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we wanted to know what skill you think is the most important for Success listen focus is the most important thing you need to do well focused people can do anything while unfocused people can't do anything one interesting fact is that I've been teaching this idea since 2000 Focus is the key to success I started a program called focal point to coach and Mentor people coaching with a focus if you hold a magnifying glass in a certain way it will have a focal spot that burns and you can burn through things so I came up with a method I called focal point I taught thousands of business owners how to look at every part of their company and focus on the one thing they can do right now that will make the biggest difference for the better I still teach business owners all over the world in many languages everything else they do has little to no effect on your life the key to your success is being able to focus on the one thing that can have the biggest effect on your life at any given time that's why I'm so concerned about the I call it the attraction of distraction it is so disturbing because it guarantees failure in life you actually become addicted to distraction and you can't stop it just like a dope addict you've got to have your distraction and if you're addicted to distraction you can't focus and if you can't focus you haven't got a chance against someone who can therefore I'm hitting this a little bit hard but I want you to think about it because most people slip into this attraction of distraction and they aren't even aware of it many of you are a little bit surprised when I talk about it because you hadn't even really thought about it you hadn't even really thought about how much time you spend during the day distracted and the answer is about 80% the rest of the time by the end of the day you're too tired to do anything worthwhile to do the really important things that have big potential consequences so your earning ability is your most important quality and your earning ability means developing one skill at a time that can help you the most to get the most important results that determine your success and your happiness now here's the great payoff they say that happiness is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal when you actually feel yourself moving progressively toward achieving something that's important to you you feel happy and your brain releases endorphins endorphins are not the same as dopamine but they are nature's happy drug they make you glad endorphins boost your creativity lower your stress make you friendlier help you concentrate better and give you more energy people who have a lot of endorphins are generally healthy sleep well are friendly and are always coming up with new ideas you can even become addicted to endorphins in a good way you can do that by regularly working on things that will help you reach your goals this way every day you feel like you're making progress and going forward people are only truly content when they feel like they are making a difference when they feel like they are accomplishing something when they feel like they they are important know people can get hooked on welfare very quickly this is a problem in every country that has it but it's especially bad in the US they lose all joy in life when they're not adding are doing something useful because they're hooked on welfare and free money this makes them angry makes them feel bad about themselves and makes them drink as a general rule how much you feel like you're putting in more than you're getting back affects your self-esteem and confidence so the idea is pretty simple you feel like you're giving more than you're receiving if you're at a job and you feel that you're not contributing as much as they're paying you you feel really angry it seems to have a deep negative effect on your personality but when you feel that you're doing a great job that you are really making a difference or a contribution you feel wonderful about yourself and the only way that you can achieve that is by having clear goals and then focusing well oh wow uh so uh I began to study management when I got into business many years ago I've read 6,000 books I've studied an average of 3 hours a day for 50 years I've read every conceivable book I possibly could and articles and I'm still reading and learning great stuff some of the best thinkers in the world are writing today in books and articles and talking about breakthroughs some of the things we just talked about now thinking skills Thinking Fast and Slow short and long-term thinking and so on well over the years I've accumulated what I call the big seven these are the seven roles and goals or most important responsibilities of leaders they're the most important things in business business and so I want to just share the seven with you I was asked to give you a th percent formula on how to increase your income by 10 times and I'll give you that as well Plus finally the one quality that is most important for Success which was just repeated in a study of 500 of the fastest growing companies in the world they analyze the personality profiles of the heads of these companies so I found that leaders in all kinds of businesses need to do seven very important things these are like the parts of a plan for a good dish if you're missing any of them the dish might not turn out right any one of these things could go wrong with the business or at the very least it would fail or perform much worse than it could let's start the first thing you should do is set and reach your work goals setting and reaching business goals is the most important thing you can do as a boss in your life and in your business the most important thing is that you can reach your goals which is why I want to start with my favorite favorite word Clarity in terms of your business what are your exact goals how will you measure them when do you need to reach your goals it's amazing how many business owners and Executives Dodge this question because they're afraid they won't be able to meet the goal by the due date or to the level they can measure as a result they don't want to set the goal at all people don't set goals because they're afraid they might fail and they don't like the feeling of failing so they don't set any goals at all this is the main reason I found when I started studing human success 35 years ago there are no clear goals or plans for how they will be reached they just work every day and hope everything works out so they only hope everything goes well but people who are successful know what their goals are and work hard to reach them Reach everyone in the company knows what their own goals are and how they fit into the overall goals of the business clear is the most important word make sure you know exactly what your sales income profit growth and customer acquisition goals are make plans to reach your goals after being very clear about them what do you do first what do you do second and what do you do third that's all plan is a list of things to do in a certain order then give yourself due dates when are you going to reach your goal now don't worry about missing the deadline or failing at achieving the goal failure is far more common in business than success but every single time you set a goal a schedule and a plan and you fail at it you learn something valuable that helps you to be more more successful next time what does this mean in business in business it means what we do is set a clear Target uh set a goal and a schedule and then we shoot what happens is we overshoot unders shoot make mistakes and then what do you do you adjust that's all you just adjust and you keep adjusting until finally you get to the point where it works so don't worry about making mistakes there's nothing wrong with it because everybody does it the main thing is to learn from the mistake and adjust take in information and adjust until you're much more accurate so setting to achieve business goals what are your goals and remember Clarity is the first word be absolutely clear about your goals and make sure that each person who works in your company is clear about their goals as well and how they will be measured the number that you'll attach to them and the schedule or deadline for achieving the goal and then constantly make adjustments marketing and new ideas are the second key now let me ask you what is the point of a business that is a great question making money is not the answer to get and keep a customer is the answer the goal is to get a customer and keep them coming back making a profit while doing this efficiently leads to a profit we say that the goal of a business is to get people that's why I said earlier that getting more people is important if you want to make more money how can you get more customers it's new to you so marketing and coming up with new ideas are what keep the business going Innovation means that you're always making your marketing goods and services better marketing means that you're always getting in touch with new potential customers the second question is how do you measure the progress of a business customer happiness is the way customer happiness in every great big company everyone has one main goal to Market their products and make their marketing and products better at the same time after that they make sure their customers are happy the rule is this make customers happy make customers happy by the way it's something that I love to teach to my friends do you want to be rich in business well there's a person out there who will make you rich it's like a Genie in a cave and the person is your customer and you know how your customer will make you rich you go to your customer and say what can we do to make you happier than our competitors what can we do to make you happier next time and your customers will tell you you'll do more of this or less of that or if you'll start this or stop that I'd be happier and then you say okay we'll do that and your customer will be happier and they'll buy from you they'll be more satisfied and they'll be much happier and they'll become loyal customers so what I say is your customers will make you rich if you have the courage to go and ask them what can we do to make you happy what can we do to make you happier what can we do to make you even happier and the way you do customer research is you don't say uh how's everything going because if you say how is everything going like there's 22 years of research on this by the way uh I know so much good stuff but basically if you say how's it going they'll say fine as for someone who just says fine and doesn't say anything else they're probably already talking to someone else and you planning to leave you if all that they say is fine You've Lost That customer you ask how could we serve you better in the future instead of how is everything going what could we do to make things better for you next time and they'll tell you and everything they say is what they don't like about your services today now here's an interesting fact every company that is successful now failed at first in the beginning their goods and services weren't very good but after hearing what their customers had to say they kept making them better until they were known as the best in their Market not having to be the best at what you do is enough you only need to be in the top 10% here's some help with marketing this is likely the most important thing that has ever been done at Harvard there is a phrase called unique added value that comes from 50 years of study on marketing and competitive Advantage this comes from Michael Porter's work unique added value means that people buy your product or service because they perceive that you offer unique added value now the word unique in any language is a special word it's a word that cannot be qualified that means it cannot be unique or more unique or less unique or uniquest you cannot qualify there unique is one and only so the key to business success is for you to offer unique added value it's to offer something that the customer wants remember we talked about value creation it what the customer wants needs values and is willing to pay for that no other competitor can offer now sometimes the unique added value is yourself you are a special person with special talents a great personality and you are very customer sensitive you have lots of experience in this area so you can really do a wonderful job for your customer sometimes it's just something as simple as you being the unique added value that that no other company in the world has but you've got to have one and the rule is if you don't have one you must develop it you must figure out what you have to have then people say why do they buy from you people buy from you because you have something else that that no one else does very important the third question is how do you know if a customer is happy more business customers who are happy are likely to buy from you again and customers who tell their friends and family about your business are the happiest customers of all the best businesses care about their clients so much that they buy from them again and again and bring their friends with them your job or main goal as you build your dream business is to ask what do we need to do first to get customers extra value that no one else has what should we do to make our customers really happy so they'll come back just what do we need to do to make them buy from us again and by the way we we cover all of these in great detail in our two-day MBA which really changes a business everyone in the business and every customer interaction changes the way they think about everything setting and reaching business goals is the first of the Seven Keys second sell and come up with new ideas to innovate you need to find ways to make people happy that are faster better and cheaper third to make choices and solve problems your ability to solve problems and make decisions is really the critical ability for Success advancement and high income when you look at people who start off in the their first job with no earning ability with a large company and 20 years later they're the president of that company first of all they climbed up the ladder of success but they developed the ability to solve problems at their level what Henry Kissinger said was the only thing you get for solving problems is bigger problems to solve but bigger problems come with more responsibility and more Authority a factory is losing money they send you out there to save the factory save the jobs of 5,000 people and you go in and say what are the problems that we're having in this Factory that's keeping down our productivity or affecting our quality they send out the best problem solvers as long as I can remember I I've known people who started at the bottom and are now in charge of big foreign companies they say that they got their by learning how to deal with problems that were hard for them I actually do talk about this all day I have one thought for you and it's so easy that it's embarrassing how do you get better at solving problems you think about the way to solve the problem instead of the problem itself you always give answers a lot of thought and now what do the bottom 80% of people think about when they have a problem who did it and who is responsible is known the problem in the past are all that they can think about oh what is the problem and who is to blame what do the most important people do people say that you can't change the past this has this trouble happened so it is now a fact now the the only question is is what to do how can we fix it what should we do next when you think about answers all the time you become more valuable as you think about how to solve problems the more you think about it the more answers you find you get smarter and brighter as you get more artistic you become more positive strong and effective when you work out problems and talk about different options and choices people finally say we have a problem give it to him give it to her because they're great at fixing things your mind is always trying to figure out how to solve things it's like it's always on and running so you start throwing problems in the top of your Hopper and the solutions are coming out all the time because you think about Solutions not blame when you think about blame it shuts down your brain when you think about blame who who's to blame for the problem it shuts down your creativity makes makes you negative makes you angry and makes you a negative influence on others but when you think about Solutions you become the most important person in the room so think about Solutions now here's a great exercise ask yourself what what is the biggest problem that I'm facing in my life today now what is it that most people do they can identify the problem you all know what it is usually the biggest problem in your life comes with hair on top but we all know what the biggest problem is sometimes it's a business problem and so on so then the next question is what's the solution what are all the possible solutions they found that you're more likely to come up with a good answer if you can think of a lot of them so just start to think about how to solve problems I have the problem but what's the great challenge with most people they are not active they know they have a problem and are okay with it oh I've got this problem you'd be complaining about the weather if you stood in the rain or the sun people who take action like you say this is a problem it gets in the way I'm unhappy or frustrated because of it I'm going to figure this out I swear how can we do it is all they can think of they read talk to other people and work on their projects you say oh I'm not going to be passive about this problem when you have a problem there is a lot of competition rules are changing sales and income are going down and so on I'm going to figure it out I will figure it out some of the world's wealthiest and most successful people I've worked with all have that attitude trouble is just something that needs to be fixed there is something to get over under or around it it's just that they think life will be hard and full of problems and by gum they'll figure it out so solving problems and making decisions is one of the seven most important things you do number four is to set priorities and determine key tasks in all the time management work that I've done all the books I've written and millions of people I've influenced all of time management comes down to your ability to choose priorities to select one thing and do only that one thing until it's complete setting priorities there's a whole series of techniques that you can do but my favorite question of all in time management is to ask every minute of every hour what is the most valuable use of my time right now what is the most valuable use of my time right now when you start work in the morning if your entire income and all your hopes and dreams for yourself and your family and your future are determined by the revenues that you generate by your income then the most valuable use of your time is to create value and generate revenues don't do anything but that don't do anything that is a secondary use of your time because whatever you do repeatedly over and over again becomes a habit pretty soon you develop the habit of doing small unimportant things and then you can't break the Habit it traps you every time you go to work like the ball on the string you just come boom and you start doing little irrelevant things soon the whole day is gone and you haven't achieved anything so the key is to set priorities and focus on your most important priority focus focus being able to concentrate on the most important thing you can do and stick with it until it's finished is the fifth trade of leaders what do we get paid for in life now you pay us to get things done but results mean that the job was finished so getting things done is the key to business success finish the job do the job finish the job completely people who win and people who lose both work hard but the bottom 80% of losers don't finish their work they start working on the job but then they get sidetracked put it off or it takes way too long to finish all together but what you and I are judged on is how well we complete tasks how well we get the job done now they told me I've written 45 books when I was introduced this fact is now about a year old which is good news I've written 65 books I only write books when I have great useful thoughts that I think will help other people do better I wrote The Thought down in a book many thousands of hours of study have made it possible for me to start writing almost any book from scratch I don't need to look at my notes to write a 300 page book about 65 different topics you already know know that they're full of information they're they are just full of great ideas hundreds of great ideas about one subject how can you write so many books people ask professional author puts out a book every 2 to three years and the answer is that I'm done that was my goal I made a plan got to work and finished the book I got the damn book done how many writers or people who want to write have ideas for books or write them down but never get them written the most incredible thing about task completion is that whenever you complete a task it gives you a burst of endorphins it makes you happy it makes you feel powerful it energizes you it makes you feel strong what they have found is that any completed task is a source of self-esteem and self-confidence it makes you feel like a winner so if you have a series of tasks to do let's say you have 10 tasks and this is the least important and this is the most important the bigger the task that you complete the greater the feeling of personal power and self-esteem you have the more you feel like a winner if you can develop the habit of of starting and completing test you feel fabulous about yourself all the time your self-confidence goes through the roof because you know you can do anything that you put your mind to because you've proven it to yourself it's not that you hope you can complete important tasks you've done it and you do it regularly nothing will move you ahead faster than developing a reputation for starting and completing important tasks they interviewed several hundred CEOs of major corporations at a convention in New York a few years ago they asked them what would most help a person in your company a younger person to move ahead rapidly to get paid more and to be promoted faster in your company the answer was the same for 85% of them being able to pick the most important thing to do and then do it quickly and well a thousand Studies have all shown the same thing setting priorities and working on really important things that could have big effects on my company are the most useful people in my company they also do these things quickly and well they get it back to me quickly and well this is something I learned when I was young my life changed because of it from then on I was like a crazy person I did every job my boss gave me quickly and well I'd work late into the night on the weekends and for hours on end to get things done before they were due it it changed my job in the most amazing way you just need to build a reputation for getting things done quickly and well and the Law of Attraction will take care of itself things that are bigger and more important keep coming into your life and you do them quickly and well the sixth thing is to set high standards for yourself and always live up to them be a role model and be someone that other people look up to dress well yourself if you want other people to dress well at work be on time for every meeting if you want them to be on time do your work quickly and well if you you want them to do theirs quickly and well uh treat everyone well if you want them to treat each other well that is those of you at the top uh set the tone for those below you everyone in the business looks at the boss and does what the boss says the boss sets the tone and sets the mood for the whole company the one of my favorite questions which I pass on to you is this what kind of a company would my company be if everybody in it was just like me what kind of a company would your company be if everybody in it did exactly what you did all day every day would it be a better company or is there room for improvement the fact is there there is room for improvement if you're honest with yourself you might say well I could be a bit more punctual or I could be better prepared for meetings or I could focus on Revenue generation tests or I could be nicer to people or I could listen more once you ask this question you set really high standards for yourself and always look for ways to be a better boss you find the very best companies have the best bosses and leaders the ones everybody admires looks up to and respects because of the way they work and the way they treat other people keep setting high standards for yourself they say the average person Compares himself with others and this Superior person Compares himself with what they are capable of being with their actual true potential the seventh key is to perform and get results coming back to our old friend results in the final analysis all your hopes and dreams all your income your future the size of the house you live in the car you drive and the vacations you take will be determined by the results that you get your job is to dedicate your working life to getting more and more and better and better results perform and get results as I reverse going right back to what Peter Ducker said the leader asks what results are expected of me of all those results what are the most most important results then you pick the most important result of all and focus and concentrate on that one result you work day and night with total dedication to accomplish that one result until you make a habit of starting completing and achieving your most important results that will do more to help you in your business in terms of Financial and personal results than anything else you can do it will also do more to affect you psychologically and emotionally it will raise your self-esteem and self-confidence people say that achieving goals makes you feel confident going to motivational talks won't give you confidence it gives you confidence to do good work see that you've done good work and hear other people say that's good work you are internally driven to do it again and go through the same process because when you do good work and finish your job you get positive feedback I need to finish up two more things with you now those are the seven keys a study of the leaders of the Fortune 500 and the in 500 fastest growing companies in in the United States found that unbridled optimism is the most important trait for business success these people are so sure that they should be jailed and put in rooms with mattresses no matter what happens they're so sure of the future of their business that they can handle anything they never think that they might fail they just know that they will succeed in a different way so how do you turn into an optimist it's kind of like how Fizz is like mental health the you work out your body in the same way that you work out your mind you work out your mind if you want to be mentally fit for the rest of your life you can do these four things to be a really good person number one is to think and talk about your goals and how to achieve them when you're thinking and talking about your most important goals both business and personal and you're thinking of the actions that you can take to achieve those goals and you're actually taking those steps your sense of optimism goes up dramatically number two is to look for the good in every situation one of the facts is that you're going to have nothing but problems difficulties and obstacles all your life that goes with the nature of being in business the only question is how do you respond to them and the answer is always look for something good this by the way is a discovery made in interviewing thousands of the most successful people they make it a habit whenever something goes wrong they say well that's good and then find out something good about it there's always something good no matter how bad the situation is there's always something good that comes from it the third way to become an optimist is to seek the valuable lesson in every setback or difficulty this is the most important perhaps of all you can focus on the problem and the loss or you can focus on the lesson and what you can learn to be better next time whichever one you focus on determines whether you're positive or negative if you are thinking about your goals you're always positive if you're looking for the good you're always postive positive if you're looking into your biggest problem today for the lessons you can learn from that problem you'll always be positive the fourth key to optimism is to continue to learn and grow continue to learn new things that can help you to achieve your most important goals and then of course take action you'll find that leaders are Learners they're constantly learning new things and whenever you learn something new that can help you it makes you happy it makes you positive it releases endorphins in your brain [Music] [Music] [Music]