I had the great opportunity today to go to a talk by Ken Blanchard, author of the “One-Minute Manager” series, and now the “One-Minute Entrepreneur.” It was sponsored by the Entrepreneur’s Organization ($1 million in revenue at least), but tied more, I think, to organizational behavior and managing people…
Blanchard talked about 4 “P’s” or focuses that need apply for both successful organizations and successful people:
- Passion: Success knows no limitations if it is something you are passionate about. If you are weak in some skills you might need, find mentors or other business associates that can help you out.
- Profit: Find something that pays you for your passion, then learn how to best manage money and people Focus on cost creativity, thinking of related avenues to build onto your business, rather than cost cutting your business down to nothing.
- People: The more you care for your employees, customers, and the community, the more you and your company will succeed. Build up your employees to succeed, creatively serve customers, and give back to the community what you were blessed with.
- Priorities: Don’t reach for success at the cost of your life. Your priorities should be God first, spouse, kids, THEN job. In the end, all you will have is who you loved and who loved you.
Above these 4 “P’s”, Ken Blanchard’s best insight on success was “how you think about something changes it’s energy”, negatively or positively…a ‘can-do’ positive attitude will get you much further then a negative ‘never-gonna-happen, why even try!’
As I’m counting down the time until I go back to school, I’m thinking of (and having to explain to others) the reasons why I’m going back for my MBA. They just can’t seem to settle for “I want to be able to work from anywhere in the world and set my own rules”! I stumbled on the article “Should entrepreneurs be getting your MBA?” yesterday, which questions if going back to school is really necessary, when most of the business world operates on “who” you know versus “what.”
My reasons, beyond my own ambition, are simple-ish. While being a perpetual student with limited responsibility is mildly appealing (minus the no $$ part) and I already have a basic business background, I’m not surrounded by those “who you know” people - meaning, not just influential, active business leaders, but also like-minded, ambitious, creative cohorts in the field I want to be in, who will challenge me to stretch farther.
Also, I don’t really have the “what you know” part down comfortably. If I knew what I wanted to do while I was going through my undergrad, I would have paid more attention to those technical skills that would be crucial to my business. Without having much real world experience (plus not knowing where you want to go), you don’t really know what you will actually use upon graduating, i.e. paper pushing, conflict resolution, stress relief, water cooler gossip.
Ambition: "Work from anywhere in the world"
This time around, I’m ready and know where I’m aiming. And my ambition in the end…”Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ~(Confucius)
