GarthBox

The winning businesses fight mediocrity on a daily basis.

When a champion owner wakes up and you ask them what they’re going to do today and they answer “be/do/make something remarkable” – well, I can’t think of a better answer myself. I would put my money on him or her, at least for that day.

I say that because tomorrow they may not feel inclined to stand up and stand out. It only takes one instance of mediocrity to lose a chunk of their followers, to make their employees feel cheated, to make themselves feel weak. And that’s such a downward spiral.

To run a winning business you’ve gotta fight mediocrity…

and to fight mediocrity you’ve gotta care.

 

Stay Positive & Care More Than Your Competitors

Must-reads start with an *

• Growth hacker marketing by Ryan Holiday – 83 pages
• *What to do when it’s your turn by Seth Godin – 187 pages
• The greatest salesman in the world by Og Mandino – 111 pages
• *The E Myth by Michael E. Gerber – 266 pages
• Selected poems by W.B. Yeats – 133 pages
• Whatcha gonna do with that duck? by Seth Godin – 457 pages
• Here comes everybody by Clay Shirky – 321 pages
• Selected poems by Lord Alfred Tennyson – 119 pages
• A man without a country by Kurt Vonnegut – 143 pages
• *Iconoclast by Gregory Berns – 200 pages
• *Contagious by Jonah Berger – 210 pages
• Love in a time of cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez – 551 pages
• *A beautiful constraint by Adam Morgan and mark Barden – 233
• Absolute value by it Amaretto Simonson and Emanuel Rosen – 191 pages
• Rich dad poor dad by Robert Kiyosaki – 183 pages
• *The new one minute manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson – 97 pages
• Start with why by Simon Sinek – 225 pages
• *Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson – 271 pages

 

Stay Positive & Did You Do The Reading?

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There’s a lot I can give advice on that you may be of interest to you.

Starting a business

Crafting a touch point plan

Developing a strategy

Traveling to a foreign country

Thinking differently

Writing more than you thought you could

Buying your first house

What business books to read

How to balance love life and work life

How to keep lean

I can give advice on these things because I’m living them. They’re in my short-term memory. They’re experiences from yesterday, from today and from tomorrow. Many of them are recent successes.

On the other hand, there’s a lot of advice that I can’t give anymore because it’s old.

I started a blog four years ago. Things were so different then.

I ran an arcade business, painted houses, wrote a book, got buff. As more time passes, the less of what I know stands true. There have been so many improvements in every industry, so much new tech and product, and – to my dissatisfaction – everything I have done has all since been made easier to do.

Advice is like fruit, it’s best when it’s fresh. The next time you’re being given advice on something, ask that person when the last time they did what they’re advising on. Then you’ll know how much weight it ought to carry.

And while I’m putting down advice, I’m not putting down storytelling or personality or connection. By all means, learn from and connect with people who have done remarkable things because at the end of the day, any work worth doing is still going to throw fear and hard work and critics at you.

 

Stay Positive & Stand Up For What Works Now, Not 19 Years Ago

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No one cares how hard you work if all you’re doing is spinning wheels.

Stop creating content for the sake of creating content and start creating meaning.

If what you create has at least 1 of 4 of these requirements, ship it. If it doesn’t, redo it.

• Meaning is a function of what people believe before they find you.
• Meaning is when something has a ton of value for only some people.
• Meaning requires action, participation, interaction and connection.
• Meaning produces results, it helps someone, it involves giving.

 

Stay Positive & Content Isn’t Everything, Meaningful Content Is

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I’m not the first to state that it’s people who have ethics, not businesses.

Having worked on a pitch for a global brand a couple of weeks ago, the team chatted about social responsibility and environmental responsibility and what the business can and is doing about it. Godin’s post was a nice reminder that to have a brand viewed as socially/environmentally responsible, the people need to be first.

If I could go back to the pitch, I would apply a recruiting tactic to it or survey the employees to see who has the passion that could drive a committee of already-employed who care about the environment more than others.

A more simple example is the agency I work at isn’t a festive business that celebrates the holidays, but the people within it do. There was a handful of people who put the budget together and pitched the idea to add some holiday décor to the agency.

Best to stop talking about the business and start talking about the people.

 

Stay Positive & It’s The People Who Make The Brand

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Some of the best memories are tagged beside some of the worst.

Some of the greatest ideas are within a strand of bad ones.

Some of the loudest laughs are a spit-distance away from the moments of anger.

Being in business is about being in a state of mixed emotions.

If you ever wonder if you’re ready to start a business, to pursue your passion, to try something your gut is telling you to, you’ll know you’re ready when you can take the wins with the losses, the love with the hate, the dessert with the veggies.

 

Stay Positive & Mixed Emotions Make For The Strongest Of Memories

p.s. that’s a good thing

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