What’s On My Mind
I love deep insights from others!
I took an assessment on my personal motivations once. One thing stood out above anything else.
I love learning.
I landed at around the 99th percentile in my desire to learn.
Personal example…
I have a Saturday morning routine I find joy in:
- Watering my plants.
- Cleaning my bird Paris’s cage while he takes a shower in the sink.
- Feeding my composting worms our food scraps from the week.
(Some people want to make money while they sleep. I’m OK with having my hard-working worms making composting dirt.)
I usually go on a few errands, like going to the dry cleaners or supermarket. Then I go on a long run as a reward.
But here’s the best part, and boy, does my wife Becky make fun of me.
I walk around doing the chores while listening to podcasts and YouTube videos.
Non-stop.
I’ll dig into the queue I always have going, walking around the house with my iPhone in my pocket while it gives me insights.
I can’t help it–I just want to keep learning.
Then, as insights hit me, I’ll stop and put the learnings into various Apple notes covering everything from how to think to investment ideas and new backpacking gear to board games.
I tend to pick a topic and go really deep until I get to the point I’m not hearing anything new. That can last for weeks or years, depending on the topic.
I just love it.
One interview stood out this weekend: Dr. Carol Dweck talking about her Growth Mindset concept.
I’ve been super fascinated lately by the family research circling Growth Mindset, Grit, and, in general, progress and perseverance. Much more on this coming!
Here’s the recording, which is a part of the Talks at Google series. I highly recommend it!
(Aside: I’ve found this series great, primarily because of the Q&As at the end, which I usually find to be the best part. Those Googlers ask great questions!)
So what stuck with me about this one?
The practical ways we can have a Growth Mindset.
These are sprinkled throughout the talk and come together nicely near the end, right around the 41:45 mark.
Here are Carol’s ideas, with my perspective on growing a book of business and long-term relationships.
1. When you have a choice of something safe or a challenge, choose the challenge.
This is especially important with business development.
You spent years honing your craft, and you’re great at it, but being great at your core craft alone won’t give you control over your career.
Business Development will.
I’ve seen this in every profession in every region of the world.
The technical expert that can also bring in business has more control and influence than even better experts that can’t bring in business.
My view: We find what we seek. Seek to get better at BD, and you’ll get better at BD.
Dedicate yourself to becoming great at BD and you will. It’s a series of countless small steps in a journey that never ends. And that’s exactly why most people won’t do it.
Mastering BD is hard–and worth it!
2. If you hit an obstacle, interpret it in a Growth Mindset way.
I see the interpretation of outside events as the key to success all the time, especially in our 1:1 coaching.
Example event: Someone has reached out to a prospect twice and they haven’t responded.
Fixed Mindset interpretation: Thinking, “I don’t want to be a pest, and they don’t need my help,” which leads to quitting.
Growth Mindset interpretation: “I’ve learned the offers of value I made and the communication medium I chose didn’t work.” This leads to dialing up the value and/or communicating in a new way.
My view: Interpreting events through the lens of learning and taking new actions is the key to relationship success.
Looking at things as a challenge has a compounding effect–it keeps us moving forward on the specific issue, and as we try new things, we learn tools and approaches that will benefit us for years to
3. Learn from people farther along than you.
My view: This is the fast track to success.
This aligns with Dr. K. Anders Ericsson’s research, with which we open all of our GrowBIG Trainings.
What’s Deliberate Practice?
Paraphrased, it means being very intentional about your learning, using a world-class system as a guide, and building in frequent feedback loops on how you’re doing against the system.
For example, it’s taken me ~25 years to build a comprehensive, science-based system, but now someone can download everything we know in just three days by attending our GrowBIG Training.
Throwing hours at something helps, but spending fewer hours when guided by an expert is faster and more efficient.
Having a Growth Mindset is one of the most important correlations I see to long-term success.
It’s like applying the magic of compound interest to yourself.
Even as a former actuary, I’m still amazed by compounding. Here’s a simple example with a 7.2% compound interest rate (which ties nicely to the Rule Of 72):
Scenario 1: Invest $1,000 at age 20. At age 70, you will have around $32,000.
Scenario 2: Instead, wait to invest the same $1,000 until you’re 30. At age 70, you’ll have around $16,000. Half as much, even though you invested 40 of the 50 years!
Scenario 3: Wait till 40? You’ll only have $8,000. Don’t be this person.
It’s crazy how investing early has an outsized impact. The person in Scenario 3 invested 60% of the time as the person in Scenario 1 but only had 25% of the result.
The lesson: start early.
And if you didn’t start as early as you wished?
Start now.
Now think about every skill someone needs to be great at growth.
Learning skills is investing in your most powerful resource: yourself.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Learning keeps investing. Over time, each of those investments starts to pay off. And add up. They compound your success over time.
And the younger you start, the longer you get the compounding impact!
Let’s take a step back.
Here are three perspectives to dig into, applying a Growth Mindset to growing your book of business, relationships, and career.
- Take the challenging path: What should you focus on next to improve your BD skills?
- Interpret obstacles: How can you remind yourself to learn from new information? To view it as a challenge instead of something fixed?
- Learn from those ahead of you: How can you partner with and learn from those ahead of you on the same journey?
And if you sum it all into one action…
What small action can you take right now to get started?
Mo
Ps. Just for fun, here are my hard-working worms.
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