Lawrence Fine

When was the last time you did something nice, just to be nice?

No thought of gaining a favor
No thought of getting recognition
No thought of personal gain
No thought of wanting something in return.

Many people might think they do many things each day just to be nice but if they are honest with themselves, there is frequently an ulterior motive behind their actions.

Consider doing something nice, just to be nice. The only thing you will get from it is a good feeling…isn’t that enough?

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Many people talk about the importance of taking chances. They say things such as “no risk, no reward” or “you must take chances in order to grow” etc.

The thing to realize is it’s not the risk that is so scary, it’s putting yourself in a position of vulnerability.

Being vulnerable means exposing your weaknesses. It means occasionally having your weaknesses exploited. It means possibly even failing.

When one realizes everyone has weaknesses, everyone is exposed at various times, everyone occasionally fails then all of a sudden, being vulnerable yourself isn’t so scary.

Being willing to be vulnerable will only make you stronger in the long term. Short term though, it is scary.

Take the chance, be vulnerable and grow

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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If it takes you 10 pages to write something which can be written in 1 page, this doesn’t make it better.

If you use a big word that others might not know instead of an easier to understand shorter word, this doesn’t make you sound smarter.

If you use jargon that others aren’t familiar with, this doesn’t make you an expert.

Brevity can be good.

Shorter can be better

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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If you must attend meetings, why not make the most of them?

Many people have to attend certain meetings. They dread going, hate being there and then regret going. They find ways to check their email during the meeting, make notes of things to do later and find other ways to waste the time.

I’m not a fan of meetings (or conference calls) but if you do have to attend them, why not make the most of them. Pay attention, contribute, get everything out of the meeting you can. It sure beats being there and getting nothing out of the meeting!

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Many of us wish we would be truly innovate and be leaders in our industries (or maybe even be the ones creating new industries). However, for many of us, that is not going to happen.

Because of this, we tend to be more reactive. Situations happen and we react. The problem with this is it means we are always behind our competition.

The alternative is to react, then adapt and then overcome. This means we don’t always have to be out front in terms of innovation but we must be willing to adapt to it after we react and then try to overcome the opposition.

An excellent example of this has been Netflix. They were innovative originally when they started offering a monthly fee for movies to be mailed to you. Because of this innovation, they became dominant in their industry (if you don’t believe me, see Blockbusters bankruptcy filing in yesterdays paper). However, their competition changed and instead of competing with the brick and mortar stores, they realized their competition was the cable companies offering video on demand. People could watch videos of their choosing right away as opposed to waiting for a DVD to be delivered by mail. Rather than sticking with their old business model they reacted by offering their own version of video on demand. They adapted this by offering unlimited downloads for the one monthly fee (and kept adding new videos to their list). This has allowed them to overcome this opposition and now their stock keeps going up, their profits are increasing and they are ready to react/adapt/overcome the next situation that arises.

When your industry changes do you maintain the status quo or do you react or do you react/adapt/overcome?

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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If you want to be a manager of people first learn to manage yourself.

If you aren’t organized, how can anyone expect you to organize others?
If you aren’t good at time management how can you help others manage their time?
If you aren’t motivated how can you motivate others>

Before you can manage others first learn to manage yourself. It’s the first step!

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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If you want the right questions, make sure you are asking the right questions.

This might sound simple but it’s not. Too often, we choose to ask the simple questions and get the simple answers. It might be easier, but it doesn’t help. Make sure you are asking the right questions and the answers you arrive at might amaze you

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Many people seem to be looking for the “new breakthrough” idea that will make them a fortune. They feel they need to come up with an idea that has never been done before and frequently never actually do anything.

An alternative is to help people to make their lives simpler.

As an example, some people find it frustrating trying to travel with their personal care products. It’s added weight, it’s a problem with airport security etc. The site suitearrival.com came up with the idea of allowing people to order personal care products to be delivered to their hotels so they don’t have to carry these items with them while traveling. This is an idea designed to make life easier and simpler for the traveler. They aren’t offering a product others can’t offer. They aren’t offering a service that others couldn’t provide. They are simply offering a service (the providing of products at a convenient time and place) that others aren’t. I have no connection to this company or web site and have no idea if their successful but it’s an excellent example how providing a service to make peoples lives simpler can work.

What can YOU do to make others live simpler (and hopefully to profit from it as well)?

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Marketing and Sales are many organizations most difficult tasks. They feel they have a great product or service, they have the expertise but they struggle getting more customers.

One of the best ways to market is to have your customers do it for you. There are a few different ways to do this but most only use a couple.

1. A common way to do this is through incentivizing. An example would be to give a discount for a person who brings in two other customers. Another example would be to give a small percentage of sales to the person who recommends a new customer (this is common online where sites such as amazon.com have affiliate programs)
2. Another way to do this, and one which has gained a great deal of popularity over the past couple of years is through social networking. Your customers use review sites or blogs to comment upon your goods or service and either that will attract new customers or it might drive potential customers away (depending upon the review). One advantage of this method over the first is it’s frequently perceived to be unbiased. The first method you are paying someone to promote your service so they would be considered a biased view. This method is thought to be more unbiased because it’s coming from a person without an incentive. Unfortunately, this is not always true as the “customer” giving a review might be an employee or might be part of an incentive program. It’s important to make sure the review truly is unbiased before you take it too seriously.
3. A way I would like to see more organizations use is the method of having your client market to their close knit customers as if they are part of your organization. An example would be a person who owns a soccer camp. To get 150 soccer players the owner could either market to each soccer player (and in doing so probably have to “make contact with” 15,000 or more). The alternative is to run a team camp where each team brings 15 players. Now, instead of marketing to the 150 campers, you are just marketing to the 10 coaches who then have to market to their 15 players. Another example would be a hotel. They can try to fill 100 rooms through regular means or they can market to the head of a group organizing a big conference and they sell to the conference and the conference brings in the people who will fill the rooms. This type of marketing is different as you will have to spend more time selling the one person but once that person is sold, they do the rest of the marketing. In many cases, they can reach a group you don’t have access to and once they experience your product or service, hopefully, you can develop repeat business with these new customers.

The first two methods are the more talked about method of marketing but the third method will help you grow your organization as fast, if not faster.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Sometimes when you are jealous or envious of someone else you should try to put yourself in their shoes…you might find they stink.

The grass is not always greener on the other side, frequently, we just think it is

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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