Here are a few things that I have learned (or am learning) that are important to understand if you want to succeed and remain sane.
Prepared to be disliked
If you are a manager, a business owner, a leader of any description, and you have the power to decide strategy, tactics, which path to follow, who stay and who goes, then you cannot be liked by everyone. Being liked and being a good leader are not necessarily mutually exclusive but one cannot let how one is preceived dictate the decisions that are made. It is for this reason that commissioned officers and enlisted men are kept apart – the officers’ decisions cannot be compromised by their feelings for their unit. If you are a leader you are going to make decisions that your subordinates will not like. Deal with it. Your decisions are made for the greater good and that’s just how things are.
Do you think Lee Iacocca was liked by all of his staff?
Richard Branson seems pretty popular but I bet he has pissed off a few people in the past.
Would Churchill have led Britain to victory if he tried to keep every happy and himself well-liked?
Sometimes you just have to do it yourself
People always say “let go” or “let someone else take care of it”. Unfortunately, if you have a dream then it’s entirely up to you to see that your dream gets accomplished. Leaving the work to someone else is a total cop-out. Sure, surround yourself with good people. Employ people better, smarter and faster than you. But understand that no-one has the drive that you have. And even if they somehow do then you will still have to get your hands dirty more often than you want to in order to get things done.
This all sounds very business-orientated but it needn’t be solely about business. Pick any of your goals that you have found assistance in achieving. Do you really think those people that are assisting you are pushing as hard as you are? If things aren’t going right who should be fixing things?
Smell the roses
It is often said by people who achieve lofty goals that the journey was actually more exciting than the achievement itself. Climbing Everest was more important than merely reaching the pinnacle. Learning a new language was more important than speaking fluently on a visit to Europe. You get the idea.
Sometimes we become so fixated on our goals and on what we are doing to achieve them that we don’t take the time to step back and see what we’ve achieved already. Nor do we simply take time off to rest and recouperate. A journey is no journey at all if you can’t enjoy it.
Slow and steady wins the race
Be like the tortoise not like the hare.
The current financial climate is exposing millions of people who over-extended themselves trying to get somewhere too quickly. Whether it was the greed of the traders or the ignorance of the mortgagees taking on impossible contracts. Warren Buffett has long said that “wealth is the transfer of money from the impatient to the patient” (I may have paraphrased). Who am I to disagree?
Don’t stress out with how things are going right now. You have a detailed plan. You have milestones. You have contingencies. Right?
Stick to it. Success will come when you’ve done exactly what you should have done and not a moment sooner.
