Here is Jun Loayza’s contribution to the Success Factors blog series. Check back daily for more updates in January 2009.
The concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy refers to a false statement that changes your behavior so that the statement comes true. Suppose, for example, that you thought you would fail your upcoming test so you neglected to study. Your self-fulling prophecy made you ignore test preparation and ignoring test preparation fulfilled your self-fulfilling prophecy. But psychology aside, in the remaining part of this article I will show you how the self-fulfilling prophecy can help you and your business.
1. Create Your Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Just like the thought of failure can make you fail, the thought of success can make you succeed. So, be sure you craft a self-fulfilling prophecy that aligns with your business goals. Please note, you need to be specific. You can’t say something like, “I will be rich” or “I will be CEO.” Instead, you need to break your prophecy down to its core. For example, we know rich people know how to make money, but more importantly, they know how to save money. Now how easy does “deposit one dollar per day into my savings account” sound compared to “save money?”
2. Plant the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Seeds
When I rushed Delta Sigma Pi, I was terrified of public speaking. To my dismay, one of our tasks required just that. My group and I were given an object and we had to create an infomercial with five minutes of preparation. I was the group leader, so they decided I had to present and I thought I flopped. Later that night, Yu-Kai, the CEO of Future Delivery, said to me “I first noticed you during that infomercial. You caught the attention of the whole room.”
Fast forwarding a few months, I know I’m good at public speaking. Yu-Kai planted the seed, whether it was true or false, and now I crush speeches regularly. So, if you want to grow your business, you should look out for what other people say about you since every compliment is a potential seed of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
On the flip side, you can also plant your own self-fulfilling prophecy seeds. You can do this by crafting a specific self-fulfilling prophecy as mentioned above.
3. Water The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Seeds
The seeds are planted, but without water, they won’t grow. Yu-Kai wanted me to grow from a good public speaker, to a great public speaker, so he bought me three books: Never Eat Alone, Made to Stick, and Good to Great. He knew that practice doesn’t make perfect, but instead, perfect practice makes perfect. So, these three handbooks was his way of watering my public speaking seed and it worked.
Like what Yu-Kai did for me, you need to do for your business. If you want to be the star salesmen, you need to make those extra sales calls. You need to study the latest trends in persuasion and how to sell. This effort is what makes the self-fulfilling prophecy come true.
4. Even the Biggest Trees Need Water
Despite being a confident publich speaker, Yu-kai consistently reminds me that he thinks I’m the best. He gives me positive reinforcement and provides me with much water for growth because after all, even the biggest trees still need water.
I remember last March when I saw an MBA student give the greatest speech I had ever seen. Yu-kai turned to me and said, “You’re way better than him.” I thought he was joking, but he was being sincere. Now I had to live up to Yu-kai’s expectations of me.
Now if you’re looking to apply this to your business, you may not always have someone like Yu-kai pumping you up. However, you need to live up to your own expectations and goals. After all, the only thing worse than letting someone down is letting yourself down.
The Bottom Line
As John Steinbeck once said, “It is the nature of man to achieve greatness when greatness is expected of him.” So, make sure you expect greatness from yourself and your colleagues and you will develop the most powerful self-fulfilling prophecy in business.
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Jun Loayza is the founder of Future Delivery. Find out more about him at his personal blog and feel free to contact him at Jun.Loayza (at) FutureDelivery.tv
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
@Jun Positive reinforcement is great. If only more people would get it…
Derek, thanks so much for letting me write a guest post on your blog. I hope that I am able to contribute to the great community you have going on and that everyone is able to develop personally from my post.
Look forward to contributing more.
- Jun
Cool post, Jun. Welcome to the Prevential team!
I’m a big believer in the power of suggestion and positive thinking. I can’t stand negative people and I refuse to hang around people who only complain, but never act.
I’d also add that, even before you plant your seed, you need the right soil. The soil is your foundation of solid habits and an environment that will support you through your changes. Without good soil, your seed wont be able to grow as strong and tall as it could. (Can you tell I’m digging this plant metaphor?)
Thanks YFNCG! You definitely bring up a good point (and keep the metaphor going) with your soil comment.
All the positive suggestion in the world won’t help someone who just doesn’t have the talent to do what you want him to do.
@yfncg Have you ever heard Warren Buffett’s analogy, “The Ovarian Lottery?” In short, he says he won the Ovarian lottery which refers to the fact that he was born at the right time, in the right place, with the right opportunities. And then proceeds to say something like, it doesn’t matter how great you are, you need the right dirt under your feet. So, good one Matt.
Great post Jun. When I was teen a fortune teller (it’s an asian tradition/need) told me I would never go far in school. I hated her for that… it was bad seed. I am glad I did not water this seed and made my own seed… Don’t ever buy seeds -good or bad- from fortune tellers!
@Vinh Nguyen Fortune tellers and Psychics are some of the biggest con artists around.
I have high expectations of myself and it leads me to be extremely self-critical. I underwent some tests by a neuropsychatrist this fall because of some physical problems. He showed me how my self-critical behavior creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that enhances the effect of the physical problem. This leads to increased self-criticism and the feeding of a negative spiral. I finally woke up to the powerful impact of your self-image. Changing my self-image has changed me.
Juan, I agree with the part about natural talent. Watering an oak tree like an orange tree won’t create an orange tree. An acorn will only grow into an oak tree.
@Stephen Sam Walton has a great quote… “High expectations is the key to everything.” But, you definitely can’t be self critical.
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