Edition 537 – Noise

The noise. It’s everywhere. About what to do, to make you succeed in business, and in life.

Flashy videos on social media, filmed with and by “beautiful” people, proclaim any number of tips on how to improve performance. Or engage your team. Or woo your customers.

Or a podcast, with someone who blasts out over your headphones, or through the 10 speakers littered throughout your car, where someone who is learned, interviews someone else who is learned, and together, their learnedness becomes a bit of a love-in.

Then, there’s the books. Loads of them. A good bookshop is just about one of the best places in the world to be, in my opinion. But, really, some of the stuff you see on the shelves, particularly in the business section. Who invents the names of these titles? Some of them are pretty much fad diets for business.

Hell, even this missive, each and every week, is about what you can do better, in business and in life!

Noise. All of it.

Yet, have you ever turned down the volume?

Have you ever hit the off button?

Gone somewhere quiet? Just you and your thoughts. Allowing them to percolate. Perhaps walking along the beach. Or through the bush. Or sitting somewhere early in the morning, enjoying a barista made coffee, as the sun rises, but not many others are about to enjoy either.

So many decisions in business life are rushed. In fact, so many decision in life, in general, seem to be rushed. Are they ultimately, the right decisions? Are they considered? Are they short term fixes, or long term solutions?

All I know is that I have to turn off the noise. I have to listen to myself. I have to gather my thoughts. I have to de-clutter, in order to consider.

That’s what I see and hear when I walk into so many businesses. Clutter. Noise. Yet, without wanting to blow my own trumpet (but if I don’t, who will?)  I’ve walked into a number of businesses this year, and identified problems, or solutions, inside of a couple of hours. Sometimes inside of 15 minutes.

I walk in without preconceived notions. I ask questions. I listen, not just to the answer, but who answers. How they answer. The words they use. Which leads to more questions. Which gets people thinking. Contemplating. Questioning. Because we turn off the noise, of the day-to-day.

Every business owner in the world, has the answer to every problem inside their business. Of that, I’m convinced. It’s just that, for most of them, they’ve never been asked the right questions, by the right people. Beyond that, they’ve not turned off the noise, to step away and ask themselves those same questions, and deeply process what’s happening, in their business, or their life.

Perhaps it’s a type of spirituality. I don’t know. But solitude, and space, are seemingly two resources in scarcity. Yet, they’re within easy reach, if you choose.

This Week’s Tip

“Time alone is critical, not merely to gather your thoughts,
but to have them in the first place.”