 Season 11 Episodes 33 to 36. Your personal goals need a long-term strategy Based on Dorie Clark’s The Long Game – how to be a long-term thinker in a short-term world.  Episode 33 Are you too busy to be successful? Rejection is part of every entrepreneur’s life. The proposal that is not accepted, the call that is not returned, the blog does not instantly go viral, and the client who terminates a contract. But if you believe social media, stories in the press, courses that offer instant income, you could feel that everyone else has the secret to success figured out; only you are struggling to gain traction. Maybe you tell yourself that you need to work harder, put in longer hours, expand your social media presence, start podcasting, or write a blog. These take time, and you are likely hustling as hard and as fast as possible. You do not have time to breathe, let alone think. Even though you know it’s not right you focus on execution and the short term. What can you do about it? Dorie Clark suggests you adopt strategic patience. Strategic patience is the ability to do the work without any guarantee of success, to toil without accolades, or recognition. Accept that things will take longer than you expect. It is writing that blog when no one reads it, to test your ideas and eventually develop a following. You will not be able to see progress on a weekly, monthly, or maybe even a yearly basis. Big goals are not achievable in the short term. But most things can be achieved in the long term and your efforts will not be incremental, eventually, they will be exponential. The first step is to clear the decks and create White Space for yourself. Why are you so busy that you cannot find the time for things that are important? Research has shown that busyness is equated with higher social status in some societies, generally Western-orientated societies. If we are busy, we are in high demand, we are being sought after. We tell folks we are super busy to make sure they know it. Busyness can be an anesthetic, when we are busy there is no time to ask ourselves the more difficult questions. Do I know where I and my business are going? As a solo entrepreneur, busyness may create an illusion of success; you earn more as you spend more time at work. But trading dollars for hours limits your earning potential. There are only 168 hours in a week, and you cannot work all of them. In the corporate world, busyness is often equated to dedication and commitment. Post covid, face time is less obvious, jumping on a zoom call at 8:00 PM or answering an e-mail at 5:00 AM creates the same illusion. There are probably many inefficiencies in your day, things you put up and probably do not even know it. If you allow your working hours to expand, you will likely never address these inefficiencies. Things like tasks that should be outsourced, but which you do yourself because training someone will take time. But if you adjust your priorities to focus on what is important to you, you will no longer accept these inefficiencies, you will take action to eliminate them. You will ask yourself
David Allen, author of the well-recognized productivity guide, “Getting Things Done” says “You do not need time to have a good idea, you need space. And you cannot think appropriately if you do not have space in your head” You do not need to set aside hundreds of hours for long-term thinking, but you do need to give yourself time to think. Agatha Christie is quoted as saying the best time for planning a book is when doing the dishes. Today many of us crave input. We constantly look at social media, scrolling for hours through Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram. I watch folks during my commute staring at their phones. Give yourself time to produce some output. I make it a habit not to look at my phone during my commute, instead I let my mind wander. Occasionally an idea for developing my business comes to mind. Then I need to find the time to act. Tags: How to grow a business, achieve business success, employee individualism, self-assessment, motivation, the successful entrepreneur, business common mistakes small business start-up; avoid these common mistakes; IBGR.network, Jeremy Gray, Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems  Episode 34 To find success, learn the power of no. When Nancy Reagan, wife of then-President Ronald Reagan was visiting a primary school in California she told the kids “Just say no” to drugs. This was later used as a slogan in the campaign against drugs in the US during the early 1980s. But as we know many people have difficulty saying no to drugs, and many entrepreneurs have difficulty saying no to requests for meetings, to speak at events, to do write a guest blog, anything to raise their profile. When I stated out, fell into this trap, if someone who seemed to have a chance of providing me with a lead or a gig I would agree to meet them. Usually at a place convenient for them, they were a potential customer after all. I have spoken pro bono at many CFO conferences and even made Podcasts for that giant ERP provider SAP. All without payment and all for little return. Do not make my mistake, it’s not easy, but learn to say no. You can do better than me Why is hard to say no? It is flattering to be asked to speak at a conference, even more flattering to be invited back again. We get a sense of pride from being asked to meet up with someone, to be in demand. And there is that nagging doubt that if I turn down this invitation, I will miss out on a plum assignment or opportunity. FOMO Fear of missing out. You will have no problem turning down obvious time wasters, or saying yes to clear opportunities, would you like to speak at our conference? We will pay for first class fights, a five star hotel and $20,000 for the day. It’s in the middle that we can get into trouble. The offer to speak without pay at a high-profile conference where potential clients may be present, doing a podcast for an internationally recognized company, doing a favor for a colleague who may be able to help you out later. Knowing it is hard to say no to such requests, set some rules for yourself.
Choose what you are bad at. As a startup or newbie solopreneur, there is a strong temptation to be all things to all potential clients, this is the path to mediocracy. No one wants to admit they are bad at anything within their area of competency but consciously choosing what you are bad at will, paradoxically increase your chances of success. As a part-time CFO many potential clients expect me to be good at accounting, treasury, tax, raising funds, etc. And while I will likely know more than the client, this is not my area of expertise. Engagements that require these skills I turn down, even if I am desperate for work. I have decided to be bad at this aspect of a CFO’s core competency. An example provided in Dorie Clark’s book is of a bank that decided to commit itself to being open at hours convenient to its customers. This is an expensive undertaking. How did the bank achieve its goal? It chose to be abysmal at paying interest on deposit accounts. Asked, if would you like lousy returns on your investments, most investors would say no. But to the customer segment served by the bank, convenient hours more than outweighed the lack of return on their money. Being focused is the key to success for any business or solo entrepreneur. Saying yes to everything means being average at everything. What are you going to chose to be bad at? What are you going to say no to? Use a checklist Check lists work, they are mandatory for pilots or doctors preparing for an operation. When evaluating whether to say no Dorie Clark suggests you ask the following four questions: What is the total time commitment? You probably think you have a basic idea of how long something will take. But many of us, myself included, are overly optimistic about estimating how long a project will take. The solution is to think through every aspect of the job. Background tasks that need to be completed, unspoken but expected obligations. You may learn you do not have the time and need to say no. What is the opportunity cost? The decision is not whether to host a webinar or not. The decision is whether to do the webinar or do something else. And that something else does not need to be work-related. Spend four hours preparing and presenting the webinar or spend four hours with your family. The webinar may well be the best use of your time, but do consider what else you could be doing with those precious four hours. What is the physical and emotional cost? An offer that on the face of it seems attractive, present to an audience at an upscale beach resort, may not be so attractive when you consider that fitting it in will require a red eye flight and the hassle of customs and immigration in both directions. That’s why you need to understand the hidden costs before you say yes. It’s hard to say no to an invitation you have accepted once you realize the unanticipated pitfalls. Would I feel bad in a year if I did not do this? Jeff Bezos had an excellent position and outstanding career prospects when he quit his job to found Amazon. He knew if he did not try to launch his business he would always regret it. Even though he only estimated his chances of success at 30%. But most opportunities you are offered, if you do not accept them, a year from now you will likely not even remember them.  Episode 35 Taking the Long Game View – Making the impossible, possible When setting objectives for our careers whether entrepreneurial or corporate we often default to monetary goals. That’s why business degrees are so popular, they appear to offer a more direct route to well-paid employment. But one of the best aspects of being an entrepreneur is that you can focus your activities on what interests you. Dorie Clark calls it “optimize for interesting”. One of my greatest regrets is that I spent my corporate career in a company that made products that really did not fire my imagination. My hobbies were fishing, boating, and aviation, not construction chemicals. When considering where your business should take you, evaluate what you are already doing. What catches and holds your interest? Set big goals for yourself. It may seem to you, that making a living out of what interests you is impossible, so you elect to pay it safe. After all who wants to be loser. By playing the long game, however, what appears to be impossible becomes possible. Making a living doing what you enjoy may not be possible in a year, two years or even five or more but given enough time you will be able to achieve success. If a goal is worth pursuing it is worth pursuing the version you really want, not a watered-down version that protects your ego. Big goals can seem paralyzing, how do I write the next New York Times best-selling novel? But big goals with small consistent steps can be the motivating force you need to achieve something powerful. Even if the odds seem overwhelming today. Your goals do not need to be world shattering like to be the next Steve Jobs. My objective is to earn as much as I did as a corporate executive but working no more than 20 hours a week. Today that is not possible, based on the rates I can currently command I would have to work around 60 hours a week. I am sure that over the next five to seven years I will be able to achieve this goal. But if I set the goal of being able to triple my rates in one year, I would almost certainly fail. That’s the power of the long game. Do not be constrained by what is possible now. Think about where you want to be in the future. Twenty percent time – find the time to experiment. 3M allowed its employees 15% of their time for experimentation, which famously led to the Post-it note. Google went one step further “We encourage our employees, in addition to their regular projects, to spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google” Of course, this became known as 120% time, as that 20% became additional to regular working hours. Only 10% of Google employees make use of 20% time. Not too surprising in a busy environment, highlighting the difficulty of carving out time to experiment, and time to think. But if you find a way to carve out 20% time you will be in rare company. And the results will have the potential to transform your business. We all have times when we are least productive, for me it is after lunch. I turn this into an asset in a couple of ways. Firstly, I do not eat lunch until after 2:00 PM, thus lengthening my productive mornings. The secret of achieving this is, of course, to have a good breakfast. Secondly, I buy audiobooks, such as the subject of this radio show, Dorie Clark’s Long View. I listen while I eat, all the time making notes of the ideas on how to improve my business that is prompted by what I am listening to. Plus, I get the content for my radio show. You will have read the research that the human brain is not suited to multitasking. If you are on a Zoom call and writing e-mails at the same time you are not giving full attention to either. But there are some tasks that are complementary where multitasking can save you time. Such as eating lunch and listening to audiobooks. If you take public transport to work you can read a book that motivates you. If you drive another opportunity to listen to new ideas. Dorie Clark states that she has found an additional 29% of time this way. Do not be afraid to think in decades. There is a well-known saying that we overestimate what we can achieve in day, but underestimate what can be achieved in a year. Think about where you could be ten years from now. Sadly, many entrepreneurs get so caught up in their day-to-day activities that a year flies by with no real progress. By setting long-term goals and developing the ability to invest in 20% time which, like the power of compound interest, will pay exponential dividends. What seems small maybe not even measurable steps will put a massive distance between you and your competition. No one is going to hand you development opportunities on a plate. You need to seek them out proactively. Consider devoting 20% of your time to explore new areas. That’s enough time to get a good sense of whether you will enjoy something and whether it has the potential to get you where you want to be. But not so much of an investment that it would ruin you if it did not work out. The best time to start something new is when you are in a strong position. Do not wait until you are in trouble to look for the next thing – begin planning now. A ten-year plan is not too long. There are very few, if any, overnight successes. Audacious goals take time to come to fruition. Small steps deliver exponential returns. Tags: How to grow a business, achieve business success, employee individualism, self-assessment, motivation, the successful entrepreneur, business common mistakes small business start-up; avoid these common mistakes; IBGR.network, Jeremy Gray, Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems  Episode 36 Continually reinvent yourself – Think in Waves.
That you cannot do it all at once is obvious, nor should you try if you are playing the long game. But do not fall into a trap that many professionals fall into. Which is finding an activity you are good at, and keep doing that forever. This leads to frustration as you begin to feel you have plateaued. Often this is because they have overplayed their strengths and ignored areas where they are weak, or they are afraid to take a chance on something new Heads Up, Heads Down. Articulated by Jared Kleinert an Atlanta-based entrepreneur. Heads Up, Heads Down provides guidance on how to avoid the shiny object syndrome, the difficulty many of us face in avoiding chasing the next big thing. There is no shame in trying other things, but only when you are in Heads Up mode, where you are looking for opportunities, But not when you should be Heads Down mode, the time when you are focused on execution, getting stuff done. Doubling down on what is working or investing time in a possibility you have not yet fully vetted its true potential. Rapidly shifting between Heads Up and Heads Down mode leads to heartache. How you schedule your time between Heads Up and Heads Down mode depends on your circumstances. Dorie Clark schedules 3 to 6 months blocks of time for each activity. But Dorie is well established, not many of us will be able to afford to spend 3 to 6 months looking for new opportunities, we have to put food on the table. But the key is to avoid the distraction of chasing each shiny new object that catches our attention when we should be focused on delivery. A different approach to the same concept advocated in her book The Long Game is thinking in waves. Dorie Clark has identified four waves that can lead you to become a recognized expert in your field. They are Learning, Creating, Connecting, and Reaping. Transitioning through these four phases, smoothly will keep you growing, developing, and moving forward. Avoid hanging onto one wave for too long which will lead to frustration and lack of progress, Learning, as its name implies, is the phase when you are learning all you can about the topic you are interested in or focused on. Research the latest books on the subject, read online articles, and if appropriate take online courses or attend training programs. The potential trap is that you spend too much time gaining qualifications, adding one more to your resume, while spending too little time on business-building opportunities. Learning your craft is an essential first step, but if you want to be recognized for the unique contribution you can make, you need to move on to the second wave of creating. Take what you have learned, and consider what seems right to you, and what seems to be wrong. By sorting and sifting the information through the lens of your experience and knowledge you will develop content that is unique to you. This could be in the form of a newsletter, a blog, or a podcast. Likely they will not attract a lot of attention at first, but if your content is compelling then your audience will grow. When I started this radio show my podcasts did not attract any attention. Now I am getting around 400 downloads a month, still not a vast audience but it is growing and in a year’s time who knows where it will be? Plus, I am learning new ideas with every show I write. Do not waste the material you produce, if you write a blog, consider using the text for a podcast. Post excerpts on LinkedIn or Medium. Make yourself findable by the clients you would most like to work with. Connecting. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know that’s important, is a well-known phrase. I was recently rejected by a client because I did not have connections within the sector they worked in. Building a network is crucial for the solo entrepreneur. When you start out your initial enthusiasm to create content will sustain you for a while, but if after 3 or 6 months with little visible progress how do you keep going? For me IBGR is a godsend, I must produce 4 podcasts a week, if I do not I will let down friends and colleagues. So even on those weeks when I seem to have too much to do I carve out the time to prepare my show. But if you do not have a show-time deadline to meet, your connections can help keep you motivated. Connections will help you discover new ideas, expose you to new communities, and provide general encouragement. Playing the long game will result in you building up more and more valuable connections over time. Again, do not do this to excess, building a network is important but so is moving your business forward. This brings us to the fourth and final wave Reaping. You have learned your craft, you have created content, and made connections. It’s taken some time but now you are recognized as an expert in your field, even if this is only in your town. Let the good times roll, you command higher fees, you are in demand, and you making the income you desire. But are you as good as you can be? Reaping is not your final destination. You should not be happy with a thing that used to be. People say I used to be a CEO. I was a soccer player. In his hit song Glory Days Bruce Springsteen sings how he hopes when he gets older he does not sit around thinking about past glory days but acknowledges that he probably will. What delivered success in the past will not deliver success in the future. It’s time to start the four waves from the beginning and to re-invent yourself. This is the long game, you are not ready for retirement just yet. To get more done alternate between Heads Up, seeking new opportunities, and Head Down when you focus on execution. You cannot do it all, at least not all at the same time, so follow the career waves.
Do not stop learning, it will be soon time to repeat the cycle so you do not stagnate. Tags: How to grow a business, achieve business success, employee individualism, self-assessment, motivation, the successful entrepreneur, business common mistakes small business start-up; avoid these common mistakes; IBGR.network, Jeremy Gray, Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems I am committed to helping entrepreneurs succeed. I can bring the experience of 30+ years of experience at the C-Suite level in an MNC from Europe, North America, and Asia. Combine this with eight years of helping a diverse range of businesses and I can provide you with practical solutions to any difficult problems you may be facing. Please do not hesitate to contact me for chat via the following links: mailto:jeremy@business-in-asia.org Or schedule time via Calendly: https://calendly.com/3-continents-consulting My websites include: https://business-in-asia.org/ https://thedentistscfo.com/ My LinkedIn URL https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-gray1
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