August 13, 2007

Growing Your Business: We Succeed at What We Focus On

Did you ever notice how when you take your eye off the ball, the ball seems to get away from you? It happens to all of us at one time or another. I used to be involved in the stock market, and in the early 90s, I was doing very well and I called my broker every day.

Then I started traveling for business two or three days a week and it wasn't very long before my stock market trades started going down hill. I simply wasn't paying as much attention to the stock market as I had a few years earlier.

The stock market isn't the only place where we have to keep our focus or risk significant losses. Monitoring your credit report is another example. If you don't regularly monitor your credit report, you can find yourself in a situation in which something sneaks into it, and at the time when you need credit the most, you've been sabotaged by a creditor who made an error or by something that you could have dealt with if you'd known about it.

So, like everything else in your life, you succeed at what you focus on. Make sure that you focus on your credit report as well as other critical areas of your life.

People have the ability to manage either a small number of projects in great depth or a large number in little depth. One has to understand his or her personality. Do you prefer to take on a few projects and pursue them in depth, or do you prefer managing many projects, knowing that you will only be able to devote so much time to each? Managers who are good at delegating can work on multiple projects, managing them from high up in an organization's hierarchy. People who prefer to focus in-depth on only a few projects are equally important to an organization's productivity, too.

You need to be aware of what your skills are and where your focus should lie - either in-depth on a few projects, or on delegating and managing from above - because we succeed at the things on which we focus.

So, as you are working hard every day to build your company, or as you're building your career, select those projects or initiatives that are most important to you and focus on them. When those are done or almost done, start working on the next ones. Make sure that you take your projects to completion.

About Joel G. Block

Often dubbed a "Growth Architect" by his clients, Joel Block advises companies on explosive growth strategies by driving revenue and sales. Well known in the capital markets, Joel is a successful entrepreneur, speaker and advisor. He once raised $10 million for his own startup company and later chose to sell it to the Los Angeles Times. Would you like to get a private phone consultation with Joel? Visit www.joelblock.com/capital for details.

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