Do you want to know what makes a business successful? It’s not profit, reputation, or impact. It’s not marketing or finance. It’s not whether you’re sitting in a Herman Miller chair or on a park bench. It is when you set business goals and achieve them.

Without business goals, you will never know “What’s Important Now?” You can work on anything you want and never hold your business accountable. If you don’t set business goals, success will remain intangible and impossible to find. After all, how can you reach for what you can’t see?

So how do you set business goals and achieve them?

One or Two Goals, Max

We have enough going on with just “living” our lives. We have to shower, eat, work, clean, and the list goes on and on. You need to set one or two goals, max, because you won’t have time for anything else. You need to put all of your eggs in one basket and devote your time to fortifying that basket. You’re a business person and your time is limited. You simply won’t have time for more than one or two goals.

Command Your Ship

The leadership expert John C. Maxwell said, “A Pessimist complains about the wind. An optimist expects it to change. A leader adjusts the sails.” And that my friends, is how you create a business goal. You need to look at something you control and aim to control it. Don’t focus on the weather, focus on what you can do to change the weather.

Two Versions Of Your Goal

You need to have two versions of your goals. You need to have one goal that you think you can achieve and then one goal that is much higher than the first. You never know what you might accomplish and you don’t want to sell yourself short by setting your goals too low.

Make Your Goals Public

When I started this “Success Factors” series I committed to one article per day. Let me tell you, it’s hard. It’s real hard to find one unique article per day to write about. Yet, here I am, staying up all hours of the night and losing sleep to make sure I get one article up per day. My goal is public and I don’t want to fail.

Do Something Today

I just launched Prevential.com and I kept asking myself, “What can I do right now to grow my audience?” So I started a blog series. Instead of trying to optimize my website for search engines, I focused on what I did best and started writing immediately.

Forget Effort. Manage Activity

It doesn’t matter how hard you work. What matters is how much you do while you work hard. So, if you’re trying to sell shower doors, you should contact 500 people instead of 400 people. Don’t work on improving your conversion ratio because that could take a lifetime of practice. Instead, focus on what you control and that’s how many people you talk to.

Now, how about you join the conversation?

Related posts:

1. How to Improve Your Business
   With The Kaizen System
2. What Does It Take To
   Become A Successful Blogger?
3. Five Timeless Lessons From Warren Buffett

Photo Courtesy of Tony the Misfit

“Be Incredible.”

Fantastic advice, but how exactly do you get started? How can you “be incredible?”

Far too many people want to be incredible, but they are often left wondering how to get started. They focus on abstract ideas and advice, but they do not come across specific ways to start being incredible.

I am going to change that. I am going to show you how you can be incredible.

1. Ignore Everyone Else

Warren Buffett became the richest man in the world using a selective contrarian investing style. When other people were running, he was on the front lines swinging the money bat full-force.

Following the herd means you are a part of the herd and they are average. Incredible people focus on themselves and their goals.

2. Become Action Oriented

John C. Maxwell once said, “A pessimist complains about the wind. An optimist expects it to change. A leader adjusts the sails.”

How simple, but effective.

Complaining and waiting is not how you become incredible. Big ideas are meaningless without action. You can’t use a sailboat to get where you want to be if you’re not willing to adjust the sails.

3. Focus On What You Control

As a sales person, how would you rather sell a product to a new customer? Would you prefer to spend 8 hours trying to convince one customer to buy your product or would you rather try to convince 8 customers in 8 hours (1 hour per customer)  to buy your product?

You should always pick the latter because you can’t control one person, but you can control how many people you talk to.

4. Make Your Goal Public

Do you want to know the best way to lose weight? Wake up every morning and weigh yourself. Then, write it down and put it where you and everyone else will see it all day. You will adjust your lifestyle when you can’t escape the truth.

Incredible people are not ashamed of their goals. They are willing to share them with everyone and will not falter in face of criticism.

5. Create An Action Plan

Far too many people want to become millionaires. They want to become financially independent and retire wealthy. However, very few people realize what it takes to become a millionaire. For example, if you are 20 years old and want to become a millionaire by the time you are 30, you need to earn around 273 dollars per day and not spend a penny.

Incredible people keep their goals in mind and have specific action plans to attain these goals.

6. Monitor Your Progress

You developed a great action plan and keep your goal in mind daily, but you need to keep track of how you are doing. If you are are not achieving your daily goals you need to alter your action plan to adjust for your shortfalls.

Incredible people keep track of how they are doing in relation to their goals. They understand the world is changing and they look to change themselves to adapt.

7. Keep Good Company

Isaac Newton once said, “If i have seen further than anyone else, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants.” Newton obviously knew the importance of the people around him.

In a quest for value, you don’t want to be a diamond surrounded by coal because you already won. Incredible people surround themselves with incredible people and it pushes them to become more incredible.

8. Ask For Help

Don’t waste your time trying to learn how to write on your own when you know people who are professional writers. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel. You should be humble enough to ask for help, and generous enough to reward your teacher with success.

Incredible people are not scared to seek help because they know it will expedite achieving their goals.

9. Use Fear Constructively

Do you know what drives me to wake up everyday and improve myself? I fear mediocrity. I fear being average and I do everything in my power to avoid it.

Incredible people will not settle for less than incredible.

10. Develop Confidence

The most experienced people often fail at seemingly simple goals, because as Stan Smith, the professional tennis player, once said, “experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it.”

Incredible people have the conviction to carry out their actions and the confidence to make them succeed.

11. Focus On Your Strengths

If you are an excellent writer, you should write. If you are amazing at math, you should do math. Turning a weakness into a strength could take forever, but turning something you’re good at from a 7 to a 10, can be much easier.

Incredible people know how to discover their strengths and how to develop them.

12. Expect Incredible

Steve Jobs created an environment where excellence is expected. He teams with the best designers, the best partners, and hires the best people.  He once was quoted as saying, “Be a yardstick of quality. People are not use to an environment where excellence is expected.”

Incredible people create environments where excellence is expected and anything less is unsatisfactory.

13. Compete With Yourself

Many people find themselves competing with other people, but this is a flawed approach. You may not be built the same way.

Incredible people compete with themselves. Not only is the competition fair, but you always have someone to beat.

14. Choose Incredible Heroes

Heroes are inspiring. Heroes are motivating. Heroes make you strive to become incredible.

When I started earning money on the internet (back in 2006), Darren Rowse was my hero. I read his blog religiously and acted on his advice. I earned six figures in 2007 on the internet because of Darren and I will never forget it.

Incredible people find incredible heroes and it drives them to become successful.

15. Make Incredible Mandatory

A co-worker told me a story of a boss who use to ask his employees, “is this the best you can do” before he read any of their work. It’s passive aggressive, but he made “the best” mandatory. He never settled for someone’s second best work and his employees delivered the best as a result.

Incredible people make incredible mandatory and there are no excuses.

Lets Start Incredible Today

These 15 tips will help you be incredible. However, it is up to you to apply it to your goals. Remember, making the choice to start your journey today is the first step to completing it. As Maria Robinson once said, “nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”

Incredible people start as soon as possible. So, what are you waiting for?

Related posts:

1. The Checks and Balances of an Incredible Mindset
2. What Causes People To Do Absolutely Nothing in Business and Life?
3. How to Set and Achieve Business Goals