Mirror, mirror, on the wall

Then one day, the mirror said to the queen, “Snow White, O Queen, is the fairest of them all.”

Well, Snow White became the object of the queen’s hatred.

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The queen couldn’t stvà to have sầu someone fairer than she.

Of course, the story wouldn’t be the same if the queen actually made an effort to be fairer và gentler than Snow White.

What if the mirror had told the queen that she wasn’t kind enough? In actual fact, Snow White was prettier than the queen, but let’s imagine (we can vày that here), that the mirror had listed the five things that the queen needed to lớn bởi in order lớn be the fairest in the land?

Would the queen have listened?

I’m going lớn hazard a guess và suggest that the queen likely wouldn’t have listened to the mirror. She would likely have thrown a rock at the mirror & continued believing she was the fairest.

It’s difficult for the queen khổng lồ be objective about her beauty or, for that matter, her own faults.

First Place, Second Place, No Place

I recently coached three university teams for a business competition. The conkiểm tra is open to current students from schools across North America who are currently running a business. The top prize is $50,000, và the second-place prize is $25,000 — a lot of money, especially lớn a university student.

All three pitches I coached had terrific businesses and business plans. All three were weak in the area of financials, và I shared pretty much the same advice with each of them. Two of the teams listened & made tweaks to lớn their pitches. The president of the third team spent over 15 minutes arguing with me as to lớn why he was unable lớn provide a 3- và 5-year forecast. Frankly, it shouldn’t have taken that much effort. He just refused khổng lồ listen.

In the over, the two teams that did listen and made the necessary adjustments, not just khổng lồ the financials but to the overall pitch, won the first and second place. The team that didn’t listen didn’t even place. It’s no surprise. Their business idea was excellent, but the president was too stubborn lớn listen lớn constructive feedbachồng and lớn handle criticism. He deflected. In the over, he lost. He will be a very difficult person lớn be in business with, and although he’s a smart guy, I definitely wouldn’t invest in one of his ventures.

Are You the Queen?

Do you listen lớn constructive feedback?

I can think of a few situations over the last many months where I’ve provided constructive feedbaông chồng to lớn an individual, & they refused khổng lồ listen, which makes me question why they engaged me in the first place.

Given what I write about (including in my book, which you can download for không tính phí from here), I’m often called to help entrepreneurs with different areas of their business, & what presents as multi-year stagnant revenues & kinh doanh issues might be something entirely different. Yes, sale is likely a problem và needs to be addressed, but what initially seems lượt thích a marketing issue is oftentimes a deeper problem unrelated to lớn kinh doanh that needs khổng lồ be addressed first.

For example, it’s possible the owner is micromanaging the staff, and the company will never exp& beyond the skills of the owner. Or the company’s financials are a mess, resulting in poor cash flow. Both issues should be addressed prior khổng lồ addressing the marketing.

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Fixing the sale or hiring a Director of Sales to grow the sales team could very well be a Band-Aid if neither the cash flow nor micromanaging are fixed.

I wrote a post titled, “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. Five sầu Things You Can Do To Become a Better boss khủng.” In the post, I wrote the following:

People grow by being self-reflective sầu and by making adjustments to lớn their behavioral patterns. For those who are open-minded, that self-reflection can be cathartic. For those who believe sầu they are perfect, that self-reflection might not result in improvement. After all, they believe sầu they are perfect, so there’s no need to lớn change.

I have sầu news for you … if you believe you’re perfect, then you’re probably the queen.

If you’ve been stagnant in the same crappy job, or your company sales have sầu been flat for a few years, it’s likely something you’re doing (or not doing).

Queen or Not, Invest in Yourself

Your best return on time và dollars spent will be from investing in yourself. What that means is improving your skills, connections, general và industry knowledge, và then — and most importantly — your health & fitness.

Approach your investments & learning from the perspective sầu that there is always room to lớn improve sầu.

People have no problem throwing money away on clothes they don’t need, large homes, fancy cars, & so on, but they balk at the prospect of taking a $1,000 course, a few days off to attend an industry conference in another thành phố, or hiring a consultant lớn provide honest, objective feedbaông chồng when required.

Whatever it is you choose lớn do, once you recognize that you need to lớn make some changes to the way you’re doing things, approach the change as a personal challenge, with an open mind, & listen khổng lồ the feedbachồng. If someone is willing to lớn provide you with constructive sầu criticism, maybe, just maybe, there’s a hint of truth in what they’re saying.

Before you go, I think you might be interested in reading this post titled: Sell Me This Pen. I Tackle the Wolf of Wall Street Sales Riddle. Do You Know the Right Way to Sell the Pen?

And here’s another: Watch out For Peter When You’re Growing Your Business or Rising the Corporate Ladder. Peter Can Kill Your Business If You’re Not Careful

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Are you a younger entrepreneur? Here’s another interesting article I wrote:

My Response lớn an 18-Year-Old Who Wants to Become a Millionaire by the Time He’s 30.

My goal is khổng lồ help entrepreneurs scale their business, improve sầu profitability, & then, use those profits to lớn create massive sầu wealth. Subscribe lớn my blog khổng lồ receive my lachạy thử thought on scaling your business và creating wealth.

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