Lawrence Fine

In the past, I have written about goal setting but today I want to write about why goal setting is important.

An easy way to understand it is through examples.

Kids will shoot baskets all day long. All they need is a ball and a basket. Take away the basket and in a very short time, they will lose interest.
Give a person a gun and a target and they will be occupied for hours. Take away the target and the gun isn’t fun anymore (I’m not advocating playing with guns, it’s just an example.
People will pick up a musical instrument and start off trying to play a song. Remove the song and the instrument just makes annoying noise and loses their interest

Without something to shoot for, strive for or work towards, people lose interest quickly. Give them a goal and great things can happen.

Have a great day (and a goal)

Lawrence

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Patience really does matter

In the book ‘Outliers’ Malcolm Gladwell wrote about the importance of putting in 10,000 hours to truly become an expert in a specific area. Is the correct number 10,000 or 12,000 or 8,000? I don’t know but I do know, the number is up there.

So many organizations want to start a blog, they make three posts, don’t get a lot of visitors or responses so they give up with the conclusion “that doesn’t work”.

Yesterday I was speaking with a businessperson who had attended a workshop that cost $2,000 per attendee. There were 350 attendees. It doesn’t take a math major to figure out that is a nice payout for a 3 day event. The question that must be asked is, how many years did this person work to get to the point where he could draw those numbers? I did a little research and found his first workshop had 4 attendees (I couldn’t find the price for that workshop but my guess is it was less than what he is now charging). How many people would have done the first workshop, accepted it as a failure and then quit? Or, how many would have canceled just before the first workshop because it wasn’t worth the time?

If you want to do something, whether it’s a blog, a workshop, a new business or anything else, be willing to put in the time and be willing to sacrifice in the beginning to potentially see the benefits later on.

Talent matters. Luck matters. Timing matters. Patience also matters

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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2+2=5
5*43=215
215*967=207905
207905*3874=805423970

Calculations can add up real quickly but if the basic premise isn’t correct (in the above example, 2+2=5) the rest of the calculations are useless

Make sure your basic premise is correct before continueing on with any type of extrapolation.

This might seem like a simple piece of advice but you would be surprised to see how many businesses fail because their basic premise was incorrect

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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We tend to look at a large organization as just that, a large organization. Large is difficult to manage, difficult to evaluate and difficult to improve. It’s much easier to manage and evaluate a smaller organization.

A full sided soccer game is 11 versus 11 yet coaches and players are constantly trying to create small number advantages. Rather than always looking big picture, they look to create a 2 versus 1 advantage or a 3 versus 2 advantage somewhere on the field. It’s a way of recognizing that not every player is directly involved in every situation, at all times.

In business, we need to think of organizations in smaller groups. Looking at a hotel as an example there are many different areas to manage. Trying to manage the front desk clerks, the housekeeping staff, the kitchen staff, the maintenance group etc could get very difficult. On the other hand, managing a small group of people who each manage one of these departments is much easier. Then those people manage the small group of people within their department.

Even if you are a one person business, you can break your business down into smaller areas. A realtor working by themselves might break the area they work in down even further and realize that each smaller market might require very different marketing or approaches.

While it’s important to look at the big picture to make sure you are going in the right direction, there is also a need to look at the smaller units to truly understand your business

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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If you need a sheet of paper, you have a couple of options:

1.Grow some trees, cut them down, build a paper mill, hire a full staff, process the trees into paper
2.Go to the store and buy a pack of paper

Sometimes we want to complicate things in our business lives. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel if the wheel is working for us. We don’t need to do everything at a big scale. Do what you do best and let others do what they do best.

If you choose option 1 above, by the time you have the paper, it might be completely obsolete!

Look to simplify, not complicate your life.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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We get so bogged down in minutia sometimes that we forget what we are trying to accomplish.

We can spend hours making sure our stationary is perfect but in doing so, forget to write the letter we were supposed to write.

We can spend days making sure our marketing materials are perfect and never get around to doing any actual marketing.

We can spend weeks making sure every “i” is dotted and “t” is crossed in a proposal and lose the bid to the competition who actually got the bid to the prospective client.

Details are important but sometimes you need to lift your head to see what is out there and where you need to be going

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Three types of people

Complacent people – These people apply the ideas of others
Ambitious people – These people have many ideas of their own
Successful people – These people have ideas (might be their own might be other peoples) and apply and execute them.

There are many complacent people out there (and there is nothing wrong with that). There are a LOT of ambitious people but they rarely get anything done. There are much fewer successful people because it’s risky to take a chance so it’s easier to think about it, talk about it and do nothing.

If you want to be successful, apply and execute some of your ideas, it really does work

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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People who read this post might think this is the most obvious and simple thing anyone has ever written. However, if you actually give it some thought, you will realize while very simple, it’s so rarely done.

Many people want to increase their net worth but forget there are two ways to do it. First, increase your revenues. As an individual, you might think you don’t have much flexibility to do so if you work for an organization. For example, you might think if you have a set salary, your only hope for an increase in pay is an end of year cost of living increase. If you are a teacher, you are limited to your teaching salary on the one hand but on the other hand, there are always other opportunities out there. Tutoring after school or on weekends would be one way. Creating a textbook for your topic might be another way. If you are willing to put in the time and thought, there are always ways to generate more revenue.

The problem arises when people increase their revenue and then increase their expenditures to equal or exceed the increase in revenue. As an example, a person gets a promotion and raise and their first thought is “I can afford a bigger house” or “I can afford a better car”. The bigger house or better car isn’t needed from a practical standpoint but they think it’s what is expected of them and want to be perceived as being successful. In many cases, a raise or promotion results in even more expenses than the increase in revenue because of the “need” to keep up with the Joneses. Does the bigger house make them happier? In many cases no. They have to spend more time cleaning, more on utilities, more to furnish and decorate it and as as result, they have less money than they did before and aren’t enjoying themselves either.

The interesting thing is when people look back on their lives they frequently find when things were simpler, they were happier.

So how can you increase your net worth? Look for ways to increase your revenue (it’s doesn’t have to be a lot) and at the same time, look for ways to decrease your spending or, at the very least, find ways to maintain the same level of spending as when you had lower revenue.

You probably don’t need the bigger house or the nicer car. Find what truly makes you happy and in many cases you will find it does not involve a lot of money. Stop worrying about what others might expect you to spend, do what works for you and you will find you are happier, healthier and wealthier as well

Simple concept but actually give it a try…it works

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Too often we think of decisions as being either “this or that”. We can choose yes or no. We can choose A or B. We can choose True of False.

By thinking this way, we severely limit out options.

The reality is, in most cases there are many more options to choose from than just two. The problem is, we forget that just because only two options are offered, it doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty more out there.

We don’t live in a black and white world and we must stop thinking that way. There is a lot written about ways to look for creative options but the reality is it’s simply a matter of opening our eyes and opening our minds.

Look for the big picture to start, don’t get bogged down by the details and try to look at all the options and not just the options being presented.

Remember, not only are there “ this and that” but also “all those others”.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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If you want to knock a nail into a board, it helps to have a hammer.

If you want to screw two pieces together, it’s helps to have a screwdriver

If you want to cut a piece of wood in half, it helps to have a saw.

Each of these things can probably be done using other tools as well but most likely not as efficiently or effectively.

So the question is, do you have the correct tools for your work? In your case, the tools in question might not be hammers and saws but rather project management software, cameras, surgical devices or something else.

MacGyver was able to get a lot done using minimal tools but most of us aren’t MacGyver so do what you can to get the best tools to get the job done correctly!

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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