Tuesday, November 30, 2010

What If?


What is holding you back?

What is keeping you from going forward?

Every once in awhile we need to ask ourselves a few questions like a 2 year old.

When I think of 2 year old toddlers, I think of their persistence in asking, "Why?"

They ask it to the point of driving parents and grandparents nuts.

But most are eventually told, "That's the way it is, now go away".

And as we age, we begin to stop asking.

Not everyone stops, but the majority just stop and instead of asking they start complaining.

It's why satisfaction with our government is at an all time low.

Even with the historic election in 2008 of President Obama, two years later the level of discontent with our government is back to before he was elected.

But instead of talking about what is not right, let's start talking about what we can do.

And not what someone else can do.

Start talking about what you can do.

Start asking why.

Question everything.

It started a revolution 50 years ago.

It is occurring in our lives all around us in small and not-so-insignificant matters too.

For example, video tape.

In April 2009 we borrowed a video camera to record an event that my wife wanted recorded. It had a mini video cassette and we were disappointed with the quality. 18 months later, we borrowed a digital video camera and the result was 1000% better.

These tiny revolutions are going on all around us and changing the way people communicate, do business, and it doesn't matter if you accept these changes, because they are happening with out you.

There is a slow down coming.

If you are in business to business sales like me, the month of December and the beginning of January are slow. If you are in retail, then your slow down starts at the end of this holiday madness.

Start by asking yourself some of these why questions regarding what you do and the way you do it. Ask some what if questions too.

The answers are there.

2 comments:

  1. 25 years ago I was a district manager for an exterior home remodeling company that had an office in Ft. Wayne. Now, everyone in home remodeling knows you might as well take the holidays off. New windows and doors are hard to wrap and the little ones cry if that is their present...anyway the new, young, sales manager of the Ft. Wayne branch asked why? He wondered what would happen if he did not buy in to this assumption. He found out. At the time the company had 70+ offices in 40 some states. The Ft. Wayne office set the all time December record and changed the culture of the entire organization. All because one driven young man asked, why should it be slow?

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  2. I agree. Randy, we discovered that the reason the radio business was slow in the first quarter was simply due to the busyness of the previous quarter had side tracked us from doing our regular prospecting and getting new clients on the air.

    I wrote this piece as a self-reminder because there are times that no matter how open minded we try to be, we do get stuck in ruts that once recognized we can escape.

    Thanks Randy for sharing your story.

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