Dr. Stephen Hawking

Dr. Stephen Hawking understands what it is like to lose his physical capabilities.

At the age of 21, he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, which usually is fatal within 5 years.  Now at the age of 69, Dr. Hawking has lived with it for 48 years, making him one of the longest-living survivors of this tragic disease.

Mostly paralyzed, he uses complicated computer systems with a muscle in his cheek in a very exhausting and slow process to communicate his thoughts to the world.

But Dr. Hawking’s thoughts are worth the wait.

He has developed some of the most important cosmological research in our lifetime:  from black hole theories using quantum mechanics to explaining the boundaries of the universe in his book “A Brief History of Time:  From Big Bang to Black Holes.”

This book has sold over 10 million copies worldwide since 1988.

Needless to say, it would have been easy for anyone with his handicap to give up.

“Concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well.  Don’t regret the things it interferes with,” Dr. Hawking told the New York Times last week.

Dr. Hawking is an inspiration to anyone who has suffered a serious physical setback in their lives.

Including me.

And while what I went through has a much better physical outcome than Dr. Hawking, he really is my hero.  Watch TV segment on my story.

Here’s the deal:  entrepreneurs are constantly hit with serious challenges.  Especially when they are in rapid growth or recovering from a major upheaval.

And so it is easy to psyche yourself out when this happens.  Some tell yourselves you’re a failure, why are you doing this, or you cannot seem to get this business off the ground.

Five Steps to Getting Your Mental State to Peak Performance

1. Un-Collapse Things— Differentiate both your physical situation from who you are as a person.  This requires understanding your “ego” vs. your core being as a person.  It also requires informing your ego that just because you’re dealing with “x” does not mean you are a failure or the world is falling apart.
2. Compensate Immediately— Whether your challenge is sales have dropped, a major client fired you, a key employee stole your secrets, or a physical ailment, force yourself to immediately come up with a (temporary) solution.  This helps you 1) keep a clear mind on what needs to be done and 2) redirect the energy from the challenge to the solution.
3. Embrace Change— Encourage and expect change as a solution.  Often some of the biggest breakthroughs in business happen just after a big breakdown.  Get excited, a breakthrough is on its way.
4. Find the Opportunity— Use your creativity as an entrepreneur: think outside the box and love being challenged.  Create a solution because of the challenge you are facing.  Use the challenge as part of the solution.
5. Action Planning— Once you identify the opportunity, immediately put together a business vision and 1 year action plan on achieving it.  That action plan must start with a key task you will complete today.  And then get started.

Using these five steps were paramount in my not only recovering from near death, deafness and to not being able to walk to great success.

So they may work for you.

But really it depends on you and what you are committed to:  greatness or suffering?

And if you’re not sure your answer, just ask Dr. Stephen Hawking his recommendation.

Action Steps for the Week

What is keeping you up at night?  That one thing you keep running through your mind in closed-loop replay.

Yes, that one!

Get clear on the physical issues and separate them from who you really are as an entrepreneur and person.

Next, get clear on what you are most committed to in your business and your life.

Then accept that things must change for you to break through to the other side.

Get a team or your coach to help you brainstorm on really UnReasonable solutions, the more, the better.

Next, select the most UnReasonable and exciting one you come up with and create a vision and one year game plan to execute it.

Lastly, and most importantly, make sure you get your plan in motion by doing the first steps today.

Do these steps and you’ll be back on track quickly.

We’ve all been mesmerized this week with the killing of Osama Bin Laden.  And whether or not you feel killing him (or anyone for that matter) was the right thing, here’s a quick analysis of how the world’s greatest villain the world has ever seen rose and fell so quickly.

And what we entrepreneurs can learn from it.

In the early years, Bin Laden began by being in touch with the struggle and strife of many people in Afghanistan during the war with the USSR.

He created a grand vision for a new world order:  rid the Arab countries of their leaders and replace them with Islamic rule.  Bin Laden quickly mobilized a team around this vision and created a series of joint ventures with other like-minded organizations.

He even got tremendous external support and financing for his vision.

Bin Laden was quite skilled at branding an image for himself that he leveraged to rapidly grow his network.  And finally, he incorporated new strategies and technologies the world had never seen before nor was not ready to handle to realize his vision:

Terrorism on a grand scale.

That was Osama Bin Laden’s rise.

His fall was created because his rise was not sustainable.  By threatening and using terror to deliver his message, Bin Laden increasingly isolated himself.

One that would force him into hiding and cut him off from that what had him rise so quickly.

After almost 10 years of being disconnected from his teams and bases of support, Bin Laden became largely ineffective and arguably, obsolete.

Still it took almost 10 years for all this to catch up with him, which happened Monday, May 1st, 2011.

This rudimentary description of a man whom so many of us have grown to despise is an extreme example of what happens to businesses every day, when entrepreneurs stop evolving and keeping up with their industry and profession.

Five Steps to Continuously Evolving Your Business:

1)   Assess Needs—your industry needs are always changing.  Even more so today than just a few years ago.  And quicker.  Your solutions, while originally effective, may no longer be relevant.  Start by determining today’s needs of your industry and target customer.

2)   Study Trends—identify “what’s hot and what’s not” in your industry. You should do this at least every six months, as what was once “in” may no longer be.  What are the trends today and what will they most likely be tomorrow?

3)   Incorporate the Environment—address the impact of your business and industry on the planet.  Much more than just being the responsible thing to do, your customers and industry increasingly demand it.  It is very difficult to compete effectively in today’s market without having your environmental position.

4)   Include Stakeholders—embrace social media, online marketing, and instant global communication.  It is increasingly unlikely for a business to stay in front without engaging their communities, employees, vendors, partners, customers and financiers.

5)   Integrate Technologies—the newest and most effective technologies are paramount to the evolution of your company.  Knowing the newest forms of innovations, science and solutions in your industry is directly correlated to your ongoing success.

Successful businesses, those businesses that consistently stay ahead of the market and do very well, utilize and leverage these five steps.  They also have a commitment to evolving their businesses constantly.

Just know that companies like Apple, Google, 3M, and Proctor and Gamble consistently stay ahead of the curve because they follow these steps.

They encourage all their stakeholders to help evolve the company by innovating some really great products and services for their customers.

How about your company?

Staying relevant is simply a commitment to constantly evolving.

Action Steps for the Week

First, get clear on the need(s) in your industry.  Today, not yesterday!

Next look at where the trend is going.  Once you have a handle on that, look to see how you can integrate both the social and environmental components and position your company as a leader in your industry.

Then look to see what your competition is doing and how what you have determined is the way to go is better and/or different than them.

From there develop an implementation strategy, which includes a way to authentically leverage what you are doing in the media and with your stakeholders.

Remember, the more UnReasonable you are in evolving your business, the more likely you will be seen as a leader in your industry.