| The best plan for continued success |
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| Written by Jim Logan | |
| Monday, 30 June 2008 11:51 | |
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When I was younger, I used to think getting 90% on a test was pretty good. After all, 90% is an A. It didn't matter to me if I got 90% or 100% - an A is an A. Then I spent some time in the military and my way of thinking about grades, scores, and education changed. The military's approach to grades was a bit different: first, failure was measured at 70%, not 59% and below; second, a level of emphasis was placed on what you didn't master, challenging the top of the class to improve as much as the bottom. For example, I graduated with a 94.7% grade - the lowest score of four honor graduates. At a meeting of honor graduates and school leaders, I was reminded I hadn't mastered 5.3% of the material. I was told I should be proud of all I accomplished, but never forget the 5.3% I didn't get...and never stop chasing it. I don't know what my fellow graduates thought of that idea, we never talked about it. But its stuck with me to this day. What it always meant to me is never stop learning - keep questioning, dig deeper, experiment, find a better way, challenge yourself and others around you to improve, never quit the search for excellence, and work hard to achieve greater levels of success. Enjoy everything you achieve along the way, but never stop achieving, even if you're winning and earning an A. I'm still chasing that 5.3% in everything I do. Reality is 90% is good. In fact, the longer and more involved the effort, 90% is better than good. But it still represents a full 10% that's somehow missed. I once worked for a company that at one point presented a growth plan to employees and investors named One by One: $1B in revenue by 2001. The company would reach $1B in sales by moving into a $10B market and capturing 10% of the available business. A success plan based on losing 90% of the market. It's no great mystery we never got close to $1B in sales - the company peaked a year or two later, near $400M. We never achieved success beyond our historic markets and legacy products. A steady decline began from there. Where I'm going with this is success is not an accident. Sure, people get lucky - occasionally start-ups with a half-ass product get bought for insane amounts of money and everyone once in awhile a business and individual can win big by being in the right place at the right time. People can also win the lottery, find money hidden in the wall of an old house, and pull the lever on a winning slot machine. None are good plans for success. No matter how good you are, how great you believe yourself to be, how many awards you've won, and how much your business has grown to date matters. What matters is how much you challenge yourself to grow beyond the success you've enjoyed and how well you've thought through success to follow. The 5.3% is what's important. If you have a success plan that's based on losing 90% of the market, you have a problem. And if you hold 90% of the market and aren't working hard to attract and capture the remaining 10% you have a problem. The problem is complacency. This is why you should test lead generation campaigns even when they earn a 75% response - 25% of the people receiving the message still aren't compelled to act. And you should never be satisfied with your sales close ratio, whatever it may be. Take the time to enjoy every day, find joy in all you accomplish, and be proud of all you've achieved. But never stop chasing your 5.3%. It's your greatest plan for continued success.
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