“The most common cause of executive failure is inability or unwillingness to change with the demands of a new position. The executive who keeps on doing what he has done successfully before is almost bound to fail.” — Peter Drucker

“A person of intellect without energy added to it, is a failure.”

~Sebastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort

Commentary: Lots of people have great business ideas and/or are extremely intelligent. This is great – but if you do not apply your intelligence, take action on your ideas, then it is simply an intellectual exercise.

In small business and in life, if you are doing anything at all (instead of simply stagnating), then you will inevitably have people criticize you. People that take action and build things of any importance are constantly criticized. You can either let the criticism crush you or you can deal with it.

Tim Ferris has a fantastic post about how Dr. Martin Luther King handled criticism. In his famous “Letter from a Birmingham City Jail”, Dr. King notes:

While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities “unwise and untimely.” Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.

Note that Dr. King was in jail and under the strain of criticism few humans are likely to endure. The full letter is long but definitely worth a read. He not only dismisses most criticism, the criticism he deems as fair he engages vigorously and makes his case passionately.

Business and Life Lesson: Most criticism can be dismissed, the valid criticism (typically from people whom you respect) should be listened to and acknowledged. Don’t let critics prevent you from doing what you deem necessary to live the life you want to live.

“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” - From an interview with Steve Jobs.

Commentary: Perseverance has been a common trait among successful people in life, government and business. Keeping your eyes on the ball and not giving up is a must-have life skill.

Bonus Quote:

“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” - Calvin Coolidge, 3oth President of the US.

“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” — Jim Rohn

Commentary: I believe planning your life is as important as planning your business, yet many still put more thought into their wedding, their next car purchase, the lottery or their enemies than they do on actually making a plan for their life. If you don’t plan your life, you’ll simply wander through life aimlessly. In fact, Michael Gerber speaks about this in The E-Myth; designing your business around your life plan.

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” -Wayne Gretzky

“The key is to just get on the bike, and the key to getting on the bike…is to stop thinking about “there are a bunch of reasons i might fall off” and just hop on and peddle the damned thing. You can pick up a map, a tire pump, and better footwear along the way.” – Dick Costolo – Founder of Feedburner.com

“We have no patent on anything we do and anything we do can be copied by anyone else. But you can’t copy the heart and the soul and the conscience of the company.” -Howard Schultz, Chairman of Starbucks

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” – Mark Twain

“Sticking to it is the genius! Any other bright-minded fellow can accomplish just as much as I did if he will stick like hell and remember nothing that’s any good works by itself. You got to make the damn thing work. I’ll never give up, for I may have a streak of luck before I die. “  – Thomas Edison

“The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed.” – Lloyd Jones

“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” – Peter F. Drucker

Commentary: Peter Drucker is one of my favorite thinkers and quotes like this one show why. Many small businesses correctly focus on efficiency but they end up being efficient in things that don’t matter. Conversely, some small businesses are doing the right things very inefficiently. The key is to make sure you are doing both: focussing on the right things and doing them right.

“A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.” – Gen. George Patton

Commentary: As we’ve written before, planning can go on forever until everyone thinks it’s perfect. However, many times a good plan is good enough and the quicker you start working on it the faster things will get done.

“Anyone can be a genius, if they pick just one specific subject and study it diligently just 15 minutes each day.”   – Albert Einstein

Commentary: Einstein is right. Is there something that you want to become a genius/expert at? If you dedicate just a bit of time everyday to the study of that topic you can be amongst the greatest in the world at that subject.

Which one topic or subject, if you could become an expert at, would make the greatest difference in your life and/or business?

“The distance between you and your dreams is often the length of a single idea.”  – Vic Conant

Commentary: Sometimes all it takes is a new idea or thought to make you look at the world differently. One business idea (intelligently acted upon) can change your life. In business, you only need to be successful once and you’re set for life. Always be on the lookout for the idea that could change your life.

“We don’t want to be rich, we just want to be richer that other people” – John Stuart Mill

Commentary: Small business owners tend to focus on money when we should be focussing on lifestyle. Acquiring more and more money is an endless game that never brings satisfaction. The best thing to strive for are the lifestyle of wealth: time-off, family time, not worrying about money, vacations, etc. When you focus on lifestyle, you’ll find that it takes much less money and requires you to focus on making your business run without you rather than requiring your constant attention in the pursuit of more money.

“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” – Peter Drucker

Commentary: Sometimes the planning process goes on forever. Some people are obsessed with planning to a point where actual work never gets started. It is important that planning is effective, but as Peter Drucker states, it is imperative to get to work!