In his book “Good To Great“, Jim Collins says pretty much the same thing. If you don’t play to your strengths, you can build a good company but not a great one.

It’s a scary thought. What if I’m not playing to my strengths – am I going to fail? And how do I even know what my strengths are?

So one of the first tasks that Rich sets in the course is to identify your own particular strengths using various methods. As a Brit, trained in the art of modesty all my life, I’m not used to thinking about what it is I’m actually good at. I felt a little uncomfortable doing this initially but in the end I found it very enlightening.

One approach is to ask friends and family what they think since an outsider’s perspective can offer unexpected insights. I actually failed to set this one up at the time but I may still do this.

Another, more introspective approach is to recall achievements you’ve made throughout your life and then try to identify what skills were required for each one. You can then look for patterns. The actual achievement doesn’t have to have any relevance to business, it’s more about personal traits and characteristics.

To give you a personal example, as a child I was a good chess player and also good at sporting activities (running, throwing, batting, PE, rope climbing, etc.). Later on, in my teens, I represented my school in athletics and completed a half-marathon. And one of my most enduring memories from the age of about 15 is getting up at about 6 am, 7 days a week to deliver local newspapers in all weathers for very little pay just so that I could save up to buy something I particularly wanted.

Now you might be thinking that my strength here is something to do with sport or fitness. Well, fitness certainly does play a part but the key traits that link all of these acheivements together are actually “determination” and “persistence”. Determination to be the best, to win or to reach the target. Persistence to keep going until I finished or got what I wanted.

And as I look back over my whole life, I see those same traits popping up everywhere. Now I know that I can call upon these strengths whenever I need to because they’re a part of who I am.

One of my favourite exercises for identifying strengths was actually mentioned in Rich Scheferen’s “Manifesto” and, surprisingly, wasn’t part of the Business Growth System course materials at all. At the top of a blank piece of paper, write the words “One of my strengths is” then underneath list 20 good qualities you have or things that you think you’re good at.

And don’t be modest. Try to reach beyond any self-limiting beliefs you might have. This is not something you’re going to show to someone else and say “look at me, aren’t I great, I’m so good at all these things”. No, it’s a personal and private list to give you a better understanding of yourself and boost your self-confidence.

Having created your list, don’t ponder it, just put it somewhere safe and get on with whatever else you need to do. Then repeat the same exercise every day for about a week. The key here is to start with a blank piece of paper each time and not refer to any previous lists you’ve made.

Although a 5 or 10-minute time limit is a good idea, I personally felt that it was more important to have the discipline to keep going until all 20 slots were filled. What you will probably find is that the first 10 are relatively easy but then it becomes harder to think of things as you reach the bottom, even though you know you found 20 the day before.

The real fun starts at the end of the week when you can pull out all of your lists and examine them. What you’ll find is that your most dominant strengths will appear on every list, usually near the top, but when you put them all together you will probably find at least 30 strengths that you have. These are the things that make you tick. Some of them you’ll think of as plainly obvious but others (often near the bottom of the lists) will amaze you as things you hadn’t really considered before.

However you identify them, these are your strengths. The particular combination is unique to you. It’s what makes you special.

Since this is a blog about me, I was going to list some of my strengths that I’ve identified but thinking about what I’ve just written, I realise that might be inappropriate at this point. Aside from the personal and private nature of my list, I think there’s a danger of comparison. Your strengths will be different to mine, though possibly with some overlap. Mine are not better than yours and yours are not better than mine. Rather than worry about what other people can do that we can’t, we need to focus on our own strengths to discover what we can excel at.

I’ll leave you with that thought in the hope that you’ll be inspired to find out what your own strengths are. Comments welcome…

And this year, I got strangely inspired. This had something to do with watching “Adaptation” on New Year’s Eve, a quirky film about a screenwriter trying to adapt a difficult book. That led to talking with a friend about writing a novel, at which point I dug out my copy of “No Plot? No Problem!” by Chris Baty. This is a hugely inspiring book and not just if you’re thinking of writing a novel. It was a key influence on Ed Dale to create the Underachiever 30-Day Challenge in 2005.

So here’s what I’ve decided for 2007:

1. I want to do something amazing in 2007. Something I can look back on as a great personal achievement. It won’t be a novel but I do have a project in mind; a project I’ve been thinking about for over 20 years and never yet been able to get going on. Well, now I’m determined to make 2007 the year I seriously get started on it. I don’t want to give any details at this point but I’ll codename it project “Mercury”.

2. I will focus on my current business and not let any further opportunities pull me away, no matter how tempting they seem. If I can stick to this principle, it should save me a lot of stress and anguish!

3. I will leave no more than 2 weeks between posts to this blog. I’d really like to post every week but I’m also realistic and past performance shows that this one will be tough. This is about me committing to finding regular time to write about all the things I need to get out of my head.

So there we have it. A new year with all the Xmas hassle out of the way and a chance to do something amazing.

I wish you an incredible year and something amazing for yourself!

No matter what I’ve read by the cynics about this launch (I’m fairly cynical myself and can see every part of Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula being used to excellent effect so I know what’s going on), I really feel that Rich is the real deal and can help me boost my business.

But I think the real deciding factor for me was the ability to take the programme one month at a time and cancel out if I don’t think I’m getting enough value out of it or if I find that I can’t put it into practice. If it really can improve my business that much then $397 on a monthly basis seems like a reasonable risk.

So, as you’ve probably gathered, I signed up!

I was a bit surprised to learn later that the 1-on-1 coaching was just under $5,000 and not the $10,000 I thought it would have been. So that was pretty much the same price as this monthly programme over the 12 months.

Rich was criticised for not making the monthly programme cheaper since the 1-on-1 should surely be more valuable. But that will be much more intense (over just 11 weeks or so), the investment was all up front and I think the content will be a bit different. The monthly programme may even have the advantage of knowledge gained from the 1-on-1 programme. I also like the idea that it will be spread over 12 months. I don’t think I could cope with cramming it into 3 months while handling everything else that’s going on.

I’m looking forward to getting stuck in. The first conference call is today but I’m not daft enough to hang on the phone to the US for an hour or two (especially not during ‘get the kids to bed’ time) so I’m happy to wait a few days for the recording.

And I’ll be sure to let you know how I get on with it all!

So I quickly had another read of the sales page (which seems to grow each time I look at it) to see if I really wanted to go ahead or not. But I couldn’t read fast enough. As time was running out, all I could do was watch the timer count down the last 20 seconds or so like watching the last grains of sand trickle down through an hour glass, until it finally told me that the offer had “Expired”.

My indecision had made the decision for me. The interesting thing is that my gut reaction was that of dissapointment. That I’d missed out on a really important opportunity. That I was too late.

Or so I thought…

You see it occurred to me that it was only midday here in the UK and that the deadline was supposed to be midday Eastern Standard Time (5 pm UK time). That would make sense as most of the punters are in the US and they’re only just getting up about now.

And that would also explain why the available slots had hardly changed during the last few hours when I’d have expected activity to be the most manic. Maybe the counter will work in Rich’s favour after all!

So I clicked the link and it’s still active. Yippee! I get to have another 5 hours of indecision!

So here’s a little tip if you ever want to put a timer on your Web site, whether it’s the countdown to a launch or the countdown to the expiry of an offer – please make sure that it’s based on the actual date and time of the event and not the local time of the person viewing the site!

It was a month ago that Rich Schefren’s “Interenet Business Manifesto” was released as part of a big launch for his coaching program (that’s “programme” to all you fellow Brits).

I’d decided that the coaching would be too expensive for me so didn’t pay much attention to the actual launch (besides which I was away on holiday at the time). The 150 slots sold out in 2 hours and 14 minutes so I missed my chance to find out the actual cost but I would guess around $10K.

Now the interesting thing is that, with such apparent high demand, he’s decided to open up a second coaching program for 1000 people without the 1-on-1 mentoring. It’s much more affordable at $397 a month for 12 months. That’s still a lot of money but there’s a cancellation option each month if things are not working out.

The claim is that this was an after-thought due to such high demand but the cynical among you might think that this was planned all along. Especially when you do the maths and realise that he will make 4 times as much from this than from the 1-on-1 coaching if everyone stays the full 12 months!

So here’s the thing, I’m very impressed with what Rich has put out so far and I think he could help my business. Co-incidentally, I’ve just finished reading Michael Gerber’s “The E-Myth Revisited” and he teaches along similar lines. It’s about building the business by freeing your own time up from doing ‘everything’ and getting other people to step in and do most of the grunt work, either as employees or through outsourcing. Before that can happen, you have to create strategies for the business and systemise its operations.

It all makes a lot of sense but I’m not sure (a) whether I can afford the monthly fee at this stage, (b) whether I’m really ready to accept the inevitable and dive right into this, (c) whether I can’t just apply what I’ve learned so far and progress at my own pace, (d) whether I really want to complicate (simplify?) my business in that way as it’s not what I originally envisaged, (e) whether my business can cope with the cashflow problems of getting others involved without getting further finance, and (f) a whole bunch of other things.

I’m seriously tempted because it may be just the push I need to move my business forward. Well, according to the countdown on the web site, I now have 1 hour, 24 minutes, 17 seconds and 486 milliseconds to decide…

Actually, the countdown on the site (www.strategicprofits.com/system) is cool but Rich has also chosen to show a count of the number of available slots remaining. This is a scarcity tactic. As people see the number going down, they are likely to rush to join so that they don’t miss out.

But this is a double edged sword, especially when the expectation of demand has been pumped up and, dare I say, hyped up. In Rich’s case, the number quickly went down from 1000 to about 650. But in the last 24 hours, only about 60 slots have been sold and it currently stands at 572. That’s more than half available with just over an hour to go.

It makes me think that while hundreds of people think it’s a good thing, hundreds of thousands of others don’t. It makes me think that it won’t sell out and so I’ll think a bit more about my decision.

But maybe if I haven’t jumped on it yet, my decision has already been made unconsciously. But there’s still time….

This time it came in an email from Mike Filsaime. I’m on a few of his email lists and I usually ignore the deluge of emails I get from him every day but this one caught my attention.

Rich Schefren is another one of those mega success stories that I’ve never heard of (and no, as much as I’d like to sometimes, I haven’t been hiding under a rock). He’s just put out a “Manifesto” document that’s “shaking the Internet Marketing world”.

If you can look past the marketing hype surrounding this document (which is essentially trying to promote a very expensive and exclusive coaching programme), there’s some amazing insights in there.

You should download it and read it yourself but here’s a brief summary based on my first read through (I’ve probably missed some stuff):

1. The typical Internet Marketing business is absurdly complex and it doesn’t have to be that way (not sure how yet). There’s a very funny (not so funny) chart that shows this.
2. Have a vision and create strategies to achieve it rather than jump on every opportunity. Be an Entrepreneur rather than an Opportunist (yep, that sounds like me).
3. Stop collecting tactics and only buy products & services that support your strategies (me again!).
4. Know the value of your time and plan to increase it (there’s a worksheet that goes into this in detail).
5. Build a business around scalability and leverage. That means creating systems and getting the most out of the work that you do.
6. Create multiple products for a single niche rather than single products for multiple niches for maximum leverage.
7. Use outsourcing to free your time and don’t out-task (the difference is explained in the document). Outsource tasks that cost less than your time value.
8. Create process maps for everything you do and use them to continually improve your processes.
9. Try to create metrics for each activity and relationship to make it easier to gauge performance.

There’s apparently going to be some follow up videos so it’s well worth your name and email address to get on yet another list to get the document. You can always unsubscribe later (yeah, like I always don’t).

Anyway, here’s the link to opt-in and download (not an affiliate link):
http://www.strategicprofits.com/manifesto/

Enjoy!

Well, I’ve been kinda struggling at this Internet Marketing game now for quite a while and I’ve decided it’s time to really figure it out. To stop just reading, watching and listening about how to do it and to finally take the steps I need to create a successful online business.

It’s not that I haven’t tried anything before but I guess you could say that I was really just dabbling in it. I’d have a go at one thing then as soon as another tempting money making scheme was dangled in front of my eyes I’d jump straight onto that bandwagon.

It’s no wonder I haven’t mananged to make a success of any of it. I haven’t stuck at anything long enough.

And it’s not just Internet marketing. I’ve been a sucker for everything. Info products, affiliate marketing, AdSense, arbitrages, financial trading, spread betting, network marketing, ebay, direct mail, biz-ops and even gambling. You name it, I’ve been to the seminars, bought the books, the videos, the audios, the software and the whole kaboodle. Sometimes I even look at the stuff!

I don’t want to keep buying all these expensive hard disk fillers and door stops but I can’t help it. I get seduced by all these sales letters telling me that this is the one that’s going to bring an end to my life of drudgery and instead bring financial freedom and sunshine into my life. You know, where I get to sail the World in that expensive yacht and drive that flash car to the supermarket. No promises, of course, but it made gazillions of dollars for all these other people.

I know it’s all hyped up guff but I’m so desperate to find my way - to reach the levels of success that ‘everyone else’ seems to be having – that I’ll go for anything.

And they know it. These guys are good marketers. They know exactly how to push my buttons and get me to whip out my credit card.

A few years ago I started logging all the stuff I was spending money on to reach my goal of financial independence. I had to stop. It was getting depressing every time I’d add another £70 here or $1500 there while knowing full well that I’d got zero return from all the previous stuff I’d bought.

Is there no limit to how dumb I can be?

The collective knowledge in everything I’ve bought must surely be enough to achieve what I want. Surely. Somehow it hasn’t happened because I haven’t managed to apply it.

But all that’s about to change. I’m going to get focussed and really figure out how to make something work.

So this blog is really a declaration to myself and, by making it public, I’m now accountable to you.

I’m going to chart my rise from Idiotic Spendo-Maniac to Successful Entrepreneur.

And if you’ve read this far (without skimming) then I hope you’ll join me on my journey. Along the way, I promise to share with you pretty much everything I’m doing with any insights into what’s working and what’s not. You never know, it might even help you on your journey.

It’s getting on for half past midnight now but I wanted to get this started tonight, especially as I have a few more things I want to share over the next few days.

Where do I start? Right here and right now! Well, okay, after I’ve had a bit of sleep…