Communities

No man is an island, we all want to belong somewhere.
In the new world this is tricky with all the time pressures on us. Typically these days people work and go home creating a community at home and maybe a community/tribe with their working colleagues.
Is this enough? My feeling is that you also need to belong to something outside of this framework, maybe adding value or making a difference…
We have built a community called “1 000 000 Ambitious South Africans” on Facebook. The group already has 760 members, and we find that people join because of the name. They want to feel part. They want to make a difference. They want to belong.
The irony about the word “ambitious”, is that it means different things to different people.

I belong to this group because (1) I am a proudly SA citizen and (2) I want to add value in both my work, and personal life.
Are you alone on an island…?

Adding value

Where do you want to contribute in your life when you retire?
Economic, political, spiritual?
You have to define in which context you want to contribute most of your time.
During your career you will be climbing the ladder. When you retire you want to make sure you end up at the top of the right building.
As we are rolling out our business I am confronted with a choice where to contribute.
I hope to find answers to the above. I want to add value.

a Ship in the harbour is safe

There is an old saying that states that a ship in the harbour is safe, but ships are not build to stay in the harbour.

In business or as manager/employee we tend to fall in this trap. The safe bet is to preserve the status quo, to do nothing extraordinary. We are so afraid of mistakes and failure that we keep our ships in the harbour. Nobody can blame us for anything, nobody can fire me, and nobody will notice if I am slack. The comfort zone harbour is very safe! But high performance people know where the idyllic island is, and that it will take ten hours of dangerous waters and winds to reach the island. High performance people know they don't have a choice, they need to reach the island and all the wonderful things it has to offer. They spend the same ten hours a day working, the only difference is the fact that the high performance people will be satisfied, fulfilled and making a difference in the world.

How do you spend your ten hours a day? I don't feel safe where I am right now in my life, but I am surely not in my harbour!

Mechanics vs dynamics, differentiate your business!

Why has the Spur restaurant survived and prospered for so long? Surely it is only another restaurant...? According to the “beautiful basics approach” it is all about mechanics vs dynamics.

Mechanics are the stagnant components for a specific industry. In our example a restaurant, without exception receive its patrons at the door, usher to a table, ask what to drink and eat, order in the kitchen…
A 5% improvement in the mechanics will not result an improvement in your business. (NB assuming the mechanics is 100%)

Dynamics are the aspects that gives a business personality “branding”, uniqueness for example, Kulula.com, Woollies, Spur, Google...

Improve your dynamics and your business will differentiate itself from the competition.
Is your business dynamic...?

Explain yourself

If you were invited by Quest on CNN for a 5 minute interview about your business/yourself, how will you use this time? (http://questmeansbusiness.blogs.cnn.com/)

I watched last night as the CEO of a prominent online business fumbled away his 5 minutes and only left unanswered questions about his business after the interview.

Even as an individual or business we should work on a selling formula to make use of ANY opportunity to summerise our core focus in a clear way.

In writing this blog I realized that I need to work on this in my own life. Imagine you are given 1 sentence to describe who you are, or the sole purpose of your business…scary thought… or is it?

Silver lining

The newspapers are full of the current bleak economic down turn and retrenchments across all industries.

How about I share some good news with you.


After launching Ambitionblog last week we already have 30 job advertisements with 220 profile holders (potential job seekers) registered on the site!
Feedback we received from our personal networks is that there is a need for specific skills like teachers and pharmacists at the moment.
We need to get these jobs filled, please ask your circle of friends if anybody knows about the above mentioned ”skills set” and get them to register on http://www.ambitionblog.com/
Help us in our quest to link great people with great companies!
Appreciating your support!

Keep on going and going…

I am not a jogger but what I have learned when I feel like switching over to walking is to get a beacon to aim at in the distance and to start counting the paces…when you reach the end you feel great.

To start a business you need to keep on going and going…

• Know where you are going and measure the steps, everyday you are one step closer.

• Stay calm and keep yourself busy with the right things. When you keep on doing the right thing, you will build momentum.

• Sometimes you don’t have a choice between quitting and continuing, it will take the same amount of energy (If you give up you will have to use the energy elsewhere.)

• The true opportunity, the break through, the WOW does not come out of the plan but out of executing the plan and leads to something great you could not foresee.

The true opportunity is discovered in the activity of doing the right thing again and again…