22/11/2011 by Ann.

I was reading an interview in a Sunday paper the other week in which Richard Branson and his mother, Eve, told of his upbringing.

The one thing that stood out for me in this came in the following words of his mother:

‘The thing about Richard was that, 99% of the time he was pretty hopeless, but he always had that 1% spark.’

When you think that she is talking about one of the most successful businessmen that the UK has ever seen, I found this extremely intriguing.

Let’s face it, Richard was not academic and only began doing better at school after he damaged his knee playing rugby and was unable to play sports as much as he used to. This meant that he finally knuckled down to some work, but he didn’t go on to University as you might have expected.

Successful people don’t always come from privileged backgrounds either and you only have to look at someone such as Oprah to see that. Despite all the disadvantages she had, she has become hugely successful.

You see, there are no real limitations when it comes to success; your ability to succeed really does depend very much on mindset and your belief and motivation to do what it takes, as we spoke about a few weeks ago, in relation to Paul McKenna and Anne McKevitt.

The question to ask yourself is ‘Why not me?’

Others will try and give you plenty of reasons why you can’t, and your job is to focus on what you want and to do everything you can to fulfil your purpose.

In just the same way that you have no right to make decisions on behalf of others (e.g. what your clients can afford to pay you) then you are the one who has the right to decide your own path in life.

What are you going to do with your one percent?

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08/11/2011 by Ann.

I was reading an interview with Gary Barlow (best known for being the main singer and songwriter in boy band Take That and now appearing on the UK ‘X-Factor’ TV show) and in it he made a very interesting observation.

Gary said that he writes one hit song in every twenty-five. That is just a four per cent success rate.

‘Wow’ I thought. That changed a lot of stuff for me: certainly it spoke to me about perseverance and also knowing yourself and your market.

It told me that Gary must write a heck of a lot of songs bearing in mind how many successful songs he has written for the band, and for some other people during their hiatus.

It also made me wonder if Gary is setting himself a limiting belief, and maybe he could change that and write a hit song in every ten or even five songs? That could be an interesting challenge!

What I was most taken by is the fact that Gary still believes he can write more hits and he just keeps on keeping on; writing and writing until something comes up that sells like crazy and goes to the top of the charts.

It’s the same for your business: Ali Brown once said that when a product for her business doesn’t sell as much as she anticipated, she knows that is because there is something better that is going to come along, and this is just one of the steps to getting there.

It is very important to remember these two stories from highly successful people when you are working on your business. You may not get it perfect this time but you have endless opportunities in the future and it is this perseverance that will bring you success. As David Neagle says ‘People don’t fail – they choose to quit!’

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08/10/2011 by Ann.

I was listening to a David Neagle and Ali Brown CD on my way home yesterday in which they talked about sacrifice and how it is about letting go of something of a lower nature in order to let in something of a higher nature.

It came back into my mind this morning as I watched the England rugby team go crashing out of the World Cup in the quarter finals against France.

I was speaking with my brother about the England players and their motivation; mainly on how much they really wanted to win. They have not had the best of press for their sexist remarks to hotel staff or going out clubbing and behaving in a manner more suited to a stag party than a bunch of professional athletes. I was asking my brother if he thought that our highly successful rowers and cyclists would be out boozing and partying in the middle of a tournament and he said ‘No’ after listening to an interview with Sir Chris Hoy. Now his attitude is that when he is having a tough training session, instead of knocking off a minute early he will ask himself how he would feel if he lost a race by 1/1000th of a second because he left one minute early? I am sure Mark Cavendish has a similar attitude.

So I have to ask why, if the rugby team (and also let’s include our highly paid footballers here too) are really serious about their world cup, would they not do EVERYTHING they can to win and that includes giving up alcohol, which is known to affect performance.

Maybe they just didn’t really want it enough? Perhaps being so highly paid means you lose some of your will to win because you still have a nice lifestyle and get paid for turning up?

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19/06/2011 by Ann.

I awoke to the news this morning of the death of Clarence Clemons, saxophonist, most widely known for being one of the most colourful members of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘E Street Band’.

I was thrown back to 1981 and the day I went to Wembley to see Bruce and the band live: I was ten rows from the front! It was amazing; a show I had heard about and seen on TV but nothing  could match up to the energy of it. Three hours plus of musical heaven that I will never forget.

I was so mad to see Bruce on his first big  tour of the UK nothing was going to stop me from getting tickets to see him and his amazing musicians and now I can be thankful I didn’t put it off to another day as, you never know if that day will come and what you might miss out on.

So what’s stopping you from achieving your ambition?

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03/06/2011 by Ann.

I am writing this as Andy Murray is two sets down to Rafael Nadal in the French Open semi-final.

Less than a year older than Murray, Nadal has won nine grand slams and the French Open five times. Is he a much better player than Murray? Not according to tennis commentators. So why is he so much more successful?

The general concensus is that it is all in the mind; that is what stops Murray climbing above his fourth place ranking to usurp Djokevic, Federer and Nadal.

Murray’s constant mutterings to his team and swearing is what distracts him from the game and causes him to lose. Yet has he changed?

Does all the aggression focus his mind and make him play better? Well the results suggest not! Plus, the other three players manage to keep their language in check on court.

Murray seems to be playing the blame game: but unless he can master the mental side of the game then he won’t make progress.

When running your own business the mental attitude you hold is hugely important to keep you motivated and keep you going through tough times, so on that note, are you a Nadal or a Murray?

Ann

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26/05/2011 by Ann.

Last night my friend Liz treated me to an audience with Rob Lowe who was discussing his new book ‘Stories I only tell my friends’.

The venue up in London was packed with women and a few brave men! I really wasn’t sure what to expect from this Hollywood actor, but I was in for a number of surprises:

Liz and I were talking when I glanced across the room and saw a man who looked remarkably like Rob Lowe, but I was imagining there would be a grand entrance and how wrong was I? The auditorium fell silent as people realised it was him:  he walked onto the stage, beamed at the audience and seemed remarkably relaxed.

For the next ninety minutes he spoke about his book and answered questions. He was so down to earth and had the ability to seemingly look the entire audience in the eye, individually. He was funny, self-effacing and highly entertaining. He was also extremely polite.

At the end Liz and I were standing by the stage when he suddenly turned and walked past us. I was completely flabbergasted by how handsome he still is. Liz even managed to say something to him and he gave us a fabulous smile.

It is really easy to have pre-conceived ideas about people, and especially those in the public eye,  but it can also be a very pleasant surprise when they perhaps contradict your first impressions.

It got me wondering how aware we are of the impressions we make on people?

Ann

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24/05/2011 by Ann.

The UK is awash with the debate on privacy laws following a number of super injunctions, preventing famous actors, footballers and businessmen from having details of their private lives (affairs) published by newspapers.

However it seems that Twitter users have spilled the beans and most of the world outside the UK has known the identity of the high profile footballer who is trying to sue Twitter and, after his name was mentioned in the house of commons he is now front page news.

It prompts the question: Can you present one image for your work and have a private life that conflicts with it?

How congruent is that?

When you are starting out in business, getting people to KTL (Know, Trust and Like) you is extremely important. If you are to promote yourself as being an honest and trustworthy person, your clients are not going to be impressed if you suddenly end up in court for deliberately avoiding paying your tax.

How would your clients/customers feel if you took out an injunction which prevented them knowing this information?

Would you wish to work with someone who was hiding information from you?

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