Apply The Lessons From Your Past To Improve Your Future

The greatest value of any past experience is the lesson you learned that you can apply in the present to improve your future. When I serve as a corporate advisor, I frequently ask people to recall past situations, identify what lessons were learned and determine how they can be applied in the present situation to create the future they want.

The first three years of this millennium have provided us with enough lessons to last the next 997 years. Here are some of the lessons I've learned and suggestions on how we could apply them in 2003.

Things Ain't Necessarily What They Appear To Be

In 2000, Gary Hamel wrote a book called "Leading The Revolution". Hamel was considered by many people to be the foremost authority on innovation and creating new business models. In his book, he featured Enron and Cisco as two glowing examples of how new economy business models would create extraordinary shareholder wealth. Unfortunately, things ain't always what they appear to be. I encourage you to think through any situation where people say, "If you do this, you will get extraordinary results." See if it makes sense to do it. See if it is really what you want to do. Do you have the passion, the talent and the values to do what is being proposed to you? Another way of saying this is, "If it looks like a skunk and smells like a skunk and acts like a skunk, then it may very well be a skunk."

Prioritize Your Priorities

When September 11, 2001 happened, all of a sudden it became very cool to say, "God, Country and Family." All of a sudden work and money became lower on life's totem pole. My only question is, "If these were so important after September 11, 2001, then why weren't they just as important before September 11, 2001?" Decide on your priorities regardless of whether or not there is a catastrophe happening. Then decide what to do that will increase your chances of achieving these priority outcomes. Don't run with the masses. Decide on your own what is important to you and then work to make it a reality. Otherwise, we all might shift from one direction to another depending on the crisis of the moment.

New Economy Equals Old Economy

Too many trees were killed to create the paper on which was described this "new economy." Folks, there's one economy. It goes like this: you provide value and in return you are given value (usually in the form of money, but also in terms of experiences and challenges and support and so on). Lesson learned: there ain't no free lunch (and companies that don't make a profit are not worth the stock paper they were written on). Focus on creating value for other people, not on looking for shortcuts to becoming a millionaire.

Your Job Is To Be A Value-Adder

Throw out all of the fancy titles. Get rid of the "power trips" of the executive office. Everybody's job is to be a "value-adder." Value is anything that increases the chances that other people will achieve what they want to achieve.

In A Repressed Market, Attack

Southwest Airlines fired no one after September 11th. United Airlines fired thousands and thousands of people. One attacked and the other retreated. One made a profit this year and the other one lost their shirt. Stick to your core business and keep pressing forward. At the low point in his career, Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse and drove forward. Ralph Lauren almost ran out of money, but he pushed forward again. George Washington was on the verge of being captured, but he pushed forward again. You can't cut costs forever and become successful. At some point, you have to invest in forward movement. Take a chance. Attack the market!!! Do it with honesty and integrity, but do it. Our economy depends on our willingness to try to make a difference. We can't fire every employee and call that progress. It doesn't work that way. Suggestion: take your resources (time, money, energy, connections, assets, etc.) and apply a reasonable amount toward moving your organization and your career in the direction you want it to go.

There's More Than One Way To Make A Buck

Wow, there's a lot of ways to make money these days (and I'm talking about the ethical ones). New careers and new industries spring up all the time. The opportunities are endless. If you can truly help other people increase their chances of achieving what they want, then you have the makings of another career. If you just got fired, then make a list of all the outcomes you can help other people achieve. Then write down how you can help them achieve those outcomes. Then contact those people and let them know that you can help them achieve better results and ask to set up a meeting with them.

Values Matter

Way, way, way too many organizations have "Values" posted on their walls, but their behaviors don't match up. Values are the behaviors that people believe are important in an organization. Apparently, a number of CEOs and CFOs missed the memo on that one because their behaviors clearly did not match up with what they proclaimed were their corporate values. Suggestion: make a list right now of the "values" you want to base your career on. Then everyday on your way home review each of your activities and ask if they fit within the parameters of your values. The more you base your actions on your own carefully selected values, the better your chances are of building a great career.

Trust Your Gut

If it doesn't make sense to you, don't do it. In 1999, my accountant encouraged me to buy technology stocks. I'm not a financial guru (ok, I'm not even close to a financial guru. Ok, ok, Barb balances the checkbook every month). However, I know it's not good when a corporation does not make a profit. So I said, "No, I don't want to invest in companies whose stock price is solely based on potential." Turns out my gut feeling was right. The same is true with your career and your organization. Trust your gut. You don't need a focus group to tell you what feels right for you. Look at the variables in the given situation. Identify what you want to achieve. Trust your gut and make your own decision.

What lessons did you learn in 2002?
How can you apply those lessons now to make 2003 a better year?

Here's my challenge to all of us: let's make 2003 an extraordinary year!!!!

New White Paper – Accelerate Your Strengths

On June 16th I gave a half-day seminar on “Accelerate Your Strengths: practical ideas to boost business momentum” for GE Capital. It was such an interesting project that I wrote a white paper for the group after the seminar based on what we talked about. In turn, that white paper was forwarded on to 7,000 GE employees. Consequently, I thought you might like to read the paper, except this version has all the references to GE taken out. Here is the link for the

Accelerate Your Strengths white paper: http://thecoughlincompany.com/accellerate_your_strengths.html

New Book, Find a Way to Win: Management Insights from Terry Michler, America's All-Time Winningest Soccer Coach

This book focuses on business lessons that can be learned from soccer. The foundation of the book is how Terry Michler used the powerful simplicity of Dutch soccer to win more games than any other U.S. coach in history.

On July 11th, the finals of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa between Holland and Spain was watched by more than 700 million people. While I was cheering for Holland at the beginning of the game, a major decision by their coach led me to learning a valuable lesson all over again.

Dutch soccer, which is highlighted in my book, is all based on extraordinary technical skill, efficiency, and precise attacking soccer. This is how a country with only 16 million people competes so extraordinarily well with the world's super powers in soccer including number-one ranked Brazil, whom they beat in the quarterfinals. However, in the World Cup finals Holland abandoned what made them great and instead focused on playing brutal, violent soccer. They wanted to intimidate Spain, and in the end they lost the game and the respect of so many people who love Dutch soccer. What happened and why did they do it?

They felt they couldn't compete with Spain if they allowed them to get into their normal passing game. So they consciously decided to physically attack the Spanish players with violent tackles all over the field. One Dutch player even shoved his metal cleats into the chest of a Spanish player. They received numerous yellow cards, a red card, and ridicule from the world-wide soccer press after the game.

What's the lesson to learn here for every business? Stay true to who you are. When the prize is close don't abandon what got you to be one of the best organizations in your industry. Too many companies in the past ten years have decided that what made them very, very good wasn't going to be enough to make them number one in their industry, and so they got away from their strengths. Big mistake.

I believe Holland will return to their traditional style of play, focus on precise, skillful, attacking soccer, and get away from their violent style of play. I think they learned a huge lesson. And hopefully every business that got away from its core strength in the pursuit of being bigger and more successful financially than anyone else in the industry will also return to its core and get back to winning again.

You can learn more about Find a Way to Win at http://thecoughlincompany.com/book_store.html

Republishing Articles

Each month my e-newsletter gets republished in approximately 20 blogs, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with "Republishing Article" in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document. All I ask is that you include my name as the author of the article and a short paragraph at the end of the article about me with a link to my website.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

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