Stack the Deck in Your Favor

I often joke that the two reasons for all failure are lack of talent and poor planning. Both are easily fixable. You can take lessons, coaching, and seminars to improve your talent, while poor planning is even easier to fix.

Start each endeavor with a deck stacked in your favor. Know your goals, vision, and strategic plan inside out. Know your product, know your staff, know your resources, know your customers, and know your competition. Anticipate objections, eliminate roadblocks, and be over-armed with solutions.

The clearer you are about your goals and objectives, the harder it will be to sidetrack you and slow your progress. The clearer you are about your vision, the easier it will be to enlist support and take action, especially in times of trouble.

The better you know your organization, managers, and employees, the better you can gauge their unique strengths and weaknesses in helping you with the task at hand. This avoids a host of problems associated with hiring, or asking, the wrong person to do the job.

The better you know your competition, the more likely you are to anticipate their next moves and plan your strategy accordingly. You are therefore less likely to be blindsided by a pricing, marketing, or technological breakthrough.