How is your year going so far? Have you achieved your New Year’s “business growth” resolutions you made back in late December or January? Or, did you give up on them because they seem out of reach?
Only you know the answer to those questions. But if you feel stuck with growing your business, this is the perfect moment to ask yourself the two critical questions management philosopher, Peter Drucker often asked business owners:
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“What business are you really in?”
- “How is the business doing?”
Today’s marketing lesson is not about your Purpose or your Passions or even your Profits. It’s about a disease that infects hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs who consider themselves “lifelong learners,” yet they’re still unable to answer either one of Drucker’s questions.
This disease relentless distracts entrepreneurs daily. It consistently derails them from reaching their goals and robs them of the time and money freedom they know they’ve always deserved.
What I’m talking about here is the disease of Opportunity Seeking.
Most people snicker at the fact that I call it a disease. They may view this blog post as an “over-reaction” to a tendency most “How To” students or seminar goers experience.
But after teaching tens of thousands of entrepreneurs during the past 17 years, I’ve found Opportunity Seeking to be an unintential, yet crippling tendency that prevents small business owners to convert their passions into profits.
Who Are Opportunity Seekers?
My good friend and Mastermind Partner, Rich Schefren explored the disease of Opportunity Seeker-ism (all diseases – physical or psychological – seem to be “isms”) in his seminal report, Internet Marketing Manifesto many years ago.
From my experience of graduating over 21,300 students from my Internet marketing, teleseminar marketing and productivity strategies courses, I’ve discovered Entrepreneurs fall into two binary (either one or the other not both) categories or business people – Opportunity Seekers OR Strategic Entrepreneurs – there is no in-between.
In Part 1 of this Opportunity Seeker Recovery 3-part series (I’m only half joking), I want you to observe the “self-talk” of the OS (Opportunity Seeker) vs. SE (Strategic Entrepreneur).
This is the oldest duality of entrepreneurship mindset most of the small business world is aware of. Read the statemtents and if your little voice tells you two or more the OS statements, then please read Part 2 and Part 3 of this blog series.
Duality “Self-Talk” of Entrepreneurs
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OS: “I can have EVERYTHING I want.”
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SE: “I can have ANYTHING I want” (Priority is key)
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OS: “What must I DO to succeed?”
- SE: “Who must I BE to succeed?” (First BE, then DO)
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OS: “To improve, I strengthen my WEAKNESSES.”
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SE: “To improve, I strengthen my STRENGTHS.” (Mastery is key)
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OS: “I do the BEST THAT I CAN!”
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SE: “I do WHATEVER IT TAKES!” (The “All-In” Principle)
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OS: “More TRANSACTION grow my business.”
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SE: “More RELATIONSHIPS grow my business.” (Relationship Capital)
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OS: “I do what is URGENT and important.”
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SE: “I do what is NOT URGENT and important.” (Planned Decisions)
So what’s the verdict? Do you typically have OS or SE self-talk throughout your day? C’mon … be honest :-)
No matter what your verdict may be, as a former Opportunity Seeker, I want you to realize that Opportunity Seekers are the business types who “shiny pennies” all day long. They are addicted to saying, “YES.”
In contrast, Strategic Entrepreneurs say “NO” more often and they realize that a “shiny penny” or two or three may not be remotely relevant to their current project.
Strategic Entrepreneurs know that getting started in multiple projects at the same time ultimately prevents them from ever reaching the momentum (“Big MO”) necessary to succeed, which is the dream of every business owner.
I know I’ll get a few “flame” responses because of this post … probably from Opportunity Seekers who are in denial (just kidding … kind of).
But if anything I’ve written above strike too close to home, then please check out my next two posts, check out the 12 ways you can recover from Opportunity Seekerism.
Please comment and share your thoughts in the box below … and do what it takes (W.I.T.) to pass this post onto anyone you feel may be an OS.
One important thing to remember to curb your enthusiasm about converting the OS folks in your life to SEs is the fact that Opportunity Seekerism can only be treated if “self-diagnosed – if you’re unware of it, you’ll keep doing it. Period!
Again, many thanks for reading and please comment below and share everythere.
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About Alex Mandossian
