Are you a “Me, too” person?

"Me too!", an internet cultural phenomenon during the early and mid-1990s on Usenet, a massive distributed bulletin board system, in which a request by one user for information would prompt many others to ask to receive the information by posting the phrase "Me, too!" – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Success is a journey – not an event.

But when does one become successful? I think it’s when you stop being a “me, too” person.

I will explain. Suppose you decide to go shopping this morning. As human beings we are very social animals. We love to be with other people and do things with other people. So you go to the shopping mall, or the grocery store, or a supermarket. There you see a lot of people buying the same groceries, standing in the same line, chatting with one another about the same problems and challenges of our day to day lives. And maybe you even feel good about being a “me, too” person, and that’s ok because again – this is just human nature.

But what if tomorrow when you run out of groceries you resist the temptation of doing things the same way again? What if you don’t go to the shopping mall, or a grocery store, and instead decide to buy everything “in bulk” from a network of wholesalers? Do you think you would have to stand in line, like a “me, too” person, see the same people you see every day and talk about the same problems with them?

Of course not, you will be away from all that, and you can enjoy totally different price margins, let alone totally different lifestyle!

That’s what I’m talking about! That’s why the first step in business is to see what everyone else in your business is doing – and then make a conscious decision that YOU will be doing it differently.

Why is it important?

Because if your “sweet spot” is where everyone else’s “sweet spot” is – you have to be different, be very creative and resourceful, in order to succeed. In fact, it is very dangerous to be a “Me, too” person in business – that’s not how you win! You have to do things differently, in order to achieve different results.

Not mediocre results of a “me, too” person. But outstanding results with a really successful person.

How do you do it?

Well, exactly as I said to you earlier – you have to decide one morning that you want to be different. So it starts with the decision, but where do you take it from there?

This is where it gets tricky. You see, a “me, too” person has a “tunnel vision”. It means that he or she only sees one outcome of one action. There’s nothing wrong with that, by the way, it works really well for some people I know. Especially in sports – when you absolutely must keep an eye on the ball, so to speak, in order to succeed, practice and achieve great results?

But what if you are a consulting firm owner? If your job is to provide consulting services to many clients - when do you think you ACTUALLY make money?

When you send an invoice to the client? When you’re receiving a cheque from them?

Wrong!

Maybe when you find the best resource, or the best solution for them? Close, but still wrong!

No, you make money sooner, way sooner than that! It’s when you come up with a winning strategy – that’s when!

I like the term “Strategic Alliances”. Do you know why?

For 2 reasons.

Reason # 1 is that it gives you the order of how you should develop your business if you want to be successful. The order lies in the term itself:

“Strategic” is # 1 thing to do. “Alliances” is # 2 thing to do”

In other words, we’ve already talked about strategy – so this is where you start. It’s # 1.

But # 2 thing you should start with when you’re building a successful business is building alliances with people whose businesses can complement yours, so that you could eventually be able to offer more to your customers – do you see what I mean?

If you you can deliver more to your customers through the “magic power” of strategic alliances – you no longer have to worry about your survival and you can start focusing on your prosperity. Isn’t it why we all wanted to have our own businesses after all?

So if your supplier goes down – you no longer have to worry! If your biggest clients goes out the door – you won’t even flinch. You know that you can leverage your partners’ customers through strategic alliances, and deliver your services to them, too!

So this is how you build a successful business, the one that becomes profitable fast, and the one that stays profitable for as long as you are in business.

Technorati tags: business building presentation, success strategies, strategic alliances