It is difficult today to focus and execute. I like what I heard from a client the other day, “We like working with AscendWorks. While others talk, you guys do. We need more doers, not talkers.” I thought that captured a great essence on what can easily differentiate those who thrive in the new economy and I was grateful to hear the compliment.

Any accomplishment requires action. Action that is not focused and strategic is just busyness. If you are in the busy business today, you are becoming irrelevant. Our patience and attention are too short compared to previous decades. If you want to be in the execution business in order to become more valuable and attractive, focus on the following:

1. Purge: Get rid of anything that is not useful. This includes emails, tools, gadgets, software, etc. Anything extra has to be managed by your mind and attention. It clutters your brain and detracts from execution.
2. Focus On Readiness: You cannot plan perfectly. You just know that there are customers to react to and problems to solve. They are coming more unpredictably and with intensity today because of how easy it is to push work onto each other. There is less friction involved in our communications, thus we have more things to pay attention to. It is best to set yourself up to be ready for the 200 emails, 5 emergencies and 8 crises this week.
3. Think Action: As a knowledge worker, your job is to turn information into action. It is going from the conceptual to the concrete. When I was in grad school, I learned a lot about transforms – taking a complex equation and transforming it into another form to make problem solver easier. You must work hard at transforming complex problems into simple actions. Practice and pay attention. The opportunity is there every day.
4. Minimize Noise, Maximize Signal: There are important pieces to getting results and there are irrelevant pieces. It’s likely that 10% of your customers create too many problems. Dismiss them. There are likely businesses to get out of or products to discontinue. Get candid with yourself and call noise what it is and get rid of it in your work and life. It will align you to what is important.

See how many people recognize you or your team as getting things done. Being known for execution is one of the highest value pieces to play today. Aligning teams towards this end is a difficult challenge, but a necessary one in order to remain relevant. You will either be labeled a talker or doer. Your ability to apply these pieces will determine your value.

I get the unrestricted freedom to test ideas on a daily basis. Some of what I do is an art form and some of it is just hard work, all learned through trial and error, experimentation and experience. I have diligently studied and learned how people buy, what people actually click on, how deep the interactions are, if readers share it, and if people use and apply the information. I have invested thousands of hours learning, applying, failing, reinventing, pursuing excellence and finding that “one” thing that matters.

As a business advisor, the story I am going to share with you is one that I see more often than not. There is a story in the Book of Genesis about two brothers – Esau and Jacob. Though they are twins, Esau was the firstborn allowing him the full benefits of the “birth-right,” therein. In a sense, he had a built-in trust fund waiting to inherit.

Their family had learned to be cunning in their dealings. Jacob learned this skill as well. The story is told that one day when Esau came back from hunting, he was famished and tired. He asked his brother Jacob to relieve his hunger. Seeing Esau’s predicament, Jacob cut a business deal. Esau gave up his birthright for one bowl of soup. He was so focused on his present pain that he could not see value in something far off.

Later, Jacob deceived his own father and received a blessing under disguise as Esau. He received blessings while Esau received curses.

The story is told with a commendation of Jacob’s behaviors. I like Jacob for his ability to see value and pursue it. His methods are questionable; however, he is admirable because he risked everything he had to get what was valuable. He paid a price for the value he sought. It was value that was beyond any instant gratification.

We are around Esau people every day. They would go for the bowl of soup. They are near-sighted. They have a hard time paying a price. It is easy to win against such people. Just pay a price they will not. Working harder, gaining more knowledge, and spending more money are hard for cost-conscience people. They ask how little they can give for a dollar rather than how much. Business becomes about them, not you. Cost gets in the way.

It is obvious why so many business people fail. They are not willing or able to pay a price. They can only focus on what is in front of them and don’t truly go after what they want. They expect everyone around them to pay. They believe business works by investing as little as possible and expecting to get as much as possible at the cost of others.

Today is a great time to separate yourself from people who lack vision and passion and move into opportunities where the value players exist. Think about how you play the game of making money. If your mindset is always focused on cost, then watch out. You are always exposed. The guy who is willing to pay a price you are not will displace you. You may be good at spending other people’s money or using other people’s time, but that is because you can only think about the soup.

If your mindset, however, is to persevere, work harder than the next guy and pay a price, then the opportunities are abundant. Most people do not go the extra mile, much less the extra foot. The story of Esau later comments that his pathetic business transaction resulted in remorse and tears, yet he could change nothing though he desperately tried.

Pay a price. Learn to pay all the time. You will be developing the habits of winning in whatever endeavor you pursue. Peter Drucker reminds people, “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” Your good fortune may only be because someone else paid a price. Learn to pay a price and you will be finding the missed fortunes the short-sighted people around you cannot step into.

I want to thank Tabitha Woods, a friend who recently gave me a very nice gift, a signed copy of the book, Who’s Got Your Back by Keith Ferrazzi. She knows I love books, and I was very grateful for her generosity and the effort she went through to have it signed and personalized by Keith for me. In his book, Keith takes an entire chapter to devote to the subject of faking it until you make it.

He tells of once hearing a radio interview with Ray Charles who said he didn’t know of a single musician who was any good who didn’t practice every day. Practice is simply a part of a great musician’s life, like breathing.

Have you ever known anyone who was born playing the piano or clarinet? Aren’t the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and many future attempts awkward and terrible? But successful musicians keep at it for YEARS as they get better, and eventually master their instruments. Not avoiding failure or continuing mistakes, they just keep playing.

In my experience in business most people either are lazy, cheap or fear failure and as a result accept mediocrity. They generally are in search of immediate gratification and want results now. We all want results now. The difference is whether we are wishfully thinking or determined to overcome any obstacle that gets in our way and press forward relentlessly.

Faking it until you make it has nothing to do with being a phony. Faking it until you make is as Keith Ferrazzi puts it, “changing your behavior with the support of others even if you aren’t ready to change your beliefs.”

“Fake it till you make it is one version of what is sometimes called self-fulfilling prophecy.” We can create negative or positive self-fulfilling prophecies. A shy person can pretend to be outgoing, experience how that feels, and as a result, over time, become a friendlier, more outgoing person.

You could decide to be the expert in your profession. It’s hard work; just apply 10,000 hours to the subject. It begins by relentlessly reading everything you can get your hands on in relation to your pursuit, studying, practicing, and applying what you have learned you will become the expert. A good book to begin with is Love Is The Killer App which Tim Sanders teaches how to invest those hours that you read. Also check out our own zeroinbox.com and learn how to get your runway clear so that you can begin thinking. Most people are unprepared to think, their business and life is cluttered.

Think about it, how many experts do you know? It is likely you know very few. Most are just going through the motions always intent on someday making it happen. What about you? Are you daily doing what it takes, or are you just pretending and playing the game like most of your peers?

Share below where you are at with your 10,000 hours. If you are just starting, congratulations, let the journey begin, let us know that too.

Many businesses and workers are facing times of uncertainty. The business climate today is a testing ground for ideas. We all ask ourselves the key question which triggers any forward movement or holds us back from opportunities. We ask ourselves, “What if…?” Your thoughts will reveal whether you do business as a cynic or a winner.

You might be asking yourself questions that are focused on problems:

• What if I can’t find another job?

• What if I am not good enough?

• What if my luck in this business I found runs out fast?

• What if my idea fails?

• What if I keep losing customers?

It’s easy to think like a cynic. It’s the lazy way to exist. It takes zero creativity. If you believe business will be done the same way as it always has been, then your strategy to doing business relies heavily on hope, which is a poor strategy. The world around you changes fast. The rules keep changing. Your challenge today is far different than what the old economy required.

We need less good boys and girls and more creative trailblazers. You have all the tools and resources you need to be successful. But you must ask the right, “What if?” questions. Take note of the ideas that abound.

Here are the thinking patterns of the winners I enjoy collaborating with in business:

• What if we can make it easier and simpler?

• What if I invested in my business further?

• What if we could find a new market for what we can do?

• What if younger people have the answers?

• What if we could stop making chaos an excuse for not executing?

Playing to win requires a fully engaged mind. The exhilaration of creating and problem solving is risky, but rewarding. Asking the right set of “What if” questions and implementing new ideas will put you in the middle of the game of prosperity and opportunity. Align your thinking, yourself,and your company to this habit of creativity and problem solving.

Here’s a parting question, “What if you became a better knowledge worker?” Would this be more valuable for your customers, and in turn, help grow your business? An intentional response to that question may change your reality quickly. Go to zeroinbox.com to take a next step.

“There’s plenty of money out there.  They print more every day.  But this ticket…there are only five of them in the whole world.  That’s all there’s ever going to be.  Only a dummy would give this up for something as common as money.  Are you a dummy?” – Charlie Bucket’s grandpa in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

I watched this scene with my children, and it is a topic we discuss frequently in our home.  I want my little ones to learn it so that they understand the secret to business and success without having to unlearn bad thinking habits built by fear and greed.  Charlie’s Grandpa understood the secret. What is truly valuable is more important than money.

As businesses are forced to redefine themselves and employees are looking for jobs, they are too often focused on the wrong thing.  Finding money is not the issue.  Defining value – why you are valuable – is difficult.  Money comes and goes.  Value is what creates the money in the first place.  Fear and greed blind us from focusing on the right thing.  Admitting that you are fearful or greedy, well, that is often elusive for the guilty.

Your ability to increase your wealth and success is directly proportional to what Richard Feynman stated, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”  Your business can always be better.  You can always be better.  However, if you are a dummy, it may be hard to change when everything around you demands it.  Old ways of doing business miss the customer.

Ironically, we get a vivid illustration of why Charlie Bucket chose right in the story of visiting Willy Wonka’s fabled factory.  Here are a few reasons:

1. Seeing The Secrets: The Wonka factory expanded his vision and helped him see possibilities.  If he had have just traded his ticket for $500, he would still be a person with small vision and some money that gets spent quickly.  Vision is a powerful thing that creates the realities that give us security, enjoyment and happiness.  Get in the vision business, and create your own reality.  Focus only on money, and there’s only the next dollar to look forward to.
2. Benefits Thinking: It’s easy to beat most people in business.  Just put a cost in front of them.  Most people are focused on cost.  They want something for nothing.  They angle, object and maneuver towards this goal.  Accessing how value is delivered is extremely valuable.  All the raw materials the factory had were able to be purchased by anyone. Seeing how they work together for a predictable experience and exceptional product is what separates successful enterprises from failed ones.
3. Get In Front Of Luck: The value of meeting a person who could change his life was what brought prosperity for Charlie and his family.  What if you keep missing opportunity because you don’t see the people who could change your life in the right frame of mind? Get lucky and realize it is the way you connect with people that will make the difference.
4. Experience Transcends:  Charlie got to see that Wonka was not about chocolate.  The chocolate was just the deliverable.  He created a surreal experience that made people wonder and want what he had.  A business focusing only on the deliverable without the experience is facing a half-life where the customer gets to choose.  They will choose the experience when all else appears as parity.

Next time you ask, “What does it cost?” stop and think about Charlie and his Grandpa.  What leads you to the question in the first place?  That very question may be blinding you to the opportunities that abound.  The intangibles and the knowledge you would gain from both failures and successes builds the value you deliver.  Today, more than ever, desperate people will lose.  Those who step to the plate and figure out how to become more valuable and build more value are gaining access to new opportunities, customers and inheritances.  Don’t be a dummy.

I grew up as a young boy and teenager watching episodes of I Love Lucy. In a very old episode, Ricky comes home and finds Lucy on her hands and knees crawling around the living room floor. When Ricky asks her what she’s doing, she explains that she lost her earrings. Ricky asks, “You lost your earrings in the living room?” Lucy replies, “No, I lost my earrings in the bedroom — but the light is so much better out here!”

• your business systems were automated?
• your customer could do business with you 24/7 and feel wowed?
• you had a consistent flow of leads due to new economy ways of connecting with your customers?
• you added real consistent value to your own network without gimmicks and interruptions?
• you had not just a selling process but a buying process — and both were automated and in sync with each other?
• you knew who was following your “breadcrumb trail” which helped them to say yes without you having to sell?

So what is holding you back? Are you looking for that silver bullet? If so, it’s not there. Today’s new economy requires new methods, new thinking, and quick action.