Nicholas Bate

7 Great Quotes to Live By

1. Stay hungry. Stay foolish.
Steve Jobs
2. And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make
Paul McCartney
3. Dream as if you will live for ever. Live as if you will die today.
James Dean
4. Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
Stephen Covey
5. Be the Change you are Seeking
Ghandi
6. There is no failure, only feed-back
Richard Bandler
7. Whatever you do, do it with passion.
Carlos Castaneda.

Don't be 'sniffy' about selling

Logic alone rarely gets full 'buy-in' to an idea; the idea will need selling. Don't be adverse to that idea. Ok, you trained for years and you have a whole stack of vocational qualifications plus an MBA and you are not sure about doing something which apparently anyone can just 'walk in off the street' and start doing. Here's why you need to start getting good at selling:

-you'll increase the % of your ideas which are accepted in meetings
-you'll be able to handle resistance to your desired salary increase
-one day you'll be running your own team or division or business and you'll have a quota to hit. The sooner you know how to do that, the better
-selling is exhilerating
-simply because it's not such a highly regulated industry doesn't mean it's easy to be good at it
-it's fantastic being paid for performance

Book on a sales course. Search on amazon for top recommended sales books. Add it to your skill portfolio. And do it sooner rather than later. You'll never be hungry if you can sell.

Managing fear

Making a change, standing up to a bullying boss, taking a riskier but more enjoyable job, exposing your draft novel to the world....they all require you to manage fear. Here are 4 tips. Treat them as a mantra: repeat them to yourself at tough times.

1. Feel the fear and do it anyway (the title of Susan Jeffer's first book, by the way). Accept that you will get all the physical symptoms we associate with fear. But go with it anyway.

2. No failure only feed-back. You simply cannot fail: it's all learning. It's all growth.

3. Chase challenge, not comfort: you were designed to be goal-centered. You do your best with challenge.

4. Feel more alive than you ever have. Suddenly everything is clearer, more focused. That's adrenaline for you.

So: do it and manage that fear.

Personal Reinvention: August: 31 of 31

You did well. In the New World of Work, where the challenges grow daily, we survive and thrive by steady, easy re-invention. A productivity boost here, a little more exercise here. A shift in reading there. Nothing manic-that's no fun-just steady, easy kaizen.

How might you keep this process going? Perhaps take a retreat once a month? Or have a kaizen day where you spend 15 minutes on re-invention? Or a session with your team? The main thing is to to do it.

Look back on your Personal Re-invention, here.

Personal Reinvention: August 2007: 29 of 31

Time to re-visit the good work you have done on Personal Re-invention during August. As you review your work-and you may find the original list useful, here-congratulate yourself on progress. Notice how much you have done in such a short time. And now ask yourself, of all of that list what's the one thing that would really make a difference if it were well and truly accomplished? And how can you do that?

Personal Reinvention: August 2007: 28 of 31

One of the easiest ways to re-invent is to raise your standards. Once you have essential competence in a topic-baking, lecturing, selling, parenting-you can by choice become even more effective. Re-invent by raising your standards. There are eight levels at which you might operate:

DIRE; why work at this level? It's no fun for you and whatever you deliver will not be acceptable. You'll be out of a job or your business will go bust.

POOR; slightly better but of course that is not saying much. It'll take a little longer for them to catch up with you but you will be out pretty soon.

OK; well it is OK, but nobody comes back for more OK. And OK doesn't get promoted. No, OK is not for you.

GOOD; only thing is, good is no longer good enough.

VERY GOOD; you'll get noticed. You'll get promotion. Your business will thrive.

EXCELLENT; you'll be in demand. As you re-invent, make excellent your new minimum standard.

OUTSTANDING. They will be chasing you. Name your fees. Name your job title.

AWESOME; the world is your oyster. Reinvent now to this level. It's always a choice.

Personal Reinvention: August: 27 of 31

How's your network? Draw a spider diagram to represent it with thickness of lines to represent depth of relationship. How could it be extended? How could it be improved?

Who could you phone, today?
Who could you drop a note to, today?
Who could you attempt to develop a relationship with? Today?
Who could you help, with no expectation of return, today?

Personal Reinvention: August 2007: 26 of 31

What are your personal 'house rules'. What guides you? What do you keep in front of you when things are tough?

How about:
1. I believe in me.
2. I will only work with people I enjoy working with.
3. I will keep the high ground, be clear on what I want to do and stick with it.
4. I will read to keep me inspired.

What are your house rules? Write them down. Stick them up. Live by them!

personal Reinvention: August: 22 of 31

Make August a great excuse to re-invent: a point a day.

22 of 31

Time for a review. But a really in-depth, effective one. I explain how, here.

Want to catch up Personal Reinvention? Go here.

Personal Reinvention: August: 21 of 31

Make August a great excuse to re-invent: a point a day.

21 of 31

Get some inspiration from a variety of thought leaders. Follow up on any of these or these.

But please do it!

Want to catch up Personal Reinvention? Go here.