(Time to read this Blog is about 2.5 minutes)

Before we get to the main topic, here are a few things to get you thinking:

1. My Biz Quote of the week:

“The Conservative Party of Canada just ‘fired’ their leader, Erin O’Toole. They  keep shooting themselves in the foot by choosing leaders who are unelectable.  But the big  problem is that they don’t know who they are.  They’re really two Parties, the ‘Red Tories’ and the ‘Blue Tories’, who came together in a bad marriage to try to get elected.  But they can’t agree on what they stand for, don’t even like each other and keep appointing compromise leaders.  No one can lead a Party with that lack of clarity.

There are many lessons here for businesses.  If you as a business are not clear about who you are, who your target customers are, what your compelling value is and what you stand for, you’re in big trouble.  As I’ve been saying for years, It’s all about CLARITY!”

…Donald Cooper.

2. How can you coach and help your customers? TD Bank, Canada’s 2nd largest, recently sent out this notice to all customers…

‘Starting in April, we’ll automatically send you a text or email alert when you get within $100 of the credit limit on your personal Credit Card or Line of Credit account(s), or within $100 of a $0 balance for your Personal Deposit Account(s). These alerts are designed to help you manage your money and avoid charges or penalties.’

How can you coach, add value or help your customers with the challenges and complexities of their business and life?   What stresses them, concerns them or overwhelms or confuses them?   What do they need to know?  What kind of help do they need?  How can you coach them and become their hero?  This is a great project to work on with some of the best hearts and minds in your business.

3. When interviewing job candidates, are you asking yourself BOTH questions? When we’re interviewing job candidates there’s one question that we all know to ask ourselves,

“Can this person do the job for which they’re being interviewed?”  

But there’s a 2^nd question that we also need to ask, that most of us don’t.  That important question is, “Can this person help us get to where we’re committed to be in      3-5 years?”

If we never hire people who can help us get to where we commit to be, or need to be, in 3 to 5 years, we’ll never get there because we don’t have the talent, experience and the driven Team required to get there. “We become what we hire!”

A big problem for many businesses is that they have no real clarity about what they commit to become, or must become to be a profitable and sustainable business in 3 to 5 years. Because they have little or no clarity about the future, they keep hiring for the immediate past and the business grinds to a halt.

If you’d like some break-through help with the important task of creating clarity about what you must become in 3 to 5 years, you can purchase our 34-page, step-by-step ‘Vision Critical Guide’ in PDF downloadable format for just $24.⁰⁰ by Clicking here .

Now, to this week’s important topic:

There are 2 kinds of  ‘Future’.  One puts you in charge.…the other makes you a victim!

When working with my Biz Coaching clients on a 3-to-5-year Vision for their business, I often hear the complaints that, “The future is so uncertain.” and, “I’m no good at guessing games.“ 

What most people don’t realize is that there are actually two kinds of ‘future’. 

First, is the future that will happen, with you or without you, over which you have no control. Stuff like:

• population & demographics,
• changing tastes & priorities,
• invention & discovery,
• political & economic changes,
• war & terrorism, plague.

This is the ‘future’ that we spend most of our time thinking about and worrying about, even though we have no control over it.  In fact, we spend so much time thinking about this ‘Future #1’ that we have little or no time to think about ‘Future #2’…

‘The extraordinary future that we can choose and commit to proactively create in spite of all the crap that’s going to happen in Future #1.’

Focusing your time on ‘Future #1’ makes you a victim of circumstances.  Focusing your time on ‘Future #2’ makes you a proactive creator of circumstances.  You move your business and your life from being a ‘guessing game’ where you’re the victim to being a proactive ‘committing game’ where you’re in charge.

This doesn’t mean you ignore the reality of what’s happening in technology, the economy, plague, changing societal values or local and global events.  What it does mean is that you make a commitment to succeed and grow despite any and all of those disruptions…even if it means reinventing or relocating, or selling the business and reinvesting your capital in something more lucrative.  That’s called ‘Wise Investor Thinking’ and to access my Biz Tool on this important subject, Click here .  

One great example is the societal and economic changes impacting the funeral industry.  Cremation is now 60% to 80% of the ‘end-of-life’ disposition, depending on the area in North America.   

When a $4,000 casket gets replaced by a $300 urn and the solemn religious service that used to take place in the Chapel of the Funeral Home is replaced by an upbeat ‘Celebration of Life’ at the deceased’s Golf Club or favourite Pub, the funeral home guys have a huge challenge. They need to start thinking of themselves as ‘Party Planners’, or as a real estate play where their property has a higher value for another use.  This is a powerful example of changing societal values and sheer economics disrupting an industry. 

Every morning when we look in the mirror, we have a fundamental choice to make that will affect our day and, in fact, our entire life!  We can choose to see a ‘victim’ or we can choose to see someone who will proactively take control of their business, their life and their future.  Which kind of future do you see?

That’s it for this week…

Stay safe…live brilliantly!       

Donald Cooper 

Donald Cooper speaks and coaches internationally on management, marketing, and profitability.  He can be reached by email at donald@donaldcooper.com in Toronto, Canada.