Yes x – Andrew Horder- The Busy Fool from Brian Abram on Vimeo.

This story is usually used to suggest we are all focused on the wrong things, and we should slow down and appreciate the good things in life. Like a free concert by a top violinist. Or birdsong. Or the trees and flowers. Or each other.

The fact is, it wasn’t the harried commuters who were responsible for the music going unappreciated. It was Mr Bell’s (or, to be precise, The Washington Post, who put him up to it). He was performing his art – very well, by all accounts – in the wrong place, at the wrong time. In the wrong context. Even if the commuters had the time to stop and listen, who wants to stand for an hour in a drafty subway station with dodgy acoustics, even for the best of music?

If you want people to appreciate what you do, to find value in it, to willingly pay you for it, you have to offer it to them in the context that makes it valuable for them.  So the question to ask yourself is: where in your life and business are you trying to amaze people with your skills, to persuade people with your eloquence, to waylay people with your marketing … when the context is just plain wrong?

So I’m sorry Bananarama (& The Fun Boy 3), you’re wrong, it’s not what you do and it’s not the way that you do it that gets results – it’s the context you do it in.

I came in from the shed, and sat at my PC, only to find this insight, shared by my great friends Gareth and Jeroen, otherwise known as Ego Invenio:

So in 2012, keep your focus on what you can do well, and brings joy to your heart, not on what others seem to do better than you.  And forget about striving for perfection.  Because perfection is simply not possible – if you were really perfect, you’d be unbearable for all those around you!

Have a great 2012!

PS: To review how near to perfect you got in 2011, and to plan your imperfection for 2012, grab  your personal copy of my “PROUD” yearly (and daily) review templates here: http://private.thebusyfool.com/p-r-o-u-d-templates

PPS: If you need some help to discover your true Focus, those activities and opportunities that you love, and will create your success, take a look at my Find Your Focus e-course – for a limited time, it’s completely free and you’ll get amazing results -  if you really focus on completing it: http://private.thebusyfool.com

Normally, I just throw that sort of thing away, but this one I kept – as a Jaguar driver, it spoke directly to me.  And when I remembered shortly afterwards that I needed to renew the MOT roadworthiness test on my Jaguar, guess who I called?  And he did my brakes the following week, and all my servicing from then on.  And I refer other Jaguar owners to him, as well.

If that card had just said “Automobile Technician”, it’s very doubtful I’d have called him.  After all, why would I trust my pride and joy to just any mechanic?  Knowing that he specialises (niches) in Jags, I’m comfortable that my motor will get the attention it deserves, so now James gets all my servicing business.

All because he niched.

• What I did this week
• What I didn’t get done this week
• What I need some help with

The idea is that typically bosses don’t really notice what their team actually achieve, only taking notice when things go wrong.  So pointing out what you’ve done for them helps them to value you more.

Sooo … how does that apply to entrepreneurs and to Focus?

You might remember a blog I wrote a long time ago: BE your own boss – in which I reminded you that being your own boss means you have to manage yourself.  Well, this is the reverse – as your employee, you also have to make sure that the “boss you” is aware of all the good things you’ve achieved each week.  Because you are almost certainly achieving loads, but “boss you” is probably being harder on you than they would on any other employee, and focusing only on what didn’t happen, or expecting you to produce the results without the support or training you need.

So make a point of bringing all your positive achievements to “boss you”s attention – write yourself a report every Friday afternoon, listing everything you’ve got done, and any targets missed – and don’t forget to include the things you need some help with.

Then, as a good boss, provide the help you need, and most importantly, give yourself some appreciation – maybe even a nice reward -  for all your achievements!

This week was one of those moments.  Sharif was raving about the  latest promotion line he’d found: a 24in monitor – and he showed me the. web-page he’d created for it, and the e-mail he was going to send.  It wasn’t the monitor itself that made me sit up and take notice (well … it did, I’ve now got one on order), it was the reason Sharif gave for why every entrepreneur should have one – good time management!!

I’ll let Sharif’s words from the e-mail explain:

You can see what he’s on about on the special web page …

So, while I generally focus on the softer stuff, around motivations and core aspirations, sometimes a bit of technological help can go a long way in staying focused and making the most of your best opportunities!

Action – Activity Creating Tangible Identified Outcomes, Now!  When activity is focussed on creating a particular outcome, it can contribute to the success or the enterprise, it can get you where you want to go.  But even Action has its drawbacks.  The trouble with action comes when the outcomes (even if they’re intended) don’t gel together to create Traction.

Traction – TR-action: Targetted Relevant Action.  When all the actions a business takes are all headed in the same direction, and all contribrute to a particular larger goal, you start to get traction, real progress.  And with that progress comes Attraction.

Attraction – AT-traction: Alignment Towards Traction.    We’re not talking woo-woo, Law of Attraction, sit-and-dream-and-it-will-fall-in-your-lap attraction here.  We’re talking, when all your activity is aligned, when it is all relevant, when it is all targetted on creating something real, something that you can identify as a concrete outcome, then you will attract the resourtces and support you need.  Because people will see that you are an achiever, someone who makes things happen.

As Emerson said: “The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going”.

So that’s it: Action – Traction – Attraction. 

Alignment Towards Targetted Relevant Activity Creating Tangible Identified Outcomes Now!

See more in this video:

© Blaze Firewalking

So you won’t be surprised to hear that when a friend asked me, a week ago, if I fancied ‘making up the numbers’ for a charity firewalk, I leapt at the chance.  It’s something I’d never done before, and always wanted to.  So that’s how I found myself at Atkins Global (who were hosting the event, for TheStudio ADHD Centre) in Epsom on Friday night, sitting down to Blaze Firewalking‘s delightfully-named “Learn or Burn” training session for the volunteer firewalkers.

Most of the volunteers had had plenty of notice, and plenty of time to get sponsorship – as I’d only heard about it about a week before, mine so far consisted of myself and my long-suffering wife.  (It’s not too late to sponsor me though, and it is a good cause: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AndrewHorder )  All apart from the one very brave lady who was persuaded to do it on the night – I hope her friends honour her courage and spontaneity with plenty of sponsorship!  And as well as not having had time to do much in the way of sponsorship, I also hadn’t had time to do much in the way of research either.  Or getting nervous.  Several people commented on how calm I seemed; I wasn’t calm, just ill-informed.

So it came as a bit of a surprise when “Fire-Master” Tony’s training included the bit about “there’s no tricks, the core of the fire you’ll be walking over really is 1236 degrees Fahrenheit (to put that in perspective, aluminium is a liquid at about 1100F!)”.  And the bit where he said “no, there’s no nice cool layer of ash over the top, that’s just burning embers you’ll be trotting across”.  And when he said “even after we’ve poured buckets and buckets of water over it after your walk, the fire bed’s going to take ages to cool down”.  Yikes!  This is real fire-walking then!

Nonetheless, two hours later, there I was with the rest of the team, as Tony took us close to the fire to feel the heat radiating from it – just so that we’d always know that this was real, there was genuine heat coming off that fiery track we’d soon be walking.  We lined up, ready and raring to go – like the rest I couldn’t wait to singe my hairy feet on the 20ft runway of red-hot glowing embers. Summer from Blaze showed us the way, quickly followed by one after another of the volunteers, striding across the heat to the uproarious encouragement of the supporters and onlookers.

And suddenly it was my turn.  “Are you ready?” Fire-Master Tony shouted.  “Oooh, yessss!” I affirmed, as I stepped confidently forward into the darkness, the only light being the fire at my feet stretching out in front of me.  If I’m honest, about 2/3 of the way across I got a distinct feeling of something more than warmth underfoot, and I picked up the pace somewhat (not that I was dawdling in the first place, you understand!). And before I knew it, I was off the other end, my feet enjoying the cool dampness of the grass as I punched the air in triumph.

So, what did I learn from this new experience?  Well, not that I can do the impossible – I already knew I could do this, never doubted it for a moment (ill-informed, over-confident? … who knows).  I’ve known for ages that I can do pretty much anything if I focus enough on it.  And do it.  I said at the beginning, I’ve wanted to do a fire-walk for ages.  So why hadn’t I?  Inertia, mainly.  Both this and the Three Peaks had been reactive – the opportunity had presented itself, and I’d taken it.  I could say my learning was “Carpe Diem”, seize the day – but that’s not it.

Despite being with a bunch of people I mainly didn’t know, I really enjoyed my fire-walk, so much so that I thought to myself as I drove out of the car-park afterwards: “That was great!  Why didn’t I do this ages ago?”  And that was my lesson: make your own opportunities – focus on finding ways to do the things I want to achieve, don’t wait for them to land in my lap!

Day Two finale: turning back on Snowdon.  So there we were, about half-way up the Pyg Track, pitch dark, pelting rain, tired after the two previous mountains, and we got hit with a gale-force gust that literally stopped up in our tracks.  I was the first over the little pass, after Pere – when the wind hit, it ripped my hood off and I stopped, head down, body angled into the wind, feet planted firmly to hold my ground, clutching my hiking poles for dear life.  As the wind abated slightly, we retreated into the lee of the rocks to consider our next move.

I know Pere was desperate for us to make it to the top – he’d already completed the challenge 3 times, and Kate had done it once.  But Ben, Rajan, Maike and I hadn’t, so he was reluctant to call it off.  He calmly gave us the facts – including the one that we were only about half-way there.  And we had our final lesson, probably the big one, Lesson Ten: Discretion really is the better part of valour!

We could go on, and we’d probably make it – but in those conditions, maybe we wouldn’t?  And maybe we’d end up calling out the Mountain Rescue teams, putting their lives in jeopardy too.  We knew that if we’d asked for advice before setting out onto the mountain, we’d have got an unequivocal “don’t even think about it!”, and did we really want to go down as the sort of people who let a challenge blind them to common sense?  So, disappointing though it was, we called it a day, and started the still-arduous trek back down fearsome Yr Wyddfa.  Don’t ever let anyone tell you Snowdon’s an easy mountain!

Back at the car park, we headed for the toilets to strip off our wet gear.  And most of us found that our wet-weather preparations in the cramped back of the minibus hadn’t been as thorough as they could have been!  I stripped off my waterproof over-trousers and was pleasantly surprised at how dry my legs were.  Then my jacket, again a nice surprise that my shoulders and chest were pretty dry – so how come I felt so flipping wet?  Grabbing the bottom of my fleece, all became clear – I’d left it sticking out below my jacket, over the top of my over-trousers, and it had neatly wicked all the rain running down my jacket straight to my midriff!

Others (apart, I think, from Rajan with his full Goretex kit-out) suffered similar fates, and we were very grateful that the ever-resourceful Ben managed to persuade the manager of the Hostel over the road to let us use their games lounge to change into some dry clothes.

Nonetheless, we were still a pretty soggy bunch as we headed through the night back to London, driven by the indefatigable Kate and Pere.  My thanks go to both of them for their fantastic support and hard work over the whole weekend.

So, that was my 3 Peaks weekend – ten great lessons for life and for business, and three days of great companionship.  Would I do it again?  In all honesty, probably not (though Pere’s taking a team on Eric Edmeade’s Kilimanjaro challenge next year).  Would I recommend it to anyone?  Absolutely!

* Lite version, over 2 days.

Day Two reprise: climbing Snowdon.  As we started off up Snowdon, the darkness fell and the rain continued, so we each had to take responsibility for maintaining connection with the person behind us – it was no longer viable for Pere to keep checking to the back of the group.

It didn't look this inviting for us!

As we crossed over to the exposed side of the slope, we felt the full force of the wind for the first time – gusts that felt like gale force, and horizontal rain beating our faces.  With the poor visibility, we had to keep stopping while Pere scouted ahead to make sure we were on the right track – the Pyg Track’s quite clear in decent visibility, but there are points where it climbs up rocky areas and in the dark and wind and rain it’s easy to go off track.

It quickly became clear that I was falling a bit behind – not miles behind, but enough to be noticeable.  So very early on Pere called me up to the middle of the group, so that we wouldn’t get too strung out.  A big lesson there, Lesson Nine: You’re only as strong as your weakest link, so look after it.  If I’d faltered, the whole team would have had to turn back, as only Pere really knew the way up or down in the dark, so it was in everyone’s interests to keep me going – which they did very well, especially Pere and Kate (who had decided to join us for this last mountain, having completed the challenge in May).  Up until that message from the Gods, anyway!

I learned something for myself too, a sort of Lesson 9a: it’s OK to be the weakest link, so long as you don’t actually break!

And there’s one final lesson to come, possibly the biggest of the lot …

* Lite version, over 2 days.