Monday, 8.19pm
Sheffield, U.K.
I’m reading Brian Tracy again, and the points he makes about leverage in his book, Focal Point.
Leverage is about getting more output for the same amount of effort.
I was talking to a friend today about knowledge.
Many people have learned their trade and craft over 30 years on the job – they have experience.
They make decisions drawing on what they have learned over time. It’s possible that they don’t know why something is the right thing to do, but their gut tells them – and they have learned to trust their gut instinct.
But – that doesn’t mean we should take 30 years to learn the same things.
Many experienced people reflect on their experience and share their knowledge – in books and articles – and we should make the most of this.
Acquiring knowledge can help us skip years of experience. Experience still matters – but we can go so much further as a result.
Then there is energy.
We only have so many hours in a day – so many productive hours we can put in.
We should try and get the best out of each hour – and that means using other people’s energy to do everything that they can do better than us.
If you’re not practical – outsource all the jobs to someone who is. If you’re practical, get your bookkeeping and marketing done by someone who’s good at those things.
Robert Kiyosaki writes about money in such a simple and direct way that it hurts.
How long would it take you to save a hundred thousand dollars?
For most people, we’re talking years.
How long would it take you to borrow a hundred thousand dollars?
For many people, that could be pretty fast. Perhaps online.
The point is that if you’re good at borrowing money and investing it in something that gives back a higher rate of interest than you’re paying – you’re onto a winner.
Watching other people and learning from their successes and failures is crucial.
How many people do you know that have become successful and then spectacularly failed?
What made them do that?
Once again, all the information is out there. We just need to spend the time watching and learning and then picking the things that led to success and avoiding the things that led to failure.
It’s hard coming up with good ideas. So we should learn from those that other people have.
Everything we see around us is an idea that has survived the test of time. If you see a business model, a habit, a routine, a process that works – learn it and build on it.
It’s very rare that we see a completely new thing – most of the time we build on, iterate and improve on existing ideas.
Finally, there is the network – other people’s contacts.
Many of us know a few people. But together, we have access to a lot.
Other people can help you reach further through their contacts and connections. As the saying goes, your network is your net worth.
But isn’t all this other people’s stuff just using people?
No.
It’s the foundation of social structure. The bedrock of economics.
If we simply try and use other people – no one will help us. Or they’ll stop once they realise how selfish we are.
If you genuinely try and learn, give business to people, create returns for people, avoid failure and strive for success, search for the best ideas available and create and nurture good relationships – you just can’t help but do well.
Human beings are social animals. We prosper when our society prospers.
As Zig Ziglar said, You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.
Handcrafted insight 