Mindset and Motivation Archives – Page 16 of 17

9 Jul 2009

Does Your Business Work For You?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:26:51-06:00July 9th, 2009|Categories: Doug's Blog, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

Be honest. You don't have to share the answer with anyone but yourself and you are doing yourself a huge disservice if you deceive yourself.

Do you work for your business or does you business work for you?

You can work in your business (employee), you can manage your business (manager) and you can work on your business (entrepreneur).

You can have a business plan, cash flow, working capital, investors, products and services, customers and an exit strategy. You can be providing a critical service to society.

But that does not answer the fundamental question. Why are you in business in the first place?

To answer this […]

11 Jun 2009

An Entrepreneur’s Fable – Part 2

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:27:35-06:00June 11th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

I was reviewing some of my posts over the last year and thought it would be a good idea to add to this story (the original is included below for ease of reference).

The Fable – Part 2

The CEO reflects on the past year….

The journey to master entrepreneur has no fixed destination. It is a quest for personal growth and development and there are many paths and many places you can end up. There is still a lot to learn and as you learn more, you realize there is even more to learn. Only you can decide when you've arrived.

Matters got […]

9 Jun 2009

An Entrepreneur’s Fable (Part 1)

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:27:38-06:00June 9th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

Note: This is a repost of previous story. Part 2 is coming out later this week.

Once upon a time three inspired information technology technicians working for a large consulting company decided to start a business. One was an architect, one was a project manager and one was a developer. One became the CEO, one became the salesman and one became the lead technician.

This was a time of plenty. Everyone was starting a technology business and overnight success was coming to companies that had nothing to show… no products, no customers and no revenue… the gold rush of the Internet. […]

2 Jun 2009

People from Jobs Past

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:27:44-06:00June 2nd, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Mindset and Motivation|

There are three types of people from the past: the good, the bad and the un-remarkable. You quickly forget the un-remarkable and the bad you want nothing to do with ever again.

Sometimes a particular problem or event causes you to remember some of the good ones.

Even after many years, when the good people cross you path again you feel good. Whether it is the past memory or the knowledge that they are still doing well, it is a nice but fleeting experience to briefly catch-up and then… go down your separate paths again; too busy in your own lives follow through […]

29 May 2009

Progression – Growth by Success

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:28:00-06:00May 29th, 2009|Categories: Doug's Blog, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

The worst thing you can do when developing your staff/team members is to set them up for major failure (the second worst is not bothering to develop them at all).

For instance, you hire a recent business graduate with lots of potential and then put them in a position far beyond their experience level. The person then messes up really bad, maybe loses a key account or mismanages the team such that productivity drops or key employees quit. You will have to "fire" them from their position. This can devastate the individual and quite literally ruin their level of respect in […]

15 May 2009

Manifesting your Dream – Team Edition

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-06T12:22:59-06:00May 15th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

On Wednesday, I talked a little bit about manifesting your vision and yesterday a little about taking action.

Things get a little more interesting when you start trying to manifest your vision and at the same time, align your business team with that vision.

Sure you can just ram your vision down their throats but you have a better chance of success if you can get them behind your vision and an even better chance of success if their career and/or financial objectives align with your vision.

The thing is, strategic goals are easily lost in the day to day work of keeping clients […]

14 May 2009

Actions Speaks Louder Than Words

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:29:03-06:00May 14th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

Vision does not create results.

Goals and planning do not create results.

Only action creates results.

Any action towards your goals and vision is better than all the planning in the world and no action.

How do you know your detailed plan is right? If you are heading down a new path planning out all the details in advance is treacherous. Things change and you spend all your time adapting your plan rather than taking action.

So have a vision, do "enough" planning and start taking action towards your goals. Avoid analysis paralysis. Be open to different paths along the way.

After all, actions speak louder […]

13 May 2009

Manifesting Your Vision

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:29:08-06:00May 13th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

Whether you have a personal dream or a business vision, unless you do something to manifest that vision in the real world, it will not materialize.

At its core, the process is simple:

Write out your long range vision,
Determine intermediate and short-term goals (or projects) that will bring you closer to that vision,
Take action and implement steps that will help you reach your goals.

The bigger the vision, the more nebulous the path to accomplishing it may be. But no matter what size your dream/vision is, you need to take concrete steps to make it happen.

You need to keep the long range […]

12 May 2009

Can’t or Won’t (Achieve Your Potential)?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T12:29:12-06:00May 12th, 2009|Categories: Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

How many times do you hear someone say they can't do something?

The problem with thinking like this is that you almost guarantee you won't.

Can't is defeatist. There is a finality and despair to it… a sense of giving up on yourself or a cop out.

If you say you can't do something others will lower their expectations regarding you and you can continue to safely coast through life.

But have your really tried? Do you really mean you won't do something?

But you have a choice.

You can choose a goal. You can take steps towards achieving your goal. You can change your attitude to can […]

7 May 2009

ProCoach Update and Intuition

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T16:43:21-06:00May 7th, 2009|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

Al Dhalla and I (Doug Wagner) went to another ProCoach Success Systems seminar put on by Andrew Barber-Starkey. Andrew is based out of Vancouver and was in town for this seminar and other ProCoach activities.

My intuition was telling me I should attend, but I’ll get to that part later.

Their System

Seeing a second presentation by Andrew, talking to some of the people in the room who are (or were) working with him and reviewing some of his materials that he provided as part of the seminar helped me form a stronger opinion about ProCoach.

My feeling so far is that he has developed […]