The Way We See Things

This post relates to the fourth e-mail (Web Marketing Formula - issue 2) 

Our subject today is our ‘outlook.’ How do we see things? How do we respond? How do we react to certain things and situations? This is attitude. And, it is a very helpful thing to consider when contemplating going into business. Brian Tracy asks us to imagine that we have some ‘BIG’ project that we have been working on. We believe that this is going to be our big breakthrough (we always think like that about our own ideas). Anyway, imagine you have your appointments booked, your tickets arranged. But, everyone you show your proposal, turns you down flat! How would you feel? Probably, pretty dejected. So, you ring home, and your brother tells you, “It does not matter, because you have just won a million dollars!” How do you feel now? Elated, of course (depending on how believable your brother is). Anyway, you are a responsible person, so you continue with your appointments. But, you are going in with a totally different attitude! But, when you finally get home, your brother tells you it was a joke! The point is this, the feelings you had were real. Attitude does make a difference.

So, there are certain things that you ought to be particularly concerned to have a good, positive attitude towards:

1) The first is ‘Yourself.’ Perhaps you are already thinking that business is not for you, in any form, based on what you have learnt. But, there is another factor coming into play here. You might be leaning towards such a decision due to your individual circumstances. However, that does not change the fact that the capability of human beings is simply staggering!

If you have already decided against going into business (you will be in a minority), we do not want to persuade you otherwise. The whole point is to help you make such a decision. But, you will still benefit from this material. Why? Because we are now talking about something much bigger!

What is your attitude to human beings in terms of the achievements of our the whole race? Yes alright, I know, there is much to be sad about. But, that is a different matter. We are talking here about capacity. Look at those sky-scrapers! Once I had the privilege of going up the Sears Tower in Chicago! Look at the advances in medicine. Look at some of the achievements of humans! Recently, we went to hear a young woman telling of her adventures with her husband climbing Everest, plus all the highest peaks in all the continents of the world! If you made a list of jaw-dropping achievements for man, it would be very long.

2) The second is ‘Business.’ As we noted before, business makes the world go around. It is important for any country. Right now, the place which is really growing is India. In the UK, there are still more people doing business with China, but India looks like being the next place to be saturated. Yes, I know, it brings problems. But, generally, business is good and important to any country. It will really help you, if you see business in general as being a good thing. All benefits and blessings like that can be abused, and almost certainly will be, but that does not take away from the fundamental principle.

3) The third is ‘Selling.’ We have touched on this before, but it is so important. You need to have a positive attitude to selling, because it is the back-bone of business. I think it was Paul Getty who said, “Take everything away from me, but leave me with my sales force, and I will back where I am now, in a year!” Selling is where one person explains their offer in such a way that the prospect is compelled to say, “OK, you have convinced me, what you have got is what I need.” Or, words to that effect. It is educating another person to the point, where they consider the value of what is offered to be greater than the cost. If you are in business, you are selling, whether you like it or not. The best sales people are intelligent and creative.

So, I do hope you are convinced about these things. And, particularly, I do hope you can see the value of having a good and positive attitude to certain things. You might consider there are other things that need to be listed here. And, you might change the priorities. OK, that is great! If you can argue your case, I would probably agree with you.

There is another aspect of attitude that is very important. As I hinted in the newsletter, it is a subtle twist on this whole subject area. It is the area of expectation. Why is this important? Well, because you have to have realistic expectations for yourself and your business. In other words, they must not be too low, or too high. They must be believable.

Let me illustrate this by telling you about the experience of a friend recently. He has retired from work and has a very small pension. So, he has taken to selling things on e-Bay. He had a very nice book on a classic car. Anyway, my friend put this book on e-Bay, expecting it to sell for £200. But, very soon, it reached £700, as two owners wanted it. Then, it started to get into the thousands! But, suddenly, one bid £7,400, then e-mailed my friend saying it was a mistake. However, before the matter could be resolved, the other man had bid £8,100! He got the book, and my friend delivered it. £8,100 is over $16,000! For one book!

Alright, so what is the point? Things like that are rare. You were probably quite interested in reading about what happened because it is unusual! How does this relate to you business? Well, if you set up a business selling books on e-Bay, and were waiting for something like that to happen, you could wait a long time! Surely, it is an unusual occurrence, and therefore not something that is a realistic expectation for ‘every day’ business.

The secret here is to have a balance of expectation. Your expectations for your business need to be correct and realistic, but also, they need to stretch you. Let me ask you - what expectations do you have for yourself in business? You might think, “Ah, he is talking about goals here!” In a sense, yes, but we will come back to goals in a later newsletter. Here, we are thinking more generally about your approach to your business.

The point of this topic, is to help you orientate yourself, before you start. You know how companies have ‘orientation’ sessions, to get new employees up to speed? Well, it’s a bit like that. The purpose is to enable you to make decisions about your business, before you launch out. Your goal setting comes after these decisions have been made.

So, what expectations do you have for your business? Think about this as hard as you can. All the prior thought you can put in will help you.

1. What is your business going to cost you in terms of: time, money and effort?

2. What sacrifices are you prepared to make?

3. How long are you prepared to work without making any money?

4. Is setting up in business to supplement your income, or to replace your current income?

5. What is the minimum return you need to make it all worth while?

6. Do you plan to sell the business, or part of the business, at a later date?

7. What sort of income do you expect to draw from the business?

8. How much of your income are you prepared to re-invest in your business? And, so on…

Now, please remember not to have too many ‘fixed’ ideas. You will find, as you think about ‘general’ questions, like this, your ideas will change. Things will occur to you that you had not thought about. But, you do need to think in these terms, so that you can make the right decisions regarding your business. If you are not prepared to put in any time or money, and want to make a million dollars by next month, you know, you are going to struggle a wee bit!

However, by making your expectations realistic and, at the same time, stretching, you will find your whole perspective will be more focussed. You will start to really believe that you can do it. As, it all starts to take shape, you have something more concrete to focus on. Just try asking yourself questions, like those above, and find out for yourself, that this is absolutely true.

May you soon know all the success you desire.

Richard Mortimer