Beginning from the day I was born, my mother poured her vast experience and wisdom into my life. Today, as I look back over all the times she instructed me, chided me, encouraged me, and showed me her love, I realize just how important her influence was in creating the person I am today.

In particular, I remember four nuggets of advice she gave me as a boy to help me survive adolescence. This was not only timely advice back then, but also applies today.

#1. Make Friends. Although this sounds simple enough, it is very difficult to do. Deep and meaningful relationships can’t be built and sustained with only 140 characters at a time. Also important to consider, is when you are choosing your ideal clients, make sure the criteria includes those who are like-minded and share your same morals and convictions. It will be much easier to develop client relationships with people you actually like and with whom you actually share commonalities.

Not only that, but in order to get more out of life, we also need to be giving more – of our time. My mother’s investment of time into my life showed me that in order to lead a meaningful life, I must give meaning to others – friends and clients alike; and that is done through the investment of time.
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#2. Repect your Elders. If more of us took the time to ask questions and listen to mentors, those who are older and wiser, we could all avoid a lot of life’s common mistakes. I know in my life, I have a personal coach and mentors who make a big difference. Remembering and adhering to this piece of advice has saved me time, money and pain on many occasions.

#3. Do your best. This is self explanatory. Yet fewer and fewer people are choosing to do their best. People seem to work only as hard as their job or business requires and going that extra mile is no longer a popular destination. Good enough shouldn’t be good enough. I believe this includes our work ethic, our morals, our social courtesy, common decency and the commitments we make to our family. As business owners, we need to be our best, not only professionally, but relationally – we need to engage with our staff. I recently came across this statistic that will hopefully spur more people to understand just how important engagement is. We can all do better at doing our best.

Consultants at Aon Hewitt, a unit of Aon Corp., Lincolnshire, Ill. (NYSE:AON) report:

• Organizations with high levels of engagement continue to outperform the total stock market index and posted total shareholder returns 22% higher than average in 2010.
• On the other hand, companies with low engagement had a total shareholder return that was 28% lower than the average.

#4. Know who you are. We each have a different mirror in which we view ourselves. Sadly, many of our mirrors have gotten distorted over the years, and we do not see ourselves accurately. This can happen to us in our personal lives as well as in our business. Most importantly, we need to know who we are within our industry, and constantly learn and grow through education and experience. There is always room for improvement regarding the image of our brand. This is why we need others in our lives, personally and professionally, so they can reflect the true image of who we are. Our identity is what enables us to lay a foundation that properly supports the future in all aspects of our lives.

These four points could actually be used as a litmus test for life. As business owners, we can get so focused on the business side of life, that we forget the importance of living our life to the fullest. It is important to remember this: How we live our life away from business is directly related to how we run our business.

If you feel like things have gotten off track, run through these nuggets of advice. Are you making proper time to develop friendships? Do you have mentors in your life? Are you doing your best? Are you certain that your perception of yourself is accurate? If you can’t answer a resounding yes to one or more of these questions, you may have identified the culprit that has taken you off course. Chances are, if you make efforts to realign yourself with these four important principles of life, you’ll find things running smooth once again.

Your bridge to a better future,
Guy Hatcher
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Links of Interest:

Small Business Strategies

Life Multiplier Tools

Plan First

The Company Coach Story

The Company Coach = The Collaborative Coach