A man is walking down the street when he comes across three men laying bricks.

He pauses to watch them and then walks over to the first man.

“What are you doing?” He asks.

The first bricklayer shrugs and without even looking up says, “I’m making $15 an hour.”

The man then moves on to the second bricklayer and asks the same question, “What are you doing?”

The second bricklayer glances up and says, “I am building a wall.”

The man walks over to the third bricklayer and again asks the same question. “What are you doing?”

The third bricklayer stands straight up and proudly points to the heaven. “I am building a cathedral!” he proclaims.

Wow, what a different approach to work. Indeed, what a different approach to life. What a different approach to sales, marketing and rainmaking. Please allow me to expand this story in the area of the sales industry.

Ask yourself and your colleagues the same question, “What are you doing?” If the response is “preparing a pitch book”, “building a mailing list”, or “doing a socio-economic overlay on our top 1000 customers”, then you’re focusing on the task rather than the vision. And while it’s vitaly important to do every task well, because that will ensure the quality of the final product, the task cannot become an end onto itself. Tasks are the means to an end. They are the building blocks of cathedrals and the seeds of rainmaking.

So what’s an inspired response to the question of “What are you doing?” well, it would be more along the lines of “contributing to our goals of increasing sales by 50percent.” Or “reminding our clients why they select us in the first place.” Or “building an entrepreneurial corporate culture” or maybe even “putting one more nail in our competitors’ coffin.”

What’s the difference? One focuses on the big picture and one on the small. One sees the forest and one sees the trees. Successful rainmakers meld both approaches and have the ability to see the forest in every tree. It’s a rare attribute but one that’s well worth cultivating and one that will provide a rich harvest for many years to come.

Some of you may be just like me coming from a self employed world. I worked hard during those days with joys and sadness. Through the last few months of learning how to run a business, I thought that the way I want it to be would be work hard and enjoy life at the same time. However, someone woke me up by telling me that, “Candice, you have worked hard in the self-employed world but you have not worked hard in the business world.” This remark woke me up that I am in fact at the beginning of an ultra marathon run. It reminds me back to 30th May 2009 12am when I ran my first 42km marathon. The whole journey of 5hours 38min is tough and it’s my mental strength that keeps me going and going.

In the self-employed world, I spent time doing coaching and spending quality time with my team. But today, I cannot afford to invest my time on individuals who are finding time to search for your self-identity. Every time when I come face to face with them, listening to their stories and encouraged by how they wished to be different, I would want to help them. However, most of the time, I do not see much actions taken and it always end up that they need a break to relax and think. In the business world, I am not just accountable to my team but my shareholders and business partners. The level of stress is attacking me from all different angles. All the things I have to do cannot please everyone. Many decisions that I make seem to be hard but it is even harder inside me to make the decision.

Yesterday is the day where I had to terminate my people. Many MNCs companies I research on, successful business owners I talked to shared with me that business is all about results and profitability. My heart feels like shit the decision has been made. The feeling is so bad that I feel that I am not cut in the business world. My inner voice tells me to give up and go back to my home back in Singapore to run my own self employed business again. It is tough to hold back the tears inside me and tougher for me when every single time my trip home has to be postponed.

Some will understand what I am going through and some will never understand. For me, it doesn’t matter anymore. I just can’t please everybody and I have to do all I can to be accountable to people who sincerely want to build the business with me.

“A leader once convinced a particular course of action is the right one, must have the determination to stick with it and be undaunted when the going gets tough.”

                                                                                           –Ronald Reagan (American 40^th US President (1981-1989)

The complex markets, intense competition, expectant customers and demanding shareholders require my company to instill a more intelligent marketing. To see the emerging form of markets and how they can be shaped, to target the best opportunities before others, to beat competition in smarter ways than price discounting and many more requires a new and different approach.

Google is an inspiration. Google has a simple vision, to be ‘the perfect search engine’. Now with over 80 million users, searching over 8 billion web pages, Google is well established to understand what you want and to give back exactly what you want. It is the leading search engine today!

Google stays strong in a complex world by sticking to its philosophy built on ’10 things’. (Source: google.com)
1. Focus on the customers and all else will follow.
2. It’s best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don’t need to be at your desk to get an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There’s always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn’t good enough.

‘Google’ is the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. It perhaps symbolises the magnitude of Google’s ambition and increasing impact on the whole dynamic of market and marketing. Many times their self beliefs have often been challenged conventions – not just in the disrupting markets but also for example, at the time of their 2004 Nasdaq flotation when they insisted that invested should not treat them like a ‘normal’ company. Their convictions are the empowered guidance that keeps them flexible but going in the right direction.

Have you wondered how does Google headquarter look like? Amazing office!

What is stopping you from achieving your big dream?

From the day I started out my company with my partner, the real business world challenges came alive. The stress level that I had was tremendous. On facebook, I was listening to one of the interview of Ernie Chen on how to build a business and he shared that in short, we need to build a team, a system and a brand. The fire inside me keeps burning as I know that the goal I set for my company is achievable. Even though I have been hitting up against solid brick wall, all day and all night long, Jonathan and I battled to get through it.

I fought to rise up to the top. Nothing is more challenging than handling your inner voice that keep distracting you. Nothing can be worse than having turkeys around you who keep having emotional problems and keep dwelling on how pathetic they are. Look, everyone have bills to pay. Even Richard Branson has bills to pay. So why grumble on how pathetic and poor you are and not work your ass towards a solution. Time is tick tocking away every single second. I simply cannot understand why people will waste time crying for themselves. At times, I just feel like slapping them awake and get out of my sight so that they will not drain my energy further.

I was stucked with my progress of the company yesterday. The feeling sucks. The stress is so high that every meal I take I just keep vomiting. No one knows how the tears are shed in the inner me. Many hours yesterday I brainstormed on solutions, I do research, I seek help and advice cause I know to be successful, you have to be out there, you have to hit the ground running!

The solution is there and you just have to keep searching and I am glad to find my solutions during a great business advisory session with Ernie Chen, the Group CEO of Acten over sushi last week. The short 2.5hrs of meal brought smiles to my face and here I am today to soar to a greater height!

Below I would like to share a simple, short yet impactful Entrepreneur Tip from “The Entrepreneur Mindset and Heartset” by Ernie Chen. Enjoy!

“Know Thyself”

The advice to know yourself is thousands of years old. But knowing ourselves at the deepest level is not easy, as we are complex human beings with many aspects to our character. We are constantly evolving  as we test ourselves in the world, are influenced by it, and adapt to our environment – all in an attempt to find our unique place.

When you know yourself, you can find the passion that motivates you and the purpose of your leadership. Nancy Barry, CEO of Women’s World Banking tells young leaders to ‘take the time to know yourself and find your passion. Look inside, to find your power, your purpose.”

FirstMark CEO Lynn Forester de Rosthchild urges leaders to remember Shakespeare’s admonition, “To thine own self be true.”

Being true to yourself is the most important thing. If you are ambitious, that’s great. If not, that’s also fine. Just be true to what you want. Not everyone can be at the top of the class. If they try to be, they may not get there. If they did get there, they might not be happy. Know who you are and you can achieve anything in life. You can overcome almost any obstacles, unless you are the obstacle.

Enjoy the following short poem by David Whyte from ‘Where Many Rivers Meet”,1990,

THE WELL OF GRIEF 

Those who will not slip beneath

the still surface on the well of grief

turning downward through its black water

to the place we cannot breathe

will never know the source from which we drink,

the secret water, cold and clear,

nor find in the darkness glimmering

 the small round coins throwing by those who wished for something else

Whyte is saying that you cannot wall yourself off from the pain of past experiences. You have to confront them directly, accept yourself unconditionally, and learn to love your weaknesses as much as you revel in your strength. With the center of your compass solidly grounded in self-awareness and supported by self-acceptance.

Know thyself!

In this article, I would like to share with you some of the insights I have learnt from Matt Morries, “The Unemployed Millionaire”. This is a must read book for all arising entrepreneurs who would like to earn a million while sitting at a beach enjoying your life.

Dear all, create a business where you can realistically see yourself being happy with for the next 20 years. I love the following poem shared in the book.

WORK IS LOVE MADE VISIBLE

No one can succeed in any endeavour that they don’t like.

If you don’t love what you’re doing, then don’t do it.

Your chances of success are directly proportional to the degree of pleasure you derive from what you do.

Do something that you have a deep personal interest in.

Do something you enjoy spending twelve to fifteen hours a day working at, and the rest of the time thinking about it.

Don’t set compensation as your goal.

Find work you like and the compensation will follow.

Work is not your punishment.

It’s your reward, your strength and your pleasure.

Real success is achieved when you like what you do.

When your vocation becomes your vacation,

You never work another day in your life.

Everyone has a different passion. When you infuse your life with what you are most passionate about, life suddenly becomes so exciting that money is actually irrelevant.

Enjoy your every moment of entrepreneurship journey!

“The life each of us lives is the life within the limits of our own thinking.”  – Thomas Dreier

It makes no difference where you are in your sales career. I have learnt that the first business breakthrough occurred when the salesperson adopt something called “CEO mindset”, which is the point at which one begins to see him/herself as a business owner who’s making sales, taking the responsibility for your own growth and the growth of your business. Acknowledge that you are the biggest shareholder in your own business.

There is an obvious disparity between salesperson who’ve adopted a CEO mindset and those who assume the mindset of the majority. Let’s take a look at the clear difference.

 The future of your sales career rests primarily not in your hands or feet but in your mind.