Last week, I had the fortunate opportunity to attend Dale Carnegie’s annual regional convention. So I spent five days in the lovely Scottsdale, Arizona area. Attending a conference such as this one is always such a great experience. The connections you make and the things you learn really gets you pumped up and excited about what you do. That is one of the major takeaways for me. But in my typical weekly fashion, here are three things I learned last week.
It’s right in front of you: Sometimes in life we go searching for something and the thing(s) we are searching for are right in front of us. Have you ever lost your car keys, or you thought you lost your car keys? You run around the office or at home frantically looking for them. After going crazy for a few minutes looking for them, you see them laying where you always put them. Or they are laying somewhere else, but in plain sight? I have spent a great deal of my time throughout my life searching for this or that, and in many cases I didn’t appreciate or realize what I had in front of me. In business, we sometimes go searching for new customers, when in reality we could create more solutions for our existing customers. My takeaway is to look closer at what I have and what I could have in front of me before searching for something new.
I will say it again: You can look at all of the concepts I have written about over the years and you will read over and over me discussing how important goals and vision are. These are not just concepts a leader or a company must have to be successful, they are required for any of us to be successful. If we don’t have goals and a vision we are just doing what we have to do. We are just taking whatever it is that comes at us. We have no focus. You can be successful in the short-term living like this, but if you want long-term success you must have a vision and goals. That is the first step. The second step is to develop a very clear action plan to achieve the goals and the vision. This is the hard part, but we can all do it. Right now is good time to see where you are on accomplishing your goals or if you haven’t set any in a while, go ahead and set some for the upcoming year that will be here soon.
Think impact before income: I am guilty of this. Sometimes I get ahead of myself in this area. I focus on money or the opportunity for money. It’s not that my heart is not worried about the impact I want to have, it just isn’t my sole focus. I have to ask myself “Would I be more successful if I focused solely on impact and not on money and impact?” I believe I know the answer to this, but I will shift my focus and let my results speak for themselves.
What did you learn last week?
To your success and your future.
Pennies into Fortunes 
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