Love what you do and love those for whom you do it
What I have
just written may not seem consistent with the previous law. The truth is that there is a time for love,
and a time for objectivity. (Wasn’t that
in an old Byrds song?) The key to
succeeding in business is truly believing in what you do – and truly believing
that your customers get their money’s worth.
Without this, it is hard to look yourself in the mirror in the
morning.
Passion is
powerful. Passion often drives
behaviour. I read Steve Jobs biography
by Walter Issacson. The book is filled with example of behaviour, often inappropriate, exhibited
by Jobs in order to get the exact product he wanted. Passion is not rational, but drives us to
greater things. Sports fans are...well
fanatics. Their passion for their home teams can lead to riots in the streets,
as they did in Vancouver in 2010 after
the home town Canucks lost game seven of the Stanley Cup final. Passion is powerful, and successful
entrepreneurs are passionate about what they do and harness that passion.
What you do
can be great or humble – but you need to see the value in it before you can
sell that value to the customer. Do you
clean houses? Then know that cleaning
has huge value to the customer. If you
make computer games, then make sure that they are the most fun and challenging
on the market. If you are in consulting,
you must truly believe that your customer gets their money’s worth from your
counsel and advice. The first person who must be sold is you!
JJ Bean is a
coffee retailer and roaster based in the Metro Vancouver Area. Unlike many of the West Coast coffee shops,
JJ Bean is a little different. John
Neate, the founder of JJ Bean is a third generation 'coffee-man'. John's Grandfather founded Neate’s Coffee. John's
Dad (John Neate Senior) helped build the company in to one of the two major
restaurant coffee suppliers in the Vancouver Area.
I knew John back in my university days you will never meet a more
passionate guy. John is not only
passionate about coffee, he is knowledgeable about coffee. He grew up with coffee, understands beans,
roasting processing and all of the other things that make coffee great. He learned from his Dad, who I am convinced
knew everything about both coffee and the restaurant industry he served. This is a perfect example of the passionate
meeting the rational. The result...a
highly successful business.
Sometimes
you will fail. Somebody won’t like your
store, your product, your service, or your advice. When I started doing seminars, I poured over
the evaluations. I looked for the
negative things. I didn’t care about
those who loved the seminar, but rather I got upset about those who did
not. I wanted everybody to like my
“product”.
The truth is
that not everybody will like your products.
Successful entrepreneurs listen and learn...they anticipate customer needs
before the customer knows they know they have a need and rationally and
profitably meet that need.
This week’s
quote comes from Business Week magazine:
I love children. They are my customers. I have to be informed about what they want to nibble, what they think and what language they speak.
Hans Riegel
Owner of Gummi bear maker Haribo, Who died on October 15, 2010
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