Keep it moving

Don’t let the grass grow under your feet, a rolling stone gathers no moss… See the pattern? MARCIA GRIFFIN

By Marcia Griffin

When we are open to learnings, we get them – as it has been said, when the student is willing the teacher will appear.

I find that I write about the things I need to immerse myself in most. It is true that none of us feels on top of everything all the time; we are all beset with self doubt at times, even the most apparently confident of us. I think the thing that gets us over these times is the wisdom and support of others.

To benefit from that wisdom we need to be seeking it out and open to it when it comes along.

Such was my mental space when last week I heard an old friend speak to a group.

Brian Ward is a successful commercial lawyer, but much more than that – a great community contributor – his OAM is a testament to that – family man and art collector.

Here is a little of what I found to be very helpful:

• Don’t sweat the small stuff; keep your energy for the things that really count, Re-visit your values and make sure they are worthwhile!
• Be nice – what goes around comes around, and if you are a CEO it may come around even faster than you expect!
• Give the people around you confidence. People can do so much more if you give them the confidence to do it.
• Take criticism but make sure it comes from the people who count.
• Keep moving – it’s hard to hit a moving target.
• Invest 5% to 10% of your resources on innovation.
• Tolerate mistakes – those that make them are tomorrow’s champions.
• Sell something worthwhile – repeat business is a critical part of business; you won’t get it if your product does not add value.
• Pick good people.
• Accept that you won’t live to 150, so enjoy the journey!

I loved these messages, particularly the one about movement, and it reminded me of something I heard from a De Bono thinker – and Brian also referred to this. Indecision is a killer – and if you make a wrong decision you can generally change direction. But if you are not prepared to make any decision you will find yourself frozen in time and the world will move on without you.

As Brian explained, movement does not necessarily mean exponential growth – it simply means moving in whatever direction you want, from one product category to another, one market to another, one job to another, finding career paths in your organisation for others, moving away from unrewarding work, and I would add unrewarding people!

My take was to see movement as a positive, exciting part of life – I encourage you to have the courage to keep moving!

To read more Marcia Griffin blogs, click here.

High Heeled Success is Marcia Griffin’s latest book, and is a frank account of building a business from a solitary sales person to a multi-million dollar business with 4700 sales consultants around Australia and New Zealand. It recounts successes and failures along the way and was written to inspire entrepreneurs-particularly women to triumph in business.

High Heeled Success (Kerr Publishing) is available directly from Marcia (marcia_Griffin@msn.com.au) or Domain Books www.domainbooks.biz.