CommerceCubes

Did anyone say leverage?

Lately I’ve been thinking about people and that fact that most people are truly excellent at a small number of things.  Experimentation is the key to finding out your strengths and your weaknesses.  In business it’s the same thing, you have to be out there stomping out the fires to figure out what lights you up.  What keeps you going is the feeling that you are on a journey that is life long.  After all your life isn’t all straight angles and as such you need to bend to your specialties and this is where leverage comes in.

Now you may ask yourself “I hear a lot about leveraging in business but what does it mean and how do I do it?”  These are both great questions because over time it allows you to see where you can begin to head in business.  First off I’d like to give you a formal definition of ‘Leverage’:

It is the power or ability to act or to influence people, events, decisions, etc.  Think about that for a second or two.  All people have a different way of coming at the world and all people have there own ways of influencing the world around them.  Naturally it only makes sense that the better you know yourself the greater leverage you can achieve because you know where you are weak, where you are strong, you now your threats and all this leads to you being able to find opportunities that are unique and best suited to you as a person, business person or what have you.

I personally have spent the past few years coming to realize where I am strong, where I am weak and trying to act accordingly.  We’d all love to be the next NBA star, Tech Guru or hot shot Real Estate broker and the truth is that each person can in their own way become highly successful using the interests, influences and views they’ve had all along.  You’ve just got to be willing to put the time into figuring out how you come at the world in the best and most productive way.  Embrace the uniqueness that you’ve been given and simply go with it… because the only thing you’ve got is yourself so it’s a great place to start!

Ever been walking down the street and met someone that is unique, fully functioning, ‘dialed in’ and who you would class as “powerful” in their own right?  Ever find yourself envious of that person?  You probably catch yourself saying “Man, I’d love to be like him or her.”  The truth is that you can be just as “dialed in” so long as you focus on your strengths and really live them.  You may ask yourself “Why is Lucas writing this article?” and I could lie and say it’s for some greater reason but to be completely honest I am writing from a place of personal reflection.  Lately I’ve caught myself not focusing on my own core strengths and not being sure just how to come at the world.

From a business point of view I’ve tried a few types of businesses over the past couple of years only to be met with weakness because of a lack of leverage.  Truth is you may find yourself saying “I’d love to start a spa business” to which I’d ask “Do you know anything about the spa business?” and the answer I’d want to hear back is “Yes, I know a lot about the spa business” and from there we’d be off to the races.  But if you are considering a business albeit the spa business or anything else then the question is “Do you know about that business?”  If you don’t then it’s hard, very hard to build any kind of leverage behind any business plans you may have.  People stick to what they know not because they are afraid to branch out and try new things but because they know what they do best and they know it will yield the highest results for them.

In the past, I’ve tried running a DVD sales company and a software sales company in the past few years and failed terribly at both of them because of a complete lack of leverage attributing to part of the problem.  Orders came in late, there were angry customers and it was just a complete mess.  This was my example of a failed attempt at having little to no leverage and trying to make a go of it.  It was painful and awkward and it taught me a lot about knowing myself, my core strengths and where it is that I work best in the world (the business world included).

Lately I’ve been developing a few web application projects which was something I did a few years back and I have had a chance to experience everything that I love and hate with respect to that but I am back into leveraging myself  properly again and it feels great.  Some of my interests really play into development such as my enjoyment of Systems Analysis and Design, Statistics, people and creativity just to name a few things.

With my new project, BizCandy, I am still gathering the full scope of what I aim to achieve and when I am ready and correctly leveraged it’ll be a thing of beauty to begin.  This is something that every entrepreneur, person and business owner goes through in life (sometimes a few times in life) but it serves as a good marker for those of you out there that are a little confused about the road ahead and not sure about what business they should be in.  I hope that you found this helpful,

Lucas

Enjoy the ride and leverage it!