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I was speaking at a Mike Pero Real Estate conference in Rotorua several years ago and one of my favourite quotes that I shared with the conference attendees was Henry Fords “If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, either way you’re right”.

I told them, that it is a little known secret, that Henry Ford named his model T, by taking the letter T out of the word can’t and then I asked, “when you take the letter T out of the word can’t, what does it spell’?

Normally the answer is of course Can and the lesson to be learned, is that we need to develop a can do rather than a can’t do Attitude when it comes to setting goals to multiply the profitability, cash flow and value of a business.

On this particular day, a young lady who was sitting at the front of the room, called out “CAN apostrophe”, which got a great laugh from the rest of the audience including myself.

Her response made a real impression on me and got me thinking. What is the difference between a Can Do and a Can’t do Attitude? Is the answer, as simple as an apostrophe?

If you are struggling in your business, or know in your heart that it can do better, a lot better, what is holding you back?

What is your apostrophe, what is your BUT that you tell yourself when things may not be going as well as they could or should?

Dan Sullivan who owns a company in America called Strategic Coach, believes two mental habits account for this struggle, Perfectionism and Procrastination and he says that these habits always travel together.

He goes on to explain that ‘Perfectionism is an obsession with the ideal. Procrastination is a refusal to take action because an “ideal result” isn’t guaranteed. Dan has written a very interesting article on this topic which can be found on his Strategic Coach web site

Dan also co-hosts a fantastic free podcast series called 10Xtalks, along with a marketing genius called Joe Polish, and to date I have listened to all 51 episodes and I would highly recommend the series to you.

One of my favourite episodes so far has been episode #12 ‘The entrepreneur trap of Perfectionism and Procrastination‘

The solution that Dan suggests in both his article and podcast, is the ‘80% Approach, for Breakthrough Results’

Approaching a project or goal with a 100% focus is a sure way to blind yourself.
Aiming for 80% isn’t settling for mediocrity. Dan goes on to explain three reasons why:

• 80% is better than nothing
• You can have more than one 80%
• There’s no such thing as 100%

How do you turn things around?
Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar (who sadly died recently), has an answer in his inspirational quote – “It’s your attitude not your aptitude that will determine your altitude”

Talking of Attitude, Altitude and turning things around, over the past year or so, we have been working on developing a new suite of add on products and services to work alongside Xero to help you better ‘Know Your Numbers to Grow Your Numbers’.

The purpose of the new product range is to help you Multiply the Profitability, Cash flow and Value of Your Business

Following a flying theme, we have branded the new product range as ‘UP – Your flight path to Business Success’ and we have created 3 offerings, UPSkill, UPGrade and UPLift.

To find out more about how we can help you grow your business, Paul Dawson and I will be running an event in late April to share with you ways to multiply the Profitability, Cash flow and Value of your business.  Details coming soon.

We hope you are able to join us.