Posts Tagged Intelligence
Increase Your Earnings 1000%!
Posted by davev in Start Thinking, Take Action on June 8th, 2009
Here’s an exercise for you; imagine that it’s possible for you to ear n ten times your current annual wage. If you’re ear ning $25,000, imagine for a moment that it’s possible for you to ear n $250,000, a 1000% increase.
Believe In Yourself
The first reaction of most people to that exercise is to smile briefly and then to begin thinking about why it isn’t possible. One man said to me, “If you knew how many years it’s taken for me to get to what I’m ear ning today you wouldn’t be suggesting that I could ear n ten times as much.”
There Are No Excuses
Mark Twain once wrote that there are a thousand excuses for every failure but never a good reason. The tragedy of the average American is that whereas his or her main preoccupation seems to be money, or the lack thereof, the average person has the inherent potential to ear n far more than he or she is doing currently.
Can Someone Be 10x Better?
Is the manager ear ning $250,000 per year ten times as smart as the manager ear ning $25,000? 10 times as experienced? Does he or she work 10 times harder? Of course not. None of these are physically or mentally possible, but there are people in every business ear ning many times more than others with the same average age, experience and intelligence.
I.Q. Doesn’t Really Matter
In fact, a few years ago in New York, a thousand men and women were selected at random and tested for I.Q. Between the one having the highest I.Q. in this sample and the one with the lowest, there was a difference of only 2 1/2 times. But between the person ear ning the most, who by the way, was not the one with the highest I.Q. and the one ear ning the least, who was not the one with the lowest I.Q., there was a difference of 100X in inc ome.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to start increasing your earnings:
First, identify the highest ear ning, most successful people in your field and find out what it is that they are doing differently from others who aren’t doing as well. Resolve to copy them every day.
Second, set a goal to double your earnings over the next two or three years and then figure out what you’ll have to do to achieve it. Get started!
Three Powerful Principles for Success
Posted by davev in Take Action on May 9th, 2009
Be Clear About Your Goals
There are many simi larities between business and war. In both cases, the victor is the one who uses superior strategy against his or her competition.
There are three principles of military strategy you can apply to your work every single day. The first idea from the military is called the Principle of Man euver. The principle of man euver says that you should be clear about the goal, but be flexible about the process of ach ieving it. According to the Menninger Institute, this quality of flexibility is the most important single quality that you will require for success in times of rap id change.
Be Open to Continuous Feedback
A key peak performance quality for you is to “accept feedback and self-correct.” Peak performers are those who can take information from their environment and even if the information is contrary to all of their planning, they can accept the information, modify their plans, and continue moving forward. They are always open to new ideas and insights.
Learn What You Need to Know
The second military principle you can use is the Principle of Intelligence. This principle of intelligence means simply, “get the facts!”
The most important thing in business decision making is for you to get accurate information. Facts don’t lie. It is important that you get the real facts, not the assumed facts or the apparent facts or the obvious facts, or the hoped for facts, but the real, provable facts.
Make Better Decisions
Perhaps the key job of the executive is decision making. The quality of the decisions that you make will be in direct proportion to the amount of time that you take to gather timely and accurate information. The very best thing that you can do, if you have insufficient information, is to delay making a decision at all.
Invest Your Resources Wisely
The third military principle applied to strategic planning is the Principle of Economy of Force. Economy of force means that you expend only the resources necessary to achieve the objective and not more. It also means that you commit sufficient resources to achieve the objective once you have decided upon it.
Since your own personal en ergy is all you really have to invest over the course of your lif etime, the military principle of economy says that you should be very selfish when deciding how you are going to use your self. Keep asking your self, “How important is this?” and more important, “How important is this to me?”
Action Exercises
Here are two ideas that you can apply immediately to be more strategic in your work and personal life.
First, remain flexible when you are working towards your goal. In times of rap id change, all of your best ideas can be contradicted by new information. Be willing to try different things. Be open to new inputs and ideas.
Second, get the facts! The more and better information you can acquire before you make a decision, the better your decision will be. The very best managers spend a good amount of time getting the real, provable facts before they take action.
