10 keys to career success

Want to increase your income and be more fulfilled?

Two decades of studying "Winning Edge" entrepreneurs (those in the top three percent of their industry or profession) has turned up 10 keys to their financial and personal success. Using these keys can increase your profits and fulfillment too.

The 10 keys used by Winning Edge entrepreneurs. They:

1. Have a Written Business Plan - A written business plan, including financial projections, is the most important criterion when predicting a businesses' success, according to numerous studies of successful and failed businesses. Successful entrepreneurs invest time in writing their goals, including their financial projections, and how they are going to achieve each. They also have a well versed Chief Financial Officer (or financial coach) to assure they stay on top of their cash flow, their profit after taxes, and in their balance sheet.

Having a written game plan is the most basic tool for maximizing your career success. Make sure yours has a strong financial planning element in it. Write it out and put it where you can review your progress at least monthly. Update your plan, including your net worth, the same time each year. Get a career coach and perhaps a financial coach or advisor, if that will help you do this well.

2. Satisfy a perceived unmet need - Winning Edgers think empathetically not egotistically. They focus on being best at satisfying other's perceived needs, not on what they want to sell to others. The former is a service or giving mentality. The latter is a getting or selfish mentality. Examples include Walt Disney who wanted to give the world's families at least a few minutes of happiness when he opened Disneyland 50 years ago. The Nordstrom family wanted to give superior service to their shoppers, and Jeep wanted to give a feeling of adventure and independence to Jeep owners. Each thought in terms of their customer's needs that they could satisfy best.
Think and talk empathetically. Describe your work in terms of what needs you satisfy. Do the same thing in your resume'. This is a lot more effective than including how much experience you have, or the tasks you have done.

3. Anticipate their customer's needs better than their competition -Wayne Gretzy once told me that his secret to scoring 2,500 points in the National Hockey League faster than any one is that: "I skate to where the puck is going to be better than most players. That gives me a huge advantage." Bill Gates would probably say something similar. Each of these Winning Edgers demonstrates a special ability to anticipate where the need is going to be, and to get there first, prepared to maximize that advantage.
Invest time in developing anticipatory skills and knowledge that give you an ability to anticipate needs better than your competitors. Listen to tapes by futurists like Faith Popcorn, attend lectures by leading-edge thinkers at your local college, or join a mastermind group of people who think "out of the box," to stay on the edge of change.

4. Understand and really know their customers better than their competitors- Winning Edgers have honed their empathic skills and have learned to understand their customer's needs, values, and decision making style better than their competitors. Most Winning Edges with whom I have worked have gotten to know each core customer so well they can speak in terms the customer finds easy to understand and act upon.
They often use behavioral and communications tools to help them understand their customers. A common tool they use is the Meyers-Briggs Temperament Survey. The MBTI helps entrepreneurs understand how their customers prefer to take in information and how they prefer to make decisions. Knowing this about their customers gives Winning Edgers a huge competitive advantage, when convincing them to buy the entrepreneur's product or service.

Become knowledgeable with behavioral tools that can strengthen your understanding of how and why people (including yourself) prefer to behave. Get to know how each of your bosses prefers to take in information and how each prefers to makes decisions. When you do, your communications will be much more effective. You will find yourself better able to get things done, with less effort, giving you a huge competitive advantage.

5. Invest in Their Future - Winning Edge entrepreneurs do not count their profits until they have invested part of their income into: a) learning more about their customers, b) advancing their technology and their knowledge of it, c) strengthening their team and, d) better preparing themselves for the future. They have a written developmental plan with a budget to support it.
Share your written developmental plan with someone close to you and ask him or her to hold you accountable for your achieving it. Then review your progress with them at least quarterly. Update the entire plan annually. Remember that your take home pay isn't yours to spend until you have invested part of it toward further increasing your value.

6. Know their Stakeholders and have each committed to the venture's success - Winning Edgers know the people who have a stake in the success or the failure of their venture and who have the power to influence its outcome. These stakeholders can be a key customer, a core vendor, a critical lawmaker and/or one of the executives in the company's game maker/breaker positions.
Winning Edge entrepreneurs consistently turn each key stakeholder into an advocate for the venture's success.

Make sure each of your top five stakeholders is your advocate. It takes focus and work. The rewards are huge while the risks of not doing so can spell career disaster.

I often have worked with senior executives who have lost their jobs. When asked who their top five stakeholders were in their last position, and what role each stakeholder played in their career being temporarily, or maybe permanently derailed, the executive typically has reacted with chagrin and embarrassment. He then has quickly followed up with a declaration that he will certainly better cultivate his key stakeholders next time!

7. Are Passionate about their business and their role in it - Living with passion is probably the cornerstone to building a successful business. Winning Edgers are some of the most passionate people with whom I have had the privilege of working.

The three-bricklayer story I tell in my workshops demonstrates this concept as well as any I have heard: When asked: what are you doing? The first of three workers at the same construction site answered: " I'm getting paid $15 per hour. I hate my job, and always look forward to weekends and other days off. But I have to work to pay the bills."

The second bricklayer said he was laying bricks until he could really do what he wanted to do: retire and "really start living!" With excitement he described the motor home trip he and his wife constantly talked about. He reported their retirement planning consumed almost all of their conversations. "Just think," he said excitedly, "it's only four years, two months and three more weeks until I can start to really live."

The third bricklayer stood back, took a breath, and with shinning eyes and a peaceful smile said: "I'm helping save lives. We're building a cathedral here. People will come to this building and worship their Lord. They'll find a special peace they'll take home to their families. I love making a difference in people's lives by using my ability to lay bricks." Then, he added with enthusiasm, that when he retired he planned to work for Habitat for Humanity to continue making the world a little better by using his brick laying skills.

Winning Edgers are like the third bricklayer: they find their gift and pass it on to make the greatest difference in the world. They know the word passion is really three words: PASS I ON, and they do that each day. They also know that with out passion, they'll probably be constantly fatigued and risk burnout before achieving their goals.

We all know examples of each bricklayer in our lives.

Manage your career toward your being like the third bricklayer. Find the higher purpose in what you do, or do something else. Finding passion in every day activities is one of the most valuable gifts you can give yourself.

8. Have a championship Coaching Staff- Sometimes called a life board, the Winning Edger's coaching staff includes experts with complementary skills who are committed in the entrepreneur's success. Sometimes your coaching staff will meet as a group with you. Often though, they never know each other. My entrepreneurial coaching staff has included the coaches already mentioned, plus a spiritual coach and a marriage coach. They have never met each other. And they have changed over the years, as they and I have changed. Winning Edgers have constantly told me that their coaching staff has added great value to their lives and to the success of their ventures.
Create your own coaching staff. It can be the most powerful concept you can get from Winning Edgers. Coaches are everywhere. Usually they have "been there, done that." Often they are friends, relatives, or retirees. Sometimes you'll want to pay a person to be your coach. Call The Professional Coaches and Mentors Association (714) 220-9431 for more information on getting a professional coach.

9. Well-Honed Exit Strategy- Knowing where he wants to end up, helps the Winning Edger choose the best team and path for the journey. Whether the goal is going public, selling to a competitor, or to a vendor, the entrepreneur's clear exit strategy helps decisions to be made quicker and easier.
Keep your career destination in writing and in your mind. Have a date by which you will have accomplished your "exit." This BIG PICTURE will help you keep short-term challenges in perspective. It will also assure your written career plan gets you where you want to end up.


10. Know Everything Counts - His friends, the clothes he wears, what he reads, the exercise he gets, even what and where he eats, all play a role in the Winning Edger's success ... and he knows it. He also knows the TV he watches, the memberships and friends he has, as well as his hobbies, help or hinder his venture's progress.
Use everything you do to achieve your goals. Your first step is to know that everything you do each day plays a role in your career and your life. The second step is to make sure everything counts toward (not away from) each of your goals being met.

You can be as entrepreneurially competent and successful as your Winning Edge counterparts. Use the Winning Edger's 10 keys to mind your career like it's your business ... because it is.