Archives for November 2013

4 Business Lessons from the Bee Gees

November 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
4 Business Lessons from the Bee Gees

Photo courtesy of the Bee Gees Facebook page.

For Christmas in 1979 I received the Bee Gees Greatest Hits, which was the first album I ever owned (thanks Aunt Susie and Uncle Rick!). I spent the rest of my Christmas vacation and much of 1980, sitting on the living room floor crossed legged in front of the stereo with my headphones on. I listened to that album for hours. I’ve always been a fan of the Bee Gees, even when it wasn’t cool to be one.

I recently found myself in a YouTube trap. I started listening to one Bee Gees song, which led to another, and I ended up on a Saturday adventure that lasted a few hours. Has that happened to you? Man, those songs are just so good!
Listening to hit after hit made me think of their lengthy and successful career and how we can incorporate what made them successful into our own lives. Here are 4 business lessons we can learn from the Bee Gees:
1) Start small and learn as much as you can from where you are.
The Bee Gees started singing before the Saturday matinee movie at their local theater. These appearances led to playing at larger events. They learned what worked on stage and what didn’t. An audience is a live focus group; giving immediate feedback. Soon came a record deal and gigs on Australian television, which had them scoring hits on the Australian charts.
We often think success comes over night, but that is rarely the case. The Bee Gees perfected their craft in front of smaller audiences when the stakes weren’t as high and the critics wouldn’t be as loud. We forget that we need to start small. Starting small gets us on the path to where we eventually need to be. Countless hours need to be invested before things can take hold at a point of critical mass.
2) Move on when you need to take the next step. 
Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibb were born in England, but the family moved to Australia when they were young. They had achieved success in this new land, but wanted a bigger stage, so moving back home would open new doors. England in the 1960’s was a happening scene with The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, and the Kinks all dominating the charts. They wanted to be among these artists. They could have stayed in Australia and been sensations, but they had bigger dreams.
Once in England, they were quickly spotted by a good manager and got a record deal, which translated into having hits, and those hits quickly traveled to the US. When you move to a bigger playing field, more is at stake, but there is more to win when you gain traction.
3) Do whatever it takes to overcome obstacles.
After their massive success in the late 1970’s, radio turned on the Bee Gees and refused to play their songs. This didn’t stop the Bee Gees though. They wrote and produced songs for other artists. In doing so, they were still able to have massive hits on the radio, only instead of it being a Bee Gees record, it was that of another artist.
The Bees Gees are one of the most successful recording acts of all-time; with over 200 millions records sold worldwide. In the US they scored 43 top 100 hits, 30 top 40 hits, and nine #1’s. But if you look at their success as songwriters, these numbers get even more mind blowing. 87 top 100 hits, 55 top 40 hits and 16 # 1’s. They looked at other ways to continue their success without fighting what was out of their control. What other avenues can you try when one road closes in front of you?
4) Keep your foot on the pedal.
Don’t rest on your past successes and think those will carry you. You have to keep working; all the time. Not only do things get done when you don’t let up, but that’s when your greatest ideas and creations may come to you. When you work,  that’s when inspiration comes. To paraphrase Steven Pressfield,  “you don’t wait for inspiration to strike before starting, you start, so inspiration will strike.” Because you’re actively doing your art (whatever that may be), you’re open to receiving gifts of inspiration.
Productive people are productive because they don’t stop. The Bee Gees wrote “Too Much Heaven” and then wrote “Tragedy” right after that, in the same day. There’s a rumor that they wrote “Shadow Dancing”, which would become a #1 hit for their brother Andy, later that same evening. Three #1’s written in one day! Talk about productive! Achieving great things takes work and effort. Nothing comes from inspiration itself. You need to work, even when you may not want to. You will be rewarded!
These are 4 important lessons for all of us. Whether it’s in life or business, we can work these lessons into our own arsenal to make us unstoppable.
What are you going to work on?
Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With:

Doing the Right Thing: Is it Self-Evident?

November 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Doing the Right ThingIs doing the “right thing” self-evident? Is it something we all know instinctively? And if we do know what the “right thing” to do is, why don’t we do it?

I believe that as individuals, we know instinctively what the “right thing” to do is. There are countless stories of people doing amazing and often heroic things, and when asked why they did what they did, they inevitably respond, “It was the right thing to do.” They sure make it sound easy, don’t they? What holds us back, then?
The biggest barrier is time. Too much time to think makes us second guess ourselves or look at our options. We lose that immediacy with the thing we want to do. If we don’t think about something, we instinctively react. That’s why a homeless man can return $42,000 or someone can run into a burning building to save a life. They didn’t agonize over it, they just did it. When time passes doing the “right thing” loses it’s importance. We think that we’ll do it next time, or that we’re too late; someone else has probably done it already.
Another factor applies if you are a part of a larger group (it could be a family, a company, or even a government); it’s bureaucracy. You generally need to win the endorsement from one, or several key decision-makers. If you can’t get your team on the same page or some members have a different agenda, then that can cause problems. Often there are questions to be answered: How will this look to others; both inside and outside the organization? What are the costs and benefits of doing this? What are others doing? Attempts from these large bodies (especially governments) often come up short and feel hollow. The intention far outweighs the actual benefit to anyone and the best anyone can say is, “at least their heart was in the right place.”
Life is about making choices; daily, hourly, even by the minute if you really think about it. Choosing the words I typed here was a choice. Granted, most of the choices we make aren’t major life decisions, but add them up over time and they make a statement about who you are as a person.
We are too worried about making the “wrong” choice and that’s actually the obstacle. It paralyzes us from taking action, so we end up doing nothing, and feeling guilty about our inaction.
What if instead, we focused on the “doing” part. Just by doing something, anything, that’s better than doing nothing. And isn’t doing something the “right thing” to do? It’s up to you and me to do something each and every day to make the world a better place. We are the ones that make lasting impact, not by thinking about it, but by doing it.
Filed Under: Motivation Tagged With:

Nuts and Bolts

November 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Nuts and BoltsPart of my commute to work is on Hwy 45. There’s a new bridge being built and for months there has been a lot of activity on either side of the freeway. Recently though, there was a dramatic change; both sides of the bridge were connected. It happened quickly; over the course of two days. All that activity that doesn’t seem to matter and then, BAM, a noticeable difference.

I spotted one of the workers. He was by himself on the bridge, above the traffic. I’d like to think he was bolting it together. It needs to get done and that responsibility has to fall to someone. If you stop and think about how a bridge (or anything) is made, it starts with an idea, then plans are drawn up, you look at what steps are needed, who needs to be involved, and how it’s going to get funded. Once everyone is in place, they need to start doing things, tearing down the old structure, hauling away stuff, ordering new materials, and putting everything in place.
It’s easy to see what you want the end result to be, but how do you get there, when each day it seems like there’s so little progress? I thought there was little progress on that bridge until one side was connected to the other. When cars can drive across it, that will be the most obvious milestone that progress was made. You can see the end result of everybody’s work.
I thought about that guy bolting the bridge together; bolt by bolt. How many bolts does he have to put in place until his work is done? How many other people are doing similar jobs? It made me realize that in order to make any dream happen, I need to make sure all my nuts and bolts are put in place and tightened before I get to see the finished result. Nothing can be skipped. A book doesn’t get written overnight. It gets written one sentence, one word at a time. You don’t lose weight by willing it to happen. It takes walking around the block or eating one less cookie every day. You need to do something, each day, to move you closer to that finished creation; whether that creation is a project you are working on, or the creation is you (note: you’ll be a new person either way).
What are the nuts and bolts of what it is you’re working on at the moment? When you keep plugging away at something long enough, there will come a point where you’ll discover there’s a noticeable difference from when you started. Eventually, all those nuts and bolts you tighten will get you to the other side and you will be rewarded. You will have something to show for your effort.
Filed Under: Motivation Tagged With:

Who Have You Helped Today?

November 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Who Have You Helped TodayLearning how to give instead of trying to get, changed how I approached sales, customer service, and life.
At one point, early in my career, I worked in sales for a large telecommunications company. I struggled constantly to meet my monthly sales objective. I came close a few times, but never made 100% of my objective. My job was held over my head every month. The message was – “sell or you could find yourself out of a job.” Talk about stress.
Then one month I finally made it – 100.2%. Time to celebrate. But, the next day I checked, I was only at 99.9%. I went through my orders and found that someone had gone in and put their sales codes on one of my orders. When I told my manager all she told me was, “You need to pay more attention to your orders.” She didn’t even try to help me rectify the problem, and stealing sales was a huge problem where I worked.
This episode left me bitter. Why try to meet the sales goal when it’s going to be stolen from me anyway? The company is going to say I am a bad employee (anything less than a 100% was “does not meet expectations.”) Throw in a daily dose of customers yelling at you and I was at the bottom. I went through months of the absolutely worst days I had working in that call center.
Finally, I made a decision. Since I couldn’t find any satisfaction in the job doing it the company way, I would try things differently. I love helping people. It makes me feel good. I was raised to think of others. I decided if I could help one person each day, then it would be a successful day in my books, regardless of how much I sold. If I was going to get fired, at least I was going to enjoy the process.  I essentially ignored my sales objective. I forgot about it, didn’t care, eliminated it from my radar. I wasn’t going to let my sales, or lack thereof, define whether I had a good day or not.
So, I started each day with two objectives. The first, was to help one person that day. I would literally say to myself before logging in to take my first call, “Who am I going to help today?” I knew somebody out there really needed my help, and if I took their call I would do everything in my power to help them.
The second thing I said to myself each morning was, “What’s going to happen to me today, that’s never happened to me before?” This was freeing. I knew I’d get a nasty call that day, a problem that would otherwise ruin my day, but I wasn’t going to let it affect me. I built it into my day. I anticipated it. I looked at it as a learning experience.
The funny things is, once I started to ignore my sales numbers and focus on helping my customers, my sales took off. I went from making 90% of my monthly sales to an average of 120%. The highest month I had was 153% of my objective! And, after a while I was helping more than one person a day. Go figure!
And, because I didn’t mind receiving the “problem” call, I looked at it as a way to learn and also help, I became the guy that knew how to solve problems. If someone ran into some mess they’d be referred to me since I had probably run into it at some point. I kept records of the problems I encountered and how to fix them. I ended up becoming a team leader; writing and presenting training, handling difficult calls, and helping coach others.
I also sat in on a few sales meetings because of my high sales. You know those meetings where they want to know what you do and then roll it out to the rest of the call center? Yeah, those. When I was asked for my opinion on how to increase sales I said, “Get rid of the sales objective.” The manager looked at me and blurted out, “that will never happen” and ignored me for the rest of the meeting. Their loss, I thought.
There’s been a lot of research lately to back up why looking at helping others is a good plan to have. One fantastic book that explores this is Adam Grant’s “Give and Take.” It shows why giving is the best way to achieve your own success. It’s worked for me. What is your experience?
Filed Under: Customer Service, Motivation Tagged With: , ,