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What’s your higher purpose?
Posted Jan 21st, 2011 By Andrew Horder in A Better World, Clarity & Focus, Loving your Work, Motivation & Management With | 1 Comment

Loving Your Work: Motivation

Many people think that they will be happy in their job if they can just get paid a bit more. In my experience, and from what clients and colleagues tell me, that’s rarely the case. The whole point of my mission to help you to do what you love for a living is that it’s something that you’d do even if you weren’t getting paid at all!

Where people have most success in turning what they love into a living, is where they’re doing it for some higher purpose, something bigger than themselves. That can range from all-encompassing goals like ending hunger or creating world peace to projects that just affect your local community or your spiritual group, your church synagogue, temple or mosque. Or it may be as simple and powerful as wanting your family to have everything they need. Quite why this greater purpose makes people better at sticking at it until they can make a living doing what they love is open to debate, but I have my own theories.

Most of us have been brought up to think of work as something to be endured, something you do under duress, something done out of some kind of duty. So to spend your working life doing something you actually love seems kind of cheeky, something to be a bit guilty about. After all, who do we think we are, having fun in our work for goodness sake! And that slight feeling of guilt makes us just a little bit less certain of our decision to create a work we can love. In turn, that uncertainty makes us less prepared to fight for our inalienable right to pursue happiness in our work.

But when you have a higher purpose, it’s no longer just about having fun, it’s all about your family, your spiritual group, it’s all about saving the world! And now you’re proud to stand up and stand out and say, “I love my work”. Just don’t forget, you have to love the work itself. A chore being done for a grand purpose is still a chore, and will not be done with joy if the task itself isn’t something you can love. So by all means have a higher purpose that makes your work even more fulfilling – and serve that purpose doing work you love.

As an aside, as I was re-reading this post, I thought of this …

To Build Your Inspired Business – Start With 'Why?'

You might want to listen to this recording of one of Nick William’s talks recently – To Build Your Inspired Business – Start With ‘Why?’ (click on the image to buy it). Nick runs the Inspired Entrepreneurs community based in London and with members across the world. The recording costs £14.99 to get, but here’s a tip – it’s available free to members, and Nick offers a 30-day trial membership for just £1! That not only includes access to all the talk recordings (there’s dozens of them!), it also gives entry to the London meetings each month – they cost £20, and there’s usually a book that Nick’s bought as a gift for us (I used to think Nick blagged them from the speakers, until an author friend of mine told me Nick had actually shelled out for 80-odd copies of her book when she spoke!) That’s the sort of chap he is.
Why Focus is important (video)
Posted Jan 3rd, 2011 By Andrew Horder in Audio and Video, Business Strategy Coaching, Clarity & Focus With | 1 Comment

Business Strategy Coaching

You may have read my post on the importance of Focus – well here’s a video version
Why I created Opportunity Matrix
Posted Jan 2nd, 2011 By Andrew Horder in Business Strategy Coaching, Clarity & Focus With | No Comments

People often ask what was behind the creation of Opportunity Matrix – this video helps explain why:
Wealth Dynamics: When is a shortcut not a shortcut?
Posted Nov 23rd, 2010 By Andrew Horder in Clarity & Focus, Decision Making, Motivation & Management With | 1 Comment

When talking about Wealth Dynamics, Roger Hamilton points out that successful people follow radically different paths to wealth. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett – for years the #1 and #2 richest men in the world – have completely different ways of being successful.

Gates had all his eggs in one basket, relying on innovating within Microsoft for his success. Buffett, on the other hand, grew his wealth by spreading Berkshire Hathaway’s assets amongst a number of stable businesses, and actively avoids technology stocks.

Hamilton’s conclusion, explained very well in the Wealth Dynamics concept, is that there are lots of different ways to become wealthy. And that each of us has one way that will work better for us than any of the others. So what is a direct route for me could easily be an unfulfiling short-cut for you. You may get some fleeting success, it may even come to you quicker, and if it’s taken you off your true path, the way that you, and you alone, add maximum value for others, that success is likely to be short-lived.

So are you learning from people like you – or are you trying to become someone you’re not?

Click on this link to take the Wealth Dynamics profile test and find your best path to wealth.
7 Truths of Wealth Dynamics
Posted Nov 4th, 2010 By Andrew Horder in Clarity & Focus With | No Comments

Interesting video here by Roger Hamilton, creator of Wealth Dynamics, the entrepreneur profiling system I use to understand and guide in creating effective teams:

For more info see the WealthDynamicsCentral site, or
Take the Wealth Dynamics Test
“Action always starts with calculation”
Posted Oct 26th, 2010 By Andrew Horder in Clarity & Focus, Decision Making, Motivation & Management With | No Comments

These days we are constantly harangued with the need to take action, not to just sit around wishing for good things to come to our business, LoA-style. But what about the need to plan, to analyse the opportunity, to truly understand how to get the most out of our best opportunities?

I’m just reviewing a free e-Book from business advisor Jonathan Farrington on his approach to Key Account Management. In it he quotes Chinese general Liu-Ji, writing over 600 years ago: “Action always starts with calculation. Before fighting, first assess the relative wisdom of the leadership, the relative strength of the enemy, the size of the armies, the lie of the land, and the adequacy of provisions. If you send troops out only after making these calculations, you will never fail to win”.

The trouble with analysis is that it often becomes a barrier to action, as different stakeholder groups call for research and analysis on a bewildering array of concerns. In small businesses, it can even become an excuse to avoid taking the risk of acting at all – “I’ll make my move just as soon as I’ve analysed ‘abc’ … ah, and I’d better make sure about ‘xyz’ too … oooh, come to think about it, ‘def’ might be a problem too, best wait until we’ve checked that out … and …” These are both aspects of the phenomenon known as “paralysis by analysis”. As I was copying out Liu-Ji’s list, I was thinking, “Blimey, this is going on a bit” and wondering if all these aspects really have to be analysed up-front. And yet, as Liu-Ji says, by analysing we can dramatically increase the chances of a “win”. So it seems the trick is to make sure you analyse the critical success factors, and get your understanding about the rest by ‘learning-by-doing’ – getting started and adjusting the plan as new information arrives.

The way I do opportunity analysis is to spend some time with a client really understanding what makes a good opportunity for them, then helping them to check all the opportunities being considered against those criteria, to identify the best ones, for them. I call it “Inquisitive Analysis” – because I look at the human side of things as well as just the numbers. One very important outcome of the process is an understanding of the vulnerabilities that will need to be fixed (either in the plan, or the individual!) – and whether they’re show-stoppers that need to be resolved before even starting out, or can we get going and deal with them ‘on the march’.

The right level of analysis might take a few hours of hard work, but it can save days and weeks of wasted effort later; and just as importantly, it can provide the reassurance and confidence to take that all-important first action.
FOCUS – Follow One Course Until Successful
Posted Oct 17th, 2010 By Andrew Horder in Uncategorized With | 1 Comment

Great acronym, eh? Or maybe it’s a recipe for disaster – certainly that’s what a lot of experienced business consultants tell me as I go around speaking on Focus. They remind me that Einstein said that it’s the definition of insanity to carry on doing the same thing, and expect a different result. And of course, they’re absolutely right.

What they’re missing, is that the FOCUS acronym doesn’t say “one track”, “one path”, “one thing” – it says “one course”. Just like an aircraft travelling from London to Paris doesn’t fly, undeviating, in a straight line, or a road through the mountains may need to take the odd twist and turn, our course to success may need the occasional deviation or correction.

And in business, we can even do a few different things that all have a common theme, and still be following a single course. It’s what author & journalist Katie Ledger calls a “red thread running through everything we do”. The trick is to arrive at a course that’s not too broad, or a thread that’s not too strained. The narrower our course, and the more relaxed and natural our thread, the easier it is for people to understand how we add value. And to engage with us or refer us.

My red thread is “helping people focus on what they’re great at, and they enjoy” (essentially, my Core Process) of “Encouraging Potential”), and I’m the first to admit that it does get a bit strained at the extremities. Some of it, like my key accounts work, I’m not actively promoting any longer, because it’s stretching the thread more than I want to. And some of it only seems to be a stretch – my computer business, Cloudberry, for instance. It may seem to be a bit removed from a business advice thread – in fact, the thread runs through it in two ways. The service itself frees independent entrepreneurs from worrying about their laptop crashing, and losing data if it does. And my business partner is brilliant at dreaming up exciting and effective new ways to do that, but he’s a complete disaster when it comes to admin; I love analysis and admin, so I free him from worrying about landlords and HMRC and stuff.

The trick is to understand where you add the most value, and set your steady ‘course’ towards it.
So your big product launch failed …
Posted Aug 11th, 2010 By Andrew Horder in Clarity & Focus, Sales and adding value With | 1 Comment

So, armed with a next-to-nothing budget and a half-way decent network, you tried to launch your new offering onto the world, and it just hasn’t taken off as you’d hoped. Don’t feel too bad about it … I’m reading Buyology
by branding expert Martin Lindstrom, and in the first chapter he reveals that on average 8 out of 10 US product launches fail in the first 3 months. And that’s with a total marketing spend of $117bn! Lindstrom seems to be saying that they fail because they simply don’t understand why people really buy.

So why did your launch not create the buzz you wanted, or indeed that sales? One reason that seems to come up often is that the message just wasn’t targetted to the audience well enough. They really couldn’t associate into the problem your offer solves, so they just didn’t see the value. That can come about because of a couple of related reasons – your list is too diverse, and you’re reluctant to use a message that excludes any of them.

The trouble with that is, although the message is applicable to everyone on your list, it doesn’t speak to any of them directly. Isn’t it better to have one person say “Yes, that’s me, this person really gets me and understands how to solve my problem – I’m calling them right now!” than to have a couple of dozen put your message into their “Kinda interesting, might be some use, take a closer look when I get time” folder? Because we all know that messages that go into that folder only ever come out at the annual slash-and-burn e-mail clear-out, don’t we!

So go on – pick one individual your product solves a specific problem for, and target a message just for them. There’s probably others just like them, or close enough to get that “Yes! That’s me!” response. And they probably hang about in the same places – so a message targetted at your pinpoint client will be seen by others who you can help too. Isn’t that a far better way to add value in the world than a ‘could-appeal-to-everyone-won’t-excite-anyone’ spamogram?
Are you driven?
Posted Jul 25th, 2010 By Andrew Horder in A Better World, Clarity & Focus, Motivation & Management With | 3 Comments

No, I don’t mean are you so successful you have a chauffeur! I mean are you driven to succeed? Do you feel some force behind you, propelling you forward, driving you to perform? Is there something that just won’t let you rest until you’ve got everything you set out to achieve?

Many entrepreneurs are like that – you can see it in the way they deal with life, letting nothing get in their way. They’re not brutal, or ruthless; nor are they unethical. They know what they want, and they make sure that if it’s there to be had, they get it. They won’t steal or take unfairly from others, but they will put themselves ahead of anybody else. And they’re constantly on the alert, watching for the next opportunity – their driving force just won’t let them rest.

And then there are the other sort, the ones who seem to make it all look so effortless. When you’re around them you get a sense of fun, and of compassion. People like Daniel Priestley of Triumphant Events, or John Williams, who wrote “Screw Work, Let’s Play”, or a host of others I could mention. They seem to have a ‘midas touch’, making a success of pretty much anything they decide to do.

They don’t do any less than the driven entrepreneurs – if anything they’re on the go even more. And they’re certainly not achieving any less – Daniel started one of the top personal and business development event companies in the UK, yet last year managed to take a 4-month round-the-world trip and come back with thousands of pounds profit!

So what is it that gives these super-cool entrepreneurs that air of peace? How do they achieve more than the ones who are constantly striving? According to top UK coach Jules Cooper, it’s that striving that’s at the heart of it. Jules maintains that striving can get in the way of success, if it’s not aligned with the individual. He says that we can either strive or have peace, and that either can create success. The difference is that striving has to be pretty much continuous to maintain the success; as soon as a striver – a driven entrepreneur in my lexicon – starts to relax, it all goes wrong.

The distinction I make is between being driven and being purposeful. Driven is a passive word – it implies something outside of you that’s responsible for your success, literally something external that’s behind you, pushing you on. Purposeful suggests something inside, literally full of purpose, that’s creating your motivation. Consider the concept of motivation being either “Towards” something you want or “Away From” something you don’t want. Driven people are pushed forward by something outside of themselves, and often that’s something they are trying to avoid – poverty, failure, lack of respect. And as they succeed, they get further away from their nemesis, and the weaker the driving force feels. Purposeful people are moving towards their purpose – and the closer they get, the stronger their motivation will get, like approaching a magnet.

Looking at successful entrepreneurs like Priestley or Williams, they have an internal purpose. With Daniel it’s equipping people to thrive in what he calls “The Entrepreneurial Revolution”; for John it’s freeing people to get paid for doing what they love. Jules Cooper says he’s here to help people get out of their own way. And if we look at even more famous entrepreneurs, we see a similar pattern: Richard Branson has a purpose to change whole industries for the consumer’s benefit; and Bill Gates set out to put a PC on every desk.

My own purpose was revealed to me in a programme called Core Process, which gives a two-word phrase that encapsulates it for the individual person doing it. Mine is “Encouraging Potential”; for me that means supporting and inspiring people I meet who have a special gift that they don’t recognise, or trust. My work with Opportunity Matrix, helping entrepreneurs identify those ideas and businesses that really suit their talent – and hopefully purpose – fits nicely into that, so it really doesn’t feel like work at all. Good job I charge for my value, not my effort! Joking aside, purposeful entrepreneurs always charge for the value they add, and the more purposeful they are, the more value they tend to add.

Purpose isn’t essential to have a lot of money – in life we see plenty of people who strive for success, and have very profitable businesses. They have the lifestyle they worked hard for; nice cars, million pound houses, all the right memberships, the jet-set round of parties. And many are very happy – hey, who wouldn’t be? And yet there are many who have striven so hard that their families never see them, even have fallen apart; and others who hide their emptiness in drink or drugs.

Purposeful entrepreneurs, on the other hand, are generally pretty comfortable with themselves. They may not have the lavish lifestyle of the strivers (though I’d say Branson & Gates have a pretty comfortable existence), yet they have an inner peace, that comes from achieving something worthwhile, a purpose fulfilled. They aren’t motivated by the material trappings of wealth – their inner fire is what propels them to massive success.

So which are you? Driven striver, always pushing for achievement and riches? Or purposeful smiler, happy with your achievements and rich life?
“I’d just do all of it!”
Posted Jul 4th, 2010 By Andrew Horder in A Better World, Clarity & Focus With | No Comments

Focus and how to choose between opportunities is a big topic for me, and I’m always interested t learn how successful entrepreneurs handle it. I was at a fantastic event on Friday on the subject of Influence, with profits going to Peace One Day, started by the amazing Jeremy Gilley (check it out, a brilliant idea that’s really making progress, with every member state of the UN ratifying September 21^st each year as Peace Day). One of the speakers was the very entertaining Simon Woodroffe of Yo! Sushi and Yotels fame.

One of the questions he was asked by the audience was, how do you decide between business opportunities. As you can imagine, my ears pricked up, waiting to hear how this successful entrepreneur dealt with the issue of selection and focus. So imagine my dismay when he said “oh, I’d just do all of it” – the exact opposite of what I recommend to the people who go through Opportunity Matrix programmes and Art of Focus days. Erk!

Simon then went on to say that he would put each of them on a separate page of a notebook, and compartmentalise his thinking about each one. And he’d spend a couple of hundred pounds on each to do a bit of research, set up the website, or whatever. Then he’d run with them all for 3 months – 100 days – and then decide which one (or ones) was for him, or his team. So not so different from my advice after all – phew! (except maybe running them through my process might be a bit quicker)

I think Simon’s advice would work well for an established entrepreneur, someone who’s already proved themselves in the business arena, and more importantly, in their network. For a newbie entrepreneur it would still, in my opinion, run the risk of confusing their network about what they actually do – what their niche really is. And for an unproven entrepreneur, the “jack of all trades” label can be difficult to shift.

I should know, I’ve been there, when I was playing the Busy Fool!
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