How the Sinking of a Great Warship Can Make Your Business Better
How the Sinking of a Great Warship Can Make Your Business Better
On April 6, 1945, Yamato silently slipped out of port on a suicide mission with no aircraft support and only a light destroyer escort. Her instructions were to attack the U.S. Naval fleet, just off the coast of Okinawa.
The U.S. Navy intercepted Yamato with an aerial attack involving 386 aircraft. Yamato sustained 8 bomb and 12 torpedo hits before listing to port and capsizing. Of the 2,744 sailors aboard, only 269 survived.
Decades later, one of the survivors described his experience of being in the water, helplessly watching his ship sink and take scores of his shipmates with her. As he bobbed up and down in the rugged waters, he questioned his will to survive. Suddenly, he saw in his mind’s eye, an image of his infant son. At that instant, he realized that he needed to live to raise his son. Living to see and hold his son another day gave the sailor the mental and emotional fortitude to hang on, literally, for dear life.
To this day, he tells his son that he saved his life. That, if it weren’t for him, he wouldn’t be alive. He would have given up, swallowed up by the sea.
This particular Japanese sailor survived because he had a compelling reason to do so, a reason bigger than his own life itself. By focusing on his son, he knew he had to rise above the seemingly hopeless situation and do everything possible to survive. Anything short of that would have meant leaving an infant son fatherless.
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THIS?
All too frequently, I see fellow entrepreneurs jump into “doing” mode, overlooking the critical “why?” If you’re stuck in a rut, or simply not making the progress you think you ought to be making in your business, then it’s time to get in touch with the core reason, the unshakable desire you possess within you to accomplish seemingly insurmountable tasks.
Without this, you’re likely to get stopped at the first or second roadblock that comes your way. Then, you’ll wonder why you don’t get what you think you deserve and really want in your life. To be compelling, your "why" shouldn’t be centered on you. And while it doesn’t need to be about saving the world from global warming, it does need to be about something bigger than you alone.
The answer to getting out of the “rut race” is to play a bigger game. You need to think bigger than you every have before. To sustain that, you’ll need to get in touch with your compelling “why.”
ACTION PLAN:
This exercise consists of only two questions; but they may be the most important questions you ever ask of yourself. Pretend that it’s 100 years from now and you are looking back on your life:
1. What would you say is the most important thing that you accomplished in your business and in your life?
2. Whatever that answer is for you, now ask the second question: What’s so important about you having accomplished that?
3. Keep asking the second question, “What’s so important about that?” until you get to something that you’d call your ultimate achievement. THIS is your compelling “Why?”
SUMMARY:
In the words of my book publisher and mentor, John Robert Eggen:
“…the optimum life for a conscious, committed human being is aligning your purpose, [that] which you were born to do, with how you make your living. In my work with experts and professionals, one thing I realized is that most are conscious, committed people who are striving to realize and integrate their sense of purpose and passion with how they profit.”
Your compelling “Why?” gives you the ultimate leverage for integrating passion, purpose, and profit. By leading your life and building your business based on the foundation of your compelling “Why?” you’ll be certain to prosper.
How the Sinking of a Great Warship Can Make Your Business Better - To learn more about this author, visit George C. Huang's Website.
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During World War II, the Japanese built a class of the largest, heaviest, and most powerful battleships ever in the history of naval warfare. One of them, the battleship Yamato, was the pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Like her sister ship, Musashi, she weighed 72,802 tons and carried nine 460 mm (18.1 inch) guns, the largest naval artillery ever assembled on any warship.
On April 6, 1945, Yamato silently slipped out of port on a suicide mission with no aircraft support and only a light destroyer escort. Her instructions were to attack the U.S. Naval fleet, just off the coast of Okinawa.
The U.S. Navy intercepted Yamato with an aerial attack involving 386 aircraft. Yamato sustained 8 bomb and 12 torpedo hits before listing to port and capsizing. Of the 2,744 sailors aboard, only 269 survived.
Decades later, one of the survivors described his experience of being in the water, helplessly watching his ship sink and take scores of his shipmates with her. As he bobbed up and down in the rugged waters, he questioned his will to survive. Suddenly, he saw in his mind’s eye, an image of his infant son. At that instant, he realized that he needed to live to raise his son. Living to see and hold his son another day gave the sailor the mental and emotional fortitude to hang on, literally, for dear life.
To this day, he tells his son that he saved his life. That, if it weren’t for him, he wouldn’t be alive. He would have given up, swallowed up by the sea.
This particular Japanese sailor survived because he had a compelling reason to do so, a reason bigger than his own life itself. By focusing on his son, he knew he had to rise above the seemingly hopeless situation and do everything possible to survive. Anything short of that would have meant leaving an infant son fatherless.
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THIS?
All too frequently, I see fellow entrepreneurs jump into “doing” mode, overlooking the critical “why?” If you’re stuck in a rut, or simply not making the progress you think you ought to be making in your business, then it’s time to get in touch with the core reason, the unshakable desire you possess within you to accomplish seemingly insurmountable tasks.
Without this, you’re likely to get stopped at the first or second roadblock that comes your way. Then, you’ll wonder why you don’t get what you think you deserve and really want in your life. To be compelling, your "why" shouldn’t be centered on you. And while it doesn’t need to be about saving the world from global warming, it does need to be about something bigger than you alone.
The answer to getting out of the “rut race” is to play a bigger game. You need to think bigger than you every have before. To sustain that, you’ll need to get in touch with your compelling “why.”
ACTION PLAN:
This exercise consists of only two questions; but they may be the most important questions you ever ask of yourself. Pretend that it’s 100 years from now and you are looking back on your life:
1. What would you say is the most important thing that you accomplished in your business and in your life?
2. Whatever that answer is for you, now ask the second question: What’s so important about you having accomplished that?
3. Keep asking the second question, “What’s so important about that?” until you get to something that you’d call your ultimate achievement. THIS is your compelling “Why?”
SUMMARY:
In the words of my book publisher and mentor, John Robert Eggen:
“…the optimum life for a conscious, committed human being is aligning your purpose, [that] which you were born to do, with how you make your living. In my work with experts and professionals, one thing I realized is that most are conscious, committed people who are striving to realize and integrate their sense of purpose and passion with how they profit.”
Your compelling “Why?” gives you the ultimate leverage for integrating passion, purpose, and profit. By leading your life and building your business based on the foundation of your compelling “Why?” you’ll be certain to prosper.
How the Sinking of a Great Warship Can Make Your Business Better - To learn more about this author, visit George C. Huang's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
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