What would you do?
So I sat in a meeting with a client the other day, and he told me the way he liked to do business was to start each day by asking himself, “What would you do today if you could not fail?” And I thought he was pretty smart (and then I realized he was pretty crazy.)
Each day as I open the doors to the Agency, drink my coffee, sit through my first meeting — I have to behave as though I cannot fail. My actions must follow suit. If I fail then my Clients would be disappointed, my vendors would go unpaid, and my employees would have no job to come to (I would lose my house, my wife and kids would stop speaking to me…) Therefore, I cannot fail.
This provides me with two things. The need to do a really excellent job for every Client we have, and the impetus to do so.
Just think what a better world we would have if large companies and governments acted the same way. Your turn to speak.
October 12th, 2009 at 11:04 am
I agree 1000% Chris. If big companies and our governments acted the same we all would be in a better place. Everyone should be in it to WIN and not just get by while watching the clouds pass.
As a business owner and professional, it pains me to see this continue. I thought as we grow as a human race we would get better, but at times it appears it is a best practice to just go with the flow. This must stop and everyone needs to look at themselves in the mirror everyday and say, ” I am going to do my very best and not fail today”
October 12th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
While I understand the idea of “what would you do today if you could not fail” as a motivational tool to inspire daily excellence, I believe it can have some unintended consequences.
Some of the biggest successes in my career were immediately preceded by colossal screw-ups. If one is constantly acting in a manner to avoid failure, nothing new happens. There has to be an environment to foster risk-taking which usually spawns innovation and creativity. One needs to foster in an organization and its employees the element of “focused and calculated” risk taking. Without this element an organization can become stagnant and atrophy.