What would Steve Jobs NOT do?
Pick a role model, someone who inspires you and who has built something that you’d also like to achieve.
Someone who’s been through the stages that you’re still in, and triumphed.
Someone who exemplifies the kind of success you aspire to.
Normally, the advice is to ask yourself how that person would behave and make decisions, and let the answers guide your own.
Hence the popular saying “What would Steve Jobs do?” (Or whoever is an example to you – from Ghandi to Picasso, from Henry Ford to Frank Lloyd Wright).
But I propose a different approach.
Which is to ask yourself “What would this person NOT do?”
And then you test your own way of operating against that question.
If you do, very interesting things will reveal themselves.
Your rolemodel (provided you chose the right one) wouldn’t moan, blame others, pretend they’re perfect, or mistake an interpretation for fact.
The person whose success you’d like to emulate, they wouldn’t while away all their time working IN their business, and never get to working ON the business.
That person wouldn’t make excuses, sacrifice their entire family life, or procrastinate with a vengeance on the non-urgent-but-highly-important tasks.
If they would, they’d never have gotten to the point where you have them as a rolemodel.
So out of all the things that you do or don’t do in your business, ask yourself: “Would Mr or Mrs X handle it the way I do?”
If the answer is no, then you have just identified one of the reasons they’ve got it made, and you’re still on your way.
And once you know that, you can change your thinking, decisions, and behaviour, getting you one step closer to what you desire.
So when you find yourself in a rut, or stuck, or lacking clarity, ask yourself:
“What would Steve Jobs (or whoever) NOT do?”
I’ve never met the man and I didn’t read his biography yet, but I would guess he wouldn’t delay on hiring a coach. Because many – MANY of the successful people we admire these days, had help in some way or form (coaching, mentoring, whatever you like to call it). In many cases, that’s exactly the reason why they got to be so successful.
