Tag Archive for business sucess

Learn the Power of Giving Back!

October 3, 2011 Eric Deschamps No comments

 

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.” – Mother Teresa

Famous advice columnist Ann Landers once published an interesting letter in her column. It was from a young lady who was writing about her aunt and uncle. She wrote:

“My uncle was the tightest man I’ve ever known. All his life, every time he got paid he took $20 out of his pay cheque and put it under his mattress. Then he got sick and was about to die. As he was dying, he said to his wife: “I want you to promise me one thing. Promise me that when I’m dead you’ll take my money from under the mattress and put it in my casket so that I can take it all with me.”

The young lady’s letter went on with the story. “When he died, his wife kept her promise. She took all the money from under the mattress and went to the bank and deposited it. Then she wrote out a cheque and put it in her husband’s casket.”

The old saying remains true. You can’t take it with you!

Too many people fail to grasp the power of giving. They live by the adage “pay yourself first.” But it’s my conviction that real success and meaning come from living a generous life, where the focus is on helping and blessing others.

Living generously helps you stay grounded on your success journey. And you don’t have to be making a fortune to get started! For example, you might sponsor a child in a poverty-stricken nation for as little as $30-40 a month. For the price of a cup of coffee every day, you can give a child a hope and a future they wouldn’t have otherwise.

If you own your own business, make it a part of your business and personal policy to give back. And not just to charitable organizations… Be generous with people! Your generosity may help change a life. At the very least it will be a high point in their day or week. You may never know the full impact your generosity can have in someone’s life, but you don’t need to. You can simply enjoy living generously and share in the sheer pleasure of giving.

Now I get that not all millionaires and successful people embrace this worldview. As a matter of fact, the world has more than its share of miserable rich people. To be happy with your wealth and success, however, you need to be generous. The millionaires who are truly content are the ones that embrace the value of giving. Consider the following story.

“What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.” – Albert Pine

The very first person to reach the status of billionaire was a man who knew how to set goals and follow through. At the age of 23, he had become a millionaire, and by the age of 50 a billionaire. Every decision, attitude, and relationship was tailored to create his own personal wealth and power.

But three years later, at the age of 53, he became terribly ill. His entire body was racked with pain and he lost all the hair on his head. In complete agony, the world’s only billionaire could buy anything he wanted, but he could only digest milk and crackers. An associate of his noted that during this time, he could barely sleep, wouldn’t smile, and nothing in life meant anything to him. His doctors gave him less than a year to live.

As he neared death, he woke up one morning with the vague remembrance of a dream. He could barely recall the dream but knew it had something to do with not being able to take any of his riches and successes with him into the next world. The man who could control the business world suddenly realized he was not in control of his own life.

He was left with a choice. He called his attorneys, accountants and business managers to a meeting, and announced that he wanted to channel his extensive assets to hospitals, research, and mission work. On that day, John D. Rockefeller established his now famous foundation. This new direction led to the discovery of penicillin, and cures for current strains of malaria, tuberculosis, and diphtheria. The list of discoveries resulting from his decision is enormous.

But perhaps the most amazing part of Rockefeller’s story is that the moment he began to live generously, his body’s chemistry was altered so significantly that he recovered from his illness. It looked as if he would die at the age of 53, but he lived to be 98! Rockefeller learned the power of generosity.

What about you? Are you in the habit of being generous? Make a commitment to be on the lookout for someone who might need a helping hand. It doesn’t have to be much, but the reward for both of you will make it totally worth it.

 

Eric Deschamps, Business Coach/Advisor – Ottawa

Business Effectiveness, Generosity, Integrity, Personal Effectiveness, Success, Uncategorized , , , ,

Successful People Focus on Solutions!

September 19, 2011 Eric Deschamps One comment


Focus 90% of your time on solutions and only 10% of your time on problems.  ~ Anthony J. D’Angelo

One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the case of the empty soapbox, which happened in one of Japan’s biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soapbox that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soapbox went through the assembly line empty.

Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soapboxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent a whopping amount to do so.

But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he didn’t get into elaborate plans. Instead he came out with a much simpler solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soapbox passed by, it simply blew the empty boxes off the line.

Here’s another great example. When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that pens wouldn’t work at zero gravity, as the ink doesn’t flow down to the writing surface. In order to solve this problem, it took them ten years and $12 million. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees Celsius. What did the Russians do? They used a pencil!

Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.  ~ Paul Hawken

Every time you face a challenge or a problem in your business or personal life, you have an important choice to make: you can choose to focus on the problem or the solution.

Focusing on the problem rarely helps matters. Instead, it only wastes your time and energy as you go over it repeatedly in your mind. Such brooding can leave you exhausted from fear and worry and prevent you from taking decisive action. Your problem is a reality that is unlikely to go away no matter how hard you ruminate. Since that’s the case, it’s better (and way more productive) to focus on the solution instead.

Your mind can only give its full attention to one thing at a time. If you focus on the problem, negative thoughts can overtake you more readily. Fear, self-doubt and worry may prevent you from moving forward and dealing with the issue at hand. The more you brood, the larger your problem becomes in your mind. But if you focus on the solution, you actively engage your mind in resolving the matter. As a result, you have little time for negative thinking. The only thing that matters is resolving the problem.

In business and in life, problems don’t resolve themselves. And it’s unwise to expect others to solve them for you. As a business owner, the responsibility for finding a solution falls on you. When you take charge of dealing with a problem, you can choose the best way to resolve it. This means you are more likely to get the outcome you want as you influence events with your actions and choices.

Finally, each time you resolve a problem, you gain valuable experience. The more problems you resolve, the more confidence you have. Soon, a problem that used to intimidate you loses its power because you know how to deal with it. Moving forward, it will take greater problems to test your limits. But greater problems should not daunt you either. After all, you have new experience to guide you in finding solutions to go to the next level.

Learning to focus on the solution and not the problem can change your life and your business. Successful people understand this principle. Don’t let your problems overwhelm you. Learn to focus on the solutions instead, and use your time and energy more productively.

Ask yourself: “When faced with a problem in my life/business, do I focus on the problem, or on the solution?”

 

Eric Deschamps – Business Coach/Advisor, Ottawa

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Successful People Make Things Happen!

September 13, 2011 Eric Deschamps No comments


“There are people who make things happen, they are people who watch things happen, and there are people who wonder what happened. To be successful, you need to be a person who makes things happen.” James Lovell

Successful people are a catalyst. They make things happen. Driven by passion and fuelled by their dreams, they are determined to take action and make a difference. They are not content to sit idle or procrastinate. They infect others with their passion and courage. Hang around a catalyst such as this and before long you may want to join their cause! That’s one of the things that I love the most about spending time with other entrepreneurs!

Most people hope for a better future. They dream about things being different. Visionaries, however, see themselves making that difference. Dreamers dream about how great it would be for someone to do something. Visionaries look for opportunities to make it happen. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “Good things come to those who wait, but only the things left over by those who hustle.”

You have dreams for your personal and professional life. Don’t wait for inspiration to take action! Conditions are never just right. People who stall until all factors are favourable do nothing. They procrastinate over and over again and their dreams never materialize. They are often filled with self-doubt and fear. If you are going to achieve your goal, you need to act like you expect to get into the end zone. Don’t wait for things to happen. Set yourself apart from the crowd and make them happen.

Most people look outward for success. They look for someone else to appreciate them, someone else to promote them, and someone else to motivate them. Success is not something external shining in, but rather something internal radiating out. If you can envision a better tomorrow, take action today and be a catalyst!

If you look for other people to define your success or happiness, you will never find your full measure of either. If you want a promotion, set up the conditions to get promoted. Make yourself indispensable. You promote yourself through actions and attitudes and ultimately separate yourself from the crowd waiting for the arrival of the S.S. Entitlement.

Take on more work and look for ways to build value in your organization. Take on projects that challenge and teach you new skills, so you grow in value in your current or future organizations. Find opportunities to do things better and more efficiently than it has been done before.

To get paid more, provide more service following the law of harvest: you sow what you reap. Work harder and smarter than your colleagues. Great success comes from hard work directed toward a clearly defined goal. The harder you work, the “luckier” you will likely be. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Shallow men believe in luck; wise and strong men believe in cause and effect.” In other words, successful people cause their own luck. By doing the right things, they get the results they want.

“Shallow men believe in luck; wise and strong men believe in cause and effect.”

President of Highpoint University, Nido Quebein said, “You may have the loftiest goals, the highest ideals, the noblest dreams; but remember this: nothing works unless you do.” If you own your own business, you need to take “ownership” of your business. Be responsible and accountable for the choices you make and the results that follow, good or bad. Make things happen by refusing to shift the blame or make excuses. Make progress instead!

Successful people are proactive. They take consistent action to create what they want in their lives. Ordinary people are different. They wait for things to happen and they are not doing anything about what they want. A lot of people will tell you that they want to be rich or they want to start their own business, however, they are not doing anything about it. All they do is to talk about it without any real and solid action.

Be proactive. Stop procrastinating. Take action to achieve your dreams. Start now.

 

Eric Deschamps, Business Coach/Advisor – Ottawa

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Successful People Go Above and Beyond!

August 31, 2011 Eric Deschamps No comments

 

One day, Adam was walking around the Garden of Eden looking rather sad. So God asked him if anything was wrong. Adam replied that he was lonely because he didn’t have anyone to talk to. God told Adam he would make him a companion and that the companion would be called woman.

God said, “This person will gather food for you, cook for you, and when you discover clothing she’ll wash for you. She will always agree with every decision you make. She will bear your children and never ask you to get up in the middle of the night to take care of them. She will not nag you and will always be the first to admit she was wrong when you’ve had a disagreement. She will never have a headache and will freely give you love and passion whenever you need it.”

Adam asked God, “What will a woman like this cost?” God replied, “An arm and a leg.” Then Adam asked, “What can I get for a rib?” And the rest is history.

You get what you pay for. You reap what you sow. Or put another way, you get out of life what you put into life. Successful people understand this principle. That is why they go above and beyond what is expected! They are anything but average.

The importance of possessing a clear and compelling vision of your future cannot be understated. But consider this: successful people don’t just DREAM about extraordinary things. They DO extraordinary things! A vision must be followed by determination, discipline and DOING in order to become a reality. Those who invest much will reap great rewards.

Think of Olympic athletes. They are at the top of their game because they do more than is expected of them. They go above and beyond the call of duty to win the gold. They are not average in any shape, way or form. We admire them for this very fact. (It’s important to note that these athletes also understand the power of working with a coach!)

Successful people get the raises and the promotions because they come to work early and stay late. When they run out of work to do, they find out what more they can do to add value to the people around them. This gets them noticed, and leads to further advancement.

Successful people go above and beyond!

Understand this clearly: you can’t enjoy the many benefits of success without paying the price to get there! You must be on the lookout for opportunities, and seize them when they appear. It has been said that the opportunity of a lifetime must be seized during the lifetime of the opportunity. I couldn’t agree more. Thomas Edison once said,

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

Successful people understand that not only should you strike while the iron is hot, but you also MAKE IT HOT BY STRIKING. Don’t just wait around for opportunities to come your way! Create new opportunities by taking action now and going above and beyond! Approach life in this way and you will discover that opportunities find you!

Don’t settle for anything but the best in life. And remember that “good” and “better” are often the greatest enemies of “best.” Successful people pursue excellence and refuse mediocrity. They stand out from the crowd because they refuse to be average and to simply go along with the flow. They do more than expected! It’s as simple as that.

Someone has written that there are four kinds of bones in the world:

  • Wish bones who spend their time wishing someone else would do the work;
  • Jaw bones who do all the talking, but very little else;
  • Knuckle bones who knock everything that anyone else is trying to do, and
  • Back bones who shoulder the load and get the job done!

In any organization or team, aim to be the back bone. Strive to be that individual who stands out from the crowd and goes above and beyond the call of duty. Don’t give in to mediocrity!

A recent article revealed a football coach’s tactics for getting the best out of his players. He reminds his team regularly that if they aren’t careful, it is an easy slide into complacency. Winning the last game is no guarantee that they will win the next one. His players know that if they want more play time – more minutes on the field – they have to go above and beyond. They have to study more film, practice more plays, and endure more drills. In other words, they have to do MORE! And they have to expect more out of themselves, as individuals and as a team.

Great companies go above and beyond for their customers. They do more than expected, and that is why they succeed over the long-term. Take a moment to identify the last time you were impressed about a company’s service. What made them stand out? If you own your own business, how can you do more than expected for your clients? Look around you and take advantage of opportunities to go above and beyond, and you will reap the rewards of success.

By being passionate about the work you do, you will deliver more in quality service than you expect to receive in payment as compensation. This, in effect, is a way to keep money or value chasing you, rather than you chasing money. By always going above and beyond and doing more than expected, you’ll always be underpaid!

Consider this: if you’re paid more than you’re worth, eventually you will be restructured, re-engineered, replaced, fired, declared obsolete and disposed of. Overpaid individuals are over-drawn on their knowledge and skills bank account. Individuals who are underpaid for the level and quality of service they provide are always in demand and always ahead of the pay scale in terms of knowledge and contribution. So money and opportunity are always chasing them.

Take your cues from the successful. Refuse to be average. Stand out from the crowd. Go above and beyond!

Next on the agenda? Successful people take risks!

 

Eric Deschamps – Business Coach/Advisor, Ottawa

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