PRACTICE PROACTIVE THINKING: GET NEW IDEAS, ANTICIPATE TRENDS, AND DEVELOP YOUR VISION
The lazy way of doing work is switching on your computer and checking your emails—while you’ve already checked them twice on your phone during the last ten minutes. Or checking your social media accounts: same lazy crap.
The proactive way of doing work is this: sit down and think … or stand up and think. Go do a handstand if you prefer, but be sure to THINK. Remove anything that can hijack your concentration, remove all screens, hit airplane mode, and think. Most high achievers I’ve worked with—people running 8-figure businesses—block out regular thinking time. Usually, it’s either early in the morning or late at night, as long as it’s quiet around. It’s best (but not essential) if you have an unobstructed view, say, if you can see the sky or the horizon.
Most successful people think differently to unsuccessful people. Successful people think proactively, they don’t think reactively. They create their own ideas, their own inspiration. That’s what I mean by “thinking differently”. You, as the head of your organization, must think several steps ahead, like a chess player who plots their moves five or ten steps in advance. You have important decisions to make every day, so make them with the whole picture in mind, and reserve a time-slot on your schedule to do it.
More often than not, people (1) don’t take the time to think, and (2) use the handed-down thoughts and beliefs they were taught—that’s how they end up being like everybody else. On the other hand, all elite performers have a specific routine of reflecting on the actions they take, the ones they didn’t take, and the ones they will take. They continually learn, adapt, and grow at an exponential rate when compared with the average Joe.
Here’s how to organize your thinking time:
Vision – Where do you want your business to be? Is it on the right track? Where do you see your product or service in the future? What’s the plan? Is there an alternative? What are the opportunities? Think about a book you have read or a speaker you’ve listened to: what can you implement in your own business? Who can help you implement that?
Solutions – What prevents your business from performing better? When you think about a problem, make sure to identify the root cause of the problem, not just the symptom. This way you’ll come up with the right strategy, not just another tactic. The symptom might be, “We don’t have enough sales,” but the real problem may lie elsewhere. Maybe you don’t have enough referrals, or any recurring revenue, or enough leads, or maybe your lead conversion rate is poor. Another symptom might be, “We can’t hire the best people.” But what is the root problem? Maybe your brand has a poor reputation, maybe you can’t attract the best talent because the culture or the vision of your company is unclear, or maybe your recruitment process sucks. Before it can be solved, a problem must be clarified. Always differentiate the symptoms from the root problem—the real cause of your headaches.
Anticipation – What will happen that you can’t see right now? What are the right questions you should ask yourself that you haven’t yet? Where’s the next bounce of the ball? What’s the thing you should know that you don’t? What should you do to get prepared for the unknown? Look back at 2020 or the 2008 crash: is your business ready if something similar or worse happens?
Answer your own questions and question your answers. Then question your questions! During your thinking sessions, remember that having the right answers is great, but having the right questions is even better.
In fact, it’s better to have an approximate answer to the right question than it is to have the right answer to the wrong question.
Let me tell you something you’ve probably never heard before. When we talk about THINKING, there are two segments, whether in science, philosophy, psychoanalysis, or whatever. The two segments are interests and reflection. That’s all. The interest you have in a reflection of yours influences your thinking. And the more interest you have in a particular instance, the more they interfere in your objective search for truth.
Here’s a trivial fictitious example of a discussion between an engineer and the owner of a building:
“- There’s a lot of work to be done, or the building is going to collapse. It’s dangerous. Here’s why …
- I’ll give you $1m, and how about you keep quiet about all that extra work?
- After all, the building will hold. Here’s why …”
The engineer suddenly takes an interest when he’s offered a bribe. And after reflecting on the offer, he all but disregards his initial position. He has an obvious conscious interest.
Here’s another example: you see an offer where somebody tells you that you can be rich by next week just by applying this one thing they tell you in exchange for a few hundred bucks. Chances are that if it happened to a friend of yours, your ability to discern and weigh up the risk would stay intact, and you’d have warned them with 100% certainty that this is going to be bullshit.
But because it’s you, and you live the situation from within, you’re now emotionally involved in the process: you can’t help but rationalize a dumb purchase. Your curiosity has been triggered, the reward is tempting, and you begin to convince yourself that it’s not that expensive. You have an unconscious interest that distorts your reflection. Ask yourself from which standpoint you are thinking: rational or emotional? What kind of answer are you looking for? What kind of bias from within can INFLUENCE your thinking?
Thinking sessions aren’t easy because they force you to look at your business and personal circumstances from an overall perspective, not only in its competitive environment but also in its social, political, and geographical environment too.
I once read a story about the legendary Wall Street investor Michael Milken. He was sitting at a meeting with a dozen people when his assistant interrupted him to ask him for a quick decision on something that was going on. Michael took out his planner, turned some pages, wrote something down, and said, “I’ll think about it on Friday, between eight and nine.” How powerful is that? Thinking time. Never rush into your decisions. There’s a time to think and there’s a time for action. Never skip your thinking time. Plan it in.
Can your thinking time be allotted to when you’re driving or commuting? It’s great if you already do, but thinking while driving or on public transport often turns out to be more of the daydreaming variety than proactive thinking. I’m not saying that you can’t have fantastic ideas during these times, I’m just saying that the chances are slimmer. Anything can distract you when you’re driving or commuting. And you can’t always take notes.
Thinking time is designed to enable you to distance yourself from the emotions you experience when working in your business, emotions which cloud your judgment. Remember, emotions and intellect seldom work together: when emotions run high, the ability to make intelligent decisions wanes, and vice versa.
HOMEWORK
Think about the amount of time you waste browsing your smartphone. Probably hours and hours a week. All I’m asking of you is to set up one or two sessions of thinking time per week, instead of spending that time browsing on your smartphone. I recommend at least one twenty-minute session, up to an hour per week. But feel free to do it twice a week. Always have a pen and journal to hand—or anything else with which you can take notes.
IMPORTANT: it must be an uninterrupted block of time. The best way to ruin something is to do a second thing at the same time. You have to devote yourself to what you are doing and refrain from the rest. Think about the VISION you have for your business, think about the SOLUTIONS to the problems you have in your business—remember not to confuse problems with symptoms—and think about how to ANTICIPATE future events, to avoid future problems.
This is a life-changing activity that I’ve carried out with dozens of my clients, whether it be through my M&A consultations or my time management coaching. I didn’t change their lives, they actually did it by themselves. I just provided them the vehicle through which they could analyze their situations, by asking them the right questions and letting them answer.
You can’t imagine how many business owners fail to take time out to step back and think—at least, proactively. If you’ve never heard of that, that’s a good sign. That’s the reason why you were probably stuck somewhere down there. From now on, if you apply proactive thinking, your business will grow as a result, and you’ll certainly meet more and more people who do it along the way.