MOVE YOUR POINT OF VIEW, YOUR LINE OF SIGHT, YOUR VANTAGE POINT!

In business and life, your experience, your perspective, what you see, what you don’t see – all depends on your point of view.  Both your physical point of view, but also your mental and emotional point of view – what are you looking for, what are you expecting, how open to new ideas/thoughts/experiences are you?

"Vantage Point" is a suspenseful action flick directed by Pete Travis, starring Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, and Forest Whitaker. The plot centers around the attempted assassination of the American President, which is told and re-told from different vantage points (i.e. different people, different locations, different mindsets, different agendas, different focus', etc.).

 

The movie provides some very interesting revelation on how to look at your business differently, and see insights, and breakthroughs for exponential increases in your profits. 

     "One's life begins when they are finally able to live for something other than themselves."  (Albert Einstein)

 

Assess Your Vantage Point

A sure way to a boring - same old thing - photograph is to take a picture from the same point of view that everyone sees as the same scene from day in and day out. For example, imagine you're walking down your neighborhood sidewalk. If you stop on the sidewalk at any particular point and simply lift your camera up to your eye and snap, the result is something you would see every day. It could be interesting, but the point of view that the photograph was made from definitely works against it.  But kneel down and look for a new vantage point, or how about lying on your stomach and looking around - a whole different view.

 

I often wonder what kids under the age of 9 really experience on a crowded day at an amusement part - say Disneyland.  Think about the fact that their line of sight is at or below the belt line of thousands of park goers - all day long.  Do you suppose their experience of the sights and sounds differs from your adult altitude?

 

From what vantage point do you look at your business?  Are you the founder, have you been living and breathing this business from the time is was a seed of an idea, have you lived through years of good times, and years of bad times, have you hired and fired endless employees over the years, did you start the business when Internet marketing was unheard of?

 

When was the last time you took a really fresh perspective, a real long hard look at your business from a different vantage point?  Have you ever done it?

  

Look for a Fresh Vantage Point

Consider some ways to look at your business in a new, fresh way:

1.  View from your prospects vantage point - your sign, your storefront, your yellow pages ad, your website, the voice on the phone, the first person that greets them - does anybody greet them?

 

2. View from your customers vantage point - how have you recognized them, thanked them, followed up with them, communicated about new products or service to them?

 

3. View from your vendors and suppliers vantage point - do you make it easy to do business with them, how accurate is your paperwork, how quickly do you pay your bills, how do you acknowledge/thank/communicate to them?

 

4. View from your competitors vantage point - how do you threaten them, how do you make their job easy, how often do you change and improve - always looking for the edge. 

5. View from your employees vantage point - how enjoyable are you to work for, is your work environment uplifting/safe/comfortable, how often do you praise vs. reprimand, what's in it for them?

 

So, I encourage you to accept a suggested homework assignment - take the above five vantage points - and freshly look at your business through the eyes of each of these groups of people.  Then actually ask people in each of those groups what they see, feel, experience with you and your business.  How similar is your view of their vantage point with their actual vantage point.

 

" We have the power to choose and to exercise that power without giving control of it to situations.  We cannot change anything but our own perspective and response, yet in that changing we change the world around us by becoming an instrument of insight and awareness." 

-- Gail Pursell Elliott

THE POWER OF THREE

The number three stands for that which is solid, real, substantial, complete and entire.  Think about it, there are three great divisions of time - past, present, and future.  There are 3 dimensions necessary to form anything solid - length, breadth, and height.  There is a threefold nature of man - body, soul and spirit.

Three is divine perfection.  The Bible instructs us that a tri-cord strand is not easily broken.  In addition, throughout Scripture three is an incredibly prevalent number.  Consider all the threes in Scripture:

   - Faith, hope, love - Father, Son, Holy Spirit - Thanksgiving, praise, worship

- Outer court, inner court, Holy of holies - knowledge, wisdom, understanding

- 30 fold, 60 fold, 100-fold increase - 3 key attributes of God: all-knowing, all powerful, all-present

In every business there are three types of customers - those that pay you for your products/services, those you pay to work directly for you (employees), and those you pay for outsourced services or products (vendors and suppliers).

There are three primary ways to grow any business - bring in new customers/increase your customer base, increase the frequency of purchase by your existing customers,  and increase the size of each purchase.

One of the most sought after speakers right now is Steve Jobs.  Audiences love his presentation style.  What is his secret -- THREE things - 1) he creates a story to share; 2) he delivers an experience; and 3) he inspires the audience to act.

Innovation falls into three primary categories - incremental innovation, breakthroughs, and game-changing innovation.  Incremental Innovation is focused on making small buy significant improvements to existing products or services.  Think changing plain detergent to detergent with bleach, detergent with pine scent.

Breakthrough innovations introduce an existing technology into a new market, or a new technology into an existing market, or changes the way the offering is delivered.  Think about air bladders -- used for many things but never running shoes.  Enter Nike - revolutionize the running shoe industry!

Game-changers disrupts an existing market or creates a whole new market.  A good example from years ago was the switch from cloth diapers to disposable diapers.  More recently think how e-mail, online faxing, and all-in-one printers/copiers/fax machines have pretty much wiped out the market for stand alone fax machines.

How effectively are you using the power of three in your life and your business?

When was the last time your business had a day focused on innovation?  

Many businesses have never really had a deliberate and strategic innovation planning.  Maybe it is time you do that for your business!  Look for the power of three as you innovate!

Re-Position Your Business & Life

There is tremendous value to be found in focusing on the topic of re-positioning.  If you are not happy with the direction that your business and/or your life is headed then redesign it by re-positioning three key components - your expectations, your words and your actions.   To achieve a new result, requires you to do something different. 

Will Smith has made Hollywood history, and his personal "magic formula" can accelerate your business growth, and income.  One of his recent films, Hancock, brought in $107.3 million in box office receipts in the first week.  This makes him the first actor to star in eight straight movies that brought in over $100 million. 

Simply put, Will Smith is the industry's most "bankable" man.  How does he do it?  A recent USA Today article reveals his secret:  "I study patterns," he says. "Nine out of the top 10 biggest movies of all times have special effects; eight out of 10 have creatures in them; seven out of 10 have a love story. So if you want a hit, you might want to throw those in the mix.   I just study patterns and try to stand where lightning strikes."

Re-Positioning

Dewitt Jones - a freelance photographer for National Geographic has a favorite credo "position yourself in the place of highest potential."  Do you see a striking similarity with Will Smith's strategy of studying where lightning strikes and simply move to that location in advance?

This sums up the essence of re-positioning.  If your business and/or life are not running as you want, not providing the results you desire, not meeting your expectations, and/or falling short of your hopes and dreams - then you need to re-position yourself in some way.  Simply doing the same things over and over, expecting a different result is madness - I think Albert Einstein was the one that said as much.

A critical skill in business is the ability to pause, find a vantage point that allows you to see 360 degrees - behind, ahead, and all around your current location/place.  By temporarily stopping from working in your business, and taking some time to work on your business, important revelations can come forth.  In fact, three keys to creating a new, better result include rest, reflection and revelation.  This new, better result fits hand in glove with the concept of re-positioning.

Re-Position Your Expectations

The first of the applications of re-positioning is relative to your expectations.  During your time of rest/reflection/revelation - ask yourself - what expectations do you have for your business and your life?  Are they aggressive, growth oriented, positive, bold, huge, and even scary BIG?

What you expect - you tend to get.  So if your results are not what you want, examine your expectations.  Over time, it is easy to let the world wear you down and cause you to lower your expectations, let them turn sour and/or south (neither one is good!). 

Change your expectations as a key first strategy to re-position your business and your life!  Study the patterns in your industry - look for the lightning.  Find the location of highest potential - then get about moving that way. 

Become Word Conscious – Re-Position Your Words

The power to change your business and your life rests in your words. Simple statement - but big truth!  A lot is being said about thinking. However, it's your spoken words that get the desired results.  Words are physical "containers" of your thoughts.

Do yourself a favor and accept this challenge: for one week be very attentive and conscious to the words flowing from your mouth.  Especially notice the automatic responses you tend to use without even thinking.  These are strong clues to what's in your heart and mind!   This is where journaling can be a handy tool. 

Write down the expressions and words you use throughout the day - what do you say in high stress situations, what about in casual conversations, what about when thinking about your business?  By writing it down and then reviewing it weekly you will be able to see a pattern emerging.  Once you identify certain expressions, you can then acknowledge what your tendencies are and, therefore, can start to change your habits.

Consider the various business situations you encounter in your daily life.  Determine those that are causing you stress or attracting unwanted results.  Ask yourself – what words are you using to express that situation.   Replace words that dis-empower with words that empower.  "Should, must, and have to" become "could, want, and choose to."   

Pay attention to the intensity of the words you use. Are they appropriate to the situation?   Notice the metaphors you use, they will reveal how you are choosing to approach your business.

Re-Position Your Actions

The power to change your business and your life rests in your the actions - the ones you take, and the ones you don't.  If you take SMARTER ACTIONS, you generate more POWERFUL RESULTS. 

My all time favorite refrigerator magnet says, "If Nothing Changes, then Nothing Changes".  What a great summation about the importance and power of re-positioning your expectations, your words, and your actions.   To get a different result in your business and your life requires change – commit to some business and personal re-positioning!  

Actively and Deliberately Reject Mediocrity

"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them".

- Henry David Thoreau

Choose Excellence. Otherwise, Mediocrity just shows up in its place.

If there is one thing that separates the few who reach excellence, from the masses that wallow in mediocrity, it is this: A willingness to go beyond one's limitations, by operating outside a level of safety and comfort.

To embrace excellence, we must shun mediocrity, despising it as a sinister enemy and guarding against its intrusion into our attitudes and endeavors. As the late Jamie Buckingham wrote, "The risk-free life is a victory-free life. It means lifelong surrender to the mediocre. And that is the worst of all defeats."

You must actively REJECT MEDIOCRITY.

If you do not ACTIVELY REJECT mediocrity, you are unwittingly choosing it over excellence-and will be traveling down a road littered with broken dreams and failed expectations. Put simply, you are unwittingly choosing Mediocrity over Excellence.  ER Haas - CEO of ThinkTQ, Inc. lists 10 choices you must make each day, each hour, even each minute, to GUARANTEE that you are on the road to GREATNESS... rather than heading down the road to MEDIOCRITY:

1.      Choose to be ENERGETIC-instead of permitting yourself to become run-down and burned-out.

2.      Choose to be PASSIONATE-instead of permitting yourself to become aimless, apathetic and indifferent.

3.      Choose to be ENTHUSIASTIC-instead of permitting yourself to become half-hearted and discouraged.

4.      Choose to be SELF-DIRECTED-instead of permitting yourself to become directionless and uncertain.

5.      Choose to be PREPARED-instead of permitting yourself to become shortsighted and reactive.

6.      Choose to be FOCUSED-instead of permitting yourself to become scattered and impulsive.

7.      Choose to be SUPPORTIVE-instead of permitting yourself to become critical and judgmental.

8.      Choose to be SYSTEMATIC-instead of permitting yourself to become haphazard and disorganized.

9.      Choose to be TIMELY-instead of permitting yourself to become distracted and preoccupied.

10.    Choose to be PROACTIVE-instead of permitting yourself to become procrastinating and hesitant.

 "Mediocrity always attacks excellence." - Michael Beckwith

Move From Success to Significance

Today there seems to be such an extreme vacuum of leadership - in Washington DC, in businesses, in local government, in education, in churches, even in families.  One diagnosis of this malady is the lack of honorable intent among existing leaders.  There seems to be such a focus on the bottom line, the what's in it for me, the special interests.  How often have we all railed against 'special interests'.  But guess what, if you are honest, we all have belonged to that infamous group of special interests in one respect or another.

If you establish crystal clear expectations aligned with the results  you want (your WHAT), and execute brilliantly to achieve those expectations (your HOW), then you will be ahead of 90% of the pack.  However, if you want to make a difference, to change the world, to leave a legacy, then I challenged you to add a third component to your personal and business performance - HAVE HONORABLE INTENT (your WHY). 

Now if you really want to push the envelope, raise the bar, go to a higher place on honorable intent – then simply add the words 'beyond you' – so now make your goal to HAVE HONORABLE INTENT (your WHY) BEYOND YOU (your WHO)! 

One final thing – the icing if you will, be willing to invite and be able to withstand scrutiny from others that share similar worldviews. 

You see, lots of things can have honorable intent - to lose weight, to stop swearing, to spend more quality time with family, to spend less and save more, to watch less TV.  However, many of those things are primarily for your benefit.  Sure, others can and will benefit from those actions, but at the core of your motive are probably your own desires.  Nothing wrong with that - often that is the best driver we can have to change habits and accomplish great things.

However, what if you pushed your honorable intent to go beyond you -- to make it more about others and less about you.  What if your business intent was more than to make more money to improve your lifestyle and even the lifestyle of your employees?  What if it was to be a catalyst to transforming a community by eliminating poverty, or reducing adult illiteracy, or to improve the lifestyle of senior citizens in their last days, or ease the financial burden of the woman's shelter.  Couldn't you allocate some profit, or assets, or people to make a difference in some community area that is in need.

"A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and

set out to accomplish it.  He should make this purpose the

 centralizing point of his thoughts. 

It may take the form of a spiritual ideal, or it may be a worldly object, according to his nature at the time being; but whichever it is, he should steadily focus

his thought forces upon the object which he has set before him. 

He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into

ephemeral fancies, longings, and imaginings. 

This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought.

Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must until weakness is overcome), the strength of character gained

will be the measure of his true success, and this will form a new

starting point for future power and triumph." ~ James Allen