Driving into London on Thursday, with a hot water bottle wrapped around my left thigh was no joke.
But what I learnt the night before was invaluable…
The night before I had played football. It was only the second time I’d played in a year, but all the instincts are still there from when I played regularly in my teens and twenties.
Instinct in football means knowing what to do in any moment. In this case it was how to play the game with an injury and not let my team-mates down…
I picked up the injury early in the game and that restricted my movement. It meant I had to play the game in a small part of the pitch where I could exert the most influence with as little running as possible.
Playing the game the night before travelling to London was a brilliant reminder for what was about to come up…
The Key Business Asset
The key business asset for most of our clients is their time and how they use it.
How time is used is vital, especially when you are really out there with your business. This is true for our Stage Support and Back Stage Management clients because the more exposure they get, the more opportunities flood in.
On one hand opportunities are brilliant. On the other hand they can cause a distraction. If you get distracted in football you will likely not do the job you are meant to do on the pitch.
It’s no different in business…
If you get distracted in business you won’t fulfil your purpose and you can end up investing weeks or months of your time in an opportunity you never get paid for in any way shape or form.
Getting Paid
That means you didn’t get paid doing that thing. It also means you were not doing something that you did get paid for.
And if time is your biggest asset you can’t ever not get paid.
The rich get rich because they say no to things that don’t work for them, so they can invest their time in things that do.
So, when you look at opportunities you need to know where your pay –off will come from…
Please note I said, “Know where your pay-off will come from…” not “hope you will get paid.”
Think about it like this…
- If you are invited to give a free talk, how will you get paid for your preparation, delivery and travel time?
- If you keep having sales conversation with people who are interested, but don’t buy from you, how do you change that so you get paid almost every time?
- How do you decide if the TV or press media or JV opportunity is right?
- How about the right time to write a book so you can get paid for it?
What my football injury reminded me about was divine timing – being in the right place at the right time… Playing the game so I could do my part for the team so we can end up winning the game.
It’s the same in business. Everything has it’s time and place. As you grow and develop you must become instinctive so you can be in the right place at the right time.
