Tag: Success


The father of today’s business management method, Peter Drucker, is credited with observing the two sole functions of businesses – innovation and marketing.

The companies that are excellent examples of embracing innovating include Apple, Amazon, and Tesla.

They earn a great deal of admiration, generate even greater sales and get marketing done in the form of media earned from both.

Businesses of all sizes know that innovation is a huge lever that propels their future success. Still, many fail to do it effectively. They stick to doing what has always been done. Some get on the latest trends when they are pushed to do it to avoid extinction instead of becoming pioneers in their sector. Not a good thing.

Jeff Bezos explains that a big part of the incredible success Amazon has had over time is its people’s commitment to innovation. His 2015 shareholder letter said that the source of the $100-billion-dollar company’s innovation skills lie where their failures are. He went on to say that he believed that Amazon is in the best place to fail because of all the practice it has.

Nothing, he says, is known in advance for inventing things. You must experiment.

Most large organizations embrace the idea of invention but don’t’ want to go through the necessary failures to get there.

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Unfortunately, experimenting and failing is the only road to take.

To make a business a place where innovation is normal, it is essential to create an environment that is conducive to chance. It must be open to diversity and opinions. No matter what your history is you can build a company that offers products, services, and experiences that wow your customers constantly. Here is how to do that.

1. Create an experimentation culture.

You will see it in articles, blogs, and books: failure comes before success.

If you can start to accept failure as part of the learning process, it will help you achieve your goals. You will get more comfortable as you move forward with this concept.

You must make failure work for you. Do this by experimenting in small enough ways that you will not be left walking around in a barrel if things do not go well. To create a culture that is ready for innovation, it also has to have a system of continuous feedback. This loop of continuous communication gives you the clues needed to produce remarkable things.

2. Make generating ideas a habit.

Innovation starts with ideas. Quantity will always beat out quality when it comes to improving the odds of coming up with winning ideas for your business. Not every idea will be a keeper, but if you have a huge supply of thoughts to choose from it can be much easier to boil down what your customers really want from you.

As a writer, I have a habit of generating 25 headlines to use potentially for one article. When I push myself to come up with more creative options I generate better ideas. Make it a habit to generate ideas daily at your business. Have your team members provide ideas every day. Create a system that works to catalogue what they offer.

3. Diversify experiences.

Innovation thrives on diversity, not singularity. Steve Jobs understood this. This is why he encouraged his team to take the road less travelled. In 1982, Jobs was quoted as saying that if you are to make innovative connections that you cannot have the same “bag” of experience that others do. He was just 26 when he observed this out loud as he accepted a Golden Plate Award in Washington DC.

You must step outside of the comfort zone. Seek out many new experiences for yourself personally and professionally. Intentionally seek talent. You have to build a team of rock stars that bring diversity, ideas, experiences and new ways of thinking to your company.

With their help, observations and skills, you will build a bigger frame of reference. You will no longer be satisfied with anything status quo. You will want something truly innovative every time.

4. Encourage dissent.

Encourage your team to knock your ideas around. This is the only way to improve on them. A capable team of people with values that you value will provide better criticism and this will ultimately produce a better product than you could have done by yourself.

Data from UC Berkeley back up this principle by demonstrating that conflict improves the process of ideation.

How can a team that agrees to abide by everything you say help your company innovate?

Set up regular team meetings to get input on turning a good idea great. Make your environment one where team members assure each other that their opinions are of value. They will become more comfortable about vocalizing their personal expertise so that the quality of your products and services improve no matter what your business sells.

5. Become obsessed with your customers.

You exist to serve your customers. The more you can provide them with value, the more they reward you with loyalty. Focus your efforts on getting to know them right away. You will get a huge amount of insight into how to solve their problems like no one can.

Whenever you can, talk to your customers. Walk in their shoes, as it were, to develop greater empathy for them.

Look for pain points so that you can start brainstorming ideas with your team to turn those pains into customer satisfaction.

These are our main focus area’s for success in an ever changing e-commerce market place


Success is a state of mind.

To be successful, you need to commit to planning your life around that one burning desire or goal. Prior to making that big leap of faith, it is important to get rid of certain things from your life so that you are adequately prepared when your opportunity comes along.

Below is a list of 12 habits that you need to get out of your life with immediate effect.

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Dropping the habits will not only make you successful in business but will also help you become more present with your family and friends and will make you happier in the end.

Start Overachieving & Stop Underachieving

Everything in life that’s worth doing is worth overdoing. When you are pursuing your goals, you shouldn’t stop after achieving the minimum. Keep doing it until you blow the goals out of the water and then continue working still. If you have this work ethic, only you can stop yourself.

If you have a unique talent, you should consider making it your side hustle. It is always important to set highly attainable goals for yourself to avoid falling short of the mark. Being ambitious is great, but if you constantly come up short, it can kill your motivation and morale.

Focus Instead of Multitasking

Studies show that 98 percent of people are not capable of multitasking successfully. Usually the people that believe they can do it are often the worst at multitasking. Stanford scientists write that people that multitask often have problems with organizing their thoughts, filtering out irrelevant information, and shifting from one task to the next.

The next time that you try to be productive, it can be a good idea to shit down all tabs on your computer except those relating to the task you are doing. Turn your notifications off and commit all your focus to that task. You will see a significant boost in productivity.

Avoid Checking Social Media While Working

Social media networks create a maze of posts and links designed to keep you hooked. It drains your time in a major way and doesn’t contribute to your success. Instead of checking Facebook and Instagram on your breaks, read TechCrunch or the New York Times to bring something genuinely meaningful to the next conversation you have.

Avoid Comparing Yourself to Others

Comparing yourself to other people never ends well. There will always be somebody out there that’s wealthier, smarter, better looking, and more successful than you. Thinking like this is distracting. You should focus on just you alone. More importantly, focus on achieving your short-term goals and the dominoes of success will start falling.

Avoid Wasting Time with Negative People

Avoid ruining your friendships or causing a scene. Just limit your availability for the toxic people in your life. While you will obviously come across them once in a while but negative influence makes you lose focus on what’s really important.

Avoid Making Excuses

If you want something, you should go out to get it. Avoid making excuses or creating reasons. Reasons are simply excuses with makeup on. If you don’t have a lot of experience, it is easy to constantly come up with excuses and convince yourself of your limitations. However, if you do this for so long, you will soon realize that you have created so many reasons why you can’t that it becomes a reality. Avoid being the victim since victims never succeed.

Avoid Being a Perfectionist

Be realistic. Avoid spending 5 hours extra meticulously creating color schemes and fonts for a presentation that only you will notice. This goes into managing your time. Be effective and efficient. Do not procrastinate by obsessing over small details that do not matter in the long run.

Don’t Complain

It is simple. If you think and talk positive, positive things will definitely come to you. Keep your glass half full. Levels of pessimism and optimism have a direct correlation with overall health. Keep your frowns down and your smiles up.

Stop Assuming That Everything is About You

Your upset boss is not thinking about firing you. The Lyft diver is not giggling at your tie. They probably have their own problems, and that’s what they are thinking about and not you. You will be much happier once you stop assuming that everything is all about you.

Stop Carrying All the Weight on Your Back

You are obviously in charge. However, it does not mean that you have to micromanage your staff and take on every challenge. Learn to delegate. The question you need to be asking yourself is not how you can get something done but rather how you can do it in the most efficient way possible.

Don’t Make Meetings a Priority

Mark Cuban is quoted as saying that one shouldn’t take a meeting unless somebody is ready to write you a check. Meetings often start late, run for too long, and are seldom very productive. Meetings are killers of time. It is always a better idea to make targeted contact with the right people throughout the day. If there isn’t clear value for you to gain or for you to give, it is not worth it to waste anybody’s time with meetings.

Don’t Use To-Do Lists

Start plugging all your tasks into the calendar. Having work integrated into a time table greatly enhances our efficiency. Spend the time you need to plan out your calendar and then ensure that you live by it.

Here are 10 Habits of Successful People

If you want to see a change within a matter of weeks, you need to live and abide by the rules provided here.

At the end of your day, sit down and reflect on the things that you did right as well as what you can do to get a better tomorrow.

The most important thing is to visualize success. If you do that, success will definitely come.