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I was rearranging the books in my bookcases last week trying to put the books together by category when a little, plaid, 4 by 5 inch book fell out of the bookcase. It was a book that many of you may have called Life’s Little Instruction Book that was first written in 1991. As I flipped through the pages I came across some interesting ideas that people in business need to understand. So I want to thank Jackson Brown for writing it and hope you find these lessons as thought provoking as I did.

Here goes:

1. Take charge of your attitude; don’t let someone else choose it for you.

We all get upset about different things that customers or vendors try to do or say to us. Many times they ruin our moods and we even take it out on the next customer, our employees, or our family. When you do that the person who aggravated you wins. Understand that you have the power to control your emotions. Program in some self-talk such as: there will always be people like that; forget about it, it’s not that important; or my classic, they’re part of the PLO (Pushy, Loud, and Obnoxious) which is only 4% of the people we deal with, and the rest of the people are perfectly fine.

2. Be prepared to lose once in a while.

Every buyer knows that every thing they buy won’t sell. Some items are going to be losers. If you don’t have any losers, then you didn’t push yourself enough or experiment  with different types of merchandise. We learn a lot more from losing than we ever do from winning. Celebrate your losses because they will make you stronger, tougher, and better.

3. Evaluate yourself by your own standards, NOT someone else’s.

So many times in business we use different stores, businesses, or people as role models, but be careful who you use. A store owner once told me that she copied everything this one particular chain store did. The only problem was this publicly traded company had reported their sales and profits the day before. Sales were down 22% and profits down 42%. Whose standards were right? I once closed a store that was very profitable at $400,000 in sales because the person who was advising me made me feel so bad because he kept on telling me that the store should have been doing more a $ million. The sad part was I listened to him. DUMB.

4. Don’t spread yourself too thin.   Learn to say no politely and quickly.

I have seen many great businesses fall because the owner or manager isn’t concentrating on the business any more. They have other interests. They are involved in community events (which are important but you can’t do everything). These people are opening additional businesses while trying to run their store.  This is only getting worse because there are so many opportunities today and the temptation is too great. Yes, if you can manage and delegate well, it can work. But some businesses just need time to develop before you venture off in different directions.  The old line says, “You can’t dance at more than one wedding at the same time.” Some business people have to understand that they just love start-up and hate the day to day stuff.  That can work but you need the right exit strategy.

5. Give yourself an hour to cool off before responding to someone who has provoked you. If it’s really important, give yourself overnight.

How many times have we said something in the heat of an argument that we have only lived to regret?  How many times have we needlessly insulted someone because we were provoked? How about when you tell someone off via email only to learn you read what they wrote incorrectly. It’s bad enough we said it, but now it’s in writing.

Many times the written word when spoken can have a different meaning. Just cool down and think it over before you do a thing.

Hope you liked this. It was fun and challenged me as well.

I do also want to add a comment about last week’s newsletter which asked you, my wonderful readers, to share ideas on how you will entice customers to spend their rebate checks in your stores. There were some interesting ideas given and you can review them at the following link:

http://www.RickSegel.com/Rebate

I am going to keep this link alive and will accept more additions to it. I did also initiate a contest for the top 5 ideas and these people will receive $100 credit for my products. The deadline for the contest will be next Monday, May 12th. I’d love to hear from you!