How to Become Remarkable in One Easy Lesson

•  Print This
• Stumble This
• Digg This
• Share on Delicious
• Share on Facebook
• Tweet This
• Tags: business, Excellence, Leadership, remarkable, Seth Godin, Success

This is a guest post by Susan Kuhn Frost from Recession Proof Thinking.

The 2009 recession will clear the decks of average businesses in favor of remarkable ones.

The best small business CEOs are actively working on improving all aspects of their businesses. The best overarching idea I’ve seen is Seth Godin’s: Lead a Tribe by Being Remarkable.

Don’t waste time being cool, being unique, or being cheap. These are hardly remarkable.

Do this: Build a devoted following by improving the lives of your customers. Get superior results that change lives by building a remarkable company.

Sounds like work for a Superhero: YOU.

Where Superpowers Come From

There is an old proverb from the Gospel of St. Thomas: If you bring forth what is within you, what is within you will save you. If you do not, what is within you will destroy you.

If you have seen Batman Begins, you know where Bruce Wayne got his superpowers: from within. He conquered his deepest fears and guilt. Sir Edmund Hillary said of conquering Mount Everest: “You don’t conquer the mountain, you conquer yourself.” High achievement demands it.

Remarkable Business

Open a new tab to look at the website of Seth Godin’s father. His company is in the unglamorous inner city of Buffalo, NY. It manufactures adjustable beds for premature infants and ill children. The website impresses you that the owner cares as much about your child as you do.

I don’t know how Seth’s dad acquired his business passion. I do know that something deep inside of him comes across on this web site. I can tell that protecting these kids feeds his soul as well as makes him successful. I am sold.

Step Back to Leap Forward

It doesn’t matter what your business is – you bring a distinctive passion to it. Are you drawing on that passion now, when your business is at stake?

Don’t hold back your superpowers; they are what you need most right now. Here’s a modern shortcut to getting them back.

There are three questions. Do each separately for ten minutes. Do it when you are fresh. My suggestion: Open a browser tab and use the writing timer Write or Die! Set the timer and go.

QUESTION 1: What is the driving force in your life? What are you trying to figure out? What does your life stand for? Make a list and don’t hold back.

Copy and paste that into an e-mail and send it to yourself.

QUESTION 2: Keep that list in front of you. Now, be a business cynic and rail about each and every one of those meaningful things. Say why it is impossible to do it in business. Keep going until you run out of steam.

Copy and paste that into an e-mail and send it to yourself.

QUESTION 3: Keep the list from Question 2 in front of you. Now…imagine that Seth’s Dad is standing over your shoulder. He knows that personal passion is the necessary fuel for the highest level of business success. He reads your list with care and responds personally to every item on it. What does he say?

Copy and paste that into an e-mail and send it to yourself.

NOW: Print your e-mails out, especially the last one.

As you might have guessed, “Seth’s dad” is playing Alfred to your Batman, reminding you of what you already know but aren’t using to make your business remarkable.

Make a list of Seth’s Dad’s sayings (which are, of course, your sayings). Put that list up in front of you. Every day, spend at least 5 minutes reading the list. Use the list to help you raise your business to remarkable stature.

Never forget that at the heart of the hustle of business is the quiet emotion of love. I think you feel that when you read Seth’s dad’s website.

Now isn’t that remarkable?

Susan Kuhn Frost’s passion is helping people see that there really are two kinds of people: Wage-earners and entrepreneurs. She loves helping people escape the box of wage-earning for the higher calling and greater freedom of the entrepreneurial life.
Follow her on twitter: http://twitter.com/sweetsue

Photo by Navin75