I believe that preparation is 90% of success. Most extraordinary results were born from significant preparation. Take the highest paid athletes and entertainers and ask them how much time they give to preparation. You’ll find it’s a stunning amount, though it is done behind the scenes. Tremendous preparation is responsible for the creation of all multi-billion dollar industries. In fact every successful person or company evolved from vision and preparation.
Opportunities are going to occur. I heard a preacher once say that it is better to pray to be prepared for an opportunity than pray for an opportunity. If an opportunity comes along and you are not ready, then you are likely to underachieve. In life, you will get your share of big deals that pass your way; whether a marketing deal, manufacturing deal, or consumer deal. Those that are better prepared will have significantly stronger odds to win the deal. However, another key advantage is that preparation breeds opportunity. There is a magnetic pull here that leads to more opportunities that you will master.
Many of you have experienced the job interviewing process. Preparation here is very important and increases your chances of getting the job. Let’s take a look.
Joe has an interview on Wednesday at the ABC Corporation. In preparation for the interview he defines his intention for the interview, reviews and improves his resume, picks out a nice suit, researches the ABC Corporation, researches and prepares to answer questions that may be asked in the interview, and asks for help and suggestions from people in his connection chain. Joe is prepared to exhibit confidence in his potential role at ABC Corporation.
Now Bob has an interview the same day for the same position at ABC Corporation, but he does not make the same preparations as Joe. Instead, Bob goes to the interview with an old copy of his resume. He knows nothing about the ABC Corporation, has not reached out to anyone in his connection chain, is unprepared for the questions, and thinks it is best if he just “wings it”. Both Joe and Bob have the same opportunity, but which is best prepared? Who do you think will get the job?
You might be asking, what does this have to do with Strategic Visionary Planning? An opportunity’s fruit is largely associated with your preparation. Preparation is defined as readying beforehand for a purpose, activity, or use. When you prepare for your definable intentions, your preparation will win.
Preparation is critical at the start, but it has continued importance and aspects for what is to follow. This is a continual process before every meeting, call, or project. Preparation wins! Remember, vision is the definable intention from which preparation is formed. This is what separates greatness from mediocrity.
Having a meeting is different than preparing for a meeting. Most meetings are completely inefficient and begin to evaporate moments after its conclusion. To create perpetual inspiration it is necessary to have a united vision of what the meeting results will yield. A preparation suggestion is to have you, or the entire team, write down what you want to result from the meeting in terms of measurability, tangibility, and timeline. Following the meeting you will know if you won or lost. You deal with the reality and not bureaucracy. Plus, there is accountability. Vision can be monitored and measured for its tangible points with related due dates. The more you practice vision and preparation, the stronger your results, and more obvious your superiority is witnessed. It also keeps you poised for fresh opportunities. It’s all preparation.
Preparation is about winning the day. Remember, being busy does not equal success. You might feel like you’re slammed, but in reality you’re making tracks like a bear and not getting anywhere. Taking time to prepare gives you an advantage. Life seems to be inundated by meetings and various forms of communications. Many of these communications, in essence, are empty, vague, and inefficient unless someone takes the time to define the intention, prepare and have the courage to measure what they accomplished. Otherwise it is a cloud of inactivity, which is why most of the world fails. Results equal success and preparation is 90% of success.
Let’s say you have a meeting with a prospective customer. What is your first step in preparing for the meeting? Normally people think about what they are going to present at the meeting. They will prepare all the items for what they want to cover. Doesn’t everyone do this? Isn’t this expected and ordinary? The more genius and productive approach is to determine the intention for the meeting. What are the exact results you want to see at the end of the meeting? Will there be a transfer of funds at the end of the meeting, a follow-up meeting scheduled, or will you solidify a business alliance at the end of the meeting? Whatever your intention may be, define it first. Once you know the intention then you will be more informed on what you need to prepare in order to achieve it by the end of the meeting. Without preparation, the meeting is wasting your time and others while the prepared person is extending their lead on the competition.
Let’s say your intention is to get the prospect to commit to 1000 units by the end of the meeting, and give you one referral for 500 units in new business in the next 30 days.
This clear understanding directs your energy and preparation toward your definable result. If you have a team attending the meeting with you then it is important that everyone on your team understands and agrees to the purpose of the meeting. If your team does not have a common goal then you are not on the same team. It makes for a much better game when the team shares the intention. Let’s win the game by accomplishing your predetermined intention. Then comes the preparation; make calls to people in your connection chain, and ask them what they have done in similar meetings. Study the topics, define the intention, note the points that you want to make, prepare to answer questions they may have, and determine your follow-up.
Start the meeting by asking questions. Find out what their needs are, what is important to them, and what they want to accomplish. Take good notes. Note what you think is important, but extra is better. This is your opportunity to win them over because they realize that they don’t have all the answers to the questions. Winning a client or customer over for life is very important to the success of any business.
Your focus should still be on your predetermined vision. You may notice their answers align with your vision. The answers they don’t have can be filled in with your vision, and you will connect them through their own admission as to what they want. It is a way for both of you to accomplish your visions. If their vision is not connected to yours in some way then it may not be a good fit. Look at the meeting as one of your initiatives. Can you improve the initiative or should it be discarded? This keeps it in the right container. The spirit of that is very positive, because you are connected to the energy. Almost always, it’s a free source of energy effort toward your vision, and vice versa. Is anyone taking advantage of anyone? No. If it works, both parties will be happy.
Your focus should always be on directing the energy toward your vision; otherwise you are just a component. In life, we are all components of something, but we can be visionaries of anything. Maybe you just want to be a component or you want to be involved in visionary processes. It’s like building a house. The architect already knows what the house is going to look like. Today he meets with the plumbers; tomorrow he meets with the electricians and the carpenters. He knows every dimension and function of the proposed house. Maybe the plumber, electrician and carpenter don’t know what it’s going to look like in the end, but they know their specific contribution. You might be surprised to find that by using this approach, the other party in the meeting will precisely replicate your predetermined result for the meeting. The best preoperational result is when others feel that they arrived at your result by their own admission, which is what you wanted.
Stay bold after the meeting. It is important to take some time to go over what happened. Did you achieve your intention? If not, did it bring you any closer? Are the needs of the other party conducive to your vision? If a follow-up meeting was scheduled make notes about what preparations you need and what you want to accomplish in your next meeting. Because you were prepared and bold enough to measure your preparatory vision to the end result, you can now stay bold and make notes on what improvements are necessary for the next meeting. You should constantly be seeking this improvement. Pretty soon, as you continue meetings with this format, everyone will learn the importance of having an objective to meet during the meetings. This separates winners from mediocrity, and entrepreneurs from worker bees.
There is a level of organization involved, especially when you are preparing for a meeting, event, or production that has a lot of moving parts. Your goal is to have everything fall into place perfectly so that you get the maximum results of your intention. To simplify this process, I use the Hollywood Movie Approach.
The average Hollywood movie lasts approximately one and a half hours. What you don’t realize when watching the film is how much time and preparation goes into the final movie. The process of writing, casting, production, editing, and releasing a movie can take six months to two years. Why? It is because every part of the movie is rehearsed, and every part of the movie has an intention; even down to the inflection, emotion, and pacing of the dialogue. How much better would anything you did for an hour and a half be if you took two years to prepare? I am not saying that all 90-minute meetings, events, or productions need two years of preparation; but every minute of preparation can make the result significantly better.
Hollywood is a great example of a multi-billion dollar industry focused around an immense amount of preparation. They are not only prepared, but they continue to shoot the same scene until it’s perfected. They are constantly improving. Preparation leads to perfection. Reading lines in a film is not a hard thing to understand. It does not seem complex, but they continue to reshoot takes to get it right. Many of the things that you do can also be improved through preparation. You think you understand them, but the repetitive practice, living it out on paper, and rehearsals only make you more effiective when they call lights, camera, action!
Every part in the Hollywood Movie Approach is broken down into a segment or a section. The movie itself is usually broken down into three acts. You can apply the same logic to your event, meeting, call or production. A great example would be a seminar. Let’s say you are a business person holding a seminar for prospective clients. Your intention is to get 10 new clients with specific criteria. Just like the movies, you can break it down into three acts
Once you break it down piece-by-piece, you see how all of the elements work together to create a successful event, and you become aware of improvements that need to be made. The more you do this process the easier it will be. Your events, meetings, calls, and productions should constantly be edited so that you can get to a higher and more efficient level. This keeps increasing the distance between your success and your competitors.
I believe in significant preparation, but even the smallest amount of preparation is an inspiration to the power of time. Give yourself a stronger advantage over those that do not take that time. Preparation not only saves the time of others, but also saves your time. Time is your biggest asset in life. As we learn how to extract energy, like nuclear energy from an atom, the power of time is even stronger. Preparation is an element to get that power and produce results.
