In Search of Excellence

Having just returned to the new 60 day version of Partnership to Success and John Thornhill’s comments about staying focused really hit the mark.

For some reason his words reminded me of a classic business book I read many years ago.

‘In Search of Excellence’ was first published 38 years ago in 1982. And there was one chapter, titled ‘Stick to the Knitting,’ which seems particularly relevant to me at the moment.

The reason. I became so side tracked that I said to John I didn’t think I would be able to create a product and dropped out of Partnersip to Success.

Side Tracked By Research

I got as far as the mind map exercise in the older version of P2S and had picked my niche. At this point I started to research the niche topic.

Researching slowly lead me away from the core task of gathering information for my niche. Instead of remaining focussed I got engrossed in several related topics and drifted off track.

The end result was I ended up spending more time and money on distractions than I should.

Redirected By Those Who Know Best

But things have a way of turning full circle. In the process I became more familiar with folk like Omar and Melinda Martin, Steve Alvery and had a few email exchanges with Randy Smith.

Individually their advice was the same. All, without exception, pointed me back in the direction of P2S. Essentially saying that P2S provides the fundamental basis on which to build an online business. Everything else is a distraction.

Return To The Main Program

No if’s, but’s or maybes. Just get back on the Partnership to Success program, commit to the course and see it through.

On the strength of this I re-joined.

Now I am currently working my way through the new daily modules to get back to the point where I dropped out.

Lessons From A Classic Book

Having been reminded of ‘In Search of Excellence’ it occurred that we could well take some points away from this classic book.

Some consider the book is nothing special now. Often those who were not around in 1982.
They don’t appreciate the dearth of good business books back then.

In its day ‘In Search of Excellence’ was a path finder. It was written in a style that was informative, interesting and highly readable for the man in the street. In fact it spawned a whole genre of management books we commonly see today.

Prior to that most management books tended to be dry academic treatise that had little appeal to real life managers.

With ‘In Search of Excellence’ authors Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr. used a short list layout. This layout tabulated the features and characteristics that made companies ‘superior’ or ‘excellent.’

In this instance they came up with a list of 8 and a format that provided common terminology, other than financials, for measuring a company’s success .

Blog Layout Advice

Now using a numbered list layout for your blog layout is one of several approaches suggested by John Thornhill. This idea can be a numbered list in your blog like John’s post 101 Internet Marketing Hacks. Or it can be a number in the title like my post 3 Blogging Challenges To Be Beaten.

Both are effective.

The 8 Excellence Traits

To better understand the relevance of the 8 points in the book here is a very brief description:

A Bias for Action – Active decision making; ‘ready-fire-aim’; experimentation;
Close to the Customer – Understanding the customer; obsession with service and quality;
Autonomy and Entrepreneurship – Fostering innovation, tolerating failure;
Productivity Through People – Culture of trust and respect; expect results; treat people like adults, as partners;
Hands-on, Value-Driven – Beliefs and principles that guide everyday practice
Stick to the Knitting – Stay with the business that you know
Simple Form, Lean Staff – Keep the organization structure as simple as possible;
Simultaneous Loose-Tight Properties – Figure out what needs to be standard or consistent, what can be different and autonomous

While being profitable is obviously a requirement, otherwise a company won’t stay in business long, there is no specific mention of dollars or financial parameters. The inference must be that these will flow when adhereing to the excellence traits.

Focus On People And Customers

The authors considered that excellence is all about a focus on people, customers and action.

This sounds very much like John and that small book, The Go-Giver, which he introduced us to when we first started.

While somewhat counter intuitive don’t focus on making money. Focus on providing value for the readers of your blog and the people you interact with.

The money will come when we provide value and over deliver.

Relevance For An Online Business

So what is the relevance for anyone trying taking their first tentative steps in the online world.

First we need to set aside what was probably our initial motivation – to make money online.

Then we should ‘Stick to the Knitting’ with a single minded focus and complete any training we have started.

For many readers this will likely be John Thornhill’s Partnership to Success program.

For those of you who have not yet become involved in the Partnership program it is definitely worth considering.

Recently updated from a 12 month to a 60 day course this program has been the foundation from which many online marketers who have gone on to earn 6 figure incomes.

Partnership to Success takes you step by step from being a complete novice right through to launching a product online.
It is certainly worthy of investigation by anyone trying to start making an online income.

I recommend you Click Here to check out John's webinar.

Talk again soon

Ian Whyte
https://ianwhyteonline.com