Tweak Your Biz » Management » So You Wanna Be…

So You Wanna Be…

by Mairéad Kelly on April 18th, 2011
47 Comments



“I wanna be a (insert your own wanna here) so much”.  This is a phrase I hear quite a lot in my line of work.   My reply to that is always “So what is stopping you?” At this point there usually comes a stream of excuses..ahem..reasons as to why they are not being what they want to be.

I was listening to the song So You Wanna Be A Boxer from the movie Bugsy Malone earlier and it pretty much sums it all up wonderfully:

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Whatever it is you want to be in life, especially in business have you got what it takes?

In business, as in life there are always going to be people who are naturally good at what they do with very little effort and others who have to work really, really hard to make it look easy.

Both parties have IT -  what it takes to be good at what they do.

Do you quit when the going gets tough because it is harder work than you anticipated, really proving that you don’t have IT?

Or even worse start to cut corners on the standards you used to provide instead and hope that nobody really notices and blame the economic circumstances?

Do you dread the competition taking your market share and spend unnecessary time devising ways to keep them at bay instead of ways to keep your client base loyal?

Is your business one of those that doesn’t think they really need to do a lot because you’ve pretty much been there, done that and know most of it already?

Do you do the necessary training to be the best that you can, despite the hard work that is involved in getting there?

Do you keep up-skilling to stay at the top of your game, to ensure that you maintain your postion?

Do you go that extra mile and provide more than what your clients expect because you want to be the best there is?

Do you put in the extra hours when times are tough because that is what it takes to maintain the position you are in?

Do you seek out the help and advice of your mentors or coach when you come across a problem that you can’t solve on your own?

How do you know that your business has IT?  What do you do to maintain your position in your market?  Who do you do your sparring with to keep your skills, your mental attitude and your business practices honed so that the next time you enter your particular boxing ring you are the one throwing the knock out punch, not the one with the glass jaw?



Category: coaching, Leadership, motivation, Relationships, Self- development, Sugartone, workplace relationships

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The Author:

Mairéad Kelly developed the Cute Honey System - Business training, coaching & mentoring for Mumpreneurs & Mum Biz Owners who want to buzz their business into a hive of productivity while raising young children & often can’t get out to training events, morning or evening network events due to family commitments and/or a lack of finances. http://www.cutehoney.ie

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  • http://www.tweakyourbiz.com Niall Devitt

    To remind yourself about where you want to be, I think it’s always worth remembering what it was that you wanted to do at the very start. Most business people allow their businesses to make them forget. When times are tougher, the answers to a lot of the questions above are in revisiting that first motivation, those initial reasons why?

  • Ian

    I agree with the previous comment. So much of my coaching work is not about teaching people new stuff, but reminding them of fundamental truths they already know.

  • http://www.seefincoaching.com/blog Elaine Rogers

    Some great questions there Mairead, ones we should be constantly asking ourselves, and not just saving for hard times.nnwe can all let the guard down, and feel things just get too hard, been there myself many times. But to take no action is detrimental to living, as we head on a downward spiral! Sometimes it just takes a slight twitch to change the momentum, and boost us out of the downward spiral.nnAwareness is key, and it will help us survive it and swing back around again, and deliver that knock out punch.nnGreat video :) n

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Thanks Elaine, the whole movie is great, I could do a blog post on EACH of the songs from that movie. It’s true, we are only human and we do regularly let our guard down and start to slip a bit, like you said a slight twitch and we can get back in the game quickly. Awareness is definitely the first step to getting back into the game again.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Thanks Elaine, the whole movie is great, I could do a blog post on EACH of the songs from that movie. It’s true, we are only human and we do regularly let our guard down and start to slip a bit, like you said a slight twitch and we can get back in the game quickly. Awareness is definitely the first step to getting back into the game again.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Thanks Elaine, the whole movie is great, I could do a blog post on EACH of the songs from that movie. It’s true, we are only human and we do regularly let our guard down and start to slip a bit, like you said a slight twitch and we can get back in the game quickly. Awareness is definitely the first step to getting back into the game again.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Thanks Elaine, the whole movie is great, I could do a blog post on EACH of the songs from that movie. It’s true, we are only human and we do regularly let our guard down and start to slip a bit, like you said a slight twitch and we can get back in the game quickly. Awareness is definitely the first step to getting back into the game again.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Thanks Elaine, the whole movie is great, I could do a blog post on EACH of the songs from that movie. It’s true, we are only human and we do regularly let our guard down and start to slip a bit, like you said a slight twitch and we can get back in the game quickly. Awareness is definitely the first step to getting back into the game again.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Thanks Elaine, the whole movie is great, I could do a blog post on EACH of the songs from that movie. It’s true, we are only human and we do regularly let our guard down and start to slip a bit, like you said a slight twitch and we can get back in the game quickly. Awareness is definitely the first step to getting back into the game again.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Hi Ian,nnYou’ve hit the nail on the head with that. With some of my coaching programmes I tell clients I hold your hand firmly at the same time I gently give you a kick in the a** to get you moving on the stuff you already know and are not implementing. nnI don’t think I’ve ever heard of a boxer winning a match with a knock-out first punch and even if he did you can be sure he trained consistently beforehand.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Hi Ian,nnYou’ve hit the nail on the head with that. With some of my coaching programmes I tell clients I hold your hand firmly at the same time I gently give you a kick in the a** to get you moving on the stuff you already know and are not implementing. nnI don’t think I’ve ever heard of a boxer winning a match with a knock-out first punch and even if he did you can be sure he trained consistently beforehand.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Hi Ian,nnYou’ve hit the nail on the head with that. With some of my coaching programmes I tell clients I hold your hand firmly at the same time I gently give you a kick in the a** to get you moving on the stuff you already know and are not implementing. nnI don’t think I’ve ever heard of a boxer winning a match with a knock-out first punch and even if he did you can be sure he trained consistently beforehand.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Hi Ian,nnYou’ve hit the nail on the head with that. With some of my coaching programmes I tell clients I hold your hand firmly at the same time I gently give you a kick in the a** to get you moving on the stuff you already know and are not implementing. nnI don’t think I’ve ever heard of a boxer winning a match with a knock-out first punch and even if he did you can be sure he trained consistently beforehand.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Hi Ian,nnYou’ve hit the nail on the head with that. With some of my coaching programmes I tell clients I hold your hand firmly at the same time I gently give you a kick in the a** to get you moving on the stuff you already know and are not implementing. nnI don’t think I’ve ever heard of a boxer winning a match with a knock-out first punch and even if he did you can be sure he trained consistently beforehand.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Hi Ian,nnYou’ve hit the nail on the head with that. With some of my coaching programmes I tell clients I hold your hand firmly at the same time I gently give you a kick in the a** to get you moving on the stuff you already know and are not implementing. nnI don’t think I’ve ever heard of a boxer winning a match with a knock-out first punch and even if he did you can be sure he trained consistently beforehand.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Absolutely Niall. I’ve recently been suggesting to pals who are considering the self-employment route with whatever their passion is to have at least one pal who “gets” their passion too. On their down days they can remind them why they got into that line of business when they are too down to see it themselves. Sometimes hearing others remind us of our why can give it more Oooomph!

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Absolutely Niall. I’ve recently been suggesting to pals who are considering the self-employment route with whatever their passion is to have at least one pal who “gets” their passion too. On their down days they can remind them why they got into that line of business when they are too down to see it themselves. Sometimes hearing others remind us of our why can give it more Oooomph!

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Absolutely Niall. I’ve recently been suggesting to pals who are considering the self-employment route with whatever their passion is to have at least one pal who “gets” their passion too. On their down days they can remind them why they got into that line of business when they are too down to see it themselves. Sometimes hearing others remind us of our why can give it more Oooomph!

  • Anonymous

    Your questions are so spot on! nnI’d emphasise your last one though. The gifts of working with a coach and a mentor are priceless! Sure, I’m a coach but as a business owner, I’ve used coaches to get me to my next stage of development. I’ve been blessed with mentors throughout my career and they are wonderful teachers, cheerleaders and truth tellers. nnThe biggest obstacle and the biggest treasure is ourselves. It’s easy to scare ourselves. There’s that concept of the 4 Stages of Learning.. As a quick recap-1st stage is Unconscious Incompetence (you don’t know what you don’t know); 2nd stage is Conscious Incompetence (you know you don’t know it); 3rd stage is Unconscious Competence (you don’t know you know your stuff); and the 4th stage is Conscious Competence (you know what you know). The 1st and the 4th aren’t the freaky ones. It’s often the 2nd one. Sometimes in our businesses, we come face to face with the discomfiting realisation that we just don’t know what to do or how to be “it”. Our confidence can take a hit.It’s even possible that old negative habits re-emerge. nnWhen we are willing to include personal development along with business development, we free up energy, change our thinking and make our growth more fluid and moving forward. Working with a coach and/or a mentor gives us that extra set of eyes and ears to acknowledge that we do know what we’re doing and how to further develop into what we “wanna” be.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Great points Elli, I deliberately didn’t overly promote this point because I wanted people to get the whole message rather than “look at me, I can help you” and dismiss the whole post. nnFunny the 4 stages of learning are cropping up in unexpected places for me lately. I went through the process in the questions I’ve asked in this post recently (I firmly believe in walking the talk) and I found I had been dismissing something that I am unconsciously competent at as “doesn’t everyone?” and was surprised to learn that most other people that I’ve mentioned it to don’t do this thing that I am really, really good at.nnI was talking to someone at an event last night who does trainings with some companies and he was telling me that they have set in place markers that show when people start sliding back to old habits and when these come up it is time for them to go back in and re-train those people. He doesn’t have the skill-set to get to the core issue – their emotional blocks that keep bringing them back to old behaviours and was quite surprised that I asked how he dealt with it – it seems that in this day and age it is STILL dismissed as not relevant to working practices. I can only imagine the increase in productivity and profit the firms he deals with would have if they stopped for 10 minutes to consider that point along and do something about it.

  • Anonymous

    Mairead, nnI can understand your point about not overly promoting your last question. It is certainly a fine balance between offering something for people to consider and the perception that you are self-promoting. nnI run into similar experiences with the unconscious competence. I hope that you will be able to follow up with this person and see if you can be of help to his organisation. Those pesky old habits can be difficult to remove but well worth it.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    That is the plan Elli ;-)

  • http://www.vopam.com Patricia

    Thank you for thought provoking post. Your post rests on the assumption that business people have found and are living their true purpose in life. I think it is fair to say that folk who donu2019t have u2018ITu2019 in the business sense, may instead be destined for other pastures and are just on the wrong path?nnI believe when you find your true mission in life, it no longer has the negative connotations attached to our current notions of u2018worku2019. In this scenario, why would one worry about competition when what each person offers is so unique? This point is no way excuses the effort and work that has to put in to maintain a positive mental attitude as you describe and I believe mentors and business coaches like you and others do excellent and much needed work in this respect u2013 keep up the good work!n

  • http://www.connorkeppel.com Connor Keppel

    Awesome!

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Not necessarily Patricia, there are plenty of people who are good at what they do and want to be better at it while still not believing they have found their life’s purpose. There are others who put the practice in constantly believing they’ve found their life’s purpose and will never have “IT” in the area they are concentrating on for a number of reasons.nnI agree with you, it’s like the quote by Confucius: “Do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”. We are naturally competitive as humans and in our society we’ve been taught to squash the competition, which unfortunately carries over into our work life. Competition to me is simply another way of doing what I do, sometimes better and I always love to learn something new.nnI believe there is more than enough work to go around and more than enough personalities out there to match the people looking for our skills.

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Thanks Connor.

  • http://blog.myprojecttracker.com Barney Austen

    HI Paula – great analogy there with the football, makes the point very clear. Thanks for sharing

  • Paula

    Cheers for the comment, Niall. Good point – what is it, 3 seconds that website visitors take to make their mind up about staying on your site or deciding there’s nothing in it for them and bailing out?

  • Paula

    Thanks Barney

  • http://mindfulproductivity.net Be

    makes a lot of sense when presented that way

  • Paula

    Thanks – I like your site, by the way

  • http://www.cgonlinemarketing.com/ Christina Giliberti

    It’s unsurprising…..and amazing! Social networking is growing at a unprecedented rate. There is a definate need for businesses to embrace it.

  • http://write-on-track.com Lorna

    Interesting stats, interesting too that fewer Irish people are signed up to twitter than are on Linked In

  • Vedran T.

    Wow, Niall – very impressive! I can never get enough of interesting infographics!

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  • http://www.tweakyourbiz.com Niall Devitt

    Me too, Ivan but I’d question how many accounts are actually active?

  • aileen

    Niall, very useful information there.  I’m not sure why so many Irish people used LinkedIn, but I have always found it very useful for both connections and as an online CV for myself.  Regarding Facebook, I do think a lot of businesses have set up Facebook pages, but few are using it that well, yet at least.

  • http://www.tweakyourbiz.com Niall Devitt

    Thanks for the comment, Aileen. I agree with you on Facebook pages but I think it’s even more so with LI profiles. For me, the LI user is the least effective when compared to the other social media. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1168419283 Mags Durand

    Interesting Niall, thanks for sharing.

  • Getajobdone

    My company is a new company called GETAJOBDONE. Its a website aimed at connecting Tradesmen with people in their local area. The primary reason why I set-up the website was due to the recession. A lot of my friends who are tradesmen lost their jobs and had asked me to build them a webpage. It was going to be time consuming for me to maintain all of their websites, so I came up with the idea of creating a website like the social network facebook, where tradesmen can create a webpage for themselves and manage and update it themselves. I genuinely believe it could benefit a lot of people in the current climate. I have made a short viedo about the company which you can find here:http://vimeo.com/channels/251631 The website is as follows:http://www.getajobdone.nethttp://vimeo.com/channels/251631 The website is as follows:http://www.getajobdone.net

  • Una Murphy

    Hi,
    Do these statistics include Northern Ireland?
    Thanks,
    Una Murphy

  • http://www.tweakyourbiz.com Niall Devitt

    Hi Una, I’ll need to double check that!

  • http://www.smartsolutions.ie/blog/ Elaine Rogers

    Very interesting stats Niall, I am sure they are evolving on a daily basis. I am surprised about LinkedIn and agree that most people don’t use it for much more than an on line CV. I am amazed only 2% Irish unemployed are on linkedIn, surely this is the one area they could utilise to great effect?
    Thanks so much for sharing.

  • http://twitter.com/xcelbusiness Helen Cousins

    Thanks Niall. I have to admit that I’ve never heard of the 3 Chinese networks cited – Tencent, Douban and Sina Weibo. A good illustration of how you must know your market and where you customer hangs out online. I have to congratulate Niall (GIbbons :) for being a CEO on twitter, there are not too many CEOs of larger organisations on there.

    ~ Helen

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