1. There Is Always a Better Way to Do It
Marcel Proust once said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in making new landscapes but in having new eyes”. SOBs look beyond traditional ways to solve problems, create deliverables and get results. No matter what strategy, process, or procedure is under consideration, there is usually an easier or better way. SOBs have an unquenchable thirst for doing things faster, easier, less expensively and with less risk.
2. Being a Marketer Trumps Being a Master Every Time
While you must always strive to evolve from proficiency to the mastery of your expertise, your doors will close if you do not make others aware of your services. SOBs never stop promoting their business at any time.
3. Risk Is Always Manageable
John F Kennedy said, “We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes”. SOBs know there is risk everywhere in life and in business, and their job is to reduce it for themselves and for others, especially their clients.
SOBs never let a little thing like risk slow them down. They are like the leader
T.S. Elliot was referring to when he said: “Only those who risk going too far can
possibly know how far one can go”.
4. The Answer is Somewhere
SOBs do not expect to be the answer man. However, they are programmed to
look to others and a variety of resources to find the answers. Michael Gerber
says, “The problem with struggling business owners is not that they do not know enough about basics like finance, marketing, management, and operations. Even if they are weak in key areas, the problem is that they spend their time and energy defending what they think they know. My interaction with owners has demonstrated to me that successful entrepreneurs are not good because of what they know but because of their insatiable need to know more”.
5. Delay Is Costly and Is Unacceptable
SOBs have a bias for action. General Patten said, “A good plan today is better
than a great plan tomorrow”. Windows of opportunities open and close too
quickly to drag your feet. SOBs do not wait. They know that the time will never
be “just right’. They just start from where they stand, and work with whatever
tools they may have at their command, confident that better tools will be found
as they go along. They live by the Chinese proverb, “The best time to plant a tree
was 20 years ago. The second best time is now”.
6. I Can Always Find Self Confidence When I Need It Most
Your chances of success in any undertaking can always be measured by your belief in yourself. Jack London said, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club”. SOBs do not rely on themselves to generate a sense of self confidence. They arrange for support structures and encouragement. They do not need mastery for themselves when they can design situations that will feed them the confidence when they need it.
7. Where There is a Problem There is a System to Solve it
Peter Drucker says, “No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or
supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get
along under a leadership composed of average human beings”. SOBs follow
Gerber’s E-Myth and build business that depend on systems not people, especially when those key people are themselves.
8. There is No Such Thing As A Problem
A problem to one person is just a chance for an SOB to showoff their brilliance. They view every problem as an opportunity to challenge their knowledge, perceptions and beliefs, and to really get creative.
9. Mistakes Are A Requirement for Success
Mistakes are merely steps up the ladder. They believe that “failure” is not the falling down, but the staying down. They can have a fresh start any moment they choose.
10. They Set High Standards
High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.
Niccolo Machiavelli said “Make no small plans for they have not the power to stir men’s blood”.
11. Creeping Excellence Trumps Perfection
SOBs strive to make sure everything they do is just a little bit better than the time before. However, they remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. They confront their fears and allow themselves to be far happier and more productive people as a result. They do what they do best and hire out the rest. They do not want to be the perfectionists who spend 80% of their time perfecting the last 20% of everything.
12. Focus Equals Power
SOBs follow the Chinese proverb: “If you chase two rabbits, both will escape”.
SOBs stay in the flow to increase productivity, efficiency, and creativity. It takes
four minutes on the average to return to a previous level of concentration every
time you get interrupted. Andrew Carnegie said, “Concentrate: put all your eggs
in one basket, and watch that basket”.
13. It Is About the Goal Not the Plan
Do SOBs commit to the Goal or the Plan? They believe first and foremost that the most important thing about goals is having one. After that the goals drive everything. If the plans are not getting the results they want, then they change the plans not the goals.
14. They Empower Others
Steven Covey said, “There are only two lasting bequests we can give our
children... one is roots, the other wings”. SOBs apply this simple reality of
parenting to leadership. SOBs live by the framework that it is only as they develop others that they permanently succeed.
15. They Break Overwhelming Projects into Small Steps
SOBs make the complex simple. As Henry Ford said, “Nothing is particularly
hard if you divide it into small jobs”.
16. Having Your Own Business is a Joy
Owners have told me they considered themselves successful because “they went
to bed last night and got out of bed this morning”. Bob Dylan said, “A man is a
success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between
does what he wants to do”. SOBs find their work to be joyous. Why own a
business if it does not bring you pleasure? How many of these sixteen frameworks to you apply in your daily situations? The more you have, the more successful you will be.
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