​S8 E33-36 Your personal goals need a long term strategy with Jeremy Gray

Jeremy Gray – Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems
IBGR. Network. The World of Business at Your Fingertips

​Season 8 Episode 33 to 36. Your personal goals need a long term strategy. 
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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, 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 and 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, writing a blog. These take time, as it is likely you are hustling as hard and as fast as you possibly can. 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.   To 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 on 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 clear the decks and create White Space for yourself.

Ask yourself

• Why am I doing this task at all? Can someone else do it? Or should it be done at all?
• Where should I focus my effort to get the greatest return?
• If I was starting fresh today, would I choose to continue to invest my time in this project? 

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” 
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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

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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 write a guest blog, anything to raise their profile. 

Why is it hard to say no? It is flattering to be asked to speak at a conference, even more flattering to be asked 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 if I turn down this invitation will I be missing 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 first class flights, 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.

• Do not rearrange your schedule to accommodate the meeting, insist on a time and location that is convenient for you. If they are that anxious to meet you they will be to accept this arrangement
• Do not meet people just because they ask. Insist on knowing why they want to meet, what is their objective for the meeting. And then decide if it is worth your time.  Asking for additional information will weed out a lot of requests, you will find once they have to do some work, i.e. take the time to explain the purpose of the meeting, a lot of folks lose interest.
• Unless you are wildly enthusiastic about a pro bono opportunity, asked to get paid. Your time is one of your most valuable assets, why give it away?

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 by consciously choosing what you are bad at will, paradoxically increase your chances of success. 

An example provided in Dorie Clark’s book is of a bank that decided to commit itself to be 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. If asked, 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 to 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 suggest you ask the following four questions:

What is the total time commitment? 
What is the opportunity cost? 
What is the physical and emotional cost?
Would I feel bad in a year if I did not do this?
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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.

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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 objectives. 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. 

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 normal working hours. 

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 audio books. 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 he 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. 

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.
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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

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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 simply 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 on a possibility you have not yet fully vetted its true potential.

A different approach to the same concept advocated in his book The Long Game is thinking in waves. Dorie Clark has identified four waves that can lead you to becoming a recognized expert in you field. They are Learning, Creating, Connecting and Reaping. By 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. 

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 onto the second wave creating. Take what you have learned, 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. 

Connecting.  It’s not what you know, it’s who you know that’s important, is a well know phrase. 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? 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. The fourth and final wave is 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. Let the good times roll, you command higher fees, you are in demand and you making a good living. But are you as good as you can be? Reaping is not your final destination. 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.

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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