that really matter, or to conquer the outer reaches of space or the depths of the oceans, we all have that one BIG THING we are chasing. What is yours? And more importantly, what is your plan to reach it? Continue reading…

Disruption Doesn’t Mean Dysfunction

Disruption as a noun means “disturbance or problems that interrupt an event, activity, or process.” To cause (something) to be unable to continue in the normal way. For business, however, disruption is viewed in broader terms as ‘disruptive innovation’, a term first introduced in 1995 by Clayton Christensen, the author of “The Innovator’s Dilemma”.

“A disruptive innovation is an innovation that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market leading firms, products and alliances.”

Fast forward to today, what does disruption look like in 2017? Businesses generally still have two options when faced with disruptive innovation. Try and hold on to existing market space by doing the same thing(s) better, or attempt to capture new markets by embracing new business models and technologies, and adapting to rapid change.

“Change is good if it leads to improved performance, highly engaged employees and more satisfied customers.” Continue reading…

Sales Funnel vs. Sales Process

“Sales Process” most often refers to the repeatable set of steps your sales team takes with a prospect to move them from an early stage to a closed sale. Many of the articles I have read on this topic refer to the Sales Funnel and the Sales Process as the same thing. However, my view of the two is somewhat different.

From my vantage point, you should have a clearly defined Sales Process for prospects and existing clients. Why? Because the sequence of events, hand-offs, deliverables and timeframes may be different for prospects vs. clients. These key differences should be understood by you and your sales team in moving prospects to clients, staying in-touch and building those long-term business relationships.

The “Sales Funnel” on the other hand, reflects all of the active sales projects that result from the various interactions with both prospects and clients.

Our BLF ELITE Mastermind group has been working on the areas of Sales Process and Funnel Management for the past two months. And I want to share some thoughts with you from our work in the hope that it will help you build more effective sales processes for your business.

Sales Funnel … Is opportunity driven. The Sales Funnel provides a visual snap shot of all of the active sales opportunities that you are working on, and their various stages of completion from warm lead to Customer Acceptance. It is also the virtual “lifeline” for your business to both new and existing customers in driving sales revenues. Continue reading…

2017: A Year of Triumph and Success?

Happy New Year Everyone!

It’s hard to believe that the New Year is well underway. We’ve already packed away the Christmas decorations, dusted off the holiday cheer and are slowly getting back into the swing of our daily lives and routines.

While we are just getting started on our prosperity plans for 2017, the Chinese calendar year for 2016 is coming to a close. The Chinese New Year does not officially begin until January 28, and is the year of the (Fire) Rooster. The Rooster symbolizes the dawn and awakening, where triumph and success can only be achieved at the price of hard work and patience.

“The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.”

This coming Saturday, January 7th, my mother will be celebrating her 103rd birthday with the Angels. I mention this because Mom was a wonderful example of what hard work and sacrifice is all about. Mom was adopted at an early age and grew up in the Depression era. Growing up she had to overcome extraordinary obstacles, including dropping out of school after the 9th grade, to help her adopted family out financially and “earn her keep” in order to survive.

Key to Success

Now we all know that success requires hard work and sacrifice, but what else? What is the key to success? Continue reading…

Bring the Other “I” Word Back

It’s time, or more accurately, it is long overdue. It is time to bring the other “I” word back. You know the one I’m talking about, not the “it’s all about me” I word, but the other one. Integrity.

Somewhere along the way we got lost. Exactly when did integrity get stricken from our vocabulary in terms of our conduct and moral code? Regardless, it’s time to find our way back. Both as individuals and as a nation, integrity should be one of the cornerstones of our value system. Otherwise, mankind’s future looks rather bleak doesn’t it?

Integrity

Integrity is defined as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness”. Words like honesty, honor, morals, righteousness, virtue, fairness, sincerity, and trustworthiness come to mind when we consider people with integrity. As a nation, integrity is defined as “the state of being whole and undivided”. In this context, the common synonyms include unity, cohesion, togetherness and solidarity.

The recent Presidential campaign has once again revealed the dark side of humanity. If this is a reflection of what we can expect from our new leaders in government, then we are in trouble. However, we are not immune to criticism here either. With the elections finally over, it is time to step away from the campaign rhetoric, the social media bashing that has consumed us these past few years, and take a long, hard look at ourselves. Continue reading…

Don’t Overthink It … JUST LIVE!

In March of 2016, I lost the love of my life to metastatic breast cancer. For the first eight months after her death I struggled to put the pieces of my life back together, and to make sense of it all.

After a few months I stopped asking my #1 question, “Why did this happen?”, because I knew from attending grief counseling there would be no answer forthcoming. At least not in this lifetime. However, two burning questions still remained … “Who am I now?” and “What’s next?”

Stop Overthinking

For months, I had prayed about the two remaining questions during my ‘5K Faith Walks’ to no avail. Then something amazing happened during one of my walks. When I pressed for answers my ‘inner’ voice spoke to me. You know the one I’m talking about, right? That little voice in your head you hear on occasion when you are able to quiet your mind long enough to listen. The voice said …

Continue reading…

What Shall We Talk About?

Henri Frederic Amiel once said that, “Everything you need for a better future and success has already been written”. If this is true, then what is left to talk about?

Ever suffer from writer’s block? Well, me too! I’ve been staring at the keyboard for some time now trying to come up with something new and informative to talk about that would capture the attention of my followers. And I’m drawing a blank. So I’ll pose the question to all of you …

What Shall We Talk About

What shall we talk about?

Let’s see, we could start with the ‘BIG 3’ … Sports, Politics and Religion. Continue reading…

Where’s the Reset Button?

Do you want to start over?

WOW … what a loaded question, huh? Let’s be totally honest. We have all had days, weeks, months and perhaps even years in our lifetime that we wish we could do over. It is human nature for us to want to go back and change things that didn’t go well or take back things we said or did that we later regretted.

Reset ButtonQuite frankly, I think it is one of the reasons we humans are so enamored with the idea of time travel. The opportunity to go back in time and ‘right the wrongs’ done to us, or erase those bad occurrences that left a stain upon our otherwise perfect lives. Just hit the reset button and start over. Continue reading…