“With all thy getting, get understanding.”
- Proverbs 4:7, used at the close of every issue of Forbes Magazine editorials, and embodied by Roy H. Williams, a guy who knows his bible and your business marketing/ad challenges
“A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. A wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.”
- Roy, on a great way to get understanding
Since Roy’s a marketing guy, allow me to use a Friday Finish of Roy Week as a blatant plug for The Heston Group’s services. We help companies do a right thing, the right way, at the right time.
The mistakes I’ve haven’t made, I’ve seen. Either they’ve been made by me, to me, or near me, it seems over a long, rewarding, and exciting career.
The classic cliche is that business owners get so busy working in the business that they have no time to work on the business. This is often a very subtle shift, and an outside set of eyes and experiences can usually get immediate results.
Assess, address, adjust. Ask, understand, reframe, and activate.
At one Client, a key member of the team spent a quarter of an hour describing to me how awful their job was, even after 23 years. I asked if they enjoyed coming to work every day. “No. Not anymore,” was the answer. “Can you remember a time that you did?” I asked.
For the next 9 minutes, they were a different (better) version of themselves. Fire in their eyes. Warmth in their voice. Fond remembrances of what the business was when it was “growing up.” When she was growing up in the business.
The steps from there are pretty simple, not at all disruptive, and are difference-making for her, the team with which she works, and the company for which she works.
When we understand and learn from those who can help us avoid mistakes, growing a business isn’t so hard after all.
We can learn from Roy every Monday. We can probably learn from Forbes at least half the time. And we can learn from Proverbs all day, every day.
Make it a great weekend.
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