Category: Knowledge

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Knowledge

Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

In this day and age, it seems like the only way to succeed in business is to grow as large as possible. But what if that’s not the case? What if the real key to a more fulfilling career was not to scale up but to work for yourself and become a successful and sustainable company of one?

That’s the idea behind Company of One, a new book by Paul Jarvis. In it, he argues that staying small provides one with the freedom to pursue more meaningful pleasures in life―and avoid the headaches that come with the traditional growth-oriented business. My friend had the chance to speak with Jarvis about his book and his thoughts on entrepreneurship and let me tell you, they were definitely worth hearing!

“I wrote Company of One because we’re taught that the only way to be successful in business is to grow,” Jarvis told my friend. “But what if that’s not necessarily true? What if staying small and focused on being the best at what you do can actually lead to a more fulfilling career?”

Jarvis makes a compelling case for why this is often the case. For one, he argues that growing too large can lead to all sorts of headaches, from managing employees to dealing with red-tape and bureaucracy. But more importantly, it takes away the time and freedom that many entrepreneurs crave in the first place.

“If you’re constantly chasing growth, you’re not going to have time for the things that are really important to you,” Jarvis said. “You’re not going to be able to spend time with your family or pursue your passions. And at the end of the day, isn’t that what we all want?”

I have to say that I’m definitely intrigued by Jarvis’s thinking. It’s definitely something that I’m going to be giving some serious thought in the days and weeks ahead. If you’re interested in doing the same, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Company of One. You won’t regret it!

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Knowledge Reflection

Humbly Teaching

A young man meets an old man and asks him:

– Do you remember me?

And the old man says NO.

Then the young man says that he was his student.

And the teacher asks:

– What are you doing, what do you do for a living?

The young man responds:

– Well, I became a teacher.

– Oh, good, like me? – said the old man

– Yes. Actually, I became a teacher because you inspired me to be like you.

The old man, curious, asks the young man what moment inspired him to become a teacher.

And the young man tells the following story:

– One day, a friend of mine, also a student, arrived with a beautiful new watch, and I decided I wanted it for myself and I stole it, took it out of his pocket. Soon after, my friend noticed the theft and immediately complained to our teacher, who was you. So, you stopped the class and said:

– Your friend’s watch was stolen during class today. Whoever stole it, return it.

– I didn’t return it because I didn’t want to.

So you closed the door and told us all to get up and you were going to rummage through our pockets until we found the watch. But, he told us to close our eyes, because he would only look if we all had our eyes closed.

So we did, and you went from pocket to pocket, and when you got to mine, you found the watch and took it.

You kept looking for everyone’s pockets and when you said: – “Open your eyes. We already have the watch.”

You didn’t tell me anything and you never mentioned the episode. You never said who stole the watch. That day, you saved my dignity forever.

It was the most shameful day of my life.

But it was also the day my dignity was saved from becoming a thief, a bad person, etc. You never said anything to me, and even though you didn’t scold me or call my attention to give me a moral lesson, I got the message clearly.

And thanks to you, I understood that this is what a true educator should do. Do you remember that episode, professor?

And the teacher replies:

– “I remember the situation, the stolen watch, which I was looking for in everyone, but I don’t remember you, because I also closed my eyes while looking.”

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Knowledge

Productivity is Intentionality

What lies at the heart of productivity is intentionality. Productivity is not about doing more and more and more, faster, faster, faster. It’s about doing the right things, deliberately, and with intention.

Chris Bailey, Becoming Better podcast host

Chris builds intentionality using the Rule of 3. On a daily and weekly basis, he picks the three most important tasks he has to do and focuses on them.

“You fast forward to the end of the day in your head. Ask yourself, By the time the day is done, what three main things I want to accomplish?“

The toughest part is deciding what not to do.

Productivity is intentional
Productivity has to be intentional

Everyone has a ton of things they need to do daily. All these little things distract us from the main tasks in our life goals. Let’s say your goal at the moment is to lose weight. And you intend to accomplish that by walking 30 minutes daily. This has to be one of the 3 things you have to do daily and not sort the sugar into the appropriate jars because you think that is the right thing to do.

What I am trying to say is stop yourself from procrastinating on your major goal-oriented tasks by doing all those little meaningless tasks.

This was one of the main reasons I have been delayed in many of my projects. I tended to keep myself busy by spending my time on the little things which didn’t add value rather than focusing on getting the important tasks out of the way, as Stephen Covey teaches in his widely acclaimed book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Focus on the end goal. Identify the outcomes you want to achieve and work backwards. Break down the goal into manageable steps. Break down those steps further into monthly and weekly goals. Every day focus on getting the main task out of the way before working on the rest of the things. Be persistent. Be consistent.

Do this for one year and watch how much you’ve outpaced your peers.

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Knowledge

What is the role of a manager?

Contrary to what most people think, the role of a manager is to come up with processes that accomplishes the end goal. People can manage themselves once they have also been informed what the end goal is, and provided with the adequate tools to produce the work.

The role of a manager
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Knowledge

How to Find a Successful Idea

Thinks about someone you know who is always happy and radiates joy nearly all the time. Have you wondered how you can achieve a state of being that’s closer to theirs?

If you don’t think you’re as happy as you can be, ask yourself these three questions to dig deeper:

  • What would you do if you knew you couldnt fail?
  • What would you do if no one paid you to do it?
  • What makes you come alive?
  • What problem do you solve better than others?

Most of us are pondering on the one idea that we can work on that will surely be successful. But ask any entrepreneur like Primoz Boz, Darren Hardy, Ramit Sethi and others, and they will tell you that this is not the way. I did ask some of these entrepreneurs on how do I find this ONE successful idea to pursue. Primoz replied saying there is no way other than testing many ideas and then finding what sticks. This is what he said to me:

Volume is key here. Within the first year of our business, we explored 100+ business ideas. We tested about 10 with a $10k investment per idea. A few flopped completely. A few were ok (generated $2-$3k/month), but we decided to scrap/sell them because we didn’t see potential in them becoming million dollar businesses. One was a homerun (our parenting brand which will hit 7 figures shortly).

My best advice is:
-move fast, test a lot of ideas until you find one that creates massive traction
-partner with experts - you take over marketing, they provide the content - pay them for their content. that’s how you can test a ton of ideas and find a winner

Another successful author who will respond personally to your emails is Scott Oldford. After many years of successfully launching businesses, he wrote a very popular book on how to grow your business. I am not ready for the ideas in his book as I am still in the phase of formulating my business ideas.

Chuck Goetschel shared an enlightening idea:

Stop thinking of ideas and start looking for solutions and for problems to solve. Spend all of your mental energy finding and defining the problem, and then solve it.

Chuck Goetschel

Once you’ve decided on several ideas, write down the structure for each of them. To build a solid structure, write down its recipe.

At the top of an A4 paper, write the name of the project you want to start. Beneath it, write down the various categories you need to work on – products, marketing, customer, vendors, online presence and so forth. Under each of them, write down the tasks you need to accomplish. And now you have a structure you can follow instead of diving in blindly behind an idea. Find the idea where you have the best structure and pursue it.

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Knowledge Reflection

Money flows to…

Money flows to individuals who create unique solutions, offerings and answers to pressing problems.

Simon T. Bailey
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Knowledge

3 Key Differences Between a Mentor or a Coach?

3 Key Differences between a Mentor and a Coach

Having an expert guidance can improve your ability to make effective business decisions and develop your skillset. The terms coach and mentor are often used interchangeably. However, the relationships differ in a few important ways.

No. 1: How often you meet and the structure of those meetings.

Encounters with a mentor are less formal, while coaches tend to work according to highly structures meetings over a certain period of time.

No. 2: How much you pay for their assistance.

Coaches are typically hired to assist individuals reach a specific goal or create a strategy, while mentors are not paid for their time.

No. 3: How they teach and help you determine your next moves.

Mentors impart wisdom to their proteges through story-telling and past experience. On the other hand, coaches are focused on reaching goals and creating outcomes.

The decision to choose between a coach and a mentor will depends on a variety of factors that fall outside of the scope of this brief synopsis. Now that you know the three biggest differentiating factors between a coach and a mentor, you can establish which relationship suits your lifestyle and career goals.

— Nahla Davies, SUCCESS Magazine

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Knowledge

One Simple Secret of Gigi Gorgeous

Often, the best ideas arent born from a desire to make money, but rather to do something that ignites a fire within us.

Youtube and Instagram star Gigi Gorgeous has millions of followers online. But her journey didn’t start because she wanted to create a successful business – it started when she was freshman in high school and wanted to explore her creative side by experimenting with new makeup styles. She began recording herself, editing her videos and sharing them with the world.

“I wasn’t hungry for money, I wasn’t hungry for fame,” she says. “It was genuinely just fun and creative.”

— From the podcast Brilliant Thoughts with Tristan Ahumada

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Knowledge

4 Steps to Adventurous Living

Here is a simple formulae for adventurous living. Follow it daily for a month and see if life doesn’t take on new meaning and colour for you.

Wake Up Your Senses

Most of us go through life only half aware of its beauty and wonder and magic. Every day we pass by beauty and loveliness, unseeing. This is partly because we don’t live each moment fully, but constantly look ahead to some future goal or happiness. Really look! Really listen! Really taste! NOW. Not tomorrow.

Learn Something New

Nothing will add excitement to life so quickly as a new interest. Choose some field you have an interest in: astronomy, painting, blogging, online business — and find out everything you can about it.

Cultivate Your Old Friends and Make New Ones

Nothing adds so much to living as friendship. Remember good old Joe whom you’ve been meaning to contact for months, but just haven’t done it yet? Call him today. And make new friends. You liked the fellow you met at the sales conference? Why not a golf game with him? You thought the visitor at the bridge meeting was interesting? Why not invite her for tea?

Do Something for Someone Else

Try each day to do something for someone else. Visit the old man on the next block who looks so wistfully at passersby. Babysit for the new mother across the street while she goes out for a few hours of needed relaxation. Volunteer for service at a nearby hospital or nursing home.

— Excerpted from “A Formula for Adventurous Living” by Claire Jones in the November 1958 issue of SUCCESS Unlimited.

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Knowledge Reflection

Limitless Opportunities

If we measure our opportunities based only on what we see around us, we’re fairly limited.
But if we measure our opportunities based on what we can imagine, the opportunities can be limitless.

Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill is an all-time classic. This book teaches you how to achieve success without the need of having money. This has allowed many men and women from very humble beginnings to achieve their wildest dreams and goals.

One of the greatest lessons this book teaches is to begin with the end in mind. Identify your North Start – your biggest goal – as a point you can always come back to when you feel overwhelmed by the thousands of decisions of daily life.

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