Where Are You Really?

Do you know where you are? No not your physical location. Where are you really? Do you know where you stand when it comes to your position in your field or your industry?

I’ve often heard that there’s a big difference between where you are and where you want to be in life and in business. You may think and want to be successful in your field, but are you really? You could be on the other end of the spectrum. The challenge comes in being realistic about where you are and then moving towards where you want to be.

A few months back I saw a brief news story about Snooki (the short drunk girl) from the Jersey Shore. She was wearing Coach purses in public events likely because she could afford them and wanted the status. What happened was that Coach found out about this and decided to send her a a purse from a competitor. The company didn’t want her to represent the brand in the public. She though that she was classy. Coach thought otherwise.

Where am I going with this? I just wanted to touch upon some basic marketing that I learned in college and just through following successful people online.

How can you get to where you want to be with with your business?

Get rid of those that you don’t want.

One friend was planning on coming to my birthday party but he realized that he couldn’t make it because he was wearing some old pair of running shoes. The venue that we were attending had a strict dress code policy on dress shoes. The policy is simple, no dress shoes, no entry. You can complain all that you want, but it’s their property and their rules.

I also believe in being over-dressed instead of under-dressed. My friend was surprised he couldn’t get in with the running shoes. He just didn’t understand the policy.

The venue’s stance on the  policy is actually real simple: get rid of those that you don’t want. The venue clearly didn’t want its patrons to be walking around in old running shoes. You complain all you want. That’s just the way it is. The venue is getting rid of those that they don’t want.

You should try the same with your business. Get rid of those that you don’t see eye-to-eye with. Get rid of those that don’t share your views. Get rid of anyone that will only bring you down.

How can you get rid of those that you don’t want?

• Bash ideas that they believe in.
• Don’t give them any reactions.
• Ask them to leave.

Once you lose those that are bringing you down, you can move on and help those that you want apart of your cause.

Focus on helping those you want apart of your cause.

Who do you want apart of your cause? Once you figure this out you can focus on helping these people and having them help you. Chris  Guillebeau refers to this group of people as your small army. You will help your small army and in turn your small army will want to help you. I summarized his theory on building your small army with this quick image below:

When you work on helping those that you want to be with you and of your cause you’ll build yourself up towards being much closer to where you want to be. This is a simple formula that I’ve been doing my best to apply ever since I heard of it.

Fake it until you make it.

This is a classic quote and I believe in it totally. You’re not going to make it to where you want to be if you keep on feeling sorry for yourself and simply wishing you were there. You need to pretend that you are there. You don’t need permission from anyone to position yourself the way that you would like to. You just need to be willing to do the work and act as if you already are there.

I hope that you take this article seriously and begin working towards being where you really want to be. There’s usually a huge difference between where you are and where you want to be.

Where do you stand? Where do you want to be in the next few months?