Author: admin

The art of good busines is to spot an opportunity when it swims by, reach out and grab it and then to deliver on it with panache.

It’s often not about having the best idea in the world, but instead having a good idea and making sure it’s executed to a high standard.

If we think about Facebook for a moment, it seems like a clever idea. However, it was at first designed as a college picture board, called, rather miserably, Rate a Hottie.

This generated traffic and interest and was developed from there. And in essence it’s a build on Friends Reunited.

Friends Reunited was the big noise in websites many years ago and it made its inventors rich people. It then made the company that purchased it poor people, because the site was eclipsed by the juggernaut driven by Mark Zuckerberg.

Opportunity is often about doing it bigger and bolder and better. Tapping into a need and then mining out all profit possibilities with speed.

We can create opportunities for ourselves by being ready and by being humble.

Being humble means to know that we are not the smartest person, or the most creative. This allows us to see the world around us with more clarity and in doing so we are likely to see other ideas and wonder if we can build on them ourselves. Tweak them, shape them, add what’s missing and deliver a package to amaze our customers and startle our competitors.

Being ready means to have some new angle in our pocket. A new angle can be a new piece of machinery, a draft product, a new skill, or a new team.

I’m about to start year 3 of psychotherapy training. It’s great fun, I love to learn and my colleagues are a great bunch. I’m still an organisational coach, I love that work immensely. However, the new training has broadened my skills and now means I can offer people counselling services and also tap into the growing well-being market.

Initially I set out to learn something new as an interesting project, but I’ve now had a number of interesting client conversations that have lead to more business. I know that the discipline of clinical work has fed back into my coaching work and has given me greater market place differentiation from a lot of my competitors.

Coaching on the surface can be great and yet I’ve always worked with harder cases and people who value deeper insights into organisational behaviour.

In doing this training I’m ready for new opportunities and am creating them as I journey through my varied and interesting business life.

It’s tempting to wait for a client to ask for something before we develop new ways of working. Steve Jobs tended to take the view that customers didn’t know what they wanted until they saw it. Hence the success of the first iPhone, which sadly rendered my beloved Blackberry a museum piece.

Sometimes we have to do things and trust that they will bring rewards. We have to create the opportunities for ourselves.

So, this week, where can you be humble in your work and pay attention to someone else? What new things do you have to initiate?

If you don’t, then it’s a fair bet that someone else will. Friends Reunited vs Facebook …which side do you wish you had bought shares in?

Next week: Always Play Nice

Many years ago, when I had fewer grey hairs and London was hosting the Olympics I was on a plane heading to Australia, for a fun piece of work. After the in-flight dinner you had a choice of coffee and mint tea. Not being a coffee drinker I opted for the tea, and wished I hadn’t.

It was like drinking boiled peppermints and instantly put me off mint tea.

Wind the clock forwards to a couple of weeks ago and a friend offered me mint tea. No no, I said, that’s revolting. No no, she replied, it’s fresh from the garden.

Reluctantly I tried some. It was delicious.

Lots of people don’t like green tea, because all they’ve had is the stuff in bags and that can be too strong and dries your throat. I carry loose leaf green tea with me everywhere and now have introduced several clients and friends to it. Mao Feng is my type of choice and half a dozen bits in your mug is all you need for green tea loveliness.

Mint tea, fresh from the garden is so refreshing and I was hooked. So, upon returning from my friend’s house I resolved to organise myself. I’m not a fan of gardening and know nothing about plants, but tea is tea and worth the effort.

A trip to the garden centre was called for and I purchased an earthenware pot and some earth and gloves and a trowel (get me, I sound like a pro now) and two pots of garden mint and chocolate mint.

Garden has a fresh flavour and chocolate has a darker flavour. Two or three leaves of either is all you need.

The pot on the terrace has been watered regularly and I’ve had an endless supply of fresh mint tea over the Summer. It’s my first ever pot, and I’m very proud of myself for creating and tending it. Instead of hating the whole garden centre experience (I’d usually avoid them like the plague) I found to my surprise I rather enjoyed it.

I may even go back and buy a second pot. Friends tell me there’s these things called flowers, which can look lovely on a patio. I must find out more about them!

The point of the story is about doing new things and getting over our childlike ‘I don’t do that’ attitude. We can spend our lives ignoring new experiences and avoiding newness, and for me my little pot represents a bit more adult growth.

And of course I have free, fresh mint tea whenever I need it.

What new things have you tried over the Summer? Or, what new things in business would you like to try in the Autumn?

Maybe it’s time to visit a customer, attend a conference, or explore a part of our business that we tend to shy away from.

Maybe Radio 4 will call and ask me to host a programme about mint. As long as they don’t want me to talk about flowers, I will be fine!

This week, think about newness. What is your ‘mint pot’?

Next week: How To Create Opportunity