Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Best, Stop Trying to be the
Another Patton Associates S-M-A-R-TBriefing™
"Striving to Be 'The Best' is Overrated & Not Smart"
Many so-called gurus argue that you need to be substantially better than everyone else in your field to be successful and make money. As a people development specialist, I say that's nonsense.
You really only need to be about 1% better than most others to be superior. Consider these winning approaches as my proof!
"Sports remain a great metaphor for life's more difficult lessons. It was through athletics that many of us first came to understand that fear can be tamed; that on a team the whole is more than the sum of its parts; and that the ability to be heroic lies, to a surprising degree, within!" ~ Susan Casey U.S. author of "The Wave and Devil's Teeth"
The #2 golfers in the most recent Masters and U.S Open Golf Tournaments were less than 1% behind the first place finisher in stokes at the end. And the spread between the purse of them and the top golfers in the competitions was phenomenal. (Check it out if you wish.)
Likewise, the winner of the downhill ski race in the last Olympics beat the second place finisher by a margin measured in only thousands of a second. And gold is so much shinier and so much more valuable than silver.
And how about these numbers? Twitter at the beginning of 2010 is on track to very soon hit 200,000,000 users. The top followed celebrity on Twitter, the person with the greatest audience, is Lady Gaga, with 7.086 million 'Followers'.
Think about that! Gaga, for all of her appeal and star power, merits only 3.5% of Twitter’s userbase as a following. That means 96.5% of the Tweepeoples don’t care about what she has to say enough to follow her.2
So, when you have only 1% more Followers than the average on Twitter, you're doing great. You don't need to be the best!
"Forget about being the best at what you do because you don't really have to. Strive only to be 1% better than most to win the prize you want!" ~ gfp '42™
When you do, then, you can really flow!
Give up trying to be the best at anything ...right now... please! You'll believe in the wisdom of my recommendation when you sense how it makes you feel.
And you've got nothing to lose. And everything to gain!
But, using this life-skill is a choice! And remember, quality customer/people service is a moment-to-moment choice. Plus, a full life is an unending series of wise decisions.
With my compliments and permission to reproduce, without change or profiteering, including the following:
Copyright © 2011 Gary F. Patton
PattonAssociates.ca, People Development Coaches
Tags: attraction principles, business development, challenges, choices, clarity, creativity, client service, customer service, distress, distress controller, fear, heart, heart-felt, health, healthy, liabilities, organization development, money-making tips, patient service, patron service, perspective, personal growth, planning, problems, problem solving, project management, procrastination, relax, relaxation response, self-help, self-help advice, strengths, stress, stress management, struggling, swearing, Tai Chi, thinking, time, time management, Type A behavior, enhanced wellness, overcoming worry, weaknesses
notes
1 By allowing your cursor to rest for a moment on any of my hyper-links, a Pop-up Window will share additional information about the Web Site you can choose to visit by left-clicking it. You will discover this is helpful. e.g. gfp '42™ = "Gary's copyright & trademark designation + his Web site for FREE S-M-A-R-TTips™"
2 You can discover these data and others in the interesting & helpful article, "How to build a Twitter audience in 8 steps" at http://is.gd/cpPJ3E .
3 You'll discover a helpful, short article on the benefits of having a mentor to get to that sometimes tricky 1% better at http://is.gd/idcgM .
