On a day by day basis, I believe I’m not very productive. Even looking at the work I do week by week and month by month, I’ll say I’m not too effective at all. But if I look at what I can achieve year by year, then, I start to celebrate my effectiveness. Over a decade, I believe I can achieve anything I set my mind to.

Believe it or not, I have a lot of free time, yet I can still make big things happen. This flies in the face of commonly held dogma that you have to work hard to get places.

I support a lot of people to achieve their long term goals and dreams. I also help them to understand the power of taking tiny steps towards those goals — some taking as little as 10 minutes a week.

My strength is that I can take it easy whilst being gently relentless in the pursuit of my bold dreams. I am able to set ridiculous goals and achieve them in a leisurely way.

The skill enabling me to do this is an ability to just keep taking steps forward. I keep one eye on the long term goal, and one eye on the tiniest next step towards achieving that goal. The fact that I don’t put any pressure on myself to take big steps or work hard means that I am much less likely to give up. The energy it takes to keep going is a lot less than most, because I deliberately put in as little energy as possible to get there.

I started this blog to take a weekly step towards my dreams, and it takes an hour of my time, per week. Over years, this blog has completely transformed my life. What’s powerful about this story isn’t any individual post, but the fact that it was several years before I missed writing a post. I spent an hour a week, over years, to reflect and move forward. I was never distracted enough by the day-to-day to miss out on the important work to be done to move me forward, year by year.

The Dandelion Foundation’s mission to make Guernsey the best place to live on earth by 2020 has felt like an impossible goal, at times. I had to break it down into ‘Who do I need to meet for coffee next?’ Over the years, I’ve had thousands of coffees — which led to a system creating impact — and the ambitious goal we set looks increasingly likely to be realised. Achieving that goal won’t have come from intensely hard work, but from engaging in relentless, gentle steps, over time.

There is a famous Bill Gates quote: “Most people overestimate what they can do in a year and vastly underestimate what they can do in a decade”. I see a lot of people who give up — disheartened by what they are (not) achieving in the short term, and unambitious about what they could achieve in the long term. They put in a lot of effort and don’t feel they are getting any return from it — but it is extremely difficult to see efforts realised as outcomes in the short term. I like people to consider this question: “What kind of effort can you make to build something, using minimal energy and expecting no return, in the short term?” This way, things are much more sustainable and achievable. This way, you can keep going for the years it takes to really make things happen.

When people realise this, trusting that this technique works, a long term possibility opens up that they’d never conceived before. Then, a question I like to ask them is: “If anything was possible, and you could achieve anything, what is the one problem in the world that you would solve, if you could?”

This gives them a mission or purpose.

The first step on that mission might be as simple as posting your dream on social media, or going for a coffee and telling someone about it. The next 50 steps could be as simple as going for 50 coffees, to talk to 50 people about that dream.

After hundreds of steps over several years, your life could be unrecognisable from now and the world could be much better for it. None of those steps need to be hard. Make it easy.

Imagine how great this world would be, if we can realise the potential of taking small steps towards bold dreams.

To taking steps.

Marc

P.S. I’m delighted to say that this is the first blog post I’ve ever written that has been financially supported by my own community. Thank you to those who have supported my Patreon campaign this past week. If you haven’t already, I invite you to consider contributing, if you are inspired to do so. Securing regular funding to write blog posts is the first step in a multi-year project and a long-held dream for my work to be financially supported by the people whom I serve. I have no idea how long it is going to take, but I know I am going to take a step every week to get there. The next small steps after funding the blog will be towards funding my podcast: Coffee From The Edge, in which I talk to change makers from around the world about how they make great things happen. I would love to get this up and running.

I was at a conference last week and something stuck with me. Rory Sutherland from Ogilvy Change spoke and he made a statement that organisations would be better if they hired teams rather than individuals. The hiring of individuals was creating bias that was killing diversity. The main premise of the idea was that if organisations hired diverse teams then they would become much much more effective.

I have also been involved in a new community called LinkyBrains.com that aims to bring non-linear thinkers together from all around the world to solve local and global problems. What has been the most interesting about this community is how non-linear thinkers have been marginalised because they don’t fit into traditional structures. What is most interesting is that this is one of the most interesting and capable resources of untapped potential there is and it is being directly impacted by this individualised approach to hiring people.

These two dots have joined for me. In order for the world to organise in a way that maximises the collective rather than individuals then we need to think about how to facilitate and resource that in a non-linear way. We need tools that help diverse groups of people come together to solve problems in an effective way and also help them have the resources they need to live well in the process.

I often think about modernising and bringing back ancient structures. Before money and industrialisation we organised in small hunter gatherer tribes where everyone worked together to do what was needed for collective survival. From the shaman to the hunters everyone had a place. In a a system like that diversity would have been very necessary in order to survive in a complex ever changing environment. In our modern systems we are killing diversity in the pursuit of scale and that is having a lot of unforeseen consequences for individuals, communities, countries and the planet. We are suffering a crisis of wisdom as a result of this homogenisation of society.

I think about Dunbar’s number where humans can only cognitively maintain around 150 human deep relationships. I think about in my own life the type of stifling management systems that need to be introduced when teams get over a certain size. I think about things like holocracy where organisations can start to dismantle their hierarchies and focus on self organising. I think about platforms like Democracy Earth where the focus is on individual sovereignty in collective decision making and I think about what that thinking would be applied to group or pod sovereignty. I think about Ray Dalio and how he has managed to get diversity of thought into decision making so that the best ideas win. I think about Burning Man that embraces individuality and yet organises in a way that creates something way way beyond what any individual can achieve or conceive. I think about platforms like Facebook and wonder about what would happen if the shift in focus went from grabbing attention to one that fosters connection, creation and human thriving.

Ultimately in the convergence of all of these ideas there is something that is emergent. How do we shift the way the world that is structured towards the individual rather than the ‘pod’ or the tribe? How do we facilitate a world where people can self organise into groups so that all their needs collective needs are met and that we can solve the challenges that we face as a human race? How do we create a consistent scenario where sum of the parts creates a greater whole? How do we do that in a way that there is no need to create big systems or organisations any more in order to get things done? How do we make the world human again?

If we solve this challenge systemically then we are going to create a far better world.

Marc

4 years ago I co-launched a network to solve some of the world’s toughest challenges in a small self governing nation.

In 2014 we created an Apollo style mission to make Guernsey the best place to live on earth by 2020 without any idea of how we were going to do it. All it involved in the beginning was the launch of a TEDx conference and the asking of one bold question to the people that attended: How do we make Guernsey the best place to live on earth?

In the weeks that followed we also asked a series of moonshot sub-questions that were looking to break down and solve elements of that challenge.

How can we be the most positive country on the planet?

How can we be the first country in the world to have a life expectancy of 100?

How can we become the world’s first self actualised country

How can we get our cost of living down to zero sustainably?

How can we become the world’s first self organised country?

How can we become the highest impact nation on the planet?

How can we be the world’s first country that ends the need to work?

How can we be the first country that develops legislation in real time?

How can we be the most philanthropic country on the planet?

How can we leave no one behind?

That initial conference and subsequent movement surfaced the beginnings of a diverse non-linear network that is at the very foundation of a cultural transformation that is starting to emerge in our community.

In 2015 we built and launched a network called Thrive2020 to solve mental health and societal happiness.

In 2017 we built and launched a network called Journey to 100 to solve the cost of ageing and healthcare by setting a mission to become the first nation to break through the 100 year life expectancy barrier. (We are still looking for a system leader to take this network on and develop into into an independent system)

Out of these networks and this approach we are seeing the emergence of new leadership and new solutions that we could not have dreamed of when we launched them. Over time we started to see viable whole system approaches emerge from a community of problem solvers that informally form around these challenges. We genuinely believe that this networked approach works and needs expanding and investing in.

What we have learnt in 4 years:

1: You can solve any issue over time with an intentional network. (Think Xprize)

2: Building networks is far more effective at solving challenges than building organisations. The best people in the world are very unlikely to work for you.

3: The more diverse the network the more likely it is to be able to solve the challenge.

4: The hardest part is launching without knowing where the solution will come from. You have to be willing to be heavily criticised initially to bring the future forward.

5. The network needs to focus on creating safe spaces for people to talk openly and vulnerably. Unfinished ideas need nurturing and developing.

6. People are amazing. This world is full of them. They just need finding and inspiring.

I am really passionate about building networks to solve world issues. To see the recent formation of LinkyBrains as a worldwide network of non-linear thinkers to take on the world’s toughest challenges is one of the key infrastructures that every community needs to look to build. Join in that network if you want to find a local tribe of people to work with.

Two questions to ask yourself.

1. If anything was possible, what is the one problem in the world that you would solve?
2. How do you build a network to solve that problem?

To get in touch with me on anything of this further details and links are on my website.

Using networks to solve world problems was originally published in LinkyBrains on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

My good friend Doug Scott and others have started an accidental movement around LinkyBrains. It seems to be getting out of hand and starting to make a real difference…In honour of this randomly bold effort to leverage the power of non-linear thinking I thought I would contribute my LinkyBrain story.

What is a LinkyBrain?

To me a linkybrain is a mind that connect things that most people can’t see. Whilst everyone has this potential very few people have actually learned to tap into the human mind’s ability to work this way.

The story of my LinkyBrain

I grew up in an entrepreneurial family where the board room table was the dining room table. From birth I was exposed to non conventional experiences around the world that help develop a highly questioning mind that had a fascination with seeing how things worked and related to each other.

Right from early on not a lot of the world seem to make sense to me. Two of the greatest things that get sold to everyone is make money and get a good education. My Dad has always made a lot of money and yet he left school at 14 with little education. He has always been more successful than most people and yet I would openly question whether for a significant part of his life that wealth brought him true fulfilment. I spent time growing up in Africa and witnessed more joy on the faces of people who had nothing than I ever witnessed in the places where resources were really abundant.

If there was one thing that seemed to be consistent in everything that ‘measured’ me during a large part of my life it would be the phrase ‘has the potential but must try harder’. I was seen as highly gifted but very lazy. What people didn’t realise at the time is that I could not motivate myself in any way to buy into a world at its root that I just didn’t believe in. It was all part of a 30 year battle to get out of bed in the morning. Not that I was ever diagnosed but if I had visited a doctor today about it then I would most likely have been given a significant mental health diagnosis and put on pills for the rest of my life.

By the time I was 32 I had GCSEs, A-Levels, 2 degrees and built and sold an 8 figure direct marketing business with my brother. I did all of this without ever being that motivated and without ever really truly loving what I did. I did it without working that hard either. There are two hyper skills that I developed in that time. The first was to find the shortest route to do something and the 2nd was the ability to manipulate other people to do things for me. I am as good as it gets at both of those skills. I remained fascinated at all times with contrarian thinking and doing things differently. I was obsessed with outliers that chose to do things in a differently and longed for experiences that allowed me to live that way. Part of the reason why I didn’t enjoy work and education that much is that the things that I were inspired by weren’t really at the core of how traditional education or company building was designed.

I would describe myself as highly misunderstood during those years. Not able to express the things that I could see and feel. I often describe that feeling of and inability to express myself properly as screaming inside a glass box that I couldn’t get out of. I could see things that others could not see. I had no idea how or why I could see them and why on earth anyone else could not see what I saw. The loneliness of an existence like that is so deep and the yearning to truly connect with others was at times overwhelming. Being so sure of mind and yet the whole world treating you as if you in some way had lost yours was highly damaging over time. During my entrepreneurial career I had two nervous breakdowns where the cause can only be attributed to not working in a way that was true to who I was.

My joys were brief and hedonistic. From drinking to food to travel to watching sport I would pursue peak experiences to try to feel good at some level. The rest of the time I would feel numb and disengaged just doing what had to be done.

I would’t change a day of my life but as a parent of linky brain children I can see the value of having the right mentors to guide people through the world. I just didn’t have them and that meant that I had to find my own way out of the invisible cage that we all in some way live in. It just doesn’t need to be this way.

My life changed in 2008 when I started mentoring entrepreneurs. I was hooked. I could get all of the joy and interest of working with people working on interesting things and yet I didn’t have to do any of the work. I tried briefly and unsuccessfully at investing but soon realised that I wasn’t interested in the returns as much as helping the people I invested in thrive. I became really good at helping entrepreneurs developing strategies for building businesses that were aligned with who they really were. Helping them move from being slaves to business to helping them develop businesses that served who they truly were. I was training people to become free thinking linky brains. I also became very good at getting people to leave their jobs.

In 2010 I had an epiphany of self forgiveness whilst reading Tim Ferris’s book The 4 Hour Work Week. I had come across something where my 2 hyper skills were being used to make a difference to millions of lives at scale. It took me 6 months to get off the ceiling as I restructured all of my life and personal branding around who I truly was. During that time I actually finally accepted myself and began to move from self hatred to self love. I was going to be the guy that did the least to achieve the most. I was going to be the person that took leverage to a whole new level.

The big mission

In 2012 I was drunk in a pub in London and said that I wanted to change the world. The person that I was talking to told me to go to Singularity University in Silicon Valley. I ended up there in 2013 and it literally blew my mind. It took me a week to get to sleep as I tried to consume, understand and condense the gravity of what I learnt whilst I was there. They teach people about the impact of exponential technology and encourage people to build things that positively impact a billion people within 10 years.

Whilst I loved what I learnt I also saw them recreating the same problems that I had already seen and experienced. Entrepreneurs building and growing organisations following sets of pre-defined cultural rules rather than shaping those organisations and missions around what was best for the entrepreneur. I announced publicly that I was going to positively impact a billion people within 10 years. To be different my mission was to do all that by just having coffee. I also realised that people spoke about Government there as though it was an unsolvable problem. Growing up in a ‘tax haven’ I saw people change legislation and policy to create wealth and I quickly joined the dots that those same mechanisms could be used to make it easier to do new things in healthcare, education, welfare etc.

In 2014 I co-founded and launched a moonshot called the Dandelion Foundation with another crazy linkybrain to use a small self governing nation state to solve all of the world’s major systemic issues in one place. We set a mission to make Guernsey (where I live and was born) the best place to live on earth by 2020. Guernsey is a self governing nation that is 25 square miles and has a population of 63,000 people. In Guernsey you can solve major issues at coffee scale. That dynamic turns impossible problems into problems that are barely possible to solve. With my mind I like those odds.

4 years on my community is at the tipping point of being one of the greatest stories in the world that has yet to be told. It is the birthplace of a new kind of systemic revolution in grassroots problem solving that hasn’t been witnessed before. A system that has been unlocked coffee by coffee and event by event, to empower people to find their true potential. We now have a collective of individual hearts and minds within a small place with both the desire and the power to change things relatively quickly.

Ironically the project I work on at the moment is not the highest impact thing I have done. The highest impact thing I have done to date is spend 45 mins on a blog post that created a worldwide meme that has been seen by tens of millions of people and that has transformed countless lives. It was the ultimate act of a linky brain thinking that involved joining a venn diagram around purpose with the Japanese concept of Ikigai. See the post here and read the full story behind the meme here. It is another thing that just got out of hand and demonstrates why the world needs linky brains.

The really important stuff

I have 3 beautiful linky brain children, Charlie (6), Bertie (2) and Emilie (1 week). I want to build a school that doesn’t force them to be linear and helps them maximise who they can be. This was a slide deck I did on that school project and I hope to make progress on building it this year as my eldest hits school age this year.

I married a highly talented linkybrain called Valerie who is working on transforming education amongst other things. This is a talk she did on women (the real linky brains) connecting with who they really are.

I have a dog called Henry who I regard as my first true mentor.

I’m truly happy. I could die tomorrow and feel like I found my way out of the cage and connected with who I really am. There was a long time where that wasn’t the case.

What I have learnt about LinkyBrains

Every human I have met only taps in a tiny fraction of their potential. I mean a tiny fraction. I think about what that means for education and the world if we can unlock that potential. I think about what the world would be like if we all use that linky brain we all have properly. In 50 years there will be people doing things that make Elon Musk look average. How do we raise kids like that? Why can’t we be that person now? Why does making a difference like that need to be about hard work? What if it was easy?

There is a big mental health cost to not being true to who you are. Society is structured for the linear mind and can cause a lot of harm to those that think differently. To capitalise on the true potential of the human collective we need to design systems that maximise and leverage cognitive difference rather than seek to homogenise the world into a single way of being and thinking. When you spend a lot of time thinking what that means you can see why I work on a whole system transformation project in a small self governing state.

Where you can learn more about my LinkyBrain

I have written a blog which is literally a window into my mind called The View Inside Me. There are hundreds of LinkyBrain posts on there.

I have a podcast called Coffee From The Edge where I spend time talking about crazy solutions to the world’s toughest challenges with other LinkyBrains that are out there making a difference.

My website that links to all my work and my contact details is here. I have coffee with anyone that asks.

What do I need

I need LinkyBrain philanthropy that wants to invest boldly in people that can see things that most people can’t see.

To support me individually visit my new Patreon Page. Patronage is the old way of funding the most non-linear and creative minds. It would be good to see it come back for the people want to dedicate their life to joining dots in the world. We need non-linear funding more than ever in the world right now.

To support the bold work of the Dandelion Foundation visit our Paypal Giving Page.

How can I help

There isn’t anyone that spends time with me that doesn’t hit a whole new level of personal possibility. Just ask Doug.

And what about your LinkyBrain?

If this post in any way resonates with you and you want to be part of a movement that contains, supports and develops linkybrains then visit https://linkybrains.com/ for more information.

LinkyBrains@Home - Linkybrains

My ‘LinkyBrain’ was originally published in LinkyBrains on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

‘You have everything you need to build something far bigger than yourself.’
Seth Godin

The other day I heard a great analogy that inspired me to write this post. It was about having enough legs on the table for a balanced life. This metaphor encapsulates the problems that entrepreneurs face on their journeys. From all I have learnt and experienced throughout my own entrepreneurial journey and work with entrepreneurs, I know it is the four legs of the table that keep us all standing, balanced and strong. They are ‘The Four Ls of Life’: Learning, Loving, Living and Legacy.

Have you lost your mojo? Do you know someone who has lost theirs? Believe it or not, this is a common problem with entrepreneurs along their journey and can be a key barrier to long term success.

Financial success in business doesn’t always bring what was initially hoped for. There is a point in many entrepreneurs’ lives when the initial motivation that got them where they are no longer motivates them to move forward. The world outside sees their success, but the person inside doesn’t feel it. It can be a difficult and lonely place, hard to describe unless you’ve been there, leading to many serious consequences for relationships, health and wellbeing.

So how can you maintain optimum performance for the whole of your life? How do you create a life of great success and fulfilment?

Learning – from birth onwards, we are learning all the time. When some people think of ‘learning’ they equate it with school or university – ending after their formal education is over. But just as life goes on, learning is ongoing too. Many entrepreneurs love the startup phase and dislike what happens when they grow their business. Their learning curve is so much higher in the early stages, but when companies get larger the innovation may stop. Their work can end up all about dealing with issues and steering the ship. Learning lessens with time – which can have a negative impact on both your wellbeing AND your company’s success.

Companies that learn fast maintain their success – and the same goes for entrepreneurs. Whatever your stage in business, it is vital to maximise your learning at all times. Even when time is short, you can learn. Design a system for your life and work, with learning at its core. It is good for business and good for you. Learn something new every day. Show enthusiasm for new ideas, new experiences, new information, new people. Make the most of every opportunity to learn, and live life to the full.

Further reading on learning:
The Mentoring Edge
Learning in your dead time
Accelerated learning

Loving – Most successful entrepreneurs are, by nature, very hard on themselves. In some cases, negative issues from the past are what drive them to prove themselves. However, this can lead to issues further down the line. One of the keys is to embrace who you are with positivity and love, and learn to maximise that self-regard. If you live your life to prove something to others, it suggests that you don’t actually like yourself enough to live life to your own satisfaction.

One of the keys to long term success comes from learning to love yourself. Some people don’t even like themselves! But unless you love yourself, how can you begin to love another person? How can you love life? So love yourself. Not excessively. Just consistently.

Develop a plan in business and in life that celebrates the best of you and improves or eradicates the worst aspects of yourself. Then, don’t be so hard on yourself. Working against yourself is a tough road, leading to trouble. So make it easy, and be your own best travelling companion on the road. Relationships with others change, but the one intimate relationship that never leaves us is the relationship we have with ourselves.

Further reading on loving:
Brand the real you
You are the average of the people you spend time with
The Law of Attraction

Living – One of my earliest influences which has stuck with me ever since was spending time in Africa. Although there was extreme poverty, there was always joy, fun and laughter in abundance amongst the people. And yet today, if you walk around a wealthy city like London, it is hard to find a smile. I have always found this difference extremely powerful.

Watch a dog running around happily or a child playing – they thoroughly enjoy living in the moment. Living life in the present costs nothing, yet we spend much of our time oblivious to this pleasure, earning money to pay for living in the future.

The truth is that you can live a life and build a business at the same time, but many entrepreneurs miss this point, forgetting to enjoy themselves on the way. This has a negative impact on their lives.

Some people don’t really live; they merely exist. How are you living now? Do you live life to the full? Are you being the very best you could possibly be? Why not be the sort of person you’ve always wanted to be – the kind of person others like to spend time with? Be who you want to be!

Further reading on living:
The happiness advantage
Why my dog is my mentor
The hedonic treadmill

Legacy – You have achieved a lot in your life already. But what great work will you leave behind as your legacy? The older you get, the more your priorities and values change. Money (or ambition) no longer seems to be the main driving force it was in your youth.

Steve Jobs was driven by an urge to make an impact on the world, not just in spearheading Apple, but in redefining attitudes to work, society and life. Bill Gates is now spending the bulk of his fortune on hischaritable foundation, supporting many great causes – one of which is eradicating polio and other killer diseases from the world.

What would you like written on your gravestone, in your obituary or as your epitaph?

Are you making a difference?

What are you doing to make your mark on the world, and to make the world a better place?

Beyond your own personal satisfaction, what would you like others to gain from your existence? The connection between yourself and others – working in any way, large or small, to make a positive difference to other people’s lives – becomes increasingly important. So – what are you doing to change the world?

Further reading on legacy:
You are Going to Die
The Power of Thinking Big
Screw Marketing, Just be remarkable

Build these four strong, equally balanced legs of Learning, Loving, Living and Legacy first, and success in all aspects of your life is virtually assured. Develop and maintain a life that’s soundly supported by each of these legs, and you will be able to maintain the pace and motivation you had from the start. For long term sustainable success, you need to develop a plan that keeps all four legs of the table strong. It’s not so much what you bring to the table, as the strength and balance of your table itself!

The great thing to realise is that you can make a difference AND earn good money AND live well. There does not have to be a compromise (The Cancer of Compromise).

While life has a great deal to offer you – what have you got to offer life?

Consider the four legs of your table again:

What are you learning?
Who are you loving?
How are you living?
What is your legacy to the world?
How can you make them all part of the plan today?

Your ability to truly succeed in the long term depends on it!

If the above topic, or indeed any of my blogs are of interest to you, then sign up for my weekly blog at www.theviewinside.me

“Doing the unthinkable is easier than you think.” Tim Ferriss

What different decisions would you make in life if you could become really good at anything you wanted – fast? If you were armed with a radically improved ability to learn, how far could you go? What would you do if all the learning barriers were removed? How many things would you learn? How would your life change?

Author Malcolm Gladwell reckons that becoming the best of best in any field requires 10,000 hours of effective practice. That’s a life’s work! What if I told you that you don’t need to do that? Even if you are only better than 4 out of every 5 people, you still have enough ability to earn a good living from your expertise in a certain field. Be better than 19 out of 20 people, and you can do very well indeed. Take it up a notch – be at that level in numerous skills, and the world is your oyster! The greater the variety of skills you master, the more opportunities are open for you. Rather than having expertise in only one skill, a combination of high level skills in several areas differentiates you from the crowd. You could be one in a million!

So much of our learning these days is ineffectual, based on educational techniques designed in the Victorian era. Our assumption is that certain people have a talent for something, rather than understanding that anyone can develop a talent.

To become whatever you want to be and have the skills and knowledge you need, all you require is time and a really effective accelerated learning process. Nowadays, we understand much more about how the human brain assimilates information, and how to model other people’s success by deconstructing their strategies, techniques, actions and thinking processes.

In his book, The Four Hour Chef, Tim Ferriss explains how any complete boiled-egg-burner can become a world-class chef within weeks. More significantly, the techniques are transferable to any arena, helping you optimise your time and efforts and develop great expertise. His methodology constitutes a real breakthrough model for learning anything faster, better and more effectively in a fast-paced world. This capacity for mastering new skills in the minimum amount of time is cutting edge accelerated learning, requiring just four elements to turbocharge your success:

Step 1: Deconstruct the Problem

Ask yourself, ‘What are the first steps, the building blocks, I should be starting with?’ Take the skill and break it down into the minimum learnable elements, the basic building blocks with which you will build your success.

To deconstruct any skill, start with the outcome in mind. Know specifically what you want to achieve, and know how you’re going to measure it. Then, work backwards to identify the specific steps and resources you need to succeed. In other words – deconstruct your journey to success.

Try throwing a lot at the wall and see what sticks. What’s essential and vital to know and utilise, and what’s merely ‘decoration’? Test common assumptions, and ask better questions. Think outside the box, and contrary to common belief: What happens if I do the opposite of best practice? Discard negative beliefs that provide excuses and block possibility, like “children learn languages faster than adults” (actually, they don’t). Don’t spend a year learning Italian in a weekly class before going to Italy; book a flight a week earlier and immerse yourself in the culture – spend time cramming the language in context.

Seek out and meet maverick experts and innovators, either in person, or through their books and materials. Identify the common features of their practice, to adopt them yourself. Identify your role model or an expert in the skill you are looking to acquire. Look at who is the best, or who breaks the rules to great effect and success, and examine how they do it. Especially look for those who do amazingly well despite not having the ‘ideal’ background, qualifications, shape or size for that skill. Their talent isn’t genetic: they’re doing it with technique, and technique can be learned. Even if they don’t follow the rules, they achieve extreme success unconventionally – and you can do the same, or better! Break down the skill, by what you learn from these experts and what makes them different.

For example, take Terry Laughlin, the expert who invented Total Immersion swimming (www.totalimmersion.net) – enabling people to become very effective swimmers in anything from one hour to two weeks (for a complete non-swimmer). His TI approach deconstructs swimming to optimise your balance, streamlining and breathing to produce phenomenal results and efficiencies. For championship swimmers and beginners alike, the results from using these techniques are astonishing. That has to be better than swimming lessons at your local pool!

Break new skills down and identify alternative approaches to really increase your learning success.

Step 2: Reflect on What Really Counts

Ask: ‘Which 20% of the tasks should I focus on, that will get me 80% of the outcome I want?’ Use Pareto’s Principle (read my 80/20 post) to accelerate learning any new skills or techniques: select the 20% effort that generates 80% of the results and apply it to anything you want to learn or improve. Concentrate on whatever it is that actually makes the difference – that vital 20%. Some of what you’ll identify is common sense: in books, good writing is always good writing. Hard work is hard work. But it also means thinking laterally and asking apparently ridiculous questions. What is the difference that makes the difference?

There’s a minimum effective dose for any skill or goal. For instance spending five minutes swinging a kettle-bell on a regular basis rapidly tones your body; consuming 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up optimises the effectiveness of your ability to maintain a healthy weight; 20,000 fans of your book within its first 2 weeks will guarantee that it is a best seller.

Similar effects are produced from easy techniques for learning languages super fast. The Michel Thomas Method (www.michelthomas.com) of learning languages works by breaking a language down into its component parts, enabling you to reconstruct any language for yourself – making your own sentences, and saying what you want to say. You learn the language in small steps, which the brain loves; then you can progress to produce more complex sentences. It’s actually possible to learn the structure of a new language in an hour, using as few as only 6 sentences translated into your chosen language. Through these you can deconstruct the grammar and understand the principles behind a whole language. This is the “minimum effective dose” for learning any language. From there on, you only have to learn 2.5% of the vocabulary of the given language (1200 -1500 words) to appear fluent.

Why sweat by working hard when you can work smart? All you have to do is Identify the minimum effective dose for the skill or goal you want to achieve, then take the small steps that make the most difference.

Step 3: Get the Sequence Right

Success is not just what you do, but how you do it, and how you sequence the steps in the process. Once you’ve decided which 20% of actions to focus on for maximum results, the next thing is to decide on the best order in which to do them. What should you do first, and next, for producing the best outcome?

Much of our learning today makes things difficult early on and allows a high chance of failure.

Much teaching is about doing the boring stuff first: learning verbs in languages or notes in music. Instead, do the interesting parts first – which are often hands-on. Having a conversation or playing a tune is more engaging than learning what traditionalists call ‘the basics’ first. ‘Basics’ kill the desire to learn and make it difficult for the learner to see the connection with the end result. The secret to motivation is to experience success early. So build in some quick wins, fast. This way, you’re more likely to stick with learning the skill.

Identify the failure points – all the ways in which things can go wrong – so you can avoid them from the outset. Build in a margin of safety from the start, so that if you make any error, there’s still room to manoeuvre, enabling you to succeed.

In learning most new skills there are thousands of methods but very few fundamental principles. Master those, and you become a master of anything you choose. Knowing the most powerful techniques to learn these raw principles is key. If you’re a male wanting to dance tango, learn the female role and steps before the male one. Learn to follow, before you lead. Learn to play chess by starting with the end game, rather than the opening moves. Learn the adaptable base principles rather than memorising the openers. That will take you much further in far less time.

The really important thing to remember is that the order in which you do things can radically improve your chances of success. Do the things that will make the greatest impact, in the right order, and you will successfully learn a new skill to a high level.

Step 4: Raise the Stakes:

If you do a bad job, you get fired. If you don’t follow your diet, nothing changes. Believe it or not, the most important factor of success in learning is staying the course and going through all the necessary steps to reach your goal.

So if ‘keeping at it’ is the most important factor in learning a skill, how do you set stakes high enough to create real consequences if you don’t – which guarantee that you keep with the program?

To ensure a failure-proof system that works for everyone it is important to have the stick as well as the carrot. Try publicly declaring your goals and the stakes – ‘I’ll do this or I’ll shave my head… or give you all next Monday off”. Even better, you can use websites like StickK (www.stickk.com) on which you make your commitments public online – and pay money as a consequence if you fail to meet them. This allows you to put a large sum into escrow and nominate a referee to ensure that you’re accountable if you don’t achieve your goal or intention. If you fail, your money goes to your chosen ‘anti-charity’: a non-profit that you really hate – eg something like the George W Bush Presidential Library. It has to be something that gets your blood boiling for the consequence to have maximum punitive effect!

If the reward of achieving your outcome isn’t motivation enough, raising the stakes will ensure that you’re persistent and resilient enough to stay focused, keep at it, and do all you can to achieve your aims.

In summary, there’s nothing much to stop you learning whatever will help you to succeed in your goals! Through deconstruction, reflection and selection of what’s most important, sequencing well and raising the stakes, you can easily supercharge your ability to learn new skills fast.

If you can learn anything and be good at it within a very short space of time – what would you choose?

● What will you do accelerate and maximise your success?
● What would you do, with a radically higher expectation of what you are capable of?
● How could you change your life?
● How can you change your business?
● How will you change the world?

If the above topic, or indeed any of my blogs are of interest to you, then sign up for my weekly blog at www.theviewinside.me

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
Jim Rohn

Who do you spend your time with? Did you know that a large degree of your success comes down to the people you associate with?

They determine how you think, how you act, and – ultimately – how successful you will be. They actually make you. The more time you spend with people who stretch you, the further you will get. So it makes sense to have the right people by your side. Be selective about who you spend time with.

Ask yourself:

Who are the 3 to 5 people in your life that you spend time with? Write them down on a piece of paper.

Who are they, really? What adjectives would you use to describe them? Confident… ambitious… honourable… creative? How happy, optimistic, and enthusiastic are they? Do they have qualities you would be proud to have?

What do they do with their lives? How successful have they been?

Are they on track to living whatever you consider to be an ideal life? Are they helping you to live your ideal life?

Will they help you get to the next level? Do they encourage you and drive you forward? Or do they pour cold water on your ideas?

How many of your close relationships were deliberate and how many did you fall into? Take control over who you spend time with, for optimal living. If you were creating your social circle from scratch, would you choose the same type of friends, colleagues and other relationships?

From your list, choose which people you want to continue spending time with. If none of them meet the standards of excellence you want for yourself, reduce the time you spend with them. Look out for new people to spend more time with. Don’t be afraid of losing some friends or family support, in order to surround yourself with the right people. Make more time for those who deserve you, and spend less time with those who don’t.

Your time is limited and valuable, so don’t waste it on negative people, or let inertia keep you stuck in the same place. Move away from people who hold you back and towards people who drive you forward. Be sociable, widen your network and cultivate positive and supportive friends. Look for chances to give value to relationships, rather than take it. Attract incredible people in your life by being an incredible person yourself.

If it’s true that you become the average of the people you spend your time with, instead of becoming the average of a group of average people, it makes sense to be with the best of the best – people who are eager to be amazingly successful, amazingly happy, and doing whatever it takes to achieve their goals.

The power of the people you associate with is incredible. Choose your associates with discernment. Enjoy their enthusiasm, learn from them and feel yourself lifted up to the next level, purely by being in the same room with them.

But while it’s great to be surrounded by positive, supportive people who want you to succeed, it’s also necessary to be able to take criticism. According to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research, “Tell Me What I Did Wrong: Experts Seek And Respond To Negative Feedback,” experts need negative feedback to enable them to progress.

Doubters, critics, and the envious help you to sharpen your skills and develop resilience in the face of challenge. Still, you don’t have to spend much of your time with such people! The key to making it to the top in any industry is to have a tight network of confidants to support you.

So, who deserves your time? People you admire and role models you want to emulate. People who are consistently improving themselves, and who help you to improve yourself. People with qualities you want to develop, like happiness, positivity, passion, success, adventure.

Who doesn’t deserve your time? Those who hold you back from living your ideal life. People who are negative, inflexible, judgmental, dishonest.

This doesn’t mean that you have to shut everyone else out of your life. Fill your own life with amazing people and you’ll be better able to serve the world and help others to live their best lives. Offer your strength to those who need and deserve it. But don’t get pulled down – ensure you’re strong enough to pull both of you up. You can shine your light in all directions, but gravitate towards those who deserve your warmth. Be loyal to friends who have been good to you, and to family. But don’t let this give them any excuse for not treating you in a way you deserve.

Build your own dream team: spend time with people who act as your mentors, coaches, cheerleaders, or muses. This goes for what you say to yourself, too, and your attitude towards yourself. If you notice that you criticise yourself and tell yourself negative things, start to encourage yourself. ‘Change the voices’ is a phrase I use a lot for clients who are being held back.

The world is full of amazing, passionate, inspiring, incredible people. There are also complainers, cheaters, freeloaders, and energy vampires who’ll suck the life out of you. Spend more time with people who challenge you and move you forward. Spend less time with people who hold you back and take your energy away. You have the power to select who you spend time with.

Who would you like to have in your life? This can include both specific people and types of people. Describe the ideal friend and the ideal friendship.

Now, what do you need to do, to meet and maintain such relationships?

Who do you need to become, in order to deserve them?

If the above topic, or indeed any of my blogs are of interest to you, then sign up for my weekly blog at www.theviewinside.me

“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes”
Gandhi

The Law of Attraction is simply this: we attract what we think about, good or bad.

Although New Age thinkers, quantum scientists, psychologists and spiritual leaders have been talking about the Law of Attraction for years, it grew in popularity when the film and book, The Secret, gained a lot of media attention from 2006 onwards. The Secret sold over 21 million copies in 44 languages, and was top of the New York Times bestseller list for 146 consecutive weeks. The principle behind The Secret is that the universe is ruled by the Law of Attraction.

The Law of Attraction is said to work by attracting into a person’s life the things and people that ‘match’ their own thoughts and feelings. Therefore, positive thinking and positive feeling can create life-changing results such as increased health, wealth, and happiness, and negative thinking manifests negative results.

It’s also based on interconnectedness. We all share a system/universe, so we can all have an impact, no matter how infinitesimally small, on everyone else. Much like the butterfly effect – whereby even a small incident can have unforeseen effects on the other side of the planet – everything we do, say or think has an impact to some extent on everything else around it.

I’m not going to turn all ‘New Age’ on you, but it is interesting to assess and investigate ideas from the whole spectrum of life. If The Law of Attraction is a long term approach that saves you time, and gets you further, faster – what have you got to lose by taking on board some of its principles?

The statement ‘what you see is what you get’ holds true for whatever you visualise and turn your attention to. Imagine receiving a warm reception from someone – and it will be more likely to happen. Expect a row, and you’ll get one.

This might be a combination of your attitude, thoughts and action, whereby the ‘vibes’ you give off affect other people’s attitudes towards you. The subconscious mind processes a huge amount more information that we realise, and the study of neuroscience is in its early stages. Our brains have more power than we yet understand, but there is a lot of evidence that your subconscious is able to communicate with and read other people. Micro-movements and micro-expressions that cannot be consciously registered do reveal what is on your mind. This is why whatever is on your mind is more likely to happen.

For example, if a person has in their mind the clear expectation of seeing new clients or money appearing, according to the Law of Attraction, the universe conspires to confirm that thought by producing new clients or money in reality; whereas someone who ‘decided’ to expect a loss could well make one. But as well as thinking, you are also required to take action. Businesses can fail through ‘thinking small’ or through operating in fear – by thinking of protecting what they have, for fear of losing it, they do not innovate, develop responsively or think bigger. The Law of Attraction suggests that when you really start believing in what you desire, focusing on it – and taking action, this will lead to it being realized.

Whether or not you believe in the power of an interconnected universe, there is plenty of scientific research to prove the effects of positive thinking – an essential part of attracting what you want. You can increase your magnetism by concentrating on powerful thinking every day. Spend 15 minutes every day thinking specifically about your goals, dreams and whatever you want from life. This is a technique that successful people utilise, which increases your chance of success. It’s called visualization.

Sports scientists have proven the value of visualisation by testing sportspeople who rehearse winning races and competitions. Athletes have practised visualisation techniques for many years, to prepare themselves mentally for races. Research proves that those who visualise well perform better. Record-breaking Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps talked about picturing himself winning every night before he went to sleep.

We also know that mental attitude affects our bodily responses. If you have ever done or seen a firewalk, you will know the amazing fact that positive thought can prevent feet walking across hot coals from getting burnt. Quantum physics is starting to explain this connection, adding more scientific credibility to the Law of Attraction and positive thinking.

This doesn’t mean you can sit at home all day and positively think your business into an overnight success story. Four steps to your business success (or any success) are to:

1. Dream big – and visualise.
If we actually have more control over our success than we realise, and are actively able to attract it to us – it would be a wasted opportunity not to think about it in huge terms. This is about creating a big mission. The bigger you think, the more likely you are to attract and inspire others to your cause, and make it happen.Visualization helps focus the mind to send out the clearest message, and prepare you for its realisation.

2. Plan how to get there.
Confront the reality of your current situation when you set your goals. Only then, can you appreciate what it will take to achieve them. Don’t aspire for any less, but understand what needs to be done to make those goals a reality, and then plan to make them happen.

3. Believe, and take action.
Believe that you will achieve what you want. To achieve your goals, take action. Belief and action go hand in hand. If you’re not moving towards your goal, you don’t really believe in it. You must move towards your goals with passion and enthusiasm. You cannot sit and simply visualise. Do all it takes. Being positive attracts the right kind of people to you, and that leads to business success. In business, have partners, employees, suppliers, customers, agents, distributors in place, with effective systems and processes.

4. Be open and adaptable.
Be receptive, and anything can happen. Believe in your goal, take steps to make it happen, and continue in a clear direction, and you are much more likely to attract opportunities to achieve whatever you want. The more flexible you are in responding to changes, the more successful you will be. Have a destination in mind, and remember there are many ways to get there. Enjoy the journey!

Use the same principles for other aspects of your life, too. There’s more to life than work, although if you do what you love, you never have to work – it’s all pleasure!

Take control your own thoughts, make incredible things happen, and use the Law of Attraction to attract greater success and freedom to your life.

● Which aspects of your life or business would benefit from using The Law of Attraction?
● How can you incorporate visualisation into your day?
● What have you got, to be grateful for?
● What action will you take to realise your goals?

If the above topic, or indeed any of my blogs are of interest to you, then sign up for my weekly blog at www.theviewinside.me

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me… Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… That’s what matters to me.” Steve Jobs

If you want to achieve something big, owning things can hold you back. The bigger your house, the greater the number of cars you have, the more the maintenance and ownership of such things can prevent you from achieving your goals. All this takes away the very thing we need most. Time!

So many people work long, hard hours to make more money at the expense of spending time with family, getting a good night’s sleep, or being healthy and relaxed. But there comes a point when striving, earning or acquiring money is actually counterproductive – and when having more money just doesn’t make us any happier!

All the evidence suggests that the more money a person makes, the more their expectations and desires rise – and because they want ‘more’, there is no long-term increase in happiness. The happiness they crave is always out of reach. In the late 1990s, psychologist Michael Eysenck used the phase ‘hedonic treadmill’ to compare the pursuit of happiness with being on a treadmill: running fast and working hard, but still staying in the same place.

But psychologists’ assertions that there’s a ‘Hedonic (or Happiness) Set Point’ suggests that our happiness is more like a thermostat, since we seem to always come back to a certain default setting in our happiness level. Good and bad events may alter our level of happiness temporarily, but in the long run, we simply adapt to any changes, and our level of happiness tends to adjust back to our old default setting.

Although people earning a good living are often happier than those who don’t, once you have already reached a standard where you have what you need to function and to be contented, earning extra income will not lead to extra happiness.

Since there is clear evidence that money doesn’t buy happiness, let’s free ourselves from striving for more money by making the most of what we have, and being happy now. Work out where your happiness set point is, then work out the minimum you need to earn and to have, to keep you happy. Know your ‘minimum wealth’ point, and you can set about increasing your happiness in other ways that really work. This might take a change of mindset, but then you can live the life you’ve always wanted – now.

Read my blog on the Happiness Advantage

Are you on the hedonic treadmill?
Do you want more, in material terms?
How long does your happiness last, after certain purchases?
What setting is your happiness thermostat on?
Do you know where your ‘hedonic set point’ is?

Let’s reach that ideal – yet realistic – level of hedonism without paying such an expensive price. Here are some great solutions to get you off that hedonic treadmill:

1. Know Where You are Going
It’s really important to know what you’re aiming for, for everything else to fall into place. What is your goal, or your envisioned destination in life? Ultimately, what are you making money for? And how does your spending help you to achieve that?

Discovering this early on can literally save you decades’ worth of hard work!

Read my blog on The ultimate shortcut to an ideal life.

2. Service Your Life
Time is money, and money can buy you time. Invest in one, and you’ll get more of the other, to create a more enjoyable and meaningful life. Look at your money and decide where you should be investing in freeing up time; then invest that time on the things you want to do.

How do you buy yourself time? First of all, do less. Eliminate what is unnecessary and isn’t helping you get to where you want to go. Hire good people, like people to run your business, or a driver, assistant, travel agent, cleaner, laundry service etc.

Apply the same entrepreneurial skills and innovation to your personal life as you do to your work life. The trick is to own fewer assets that take up your time, and invest in services that give you time.

Live the 4 steps to freedom

3. Apply the 80/20 Rule
The Pareto Principle – the 80/20 rule – states that 80% of our outputs are created by 20% of our effort. It never fails to amaze me, but this rule can be applied to virtually every area of life!

For example, consider which 20% of your possessions give you 80% of the benefit.

Make decisions based on the amount of time, effort, money and benefit, while remembering this rule. Is extending your house to create another spare bedroom or a formal dining room worth it, given the hassle of creating and maintaining it? What’s the smallest space you can live in, for the majority of your day-to-day requirements? How can you apply this rule to your life? The time and cost benefit of doing this could be staggering.

Live by the 80/20 Rule

4. Don’t buy – rent!
This might go against everything we have been taught growing up. But let us not forget that these old beliefs come directly from the heart of the hedonic system that values money over and above time!

Look at the opportunity cost of ownership. This is the the sacrifice you make in choosing between options. For example, the opportunity costs of owning a luxury car are the spare cash and the benefits of spending the money on other things to enhance your life – like a holiday or taking an extra day off each week to spend with your family. Remember the time and resources you lose in maintaining your possessions – like the garage and cleaning costs. Opportunity costs are not just financial: but also include the real cost of lost time, pleasure or any other benefit.

Most things can be rented, so there’s no need to own. Think about renting rather than buying, because there is a short lifespan to enjoying things (the novelty soon wears off), and there is a time and financial cost in maintaining what you own.

What are the opportunity costs of the things you own?
Is the price worth paying?
What alternatives are viable for you?

5. Consider Under-indulgence
To achieve more happiness for your money, practise ‘under-indulgence’- indulging a little less than you typically do. By denying yourself excess, you can better savour and appreciate the finer things in life. Eating chocolate sparingly instead of excessively can make you enjoy it more. Live in a small house, and rent a huge luxury pad a few times a year; or drive a simple car daily, and hire a top of the range sports car sometimes, to really relish the experience. The comparative cost is far, far cheaper, yet the enjoyment is much greater than taking such possessions for granted. Plus – think of the time saved in having to manage and maintain all that expensive crap!

In which areas of your life can you under-indulge?

5. Collaborative Consumption
‘Collaborative consumption’ means sharing, swapping, bartering, trading or renting products, instead of ownership. In 2010, collaborative consumption was named one of TIME Magazine’s ‘10 ideas that will change the world’. The benefits of collaborative consumption are financial – saving costs or making money by hiring out your goods; environmental – reducing carbon footprints by sharing transportation and assets and social – Increasing happiness and contentment by networking and freeing up assets or money.

From the early days when Napster pioneered peer-to-peer music file sharing, subsequent new and increasingly ingenious platforms are appearing all the time in virtually every sector to facilitate the sharing of just about anything, from tools to cars to business jets.

Sell or share your own possessions – don’t fill up your attic and garage with stuff you rarely use. If you need anything, buy an item on Ebay; use it, and sell it the next day. If you are smart, you can sell it for more than you paid. You are an entrepreneur, after all! Even if you pay someone to manage the de-cluttering of your property, or the buying and selling process, the benefits of not keeping and maintaining all that stuff will be liberating. Not to mention the fact that you could then live comfortably in a property half the size!

6. Invest in Experiences over Assets
If you are going to spend money on yourself, you may want to switch from buying material objects (TVs or cars) to buying experiences (trips and special events). Psychologists’ research has proved that more satisfaction is derived from creating and enjoying memorable experiences than from possessing material possessions. Don’t ignore or delay your bucket list!

7. Invest in Learning
Don’t underestimate the value of learning. Time and money spent on developing yourself is well spent. Investing in ourselves: the development of our skills and knowledge, can have far higher returns for us than pensions or property. Learning new things makes most people happy – inspiring curiosity and interest – and there’s great satisfaction in achievement. Well-chosen investment in learning can lead to more opportunities and greater choices in life.

8. Spend Money on Others
In fact, for greater happiness, you are better off buying less in general and buying for other people instead. People who spend money on others rather than themselves are actually happier in the long run, with a sense of reward and satisfaction that enriches their feelings of sharing and contentment. Don’t forget that the same rules apply when you give your time or experiences, rather than material things – they usually mean more to the other person in the long run.

So – what action will you take to get off your hedonic treadmill?

Accept that ‘enough is enough’ for your own happiness, identify your priorities, set your goals and make life easier for yourself in the long term. Think: why buy when you can rent? Or, take it even further – why rent when you can borrow? Be smart – ignore the obvious, or what we’re conditioned to believe is ‘the’ way to do things. Think out of the box, and create new solutions for yourself.

Invest in time before it runs out, and it’s too late. Time is the only finite resource you have, so it deserves to be saved and invested well. Shake off the shackles of ownership, enjoy your liberty and use your time and resources to achieve what you want!

What can you get rid of?
What can you share?
How little do you actually need for optimal existence?
What changes will you make now?
What great things will you do with all that spare time and money?

If the above topic, or indeed any of my blogs are of interest to you, then please sign up to my weekly blog at www.theviewinside.me

“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” Dolly Parton

Optimise your personal brand!

Managing your personal identity and image as you would market a product is becoming increasingly important as the world becomes more interconnected. Use your personal brand to maximise your position in the market, your value and achievements. In today’s rapidly-paced environment, if you want to get further faster, first you have to know who you really are to develop your brand – then use best practices to manage and communicate that brand to the outside world.

Nike, Coca Cola, Microsoft, Google, Starbucks, McDonald’s: everyone knows what a brand is. And yes, they are big brands, but the same basic principles apply for your own brand. Whether it’s the corporate brand (Apple), the product brand (Iphone) or the personal brand (Steve Jobs), branding is vital to a customer’s perception of your value and their decision to associate themselves with you and your business.

You might think personal branding is just for celebrities, but every one of us is a brand, and as such, we can use the same strategies as corporate brands or celebrities to appeal to others. With social networking, we are effectively becoming micro celebrities amongst our own networks. The stronger your presence within the network and the faster that network grows, the more successful you can be in the long term. Leveraging your personal brand is a great way to make success happen faster and more emphatically.

In this era of increasing interconnectedness, having a personal brand becomes as significant as a corporate brand. If you don’t brand yourself first, someone else will brand you – through other people’s perceptions of you, both online and offline. Take control of the game by proactively creating your own brand and promoting the right impression first.

Entrepreneurs must build larger networks to impact on every aspect of business. Leveraging your personal brand – and the brands of those who work with you – is invaluable. People search online for you or your services, and without a convincing and coherent brand presence, you’re not likely to be taken as seriously. Your own personal brand is transferable, so if you develop a new business or role, you don’t have to start from scratch. Venture capitalists, investors and partners want to work with great people with excellent track records, and good personal branding enhances their perceptions of your excellence. It gives you the edge over others. In a competitive world, any edge counts – fewer people have jobs for life, many people have portfolio careers, and in these independent, individualistic times,personal branding can give you a big edge. It’s essential to be remembered – for all the right reasons.

Over the long term, projecting yourself authentically – promoting the real you out there – attracts the right people and opportunities towards you. It helps people to deal with you in the right way and optimises your performance over the long term. Social media makes branding not only more personal, but widely and instantly accessible. A simple search online will bring up your entire history – positive and negative. The information is out there, so the best thing you can do is to actively manage it. You must be authentic, or you may be rumbled. There is no place to hide, so authenticity and transparency are the only way to succeed over the long term.

There are four steps in the personal branding process: Discover, Create, Communicate and Maintain.

1. Discover Who You Are
Investing in self-discovery is a critical advantage in marketing your brand to others. The better you know yourself, the better you can communicate who you are. The deeper you understand your own strengths, weaknesses, passions, beliefs and values, the more you can incorporate this information into your brand and be highly successful.

Decide who you are, what you do, who you serve, your unique attributes, your values, your personal mission, vision and personal brand statement.

Start by asking yourself “what do I want to be known for?”. Has anyone ever called you ‘amazingly powerful’ or ‘transformational’? That is part of your brand. It’s about projecting the best version of yourself – and living up to it. Always walk the talk. If you’ve discovered your brand, your self-impression should match how people perceive you.

2. Create and Brand The Real You:
Develop your personal branding toolkit of materials such as your personal blog, website, business card, resume, and social network profiles. Use your collateral to promote the best version of yourself, and to make the biggest difference. Your personal brand must be consistent and each part should reinforce the others. Keep working on and improving them all the time. Think about developing:

a) Your 5 Second Pitch
Develop your “brand mantra.” A snappy, memorable, inspiring answer to the question: ‘What do you do?’ FedEx’s brand or offer is “peace of mind.” Disney’s is “fun family entertainment.” Say what you offer in terms of the benefits, not the process. Instead of saying you’re a ‘tax accountant’ (and having them glaze over and walk away), say you ‘make people wealthy’, or ‘save businesses millions’.

b) Your Business Card
This is one of the most effective pieces of personal marketing there is, yet often, very little effort goes into the one thing that can make a huge difference in how you are perceived and remembered. Make it striking and memorable, and include your brief personal brand statement (e.g. ‘Global Megatrends Expert’).

c) Your Website:
Make sure you own yourname.com or a website that fits with your personal brand proposition to some degree. Feature your resume and portfolio of work, online and available 24/7. Design it to demonstrate yourself and your brand in the very best light and use it to help you get where you want to go. Start a blog, or at least have a static homepage.

d) Your Social Profile
Unify your LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter profiles with the same branding; photo, completed profile and links to blog/ website and other social networks. Use these means to communicate regularly and consistently with all members of your networks.

e) Your Image
This detail is so often ignored by entrepreneurs, but your own personal style is visible and extremely important. Wear clothing that best represents you and your brand – make every item count and say something about who you are. We process the world visually and it has a powerful effect upon us, so review the photographs of you that are out there, too. Are they consistent with your brand and the image you wish to portray?

f) Your Video Pitch
Video is a very powerful medium for getting you and your message across. So much communication is subconscious – through gestures, facial expression, tone of voice, so you can make deeper connections with your audience than writing, photographs or audio alone. The best way to get someone to feel that they know you and trust you is to make a great video about who you are and what you stand for. Communicate your personal brand, upload it onto YouTube and you can then email the link and feature it in your social media postings and website.

3. Communicate Your Brand Consistently
Communicate your personal brand everywhere you can, regularly. Use every aspect of your Personal Branding Toolkit to let people know your actions and thoughts, to promote your services and to show your personality in regular updates. Remember that everything you say and do, as well as everything that is said about you, is a communication about you and your brand. Every event, every interaction – make everything count.

4. Maintain Your Brand
As you develop in your life and career, consistent updating is required to accurately represent you at any given time. You also need to keep posting, notifying and blogging to ensure that your brand, websites, and profiles are Search Engine Optimised. You’re only as current as your last Tweet!

Since maintaining social networks alone can be a full-time job, get somebody else to do it, but make sure that your brand remains consistent and your values and vision are not compromised. If you want to retain your personal touch, dashboards like Hootsuite can enable you to set up updates across several platforms and schedule multiple or repeat postings in advance, so you can manage your LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts more efficiently and send one message across all.

You also need to keep monitoring your brand online to ensure that everything people are writing about you is positive and factual. You can do this with several tools, including a Google Alert for your name.

Nowadays, you need to manage your own reputation, both online and in real life. People will often Google you before they speak to you or do business with you.

Be in control of those impressions. There is no reason to leave your professional reputation to chance, when you can manage your own image and be your own PR specialist. Or entrust someone with doing it for you.

It’s all in the image – and not just the physical one. Whether it’s your body language, the clothing you wear, your behaviour and interactions with others, or your opinions, all are integral to your overall brand. Just like prime corporate brands, you can demand a premium price based on your brand value. With visibility, come clients, speaking engagements, business opportunities, life opportunities, great people, and the chance to make a difference in the world.

Create a great brand – and brand value – and people want to work with you and for you, share ideas and resources, and support you in achieving your goals. The network you develop as a result of your brand can protect you from today’s uncertainties and enable you to grow your business – and yourself. Branding also gives you a great boost of confidence and purpose – and embeds other people’s confidence in you.

Optimise your personal brand!
What is your personal brand statement?
Is your brand consistent across communication channels and social media networks?
What do you need to do to complete your Personal Branding Toolkit?
How can you maintain the promotion of your brand ?
How can you use your Personal Brand to get you further, faster?

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