Do Business Well

If you are going to be an actualizer and maximizer of human potential you need to be a PWB —

A Person Without Borders

There is a social tidal wave sweeping over the world. It’s caused by technology, democracy, mobility and our common humanity. It’s the wave that is washing away national and cultural boundaries. The best talent and ideas rule. It doesn’t matter where the talent or the ideas come from. So the new class of successful entrepreneurs will be PWB — People Without Borders. They will go where the opportunities are greatest and they will take from where the talent and ideas are most plentiful. They do not limit their vision to industry or geography. They are open, adaptable and mobile.

What are we saying to you here? Simply this, don’t limit your vision. Get rid of any beliefs or rules that aren’t serving you anymore. Re-examine all that you’ve been told. Challenge whatever you may have learnt in the past. This takes courage. It means you may have to discard certain things that you’ve believed throughout your life. Do it. And do it now. You are the captain of your own ship and you can take your ship anywhere you want to.

Do You Pass The Make-Or-Break Test of Personal Leadership?

Throughout history, people have laughed at, ridiculed and tried to put down people who were pioneers. Whenever someone introduces something new or goes where no-one else has ever been before, others will try to stop them or discourage them. Sometimes people will try and stop pioneers through good intentions. Maybe your friends and family don’t want to see you fail. Other times, people will try and stop you because they are envious or threatened. Whatever the motivation, your resolve will be put to the test. You will be forced to go with your gut against the opinions or wishes of others.

And that’s the Make-or-Break Test of Personal Leadership: do you trust yourself enough to go with your own flow? Are you willing to zig when others say you should zag? Are you willing to swim against the popular current? Are you willing to put it all on the line in the face of fear and failure?

And are you able to persuade others to come for the ride with you? You see, it’s one thing to persuade yourself. It’s quite another to persuade others to join you in your quest. So, firstly, you need to come to terms with your challenge in your own mind. Then you need to askyourself what you need to do to get others to embrace the challenge with you.

And that’s the ultimate leadership secret of successful entrepreneurs: they have the ability to get people to want to work withthem or buy from them because their business gives people what they truly want. So as you think about starting your own business or improving your business, think about how you can tap into other people’s self interest. If you really want to achieve what you want toachieve, help others achieve what they want to achieve. Think in terms of “We” not “Me”.

They’ll only dare if you really demonstrate you care: How to be a Model Mentor:

“Mentor: a loyal advisor of Odysseus entrusted with the care and education of Telemachus; a wise and trusted counselor”

In the great Greek myth of The Odyssey, the hero is a man called Odysseus who has to undergo great trials and suffering. However, his life is made easier by his friend and advisor, Mentor, whom he trusts with everything, including the care and education of his son, Telemachus.

And that’s where the term, Mentor, comes from. So in order to be a good mentor to someone, you have to be both their friend and trusted advisor. In fact, the trust level has to be so great that the other person would entrust you with the care and education of their children. Makes you think, hey?

So, how good a mentor are you to the people around you? Do they turn to you for inspiration, education, support and empowerment? Do they truly believe that you have their best interests at heart? Do you go out of your way to demonstrate how much you care? You see, your people will only dare to try new things if they know you really care about their wellbeing. And there are so few managers who really care about developing the potential of their people. You know why? Because they are only concerned about their own careers and their own interests. They regard the people around them as nothing more than mere means to an end. You know the joke: to err is human, to forgive is ….not company policy. Seriously, we go into so many companies where the mission statement encourages people to take risks. Then, when they take a risk and fail, they get an AAK - an Attitude Adjustment Klap. And they never take another risk again.

However, there’s one core leadership principle that we’ve discovered: People who actively demonstrate how much they care about developing their people’s potential deliver the best results - in the short term as well as the long term. So ask yourself how you can help grow your people: Is it through subsidizing their ongoing education? Or is it by being supportive through on-the-job training? Or is it by encouraging lively debate and a culture of challenge and curiosity? Or is it by helping them lead a better quality of life overall through lifestyle education?

And by the way, being a good mentor doesn’t stop in the workplace. It means being a friend and trusted advisor to your family as well. The one thing that we’ve both learnt as entrepreneurs is that there is no dividing line between your business and your family. The two worlds merge. And unless you become a coach and mentor in the workplace, you’ll become a tyrant on the homefront as well. We have met so many entrepreneurs whose businesses may have thrived but whose family lives were broken. Simply because they became dictators not developers of people.

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