My Top Ten Books for 2006

The following ten books have greatly influenced my thinking and action in 2006. I highly recommend all of them to you:

The Success System by Clement W Stone
Certain to Win by Chet Richards
Small Pieces Loosely Joined by David Weinberger
Radical Collaboration by James W. Tamm & Ronald J. Luyet
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Conversations with Millionaires by Mike Litman & Jason Oman
Building the Real Time Enterprise by Michael Hugos
The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age by Pekka Himanen
Classic Drucker by Peter F. Drucker
Cracking the Millionaire Code by Mark Victor Hansen & Robert G. Allen

Happy reading!

A "Whole-of-Life" Approach

During my teen age years, I was greatly influenced by a very committed and dedicated youth worker who provided me with a model of personal development that has stayed with me throughout my life.

I cannot recall his name or remember all that he had to say, but he impressed upon me the need to continually nurture the four critical and interrelated dimensions of my life.

The four areas are Spiritual, Emotional/Social, Mental and Physical.

I have never forgotten his message, and although at times I have neglected one part or another, I have always sought to integrate and balance all of these areas of my life. My experience has proven to me that if you neglect one part, the other parts suffer as a result.

I have also found that in business the same integration and striving for balance applies. We must pay attention to each and every component of our business, while keeping in mind the whole, all of the time. We must nourish all the areas of our business to maintain its overall health. To do this, we must have a "whole-of-business" approach.

Therefore, our own wholeness and success in business can only be achieved by paying attention and striving always to get all the parts of our business properly aligned and integrated. If we are able to achieve this, we guarantee our success.

Raise The Bar and Go There

Effective leaders see what needs to happen and they make it happen. Actions, as we often hear, speak louder than words.

I have discovered that actions also stimulate and encourage better thinking. As we develop a new improvement initiative in our own business and implement it, we should automatically start thinking about what else now needs to be done. Creating the new becomes a never ending story in our business.

I like to call this phenomenon an "energy life cycle". When we have this energy life cycle going in our business, it generates an increasingly positive momentum. It leads to new results and innovative responses to opportunities that emerge in a constant stream and on a daily basis.

I continually get amazed at how this creates a wonderful business environment, an environment where it feels like there are no limits, there is endless enthusiasm and high levels of satisfaction are experienced by everyone involved.

We Are Responsible

Taking personal responsibility and being accountable for everything that happens in our business are critical to its success. To embody high degrees of personal responsibility, everyone in the company must understand the purpose of the business and the part he or she plays in achieving it.

This week, I was talking to a business owner who said that he did not understand why some of his staff were fearful of stepping outside of their “little boxes” to get an important job done. The job he faced required all hands on deck, and too many of his employees seemed fearful of taking the initiative to complete it.

We as owners must take responsibility for such a state of affairs. It’s all good and well to point the finger of blame at others, but it is our responsibility as business owners to have created the business environment, and the conditions in that environment, for personal responsibility as a value to be exercised.

We are responsible for the architecture of our business, and we must have it right if we want to achieve excellence and high performance throughout.

Uniqueness in Business

What makes your business unique? I ask this question of myself everyday. What is it that makes what I do different from what others do? Is there a difference?

Many people use the same words to describe their knowledge. I think what makes them unique is that quintessential thing called “know-how”.

W. Clement Stone, in his wonderful and inspiring book "The Success System that Never Fails," talks about the distinction between knowledge and know-how. I think his definition is worth memorizing:

“Know how is doing that something the right way, with skill and effectiveness, and with a minimum expenditure of time and effort.” p59.

For me, this attribute applies to people I think of as "naturals". They have mastered their craft through years of practice and experience. They make it look so easy. They have a depth of knowledge, borne of applied wisdom.

What makes you unique and successful in your business is this something! Do you know what that something is? It is pure gold when you discover it.

Setting the Pace

I was listening on the phone to a CEO I called yesterday. He was telling me that his business could not afford to simply react to the environment in which it was operating. It must be setting the pace; otherwise it would be failing its customers.

Our customers want to hear about solutions to the problems that they face and see an improvement in their prosperity. We must create these opportunities and enhance their well being. I could not agree more.

Leadership in business is about setting the pace. It is about seeing a gap and fixing it. It is about being passionate about it. Being adamant and totally focused on the other person and their needs and helping them come up with answers for themselves is an imperative.

Too often, we want to impose our answers on problems that we ourselves have not fully grasped.

Others are much better served by our learning to listen intently, asking the incisive and probing question and then allowing space for the other person to think and arrive at the solution that best meets their particular needs. By taking this approach, we will set the pace that builds great businesses.

Procrastination

The biggest enemy of success in business is waiting for a better time to get started.

I received a distressing e-mail recently from a business owner who I had been talking to a year ago about the state of his business.

Back then, he had said to me, “Peter, I know what I need to do. I know I have to do something. I can see that I need your help, but I’m not ready yet. Maybe next week, I’ll give you a call.”

Now, fifty one weeks later, his circumstances have deteriorated drastically, and he is still waiting for the right moment to get started. How often do we hear stories like this one being told?

Time after time, people first pay attention to the seemingly “urgent” concerns that they have to get out of the way, before they feel that they can begin to focus on the really important things.

Getting the foundational elements right in a business prevents so much heartache down the track.

When is the best time to get going? NOW is always the best time!

I think procrastination must be one of the worst human traits we all suffer from. It wastes so much of our time and effort, and often leads to ruin.

Creating a New Life

Someone said to me the other day, “Peter, my goal is to create a new life for myself.” What a wonderful goal to have. This particular person has gone through some very difficult times, and she is pulling herself up by the bootstraps. She is enthusiastic; she is determined; and she is focused. She knows what she wants. She has all the attributes it takes to be successful.

Creating “a new life” begins when we set clear goals and plan a course of action. The big picture is achieved by paying attention to the small process steps that will get us to our destination.

Here’s how to get started:

• Create the picture of the life you envisage.
• Write a list of the things that you want to achieve to realize this world view.
• Set out an action plan, by writing your goals down, with their relative priorities and time frames.
• Complete three things that you must get done within the shortest time frame you have set for yourself.
• Check your progress every day, and cross things off the list as you go.
• When you accomplish a goal, treat yourself in some way to mark the occasion.

Creating your new life starts now!

New Information Just Walks In The Door – If You Have The Ears To Hear

New information, valuable information, is knocking on your door and tapping on the window of your business all the time. All you need is the eyes to see it and the ears to hear it.

The other day, some people walked into my office with a whole lot of new information that I desperately needed. They were coming to sell me something.

It twigged very quickly for me that what they had on offer was something that I couldn’t use, and I told them so.

However, unknown to them, they inadvertently gave me everything I needed to design a whole new product and service that I am currently working on in a completely different context.

As they spoke enthusiastically about themselves and what they were doing, I was taking copious notes and asking more and more questions. They freely gave me what I was looking for. I thanked them for their time and the information that they had imparted to me and wished them well.

In business, you must always be listening to everything and everyone and applying what you are hearing and seeing to your own circumstances. Having this kind of mindset breeds success.

Get Going Before You Start!

Before you launch a new product or service, take every available opportunity to meet and talk with your prospective customers. By doing this, you get them involved in the process. I have found that this approach builds enthusiasm, expectation, commitment and sales.

It helps you form a binding friendship that gives you and those around you a real boost of energy. It spurs you on to even more effective action. New ideas bubble to the surface that will improve the product or service you have in mind.

It builds passion, excitement and enthusiasm in the team you are working with and creates momentum. It ignites an ethos of ‘always learning something new’ in your team.

All this results in your being more likely to take advantage of new, emerging opportunities. It reinvigorates your thinking and helps you step into the future with even greater confidence.