If you aren’t reinventing the future, the future will reinvent you.
Where will you be when the vaccine has been distributed, the virus conquered and the economic recovery is officially announced? A great number of marginal performers will be gone. Those who have not innovated will be gone. Those who have not created value for their clients will be gone. But a lot of us will be standing and will be better, stronger and more equipped for success.
It drives me crazy, the number of people who view the economy like a river that they are adrift in. You can follow the current or you can chart your own course. Yes, charting your own course will take more effort, more thought and more courage than drifting. But it’s still a whole lot less painful than going over the waterfall ahead.
If you are still prospecting, marketing yourself, selling and following up the way that you did just ten months ago — you are a dinosaur. Your buyers are retiring and dying. They’re working from home in front of a computer. They’re buying things online that they never did before. And you can either change or watch your business die. If you are not learning new skills, studying new trends, reading the new business books and the leading business magazines — you are not earning your place in today’s tough market.
If you are not pursuing your CAS or MAS, taking classes, webinars, attending seminars — prepare to lose to those who are committed to continuous improvement and continuing education. If you have your MAS and think you’ve “graduated” — think again.
The great champions in any area of endeavor work harder, practice longer, study their craft and then quietly accept the jealousy of those who complain about how easy they make it look. Tiger Woods is a better golfer than I am and has a lot more natural talent than I have. But that doesn’t stop him from practicing forty or more hours more per week than I do, from being more disciplined in his diet and exercise than I am (or from making several hundred more million dollars than I do).The idea that he may be near the end of his career doesn’t stop that relentless pursuit of improvement.
Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player of all time, used to explain his success by focusing not on where the puck was on the ice, but on where it was going to be. Too many of us are focusing on where this economy is and the continuing short-term negative outlook rather than on where we want to be when the Dow tops 30,000 pts and spending in our medium is experiencing double digit growth.
You have only one time to do anything. Right now. Right now plan on making the extra calls, learning the extra skills, networking a little more, giving of yourself a little more freely, charting your course to success. Henry Ford said, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.” I believe the same thing is true about 2021. If you think 2021 is going to suck or if you think it’s going to rock, you’re right.
Life is all about choices. Choices about attitude are the ultimate freedom of humans (Victor Frankl). Choose to work harder, think clearer, and choose to chart a course to success and stick to it. Have the courage to set lofty goals and to pursue them. And then have the double courage to start again every single day — especially after the bad ones. Because really in the end, it’s only those who quit who lose. As long as you make your plans and stick to them, you can redefine success and your future.
Paul Kiewiet MAS+ is an industry speaker, writer, consultant and coach. He serves as the executive director of MiPPA. Kiewiet was inducted into the PPAI Hall of Fame and the MiPPA Hall of Fame. He served as Chairman of PPAI in 2007. A former distributor, he founded Promotion Concepts, Inc in 1982 and worked with some of America’s most valuable brands including Coca-Cola, Kelloggs, and Whirlpool.