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The Great Business Discovery of 2007

Written by: Rodger Blaker

Article Overview: One of the absolute BEST things any professional, business owner or manager can do is invest in seminars and conferences. The chance to get away and "see the forest for the trees" is incredibly valuable. Conferences generate new perspectives, and new ideas create vast new opportunities! Invest in yourself!

The Great Business Discovery of 2007

We are nearing the end of 2007 and one of the most important (and profitable) investments you can make is to review the past few months very, very carefully.

To an amazing degree, we humans are creatures of habit. We are the best examples of Newton's law that, "a body set in motion tends to remain in motion." We tend to plunge
blindly ahead, repeating yesterday's mistakes and failing to learn from experience. Yes, we take great pride in the fact that we "can" learn, but my observation is that we rarely do.

We assume that what worked yesterday "must" be the way to go next year. Now, of course, we all know we shouldn't do that! We KNOW we should examine our records. We KNOW we should be innovative, creative and original. We know that, but do we do it?

When Jack Welch was the head of General Electric, he insisted that half the company's profits come from products and services that were less than five years old. Why? His
focus was always on innovation because he understood that yesterday's methods would never work in tomorrow's world.

Take time - several hours, perhaps more - to carefully review the following questions:

1. What worked best in 2007? What surprised me or taught me something new for my work or business?

2. What did not work, or is working less and less well? What was less profitable or less effective than I expected? Is it time to drop it altogether?

3. What's new in my field? What are my colleagues doing that I should apply to my business in 2008?

One of the absolute BEST things any professional, business owner or manager can do is invest in seminars and conferences. The chance to get away and "see the forest for the trees" is incredibly valuable. Conferences generate new perspectives, and new ideas create vast new opportunities! Invest in yourself!

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Article Tags: business owner, colleagues, conferences, creatures of habit, forest for the trees, general electric, innovation, less than five years, new opportunities, new perspectives, newton, observation, pride, professional business, profitable investments, profits, seminars



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