A few days ago, I was talking to a young person about to set out in the world with his first "real" job. He asked me what traits I saw in people that were really, really successful. I told him that I did not want to answer off the cuff but would get back shortly. I just finished meeting with him and thought that it might be interesting to share my thoughts in this post.
I dismissed many of the obvious things such as hard worker, brilliant, lucky, or imaginative. They are largely true but have taken on virtual cliché status.
To me, there are essentially two traits that stand out among those who tend to have great success. They are:
1) Willingness to ask for help
2) Curiosity
Let us take them one by one:
1) The few business giants (largely media moguls) that I have met may be brash in interviews but none are know-it-alls in private. Each man and woman reach out to staff, others in their field, sometimes competitors, academics or retired executives when they face a thorny problem or a big decision. They realized a long time ago that they can not do it all themselves. Successful entrepreneurs, even small ones, realize this and are not afraid to reach out to some eminence grise in their field when they are floundering. Many of these people are secure enough to realize that you cannot be a one person band in today's world. It serves them VERY well.
2) As a general rule, the more successful someone is, the more curious they are about the world around them. They want to know how things work and they are anything but superficial. A few times it has been annoying when someone plays 20 questions about what I do, but the bigger people are, the smoother they tend to be and usually I am flattered that Mr. or Ms. Big is giving me so much time.
Also, they get to the heart of issues. Over the years, I have had people ask "can you get me smart about this in 10 minutes?" At times, I had to brief people quickly to get them through a client meeting or sales presentation that I could not attend. Ideally, if I had a day I talked to them and then added a tightly written memo that covered the bases.
The truly successful never asked for a quick answer. I remember meeting someone who was undergoing medical treatment at the same time that I did. We talked a bit and he invited me to a ball game at Turner Field. I was startled when I googled him and found out who he was. Sitting in his brother's skysuite, we talked baseball history for a while and then he asked me if I knew anything about a particular topic (it was not media). I said yes, that I had been involved with it since 1973. He asked lots of questions over the next few hours interrupted by comments on the live game and likely Hall of Fame candidates. As we parted and I thanked him for the evening at the game, he thanked me and asked if I could e-mail him the names of several books or advisory services covering the topic he asked me about. I said of course and a week later he e-mailed back and said that he digested two of the books already.
I am sure that this was standard behavior for this gentlemen. He was intensely curious and knew that his learning on many topics was not complete.
I challenge you to think of the most successful people that you have encountered. It would surprise me if those men and women did not have high levels of curiosity and reach out for help regularly.
If you would like to contact Don Cole directly, you may reach him at doncolemedia@gmail.com or leave a message on the blog
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Long Term Planning
The late Zig Ziglar was a popular speaker in the 1970's-1990's. He conducted a great deal of sales training seminars, spoke at conventions to fire up sales teams or franchisees and did his share of inspirational speaking. Also, he published a number of books. Some people dissed him due to his down home accent ( he was from Coffee County, Alabama) but he helped and inspired hundreds of thousands of people.
One very early morning, I woke up jet lagged (3:30 am) in California after a long cross country flight. Rare for me, I could not get back to sleep and so I channel hopped in my hotel room. I came across Zig Ziglar speaking. Essentially, he was giving a TED Talk before there was such a thing. He said one thing in his presentation that I will never forget. It was--"If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time." His talk was about setting goals and doing long term planning.
For decades, I and many of you were or have been involved in marketing or media planning. As I matured in the industry, I would often try to talk to clients about long term goals AFTER we had sold in the next quarter or year's recommendation. I was always surprised and disappointed about how few people looked ahead despite the accelerating pace of change that they are or were experiencing.
People would often dismiss me saying such things as "I am focusing on keeping my job" or "I am focused on this year's bonus" or "I don't have time for that long term crap."
Well. That long term crap has hit many of these people like a freight train and a number of them are no longer in the business world. They clearly ignored the warning that Warren Buffett gives to every MBA class that he addresses: "Don't go sleepwalking through life."
It is human nature, I suppose, to focus on the immediate. And, sometimes you simply have no choice if you are an entrepreneur fighting for survival as many are or the brand that you are responsible for is getting clobbered by competitors. Yet, far too few people look ahead and try to plan for the future as they should.
I have spent my entire career always trying to look forward 10 years. Some people flattered me from time to time and dubbed me a "futurist" but I realized that they were simply being kind. No one can forecast the future with great precision but all of us need to keep thinking about it and monitoring trends. Some companies have very long term goals--it has been reported that Exxon/Mobil has a 50 year outlook on planning. If so, they are probably planning for a post fossil fuel world and are taking small steps now to be part of it.
Recently, someone asked what stocks that I was researching. I always hesitate to answer that question as, if something goes down, you may lose a friend. So, I dodged specifics but said that I spent a fair bit of time looking for things that would be good for my grandchildren to own decades from now. He told me that I was stupid.
Stupid? Perhaps. My long term plan that is constantly being updated is to aim at something and try not to miss!
If you would like to contact Don Cole directly, you may reach him at doncolemedia@gmail.com or leave a message on the blog
One very early morning, I woke up jet lagged (3:30 am) in California after a long cross country flight. Rare for me, I could not get back to sleep and so I channel hopped in my hotel room. I came across Zig Ziglar speaking. Essentially, he was giving a TED Talk before there was such a thing. He said one thing in his presentation that I will never forget. It was--"If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time." His talk was about setting goals and doing long term planning.
For decades, I and many of you were or have been involved in marketing or media planning. As I matured in the industry, I would often try to talk to clients about long term goals AFTER we had sold in the next quarter or year's recommendation. I was always surprised and disappointed about how few people looked ahead despite the accelerating pace of change that they are or were experiencing.
People would often dismiss me saying such things as "I am focusing on keeping my job" or "I am focused on this year's bonus" or "I don't have time for that long term crap."
Well. That long term crap has hit many of these people like a freight train and a number of them are no longer in the business world. They clearly ignored the warning that Warren Buffett gives to every MBA class that he addresses: "Don't go sleepwalking through life."
It is human nature, I suppose, to focus on the immediate. And, sometimes you simply have no choice if you are an entrepreneur fighting for survival as many are or the brand that you are responsible for is getting clobbered by competitors. Yet, far too few people look ahead and try to plan for the future as they should.
I have spent my entire career always trying to look forward 10 years. Some people flattered me from time to time and dubbed me a "futurist" but I realized that they were simply being kind. No one can forecast the future with great precision but all of us need to keep thinking about it and monitoring trends. Some companies have very long term goals--it has been reported that Exxon/Mobil has a 50 year outlook on planning. If so, they are probably planning for a post fossil fuel world and are taking small steps now to be part of it.
Recently, someone asked what stocks that I was researching. I always hesitate to answer that question as, if something goes down, you may lose a friend. So, I dodged specifics but said that I spent a fair bit of time looking for things that would be good for my grandchildren to own decades from now. He told me that I was stupid.
Stupid? Perhaps. My long term plan that is constantly being updated is to aim at something and try not to miss!
If you would like to contact Don Cole directly, you may reach him at doncolemedia@gmail.com or leave a message on the blog
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