Staying Positive
I try to be positive. I appreciate people who are positive,
especially when I am the recipient of their good words and deeds. I always try
to stand behind my friends, colleagues and clients. Being there for people is
just a natural and good thing to do.
Reality Check
In my day-to-day world I meet and mentor a lot of
businesses. My clients are mostly individuals who have launched a business and
have taken their dream to some plateau along their way to success.
Unfortunately, some of the business concepts that are
presented to me are not good. As I listen to some of the business plans of
these really nice people I am really concerned that they are not going to make
a go of it. How can this be?
Didn’t anyone tell them that they have fundamental problems
with their dream business?
Some of the elephants in the room are apparent. Others are
not.
Product viability, the market, competition, technology and
funding are some of, but not nearly all, of the road blocks these brave souls
face while getting up and running.
Blind Faith
When an Entrepreneur tells me that he will really get
rolling “When I get funded”, I want to just stop them and tell them that they
are not getting funded. Statistically, based on the reality of the business
capital market, they not get funded. If they don’t have a plan “B”, they will
be back in the job market just as soon as they run out of their family and friends
money.
Tough Love
More often than not, I tell them what I think. My opinion is
not often received well. It hurts to tell and hear the truth. Some call it tough
love.
I Need Truth
This brings me to the manuscript of my latest book How to
Employ Salespeople. I’ve been writing this book for years. The first manuscript
was printed in 2009. I don’t even know when I started it. It was years ago. A
year or so ago, I decided to get it ready to publish.
After I read it over and over again, making countless
changes, I thought it might be ready to go. Before I sent it off to the
publisher, I distributed copies of the manuscript to my best friends and
associates. I asked them ahead of time to give me an honest assessment of the
material. My editor will take care of grammar, spelling and punctuation
problems; I really needed to know if the message was powerful and worthy of continuing
the publishing process. Tell me true.
Getting negative feedback was like pulling teeth. Nobody
wanted to go negative on me.
Fortunately, a few of them pointed out some things that I needed fix to
and I did correct them.
Practice Tough Love
You are not helping anyone if you tell them anything other
than the truth about their business plan, their book or anything meaningful. As
a good and trusted friend and advisor they need truth, not happy talk.
