In yesterday's post I talked about the
importance of FOCUS and the use of your time. In today's post, I am
going to let Liz Strauss talk to you about the importance of FOCUS in
building your business. What a perfect analogy this is for all of us
no matter what it is we do or want.
Janet
When I first started my
business, I was ready to do anything for just about anyone. Sound
familiar?
I was like a greedy, inexperienced fisher. Here’s what I did …
I would meet someone I thought might be great to work with. I’d
rearrange my future plans. Invent a completely new offer just for
that person or company. I’d put that fishing pole in the water
hoping that the unique “fish” would bite and we could move
forward.
And when I met the next person who represented something even
remotely interesting. I would develop an entirely new offer and do
that again.
and again.
and again.
What I never realized was that I was so busy baiting fishing poles
with different bait for every different fish I met. That I hadn’t
done many of the things that good fishers do:
One day, I woke up to see that I had about 18 fishing poles in the
water. I wasn’t fishing. I was playing at being a fisherman.
Greedy, inexperience fishers like I was focus too much on just
catching a fish, rather than catching a fish that works for them.
The problem with 18 fishing poles in the water is that it’s a
lot of unfocused work for little return. We spend all of our time
running up and down the bank checking to see if something worked or
whether we need to rebait the system. AND when a fish finally does
tug at the line, it’s awfully tempting to wonder whether another
fishing poles might bring in something slightly bigger or more
exciting … it’s easy to get stuck waiting for the fish that might
be next.
For this fisher, too many options were the same none at all.
Narrowing down the options first with a few decisions has its
advantages. What I needed was specific concrete goal. With a goal, a
destination …
Now I keep my focus and goal to “teaching fishers how to fish”
— some are huge fishers, some are aspiring fishers, some are other
people who teach fishers how to fish — that suits exactly who I am.
I tell people about that whenever I can and when any one of those
fishers show up, I know I can deliver value exactly as I promise. I’m
not running up and down the bank of the river anymore.
And the fishers I work with tell their friends.
Janet's comment: And isn't that last line what we
all want?
