Three Little Ideas that Produce BIG Results

August 24, 2007 | 5 Comments

There are just too many people out there complicating business success. They talk about secrets and complicated strategies and things I barely understand using buzzwords that make no sense. Success isn’t hard. A handful of short, common sense ideas can change your business. So let’s get right to it.

Not firing people is a cancer on your business. People don’t do their jobs. You see it every day just like I do. I go into businesses where I have to beg people to answer a question or pay attention to me. I have to break up conversations between workers to get them to take my order and my money. People take breaks twice as long as they are entitled to. They come in late. They call in sick when they aren’t. And they don’t get fired. Why? Why do we let people by with not doing their job? Fear. We are afraid. We spend so much time and money worrying about the rights of the employee that we forget about the rights of the business. If an employee isn’t doing his job – isn’t earning his money – isn’t doing what he is paid to do – he has no rights. Fire him.

Keeping a bad employee destroys your credibility with your other employees. Bad behavior then spreads like a cancer because there are no visible consequences. This is inexcusable because ultimately the person who suffers most is the person who should suffer least: the customer.

Do the right thing no matter what. Ethics is a matter of black and white - not grey. It’s either right or wrong, good or bad, hello or goodbye, you are either in the way or on the way. How will you know whether something is the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do? If you have to ask, it’s the wrong thing. You always know the right thing, you only question when it is the wrong thing. So do the right thing. Even when it is unpopular or might cost you money or be embarrassing. In the long run, consistently doing the right thing will pay off every time.

Larry’s all time best advice for business success:

Do what you said you were going to do, when you said you were going to do it, in exactly the way you said you were going to do it. You won’t ever get any better business advice than that.

Be there when you said you would be there. Deliver when you said you would deliver. Call when you said you would call. Be a person who can be counted on by keeping his word every time. That’s all you want from your coworkers, employee, or employer. That’s all that your customer wants. It is really all that any of us want.

“If I do all of this, Larry, will I be successful?”

Beats me. Success is a funny thing. Sometimes you can do everything right and it still all goes wrong. If you don’t understand that, then you are naïve. So I can’t guarantee your success. However, don’t do any of these things and I can guarantee your failure.

Posted by Larry Winget | Filed Under Money & Personal Dev