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Are you focusing on abundance?
Posted September 28, 2008 By Andrew Horder in Clarity & Focus With | No Comments

Opportunity Matrix™ – how NOT to be a Busy Fool

After quite a heavy few weeks work-wise for both Daniela and I, we decided to take some time out from tidying up the garden & go for a walk in the country this afternoon. As we strolled along the edge of a field, enjoying the open space and the sunshine, we noticed that the long grass by the hedgerow was trampled in a number of places, and wondered what could have caused it.

It was only when we looked higher that we noticed the masses of juicy blackberries on the bramble. As we treated ourselves to handful after handful of the delicious fruit, I found myself wondering how could anyone remain focused on lack with so much of nature’s abundance all around us? Then I realised that we’d walked nearly all the way down one edge of the field before we’d seen it!

As we walked back, I started to take note of all the other fruit on offer in the hedgerow – rosehips, elderberries, hawthorn berries, and a whole load of other berries I couldn’t name. All of which I’d completely failed to notice when we first passed them, yet there they were, all just waiting to be plucked. It wasn’t until I started to focus on them that they became apparent to me – you really do only see what you sort for.

It made me think, there are lots of areas of my life where I don’t take the time to slow down and notice, and appreciate, the abundance available to me – steady income from my regular clients, good advice & support from my network colleagues, referrals from my network and customers, my travel to exotic places (paid for by other people), and most of all the care and support I get from my wonderful wife .

Of course, it’s not just slowing down and appreciating the abundance that’s important, it’s also important to notice it so that you can take full advantage of what’s available to you. By being in too much of a hurry to get to the other end of the field, I nearly missed out on a tasty treat – I wonder how often I do that in business, missing opportunities in my urgency to carry out “the plan”.

Maybe I’m not alone in missing a whole load of opportunity by not focusing on the right things; others might also be so intent on getting somewhere, they’re passing their abundance by.

What do you need to stop and appreciate?
How much time are you wasting?
Posted June 15, 2008 By Andrew Horder in Clarity & Focus, Time Management With | No Comments

Opportunity Matrix™ – how NOT to be a Busy Fool

Time IS Money

Now, I’m not talking about the time you spend gawking at the goggle-box (though that really is a complete waste of time), and I’m not talking about the time you spend wading through spam e-mails. I’m not even talking about the time you spend on the web using online networks (or whatever).

The time I’m talking about is the time when you’re working hard, but you’re working on the wrong things – on sub-optimal opportunities. OK, what do I mean by sub-optimal?

Experience has shown me that the business owners that really succeed do three things well: they focus, they are passionate about what they do, and they understand viability. The reasons Focus is important, I covered in two recent blogs (So why is Focus important to success? and Focus, potential and performance); Passion and Viability I will cover in a few days. What I mean by sub-optimal, are those “opportunities” where you aren’t really fired up by them, and/or they aren’t really viable.

The trouble with these sub-optimal activities is that they don’t just affect you by wasting your time. They also affect your efficiency and effectiveness in doing the things you should be focussing on, because a part of your attention is always on them, even if only slightly. And each time you shift focus from a good opportunity to one of your sub-optimal ones, it take you a while to get back into the swing of it. In extreme circumstances, they can affect your whole attitude to your business – if you’re wasting time on things you’re not really enjoying, or that are harder than they should be to make a success of, it’s easy to get dispirited and disheartened.

I’ve been reading a lot of biographical material lately – people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Oprah Winfrey, Carlos Slim Helu (“Who he?” I hear you ask; the second richest man on the planet, according to Forbes), Branson, Trump. And what shines through in all of it is focus and passion – they do what they do because they love doing it, and they focus on what they’re good at. They don’t get distracted by stuff they don’t enjoy – many of them say outright, something like, if it isn’t fun, don’t do it.

If this has already made you think about how you’re spending your “work” time, that’s good. If you still need a bit more motivation to stop wasting time on your “sub-optimals”, click HERE to try out my opportunity cost calculator to work out how much money that wasted time could be costing you!

What time management and/or prioritisation methods do you use, to make sure you’re spending your time on the stuff that really matters to your business success?
Focus, Potential & Performance
Posted June 4, 2008 By Andrew Horder in Clarity & Focus With | No Comments

Opportunity Matrix™ – how NOT to be a Busy Fool

I saw Marcus Alexander of Confidence Plus give a talk yesterday at the Surrey Business Club, and he used an interesting formula¹, that gels with my post last week about the importance of Focus. The formula goes:

PERFORMANCE = POTENTIAL – INTERFERENCE

So if we can reduce interference, performance should go up. Marcus was using interference to mean all the routine stuff around a business, or the stuff that we don’t really want to do. So the trick, he said, is to reduce interference by outsourcing where that makes sense, either for financial or operational reasons.

I think the formula works just as well when talking about the distractions that come from having too many things on the go at once, trying to spread ourselves too thin. By allowing every sparkly new idea, or ‘fantastic’ new opportunity to distract our focus from what we’re really good at, and what we really enjoy doing, we create interference that reduces our performance, or results.

Sometimes it can be hard to stay focussed on a small number of things – that’s one of the reasons I always recommend focusing on things you enjoy (more on that later). And when you think about how much you need to earn in profit each and every day if you’re going to achieve your income targets for the year, then you start to realise quite how much money you’re wasting by not staying focussed. I find that rather focuses the mind!

¹ The formula comes, I think, from Timothy Gallwey’s “The Inner Game of……” books (not that I’ve read them, that’s just from Google)
So why is Focus important to success?
Posted May 27, 2008 By Andrew Horder in Clarity & Focus With | 2 Comments
Opportunity Matrix™ – how NOT to be a Busy Fool

We are repeatedly told that in business, focus is essential to success. Not many of us – especially the more creative and entrepreneurial types – do it particularly well. Or maybe I just attract the clients who don’t – I have two in particular who are constantly calling me to run the latest great opportunity by me. Don’t get me wrong – if they had 72 working hours in every day, then a good number of their ideas really would be great. But they don’t; like you and me, they have to make do with just sixteen hours or so. So I’m forever reminding them to stay focused.

I thought it might be useful to explain a bit of the science behind why focus is important. And don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you that it’s because you get what you focus on – well, not exactly anyway.

The first issue comes from US Professor of Psychology and Management Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, who concluded that we have available to us through our senses around 2 million ‘bits’ of information per second. The second, first posited by George Miller in 1956, is that we can only process 7 plus or minus two ‘chunks’ of information (= c. 134 ‘bits’) at any given time. If we were simultaneously conscious of all the data coming at us, we’d go insane trying to process it all.

So, according to NLP studies, the 2m ‘bits’ are filtered by our subconscious, through three main mechanisms:
- Delete what’s not of immediate importance or relevance
- Distort what doesn’t fit our paradigm, until it does
- Generalise it into things that we can recognise
Why does that make focus important? Well, apart from keeping us sane (and stopping us trying to do too much at once, and not doing any of it as well as we could), focus is what determines which seven plus or minus two ‘chunks’ each second get into our awareness for conscious processing. What gets in is 7 ± 2 chunks that are relevant to what we’re focussing on – the rest simply passes us by.

So if you’re trying to make a go of half-a-dozen different business opportunities, on average the best you can hope for at any one time is that you’ll become aware of 1½ chunks of information that are relevant to each (assuming you’re operating at the ‘plus 2′ end of the scale; 7+2=9 / 6 opportunities = 1.5 each). Now let’s think about someone who’s working on just one opportunity – even if he can only handle 5 (7 minus 2) chunks – i.e. he’s operating at only just over half the level you are – he’s still getting over 3 times as much relevant information to make a success of that business as you are. And they do say, knowledge is power.

That’s without even starting to think about how your market perceives you if you’re coming to them with a different offer every time they see you, or how much time you’re wasting on sub-optimal opportunities. More on those later. For now, just focus on how much of the information that could be relevant to your best business opportunity is just passing you by, because you’re cluttering your mind with too many “opportunities”.

References:
Csíkszentmihályi, Mihály (1990). ‘Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience’. New York: Harper and Row.
Miller, G. A. (1956). ‘The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information.’ Psychological Review, 63, 81-97
For civilisation to make progress …
Posted May 9, 2008 By Andrew Horder in A Better World With | No Comments

Opportunity Matrix™ – how NOT to be a Busy Fool

…. each generation has to do better than the last one”

That’s a quote from a TED talk by Hector Ruiz (CEO of AMD), talking about the ’50×15′ initiative.

It struck me as very true, particularly as Ruiz’s father related it not to “civilisation” as a whole, but to him as an individual – telling the young Hector that he had to be a better student, husband, father etc than he himself had managed. That personal responsibility is very important IMHO, as it stops us relying on ‘the others’ or some amorpohous thing called ‘society’ of which we’re a sort of part, but we’re not sure what we can do to affect it.

That made me think: overall my father did better than my grandfather. Granddad was a good husband to my Gran (even though she could be a bit of a cow) for over 50 years. He was a successful shopkeeper, much loved by the community and pretty much universally respected for his kindness and courtesy. And he was a good father to my Dad, but his sphere of influence was pretty small. My Dad was married to my Mum for over 50 years too, before he died. And he was a good father to his three sons – pointing us in the right direction, but letting us go out and make our own way in the world. And baling us out when we got it wrong. He was a senior executive in a big conglomerate, and he was a dedicated lay preacher in the local Methodist church, so he was able to spread his influence much wider than Granddad did.

So what of the next generation? Leaving my brothers out of it (though neither has achieved what Dad did, or Granddad), I’ll consider myself. I got a third at Durham, aftert a pretty idle 3 years; I used to think that was progress compared to Dad – he didn’t go to Uni at all – but in reality he’d studied really hard for his accountancy qualifications and passed with flying colours. I did my MBA later on, of which Dad was inordinately proud, so maybe I eventually scraped through on being a better student. Husband? Well, I’ve been married to Daniela for over 13 years now, and she’s showing few signs of getting fed up with me, so I might scrape through on that one. Except this is my 3rd attempt, both the previous goes ending in divorce – so at best a shaky start with a promising end on that score. And I haven’t had children, so I don’t score too well on that one either.

So, have I failed in my responsibility to do better than the previous generation? Absolutely not! I’m only 48, I’ve got as long again to make my mark; it’s just that I’ve had a slow start, so I’d better get my finger out! I know what I’m here for (Encouraging Potential) and I have some ideas how to do it for greatest effect – hence my interest in AMD’s plans for the developing world, and charities like PennyOn.

How are you going to make sure you do better than your previous generation?
Opportunity + Preparation = Success
Posted April 24, 2008 By Andrew Horder in Clarity & Focus, Motivation & Management With | No Comments

Opportunity Matrix™ – how NOT to be a Busy Fool

Have you ever noticed how success just seems to happen to some people – you know, the lucky ones who seem to have everything go right for them? The type who opportunities actually seek out, like they have some kind of money magnet in their heads. The type who breeze up, wave their magic wand, and everything just falls out just as they want – just because they’re lucky, or gifted, or somehow endowed with some kind of magic.

Not a bit of it! These people make their own luck – they have their minds and imaginations open to opportunities, they research and evaluate them thoroughly, and once they’re confident that it’s a good opportunity for them, they prepare for success. It’s not some magic formula – it’s hard graft, and it’s logical and detailed, but it makes business far more enjoyable.
Action Quote #3
Posted April 15, 2008 By Andrew Horder in Motivation & Management With | No Comments

Opportunity Matrix™ – how NOT to be a Busy Fool

A while back I said I’d be sharing my favourite quotes on action with you, so here’s another one, from Thomas Jefferson this time:

“I’m a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”

For me that reminds me that all the “lucky” people – the ones who were “in the right place at the right time” – weren’t there purely by chance. They got there by doing something – even if in some cases they didn’t know exactly why. It wasn’t just luck that got them where they are, it was action – getting up and doing something.

It really winds me up when I hear or read people saying that you can get rich just by wishing it – by hoping that you’ll get lucky. The chances are, you won’t – unless you’re prepared to get off your bum and take action. The so-called “Law of Attraction” is often misquoted as saying that you only have to think of what you want and it’s yours; it doesn’t say that – at least not in all the half-way serious books – it says you can affect how things pan out for you by how you think, but you have to take action to get what you’re dreaming about.

It’s like the story about the religious guy who was struggling to get by, when he remembered the priests had always told him that if he asked God with enough belief, he’d get what he wanted. So he asked God to let him win the lottery. Weeks and weeks went by, and still no lottery win came for him. Eventually, his faith wavering, he cried out to ask why God hadn’t helped him as he’d asked.

“Give me a break son,” came the booming reply, “at least buy a ticket!”

Are you waiting to win the lottery without buying a ticket?
Action Quote #2
Posted March 9, 2008 By Andrew Horder in Motivation & Management With | No Comments

Opportunity Matrix™ – how NOT to be a Busy Fool

On Friday I started a series of blogs on action quotes, in which I will share my favourite quotes that I use to get me moving when I find myself stuck or putting things off.

Today’s is from British Prime Minister and statesman Benjamin Disreali:

“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action”

This one is quite effective in getting me moving, especially if I’m having a down day. It reminds me that unless I do something about it, tomorrow will pretty likely be a down day too!
Action quotes – do they help?
Posted March 7, 2008 By Andrew Horder in Motivation & Management With | No Comments

Opportunity Matrix™ – how NOT to be a Busy Fool

I’m a very analytical type – too analytical many say. I spend a lot of time analysing things – products, markets, financial statements, forecasts – if it changes, I’ll analyse it! It’s what I do well, and it’s what I enjoy.

So from time to time, I have to remind myself to actually do stuff – you know, talk to customers, do some marketing, post a blog…… I tend to use action quotes to prompt me to get moving, so I thought I’d share a few of them here over the next few days & get your views on them.

Today’s is my all-time favourite, by Will Rogers:

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll still get run over if you just sit there”

For me it conjures up great images of old-time railway trains, and silent-movie damsels in distress, tied to the railway lines as the locomotive bears down on them. And I feel an urgent motivation to get off my bum and act.

As far as I can tell, Rogers was known more as a humorist than as a great sage – nonetheless I use these particular words of his a lot in my life.
What do you think of this particular quote – would it help you to get into action, instead of ‘just sitting there’? And do you know people who are on the right track – if only they get moving?
BE your own boss …
Posted February 3, 2008 By Andrew Horder in Motivation & Management With | 1 Comment

So, a month ago you sacked your boss. You’ve worked your notice, and today is the first day of your new life with no-one to answer to – master of your own destiny.

Most of us have been there – working for a poor boss, and dreading going to work each day. No clear targets, no feedback on performance, no meaningful personal reviews. And worst of all – the boss has no more knowledge & experience than you. Yet his big house, the flash car, the sharp suits, nice holidays, trophy wife – they all rely on your efforts. Hardly fair. And this one’s no different to many you’ve had to work for before. It’s little wonder that you bailed out, and decided to start up on your own.

So now you work for yourself; you’re your own boss; you’re self-employed.

Let’s just take a minute to look at what that actually means. You’re now self employed – you’re employed by you. So as well as being the one doing the work – the employee – you’re also the employer. And guess what? This boss has no more knowledge and experience than you – just like the old one!

But this boss is going to set clear targets. This boss is going to track your performance, too. In fact the performance review dates are already in the diary. And there’s a clear personal development programme in place – you’ve identified your learning & training needs, and the new boss has set aside a budget and a schedule for your personal and professional development. Right? Thought so.

The trouble is, it’s hard to be hard on yourself. So when you miss the Q1 target, how are you going to deal with the inevitable excuses? After all, it’s you creating them isn’t it, so of course they are real reasons. And it’s you hearing them too, so of course you’ll accept them, won’t you? And when Q2 doesn’t quite live up to the (revised) plan, chances are there’ll be a good reason for that. Thank goodness you no longer have an unreasonable boss!

What was that? Oh, that was one of the problems with the old boss – you never knew where you stood; never knew what was set in stone and what was flexible. Hmmm….

So how are you going to get around the problem of managing yourself? For some people, it’s not a problem – they really can self-manage. They were the ones back in corporate who told the boss what targets they were going to hit – and hit them – and gave early warning of problems and presented solutions in advance to head them off. If they ever got into corporate at all – most who developed those traits early on, quickly went into business for themselves. But not everyone is like that – some need clearer guidance. Like me – I’m a great implementer, but I’m apt to get bogged down in detail.

So who’s going to provide that guidance – the direction needed to keep you on track? You could hire a coach – someone who will challenge you to justify your performance and your figures. They’ll probably get you to question your attitude too. What they generally won’t do is haul you over the coals if you’re falling behind, or going off track.

What I find works for me is to project the situation five years into the future, to the business I intend to have then – the one in the plan I started out with. So now I’m the boss – with the big car, the fancy holidays, the sharp suits, the trophy wife (OK, maybe not that bit, I like the real one I’ve got). And all of that depends on how well my employees are performing – or how well I am inspiring them to perform to be exact.

And in the persona of the boss-in-5-years-time, I look at how my employees are performing in their jobs right now. Are they committed and doing the right things at the right time, or are they feeding me a load of lame excuses for their shortcomings? Of course, I don’t actually have any employees yet – but I do employ someone to carry at all the roles in the company. I’m self employed: I employ myself. So my employee review covers myself in all my various roles.

So if I’m falling down on telemarketing or sales follow-up, I want to know why that is. And I don’t accept lame excuses – I make it very clear that I can’t afford to carry dead weight, so I’ll have to replace myself if things don’t improve. Which means I’ll be out of a job. Conversely, if I’m doing a great job on the admin and the filing, I congratulate myself. And I offer myself the opportunity to take on additional duties – maybe some telephone calls to customers or prospects?

Self-employed? Then BE your own boss!
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