All too often, a successful life or profitable business can take a turn for the worse. It happens to the best of us. Sales fall off, expenses mount, personal challenges land on your doorstep.


While change is inevitable, it does not have to be a disaster experience. You can decide to use it as an opportunity for a turnaround to build a stronger, more profitable business or even a better, more enjoyable life for yourself. Here is a story that illustrates a simple tool for turning things around that many have found easy and rewarding to use.


A local businessman has a stellar reputation as a “turnaround artist.” He is widely recognized as the man to go to when you need to turn your business around from failure to success. He likes to share his success methods with other business owners, CEOs and board members of companies, particularly those that find themselves in serious difficulty. A favorite way to do this is by giving tours through one of his huge successful manufacturing operations.


On one of these tours, a CEO had planned to arrive early, however due to weather conditions, his plane was late. This, in turn, made him late for the extensive four-hour tour of the operations. When he finally arrived, he quietly joined the tour which already was in progress.


As they went from location to location he began to notice that there were ‘white boards’ everywhere. Each had a few cryptic numbers, like ‘2 of 103’, ‘1 each 6 m’, etc. This puzzled him, but having come in late, he didn’t want to interrupt the tour to ask about them.


He continued to listen and observe throughout the rest of the tour. After it ended, he went up and asked the tour guide about these strange ‘white boards’ that were everywhere. The guide explained:


“Those are the measurements and standards that our employees have studied and set for themselves in each section of the manufacturing operation. They start very simply by just defining a few key numbers. Each employee continues to monitor things and over time, change and improve the numbers.


By ‘tracking the numbers’ you will always know how you are doing. These boards make it very easy to see if you are ‘on track’ or not. This way, you can recognize when you are ‘off track’ much earlier. This early warning makes things much easier to turn around.”


Wow! Measure your process! This excellent turn-around tip is something you can take to heart and apply to any area of your life, personal or professional. If you want something to change or to run faster, better, easier, smoother and be more profitable, the fastest and simplest way to do that is to ‘measure it’ or as some say: start ‘tracking the numbers’.


This is an amazing, yet a simple and powerful three step process:


1.) Start by measuring something. If you accidentally choose the ‘wrong’ thing, it will quickly lead you to something that is better and more appropriate for you to measure.


2.) Record those measurements, and study the information you have accumulated, compare results and make changes. Review, revise, and re-do your operation.


3.) Repeat the process: ‘measure it’, record those measurements, and study the information you have accumulated, making changes as appropriate.


The good news is that none of your measurements will be difficult! They are a matter of DECISION! They can be customized to your life!


More detailed measuring can vary widely from industry to industry and from job to job, but at the highest level, some very common areas for many businesses are: financial, sales, operations, and management. Some common areas for your personal life are: relationships, time management, organization, and the balance between your professional and personal life.


These success tips and values work together in combination, giving you a huge advantage for your success. Choosing to learn from your ‘measurements’ is free and incredibly rewarding. You can begin putting them to work for you today!


Our suggestion for you today is: Go get a cup of coffee, tea, water or juice, go to lunch with your success team, kick back and ask yourself to seriously consider these key values and success principles that can be so very important to your success. So, tonight or in the morning, or on a regular basis, when you are reflecting on these powerful tools, ask yourself:


* What area of my life do I have that can benefit from being measured?
* Who will be the first person I talk to about a ‘white board’?
* Where will I place my first ‘white board’?
* When will I get started? Today?


We suggest that from this idea above, you pick one aspect and take action on it today. Take some action, even if it is small. Take one action step today.


Is it possible that if you chose to review your measurements every month, you could also find a way to improve something, so that, in a few years, you too could say ‘Wow, that was one of the smartest things I ever did for myself!”???



About the Author:


John Carpenter Dealey, International MasterMind expert, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and author is dedicated to helping people solve problems, finish strong and reach their goals with “ease and grace.”


To learn how to use the powerful principles of the mastermind to help you measure your success and bring even more of what you love into your own everyday life, sign up for a free subscription of MasterMind Tips ezine at: http://www.dr-mastermind.com/

Copyrighted © 2007

Subscribe to our HW&W List

You’re about to get ‘Insider Access’ most people will never have, to bring more Health, Wealth, and Love into your Life!…

You have Successfully Subscribed!