Get Exactly What You Want- in 2015!

So many times you may have heard, “you become what you think about most often”. Hidden within that statement is a key component that many of us forget – it all comes down to your personal expectation as to whether or not you’re going to ultimately succeed.

That’s where it all starts. You’re not going to get anything if you don’t work hard to achieve it. But you’re not going to work hard in the first place unless you have a strong enough expectation that you’ll be successful. This is how life works. Your motivation to take action, and to follow through until the job is done, is directly proportional to your belief that you will succeed.

Food for thought:

When you believe that success is going to be the end result of you never giving up, then you are going to attack your objective with a greater passion. You’re going to be excited about what you’re doing, because you know that it matters. You know that whatever it is you’re doing, it will eventually translate into the result you want.

When you believe strongly enough that you will succeed at something, success is practically guaranteed – not because your belief creates the result, but because you don’t give up taking dedicated action until you get what you want.

The perspective of certainty gives you the ability to see obstacles as challenges that fuel your growth. Focus on “How can I, instead of Why can’t I … ?” The late author Dorothea Brande, in her book, Wake Up & Live, wrote, “Live as though it was impossible to fail.”

You’ll know when what you decide to do is the right thing – you just need to go for it with proper planning. Just don’t get “analysis paralysis” and never get started.

If you’ve got a major goal you want to achieve, here are 3 things to keep in mind:

1.       You have to have the expectation that you (specifically YOU) can achieve this goal. People typically have a lot easier time believing something is “possible” than believing it’s possible for them.” They don’t fully believe that they will be capable of achieving a goal because they are missing something – the time, the talent, the resources, whatever.
2.       You have to have the expectation that you will close the resource gap, no matter how wide it is. How can you compete with a dyslexic college kid like Richard Branson who took on the music industry and the airlines (and succeeded).  A lack of time, money, connections … it doesn’t matter, because there’s a number of creative solutions out there that you’re going to come up with to overcome them. If you have the expectation that it will eventually be resolved, guess what’s going to happen.
3.       You have to have the expectation that every action you take matters. Recognize that action accumulates – that pyramids are built brick by brick. “Live as though it was impossible to fail.” Become a dreamer again.

Robo-Careers: Lessons from a BOT

As a former Boy Scout working on my marksmanship merit badge, I learned that when you want to hit a moving target you have to anticipate where the target will be and then take your shot before the target is in front of you. Today’s job market requires the same mind-set; anticipating where jobs will come from and then positioning yourself to meet the qualifications.

The best example of this strategy can be found in automation as it relates to robots, a rapidly evolving trend in manufacturing, medicine, food service and knowledge-based jobs. Many people continue to look for jobs similar to what they had, however the real opportunities will come from preparing yourself for where new jobs will evolve.

Years ago, 70 percent of U.S. workers lived on farms. Today automation has eliminated 98% percent of their jobs, replacing them with machines. Farmers became web developers, factory production workers and software engineers taking jobs that evolved from work eliminated by automation. This transition to automation is already happening with machines that utilize mass produced sensors, artificial cognition, machine learning and algorithms that anticipate preferences and suggest options.

As manufacturing costs are reduced because of robots, the cost of transportation will become a more important factor than the cost of production, making localized production the next trend in product manufacturing and delivery. Take a look around you and you will see that automation is already shaping a radically new job market.

Consider Kiva. They make robots that scoot around warehouse floors and pick up items from shelves to help fulfill customer orders. Amazon is already a customer, along with Staples, The Gap and Crate and Barrel. Some bots can lift 170 pounds retrieve boxes, sort them, and load them onto trucks. Pharmacies are also using pill-dispensing robots to fill prescriptions.  Narrative Science sells software that writes stories about sports events just using game statistics and other applications that can generate a synopsis of a company’s stock performance from related text found on the web. Even surgery is becoming increasingly robotic. In 2008, NYU became the first medical center in New York to use the Da Vinci Si, the world’s most advanced computer-assisted surgical system. Even a non-technical job as a Bartender may be changing. Bartendo is a lightweight and portable machine that can make a perfect drink in 10 seconds and serve 200 drinks in an evening. You can even view reports on a tablet or smart phone of the drinks made and the quantities of ingredients used.

As software makes automation a common reality, many professions will evolve that will open up a strong demand for people who can design, program and work with robots. If this industry interests you, now is the time to explore this market if you want to make yourself more marketable and get a lead on your competition.

Automation is just one of many professions that are evolving as fresh alternatives to re-inventing yourself to be more marketable and offer career-broadening options. Take the time to explore evolving technologies that interest you and then build a bridge to architect a job that will be in demand and offer you new challenges. If you’re a teacher, considering expanding your expertise in on-line learning. If you’re a desktop computer support specialist, look into becoming an expert on mobile phone apps or focus on cloud computing.

The bottom line is: Go after what you WANT, don’t just look for what’s AVAILABLE.

Have a “target career” and then develop yourself to be remarkable in that profession.

Most investors will tell you that anticipating opportunity in the stock market will make you the most money. Invest in your career by looking for opportunities not just jobs.

Get motivated in less than 2 minutes. Watch this video: The Start-Up of YOU: Rediscovering the Entrepreneurial Spirit in All of Us and start today to architect a lifestyle to DO WORK THAT MATTERS!

The Remora Mindset

In today’s business world, starting your own business or building your own brand can be challenging. Most solopreneurs (solo-entrepreneurs) find that the most difficult thing is getting customers. Sales and marketing takes time and money and without investing in promoting your product or services, the growth of your business may take years to generate significant profits. Consider an often overlooked secret to making your personal brand a success. It’s the “The Remora Mindset”.

The concept of affiliated marketing, pop-up stores and synergetic relationships are a lot like the Remora, a tiny fish that has a modified organ with slat-like structures that open and close to create suction and take a firm hold against the skin of larger marine animals. The remora benefits by using the host as transport and protection and feeds on food dropped by the host. In exchange, the remora cleans bacteria and parasites from its connected partner. This mutually beneficial relationship allows the remora to avoid the struggles that most fish deal with on a daily basis involving looking for food and avoiding predators.  Just as a remora partners with a larger host for mutual benefits, consider partnering with a complementary host to accelerate the growth or profitability of your business or to promote your personal brand.

Here’s an example of using the power of a strategic partnership to enhance your business opportunities. Abrakadoodle is a company that offers creative art classes for children in schools, day care centers, and community programs. In 2011, they were listed by the Annual Franchise 500 as one of the Top Franchises by Entrepreneur Magazine. To expand their product offerings, they established a strategic alliance with Binney and Smith, known for its Crayola brand art products.

Abrakadoodle was looking for products of high quality that would be safe for children and that would be available nationally, so all locations could use the same materials in their classes. When they started franchising, they realized that the number of Crayola products used in Abrakadoodle classes would grow enormously. After months of negotiation, an agreement was reached between the two companies. Crayola products would be featured exclusively in Abrakadoodle classes and Abrakadoodle would be allowed to use the Crayola trademark for advertising purposes in exchange for discounts on Crayola products. Both companies benefited from their shared vision of encouraging children’s artistic creativity.

What can you do to partner with another person or business to create a win-win situation that can help you get where you want to be in a shorter time? What products or services offered by a non-competitor can complement what you offer?

Synergistic relationships may be the secret ingredient you need to compress time frames in developing your personal brand and allow you to see success much quicker than if you hope for results tied to your just own dedicated effort.

An inspirational book by Price Pritchett, You²: A High Velocity Formula for Multiplying Your Personal Effectiveness in Quantum Leaps, is my favorite quick read book that underscores the message that working harder is not necessarily the best solution to achieve success.

Change your thoughts to change your world and discover how “The Remora Mindset” may be just what you need to go from invisible to REMARKABLE!

The Rise of the Mechanical Turk

While most workers today focus on their local unemployment rate and the limited jobs that seem to be available, there are major changes in the world of work that are reshaping the way we need to think about earning income.  The Internet is changing the economy from companies with lots of jobs, to platforms that offer the capacity to generate multiple streams of income.

An amazing example of this is Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing Internet marketplace that enables employers (Requesters) to coordinate the use of human intelligence to perform tasks that need human intervention to complete.  Tasks known as HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks) may include choosing the best among several photographs, writing product descriptions, or identifying performers on music CDs. Workers browse among existing tasks and compete for them tied to a maximum monetary payment set by the Requester.

The Amazon application supports the emerging category of micro work, where complex informational questions are broken down into discrete tasks that require human intelligence and distributed to individuals who perform those tasks for small payments. Micro work is already being used by large-scale corporate customers to distribute micro tasks to workers globally. HITs being offered include podcast transcribing, rating products and image tagging. Other common HIT types ask Turkers to write or rewrite sentences, paragraphs, or whole articles. Workers are paid from one cent per word to $10 for a project. HITs that reward people for linking to or commenting on a blog, or friending a person on Facebook are also common. It’s estimated that Turks currently support 100,000 workers in 100 countries.

Micro work is becoming an emerging category of jobs that anyone with a mobile phone can do to make a living. It’s estimated that the micro work market could be worth several billion dollars within the next 5 years. As I’ve travelled around the world to 28 countries, I saw that globally, many people don’t HAVE a job, they DO a job. They have many employers (customers) and they earn a collective income instead of a salary. Essentially they are hunters AND farmers. They find customers and perform work from day-to-day with their income primarily tied to the numbers of customers they have. Their day involves doing work AND finding new customers.

Step back from the statistics and the news reports, and you’ll see that salaried jobs and positions are evolving to being tasks and projects periodically needed by many employers at different times. In our new global workplace, people’s capacity to deliver a product or service is now as basic as having a cell phone and access to the Internet.

While attending a party, I was introduced to a blind man who was a multi-millionaire. He sold tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.  He built a network of restaurants and small grocery stores where he sold vegetables for 50 cents that he imported wholesale for 25 cents.  His wealth came from selling his products to a large network of customers throughout the U.S. His secret to wealth:  selling a simple inexpensive product to a large number of repeat customers. His technology: a cell phone and a notebook. The lesson: Your income will be in direct proportion to the number of people you serve.

It’s never too late to be what you might have been. Rethink your mindset as it relates to YOUR world of work.

Ask yourself, “What would you like to do with the rest of your life?” It’s time to invest some time thinking about your lifestyle architecture. Decide what you want and then build a bridge to it. If you can become a millionaire selling tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, anything is possible.  Perhaps it’s time to change your thoughts to change your world.

“The Rule of 20”

Many job searchers today have developed a great system for sending out resumes to Internet postings.

They use template cover letters and resumes. On a good day, they may respond to 30 posted openings hoping that someone will call them.

Their strategy – exposure increases their odds of getting noticed by a potential employer. Essentially they are “advertising” that they are available.

However, the key to finding a job is NOT through advertising. Selling what you can offer and conveying how you are remarkable gets better results.

You need to understand the difference between advertising and selling.

Responding to posted jobs is like saying, “I’m interested, pick me if you think I’m qualified”. The expectation is that an employer will take the time to assess your qualifications and see if there is a match. It rarely happens.

A more effective approach is to “sell” what you can offer to an employer with clearly defined ways that you can help them save money, make money or solve a problem.

This approach requires you to research the employer and then go to them with a “solution” instead of just advertising your qualifications.

Consider trying the “Rule of 20”.

Decide on 20 employers that you want to work for. Forget about if they have a posted job or not. Your goal is to target and SELL yourself to an employer that you can help.

Think about what you can propose as an “offer of employment” uniquely focused on how you can help them save money, make money or solve a problem.

Your strategy – minimize your completion by going after non-posted jobs and be proactive instead of reactive in finding employment.

·         Set up a Google Alert to track your target companies and look for information that can help you establish a relationship within the company.
·         Use LinkedIn to find corporate contacts and follow key personnel on twitter by using corporate hash tags
·         Focus on building relationships, not just contacts with people that work for a target company.
The Pareto Principle states that generally 80% of great results are likely to come from only 20% of your efforts.

Consider reversing those numbers and focus 80% of your efforts selling what you have to offer linked to well established relationships.

The “Rule of 20” allows you to get what you WANT instead of just focusing on what’s available.

Since most jobs never get posted, offering solutions instead of advertising your qualifications is sure to put your job search back on track.