Setting Your Personal Goals
In my conversations with top business people over the years, I have found that they all have one thing in common. They have taken the time to sit down and create a clear blueprint for themselves and their future lives. So many have said that they started the process of goal setting and personal strategic planning with more than a little skepticism. As their success have increased so too has every one of them has become a true believer in the process. Everyone has a process. It's not a hit and miss sit down and throw out a few nice sounding goals!
Every one has been amazed at the incredible power of goal setting and strategic planning. Every one of them has accomplished far more than they ever believed possible and they ascribe their success to the deliberate process of thinking through every aspect of their work and their lives, their successes and struggles, their motivators, values and beliefs, and then developing a detailed, written road map to get them to where they wanted to go.
It's not that hard to believe and so many people don't do it because they don't have any idea on what to do and how to go about developing goals.
Best Year Yet Program
A few years back I needed a process for a client I was working with both for his team and for their personal strategic plans. I discovered a program called Best Year Yet and have since brought it into my business.
Learn how 10 simple questions can provide you with the most important strategies and techniques ever discovered to help you accomplish more of your goals, faster than you ever have before. The amazing thing is that you have the answers, and these questions will bring them out.
The Definition of Happiness
Happiness has been defined as, "The progressive achievement of a worthy ideal, or goal." When you are working progressively, step-by-step toward something that is important to you, you generate within yourself a continuous feeling of success and achievement.
You feel more positive and motivated. You feel more in control of your own life. You feel happier and more fulfilled. You feel like a winner, and you soon develop the psychological momentum that enables you to overcome obstacles and plough through adversity as you move toward achieving the goals that are most important to you.
Determine Your Values
Personal strategic planning begins with your determining what it is you believe in and stand for--your values. Your values lie at the very core of everything you are as a human being. Your values are the unifying principles and core beliefs of your personality and your character. The virtues and qualities that you stand for are what constitute the person you have become from the beginning of your life to this moment.
Your values, virtues and inner beliefs are the axle around which the wheel of your life turns. All improvement in your life begins with you clarifying your true values and then committing yourself to live consistent with them.
Fuzzy or Clear?
Successful people are successful because they are very clear about their values. Unsuccessful people are fuzzy or unsure. Complete failures have no real values at all.
When you take the time to think through your fundamental values, and then commit yourself to living your life consistent with them, you feel a surge of mental strength and well-being. You feel stronger and more capable. You feel more centered in the universe and more competent of accomplishing the goals you set for yourself.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, decide for yourself what roles you have in your life and then organize your life around them. Pick one to highlight this coming year, for even greater success. Write down your goals around these roles and make plans to achieve them. Have fun.
Second, begin with your values by deciding what it is you stand for and believe in. Commit yourself to live consistent with your inner most convictions -- and you'll never make another mistake.
Slainte
Gordon
This a record of my life, work and play as a Serial Entrepreneur, raised over £150 million and founded / co-founded six companies, listed one on the AIM and made trade sales of three others.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Friday, December 01, 2006
"Wake Up Wake Up oh great sleeper of The Venture Capital Industry"
Is is it Sunrise or Sunset for the European VC's ?This is a short article by Crawford Beveridge who is a member of Scottish Equity Partners board a VC company based in Scotland, on the exodus of our best entrepreneurial talents to the US and how the Venture capital community needs to wake up and look at how to retain the best for themselves
The exodus of technology companies to the US is building, with some of our best entrepreneurial companies moving across the Atlantic, and the European VC community must think about how they respond to this.
The US is indeed a hugely important market for technology companies, and it is also true that it is notoriously difficult for an overseas company to set up an effective sales channel that will enable them to tap into that market. One of the main reasons that companies are moving to the US is the belief that a physical presence is necessary to achieve this. However, many will find to their frustration that it takes far more than a local office to establish the channels they need to tap into the market.
For most young technology companies, the ideal solution is to partner with an organisation that has already established strong marketing channels. If a small company can form a partnering relationship with a company like Sun Microsystems then the vast resources of Sun’s sales channels are opened up to them.
Yet even if a company were based right next door to Sun’s HQ in Santa Clara, achieving this kind of partnering relationship without the right contacts is almost impossible. In an organisation of 40,000 people, finding the best person to talk to in the first place is hard enough. Even in my position, it can even take a week or more to find the right decision-maker in my ownorganisation! An outsider would find it much more difficult, and harder still to gain that individual’s attention and interest without an endorsement from a source they trust.
Rather than focusing too much on the issue of geographical proximity, companies should perhaps concentrate more effort on finding US based non-executive directors with an industry background. Someone who works or has worked directly in your sector and has direct connections with organisations you want to get close to and a network of contacts who can help open doors.
Finding a US NXD with this kind of background may seem like a daunting task in itself, but there are many very able people who have personal or working relationships with the UK who are keen to maintain them and are receptive to opportunities that will help them to do that.
It might seem an expensive exercise to bring someone across from the US for board meetings but the value they bring todeveloping relationships and channels for the business will be enormous. It will also undoubtedly cost far less than trying to set up direct channels or find channel partners without their help.
European VCs should also consider their role in this. VCs with an international outlook and good financial and industry networks can offer companies a great deal of support as they set out to make these contacts. US VCs can be strong allies in this effort and can be a good option as a syndicate partner. Although some US VCs may seem too overpowering and controlling to be brought into a syndicate without them taking over, with careful research it should be possible to find a boutique firm with similar values.
It may also be a challenge to convince a US investor to join a syndicate investing in a European company and led by a European VC, as they prefer to have their investments nearby and to have high levels of control over their management. Convincing them of the benefits may therefore take time and good working relationships will not develop overnight. But, when established, these links can only enhance the UK venture capital industry’s offering to the technology community and help them win more deals rather than lose them. It may even help halt the exodus in its tracks.
Slainte
Have great weekend
The exodus of technology companies to the US is building, with some of our best entrepreneurial companies moving across the Atlantic, and the European VC community must think about how they respond to this.
The US is indeed a hugely important market for technology companies, and it is also true that it is notoriously difficult for an overseas company to set up an effective sales channel that will enable them to tap into that market. One of the main reasons that companies are moving to the US is the belief that a physical presence is necessary to achieve this. However, many will find to their frustration that it takes far more than a local office to establish the channels they need to tap into the market.
For most young technology companies, the ideal solution is to partner with an organisation that has already established strong marketing channels. If a small company can form a partnering relationship with a company like Sun Microsystems then the vast resources of Sun’s sales channels are opened up to them.
Yet even if a company were based right next door to Sun’s HQ in Santa Clara, achieving this kind of partnering relationship without the right contacts is almost impossible. In an organisation of 40,000 people, finding the best person to talk to in the first place is hard enough. Even in my position, it can even take a week or more to find the right decision-maker in my ownorganisation! An outsider would find it much more difficult, and harder still to gain that individual’s attention and interest without an endorsement from a source they trust.
Rather than focusing too much on the issue of geographical proximity, companies should perhaps concentrate more effort on finding US based non-executive directors with an industry background. Someone who works or has worked directly in your sector and has direct connections with organisations you want to get close to and a network of contacts who can help open doors.
Finding a US NXD with this kind of background may seem like a daunting task in itself, but there are many very able people who have personal or working relationships with the UK who are keen to maintain them and are receptive to opportunities that will help them to do that.
It might seem an expensive exercise to bring someone across from the US for board meetings but the value they bring todeveloping relationships and channels for the business will be enormous. It will also undoubtedly cost far less than trying to set up direct channels or find channel partners without their help.
European VCs should also consider their role in this. VCs with an international outlook and good financial and industry networks can offer companies a great deal of support as they set out to make these contacts. US VCs can be strong allies in this effort and can be a good option as a syndicate partner. Although some US VCs may seem too overpowering and controlling to be brought into a syndicate without them taking over, with careful research it should be possible to find a boutique firm with similar values.
It may also be a challenge to convince a US investor to join a syndicate investing in a European company and led by a European VC, as they prefer to have their investments nearby and to have high levels of control over their management. Convincing them of the benefits may therefore take time and good working relationships will not develop overnight. But, when established, these links can only enhance the UK venture capital industry’s offering to the technology community and help them win more deals rather than lose them. It may even help halt the exodus in its tracks.
Slainte
Have great weekend
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