So today is the day when we get our overseas visitors to “bail” our country out of the mire we got ourselves in to. Surely a day to mourn. A day to blame. A day for recriminations. A day to moan.
Well I for one am just sick of it.
I’m looking out of my office window and it’s a beautiful day. The country hasn’t imploded. Life is still going on.
We just need to stop beating ourselves up over this.
I know that there has been hardship. I know that the business environment is tougher than it’s been for a long time. I also know that more businesses will go out of business. To not recognise this would just be facetious. I am a realist too.
We need to stop listening to the media. They have made no attempt to give a balanced view on any of main business issues in the country. There is no airtime given to those who are being successful. There is no airtime focusing on the solutions. The interviewers are more intent on driving home negative messages than making any attempts to recognise that there are success stories in our midst. There are opportunities out there. There is a way forward for business.
You know what my advice is to just stop listening. NOW!.
I went to an event on Tuesday night where John Boyle of Boyle Sports spoke for an hour. What an inspiration. He talked about what he described as a “mindset of darkness”, which is pervasive in Ireland at the moment. What a brilliant metaphor for the negativity we are bombarded with daily.
He then talked about the need to develop a mindset of light. A mindset of opportunity.
Opportunity. This is the key issue we need to talk about. This is what we as business owners need to dominate our thinking.
We need to recognise that in order to move forward, we need to embrace new opportunities. In order to do this we need to be consciously looking for new opportunities. Are you doing this.
Let me ask you how much time each week, either you or your team sit an focus exclusively on where opportunities lie for your business? Effectively your entrepreneurial time. How much time really?
Why not? This has been proven to be the most valuable time you can spend for your business every week. Proven and tested.
Use this time to focus on what your NOT doing. Use this time to focus on what your customers really want. Use this time to go and look at your competitors and see what it is they do you don’t that could increase your business.
Use this time to look at other excellent businesses from other industries, and just steal their ideas and implement them if they are successful for them.
Use this time to discuss what new products and services you could introduce. What training as an organisation you need to give you a more competitive edge.
Use the time to just dream a little. Why not? Be creative.
This will have a huge impact on you as the leader of a business and on your team. What team member doesn’t want to be part of an organisation that is driven by opportunity, creativity and positivity?
I M Fed up with the negativity, but I don’t participate in it anyway. For those of you who think I’m just a dreamer, fine. You go back to your blaming, moaning and begrudging. I’ll be smiling, enjoying, challenging myself, driving forward, busying myself looking for opportunity. I know it’s there, because I have seized it already.
Why not seize some too?
Best of luck.
Ronan
Ronan Kilroy Certified FocalPoint Business Coach
Profitability, Productivity, Possibility.
