Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The enemies of the penny principle

Last Friday night I attended an event to honor a few professionals in my field that have achieved tremendous success. I was particularly impacted by a statement of one of the recipients who stated in his acceptance speech, "I know I'm not the smartest guy, but I do know that most people do not work hard. So, I used that as my strategic advantage to get where I am today." This statement is true, however what does working hard really mean? 

As I drove home late Friday night, a rush of conviction came over me to conduct my personal and professional matters with a stronger work ethic! The problem is that there isn't 25 hours in the day. Just then, reality hit me...I already have a great deal on my plate. A plan to "just work harder" is a little like using a shotgun to win a marble shooting contest.  We all can do more, however doing more may just mean creating more chaos. Even more, in the hectic world we live in, it seems that we've witnessed enough collateral damage in-terms of bank failures and broken relationships that those liable can say were all in the spirit of working hard. This statement, combined with my recent post "The Penny Principle," prompted me to think about how simple, but profound this paradigm can be in terms of bringing clarity to what working hard means.  

In light of the penny principle, working hard means paying attention to the activities at hand is such a way that your presence and input will elevate the situation one step closer to a better envisioned reality. In other words, it is a matter of process. Which is exactly what the penny principle is all about.  Why does such a simple principle so easily slip by our daily activities sine we all know that great processes are the root of great successes. Moreover, we know that a great process can be identified by a detailed orientated and systematic approach to problem solving. With that said, I suggest to you that a fundamental culprit to the penny principle isn't necessarily the external circumstances, but rather the individual's internal ability to lead themselves. As I like to tell my players, "Manage the moment and the future will take care of itself." Here are three enemies to the penny principle that we all may have hidden within. 

1. Pace - In the rush of life we all strive to achieve more. For some achiever's there's nothing greater than the feeling of checking off a to do list! But, the pace of life or our efforts can actually be creating more cost than profit. I learned this lesson the hard way as a teenager while working on a construction job. Since I strived to finish the job by the day's end, my pace of work caused me to overlook the details. The next day my supervisor explained to me that he had to go back and re-do the work with greater detailed. This caused him a loss in pay which then caused me to lose money. Check your pace. Are you moving to fast to pick up a penny? It may even be so fast that you are actually dropping pennies. 

2. Laziness - Yes, there are many times when we need to be honest with ourselves. We could do more, however we just choose not to. I heard it once said "Three O'Clock is too early and too late to do anything." How are you managing your day? I don't want to guilt trip anyone, however let's be honest, there are times that we know that we are just not being productive enough.

3. Ego - I once worked on a staff of a very successful leader.  As a young professional, I was grateful for the opportunity. A month into the job, I was let in on an inside joke of some of the other young people on the staff who would purposefully drop pennies or nickels on the floor of the office just to see our boss pick them up. The supposed humor to the younger guys was that our boss couldn't resist to the urge to pick up the penny. In actuality, the joke was on the younger people. Our successful boss was successful because he practiced the penny principle! When let in on the joke, our boss just chuckled, but never wavered in his conviction. Is your ego causing you to step over the penny due to the supposed risk of being laughed at? 

Today, let's humble our mindset and begin to operate at a pace that doesn't forbid us from paying attention to the details, while keeping in balance the tension between laziness and working hard. By daily checking our sphere of influence for these three enemies, we are actually picking up pennies. 

Win Today!

Victor

Sunday, May 15, 2011

The penny principle

Yesterday, my son had poured out his penny jar to find enough money to buy a new video game. He asked me the question "why do people like to have the paper money instead of all of these pennies?" I began to explain to him the convenience of carrying the paper money instead of all the pennies. He then went on to ask, "Isn't it still money?" Yes it is my son..yes it is.



In life, how many times do we ignore this fact that a penny is still money? There are countless times that we have all walked over pennies throughout our day because our mindset has been dilluted by convenience. The value of the penny is much greater than 1 cent!  There is a priceless principle to be found in the penny.  I call it the penny principle.

Every dollar is fundamentally built by the stacking of 100 pennies.  Every $100 is fundamentally the stacking of 1000 pennies. Take away the penny and you take away the fundamental starting point of the entire US Dollar financial system!  The same goes with the littlest details of a business venture or relationship endeavor. Every realized business or relationship success that we read about was built upon a proverbial penny.

For example, the finalization of a lucrative sales contract can be traced back to that first marketing call or contact that most likely was a part of a series of faithful marketing attempts to countless other client targets. More over, it may have been a contact that came from the "one last call" of the day after the sales associate experienced a full day of frustration. Yet, because making that one more call is a penny in the entire system of realizing and maturing an account, it cannot be over-looked.

The ego loves the external validation of success. Who doesn't. But the true measure of a champ is whether or not they will pick up pennies while others refused to be inconvenienced and step over it. Pick the penny up and you can know that at the very least you are one cent closer than the other pedestrians to realizing that dollar. This is why success is rare and the club "average" is full of members.

Win today!

Victor