Transcribed article based on the video above.
Here are ten ways to stay scrappy as a business person.
1. Commit to a result. If you are a superhero, there is no gray area if you almost save the girl from the burning house. We stay scrappy if we first commit to a result at all costs and we will do whatever it takes to get that result. Checking off a list of tasks we get done, there is no reward in that, the only thing there is a reward for is getting to a big meaningful result.
2. We can all take big budgets and do more with more. Some of us can even do less with more. The real trick is can you move mountains without the recourses and tools and money that other people have?
3. Cheat. It’s ingrained in our head since we are little kids that we aren’t supposed to cheat at anything, at school, at homework, but this isn’t school, this is business. It’s not always unethical to cheat, sometimes cheating just means finding the quicker more expedient route to that end result. If you can find ways to get to that result faster than your competition and do it ethically, even if it is technically considered cheating, you should and it makes you scrappier.
4. Disregard data. A lot of times we get into analysis by paralysis. We can spend so much time trying to figure it out, but there is usually a small amount of data that really helps up make our decision. So in order to stay scrappy, take the little piece of data that helps you make the decision and move forward because speed is more important that perfection.
5. Go down one way streets. You can’t do what everybody else does and expect different meaningful results. Those people that break out of the pack are those that are willing to do something meaningfully different than everyone else. Even if it means all the cars are coming one way and you are going the other way, it is one of the ways you will get dramatically different results.
6. Negotiate everything. When my dad goes to the drug store, he tries to negotiate the price of his prescription drugs and you know what? Sometimes he gets a discount on them. You will be surprised what you can negotiate down to a lower price when you commit to negotiating everything possible.
7. Ask for favors. A lot of times the folks that are the smartest feel like, we can do this all on our own and maybe you can, but by asking favors of lots of people you are going to get things done more quickly and you may be surprised how much people will be willing to help you.
8. Exploit your competitions weakness. If you are playing a game of tennis or basketball, you don’t play your own skills, you play your opponents weaknesses. You can often times beat people much better than you by playing them in the areas they are really bad at. It is the same in business. If you have a much bigger target you are competing against, don’t work against your own set of resources, figure out what their Achilles heel is and keep attacking them there until you chink away at that armor.
9. Work more. It is so PC and trendy to talk about how you can work less and get so much done, you know what? Sometimes more is just more and if you are going to work an eight hour day and I am going to work a fourteen hour day, guess what? I’m going to beat you. All things being equal, I will beat you every single time.
10. You have to have a sense of urgency. If I told you somewhere in your office there is a golden ticket that is hidden and if you find it in the next sixty minutes I’m going to give you a million dollars, how much of a sense of urgency would you have about finding that ticket? And what if I told you if you don’t find it in the next hour you are going to lose your job, your house, and your spouse? What kind of sense of urgency would you have around finding that result? It is the same kind of urgency you have to have in business.
Taken from DocStoc.com.
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