The long-term success of your organizations culture depends on it.
“The worst thing you can try to be is all things to all people.
Some of the best business I’ve ever done is business I’ve not taken or business I’ve let go.
Short dollars and tall headaches aren’t worth compromising a culture of folks who understand and appreciate real value.”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
Starting out in business I took on every client and every opportunity I could.
I don’t regret it one bit because I truly believe it helped me grow not only as an entrepreneur, but also as a Coach, as each opportunity exposed me to many different mindsets, emotions, motivations, and etc.
Sure, 80-100 hour work weeks aren’t sustainable long term and I wouldn’t recommend them to anybody, but the silver lining of having the volume of work that I did was that it sure did teach me a lot about people and myself, too.
I learned many things over the years of grinding it out and when I was able to slow the grind down, what I was learning while in the soup, became even more clear.
To summarize, I learned and continue to learn to and through this day:
1) Authenticity is king. They are going to love you or hate you, regardless. May as well be you.
2) They either will or they won’t. If you have to twist their arm, they may bite today, but will be gone tomorrow.
3) To build off number 1: Never try to be all things to all people.
It took a tremendous amount of time to learn all this. I am still learning it today.
As a servant of people with a rich desire to serve everybody I can, I’ve learned that you just can’t.
It doesn’t matter how good you are, how much you know, or how beneficial you know your service is for that individual.
If you go against your authentic self and try to cater and tailor everything to “that” person, not only are you going to waste time because “that” person is going to soon leave, you’re going to frustrate the people who ARE on your bus.
The New Zealand All Blacks have a simple rule for their culture that I’ve adopted for all of my businesses and really my entire life: “No Dickheads.”
If you have to fight them or they are energy sucks to you, your family, or the culture of your organization/team you are far better off without them.
The money is short and the headaches are tall.
Set the standard and don’t deviate.
Long-term success depends on it.
