In part i of this post, I spoke about how I believed that the real key to success over the long term was planning, preparing, research.
Over the years, as I have developed and grown in business, and the people that I now do business with are at a whole different level, in order to keep up with them, I have also had to develop in other areas as well as the above. Areas such as improving my listening skills, talking less being precise and to the point.
The people that I now deal with, are very clever people, hugely successful, the elites of society, and have made it this far in business for a reason. I am not at their level yet, so when I go into meetings, I have to be ahead of them, and the only way I can be ahead of them is to plan thoroughly beforehand.
I have also found that when you get to higher levels of business, you cannot waffle, you must go into your meetings with a very clear strategy and know exactly what you want to achieve. This is done through bullet points, and keeping things very simple, clean, and precise.
If I don’t do my homework, I will get found out, and I won’t get a second meeting, so I make sure I don’t leave any room for error, and if I don’t get the results that I want, it’s never a lack of effort, planning, or strategy from my part, it’s just that it’s not for them.
I will never go into a meeting or deal without giving it the best of my ability, and if you want to be successful, my advice would be to always give it your best, never go into anything half-heartedly.
When I first started out in business, I was very young, it was all about me, whereas the vision is very different now. It’s about growing and developing and learning from people.
You will also find that the higher the level of people that you deal with, the more successful you will become, the more confidence you will have. The more you will grow, it’s also very important to always keep that vision and end goal in mind.
I always say to my kids aim for an A*, you might end up with an A, if you aim for a C, you may end up with a D. Your vision and your belief must be high, in order to go after something really big.
The other reason why I am such a big advocate of planning and preparation, is because the times in my life when I didn’t do my research and plan correctly, I got badly burnt. An example was when I was buying property in the UK many years ago.
I ended up losing on deals because of my ego, I thought I knew better, rather than listening and learning and understanding the market, things such as why I was buying something, what my strategy was to buy, what my strategy was to get out.
The market said it was a good time to buy and I bought. It was wrong, because you don’t know what deal is at what level, unless you have a strategy to get in and get out, and you have a thought process, as to how to do it, and when to do it, it’s very difficult to be successful over the long term.
You might hit lucky once, twice, however longevity and success in business with that attitude won’t get you far.
This level of organisation also comes from routine and consistency, it’s almost like being a robot. No matter what anyone says, you’ve got to be consistent. If you want to get fit you don’t get fit overnight, and results don’t come quickly, it takes time to put weight on, it also takes time to lose weight.
So, when people want to lose weight, if they don’t see results quickly, people give up. You can’t do that; you’ve got to be consistent with everything that you do in life.
This lesson in this post is really to emphasise, and it doesn’t matter what level you are at; that you must have a clear vision and always aim high. If you aim high, you will also fall to a higher place.
Be consistent in everything that you do, be it the gym or a business journey that you embark upon. Have routine, and stick to it, you may not see results straight away, but keep going, after all Rome wasn’t built in a day.
You may also lose at some things, that is life, but if you can look in the mirror and say wholeheartedly that I did everything to the best of my ability, that is fine, and I promise you, that if you continue to be consistent, do your best at everything that you set out to do, over the years you will become more successful.
The journey will always have challenges, highs and lows and there are lessons to be learnt along the way, but when you get to the other side it will be worth it, and you will also have grown and evolved as a person.
I always write these posts based on areas that have been important for my business success, and things that I observe in other successful people. I always try to keep my posts as real and authentic as possible, and my intention is that you always take something away from them and keep being inspired to chase your own goals and dreams, whatever challenges and hurdles you face along the way.
So, keep dreaming, keep going.
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