Philippe’s rigourous training for this walk took place mostly in a quiet meadow. When he was there he would visualise the twin towers & the the city below him with its noise & distractions. When he was on the actual walk he brought himself back to the quite & peacefulness of that meadow. There was method to his madness & to his training.  He was able to use powerful visualisations to help him prepare & when doing the actual walk, keep him focused on the job at hand. But truly inspiring part for me is that Philippe had a crazy dream & he was willing to sacrifice his life to achieve it.

The other interesting piece to this is his regime of training to prepare for all scenairos (ok it was a life or death scenario so he had to!) Philippe had to prepare for all eventualities. His friends would shake the wire vigorously, he practised in all types of weather, the worst the better. One of my favoutite lines from this book is  “He laughed into the teeth of the wind”.

The  “GIVING A START” Competition 2011 is aimed at encouraging potential entrepreneurs to follow their dream and to start their own business.

The judging panel will include Bobby Kerr CEO of Insomnia and of “Dragons Den”, Paula Fitzsimons, of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, and Terry Clune of Taxback.com.

The winner‟s prize is valued at €25,000.

This prize will be made up as follows:

-Office, business support, conference and meeting rooms in 11 Patrick Street

-Accommodation and events in The adjoining Pembroke Hotel

Support and consultancy from businesses in 11 Patrick Street to the value of €3,000.00 per business.
-Paschal Bergin Accountants & Tax Consultants
-MD Media PR Consultants
-Brian Dunlop Architects
-Optimize Recruitment
-Real Solutions, Staff training and coaching
-Fitzwilliam Partnership, Strategic and Financial Management

-Support from the Invest Kilkenny Business Support Unit and seed money of €1,000

-A strong PR campaign behind the competition locally and nationally aimed at giving profile to the winner and finalists.

For full competition entry details go to

http://www.elevenpatrickstreet.com/givingastart

When I think back on all the bosses I have had or reflect on the many conversations with clients – the more successful ones demonstrated some of the attributes in the below article.  We cannot be everything for our team or business , we have got to use the resources available to us & around us.  So letting go some of the reins will empower you to be more & enable you to achieve more. The difficult part is to understand what to let go & to whom?

Once you have figured that out you yourself will not only feel empowered but your team around you will feel empowered. This has a rippling effect that should benefit everybody.

http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/managing/article/lessons-in-leadership-susan-sobbott

The initital euphoria of your new idea may wear off or you realise that actually your goal is going to take much longer to attain than you initially thought. At some point you need to take stock of where you are at & start to put pen to paper, or at the very least the bank manager will need to see a plan. Formalising your goal & how you are going to get there will help to identify the  actions you need to take.  Without a plan, with targets or KPIs linked to it,  you run the risk of wandering around for quite some time, trying desperately (like our squirrel friend) but never quite attaining what it is that you want.

Here’s a simple tool that I have used that helps me to focus:

1. Write down your stretch goal , 5 or 10 year goal. Ask yourself  – What is it, what does it look like, what does it feel like when you are there, what does it taste & feel like (this will help you visualise your goal). How will you know when you have got there? What will you have achieved?

2. Break down this goal into a 3 year goal - this is where you need to start putting down some specifics. How much? How many? How far? Set specific targets or KPIs for you & your business.

3. Break down 3 year goal into 1 year goals. These are very specific & should be tangible. Against these you need to set yourself more specific targets , KPIs.

4. From these 1 year goals should come your day to day actions that you need to be doing to achieve the 1 year goal. This is your action plan going forward.

Make sure your goals & actions are realistic & achievable.   Follow the SMART rules,  Specific,  Measurable,  Achievable, Realistic, Time oriented.

If actions are big or difficult for you, break them down into mangeable pieces. Take it one step at a time & build on the success of each achievement. Each success should motivate you to next one.

Oh how our world has changed. Back then , we sat in our nice cars, picked up the phone every now & then & waited for the orders to come in.  Good customer service was not in fashion, we didn’t need to be nice to them.  Sales were good so there was no need to make a ‘real effort’ to get our product out the door.  Now the customer is not spending so we need to change our tactics.  Or our costs have to to be shaved (again) & we are being asked, those of us that are in contact in any shape or form with customers to start ‘selling’ .  Its the time of ‘lean’ selling – selling as much as you can at minimal cost.

A big change for most of us. A big learning experience for most of us if we can embrace the change.

We’ve got to talk to customers, win them over, influence them, sell to them!! Convince them that they need our product vs the competition. And we need to find their least path of resistance whilst doing all of that. Well that’s what the experts say.

This type of selling I am used to & I like. I am not an aggressive seller, never was. I was never the gal who would kill for the sale . I was the one who was building the pipeline , the leads for the future by building the relationships, getting to know my customers. Then , yes , if there was a big push for the year end or some attractive incentive for that quarter, then I had the relationship to be able to say  ‘Hey, John, any chance we could get that order signed by end of next month. Why? Well that big trip is on (or my manager is pushing us to get all orders in before year end) & I would love to have your order in, it will help me.”  Sometimes it worked , sometimes it didn’t.  But trying is important  & for me , honesty is the best policy & usually works. Whats your policies for reaching those targets or getting what you want from your customer?

This type of selling for me has always enabled me to meet my targets & make it more enjoyable. Isn’t that what we all want , the seller & the customer. In particular for the customer, obviously. As we want them to come back again & again or we will need them in the future to sell the updated version, new product or complimentary products.

Before I began the study of human relations, I would have told this man that if he refused to give the bank this information , we would have to refuse to accept this account. I resolved this morning to use a bit of sense. I resolved not to talk about what the bank wanted but about whathe,  the customer wanted. And above all else I was determined to get him saying ‘yes, yes’ from the very start. So I agreed with him. I told him the information he refused to give was not absolutely necessary. “However”, I said,  “suppose you have money in this bank at your death.  Wouldn’t you like to have the bank transfer it to your next of kin?”

“Yes, of course” he replied. “Don’t you think”, I continued, “that it would be a good idea to give us the name of your next of kin so that , in the event of your death we could carry out your wishes without delay?” Again he said  “yes”.

“The young man’s attitude softened & changed when he realised that we weren’t asking for this information for our sake but for his sake. Before leaving the bank, this young man not only gave me complete information about himself but he opened, at my suggestion, a trust account , naming his mother as the beneficiary for this account”.

I found that by getting him to “yes, yes” from the outset , he forgot the issue at stake & was more than happy to do all the things I suggested.”