***Can't You Do Any Better Than That? Yes You Can...And You Better Start Today

After he graduated from college, Aylwin B. Lewis took a job as manager of eight Jack in the Box restaurants in the Houston area. He was not too happy with the job. Then one day a customer approached Lewis and asked if he was the boss of the place. Lewis said he was the person in charge. The customer gave him a sour look and asked, “Is this the best you can do?” Lewis could have gotten defensive. Instead, he looked around and agreed that the place really could have looked better. He took “Is this the best you can do?” and applied it to his job and to himself. Today he is the president and chief executive of Sears Holdings Corporation. If you find his story interesting, read his article, “Speak Less, Listen More” in The New York Times, October 2, 2005. Opportunities for improvement are everywhere. Sometimes you can improve the world around you. Sometimes you can improve yourself. But either way, things that aren’t working too well always spell opportunity for you if you think big enough. The next time you are standing in a mile-long line at a bank or feeling frustrated when a restaurant provides appalling service, don’t get angry. Get smart instead. Analyze what is taking place right in front of you, and you will discover personal opportunities. Consider Venus McNabb, founder of Geeks On Time. (http://www.geeksontime.com) One day in 1999 when she was 22, she had to take a broken office computer out for repairs. She spent all day on the project. First she dragged the computer onto a city bus and took it to a service company. Next she waited hours for the computer to be repaired. Then she hauled it back to her office, plugged it in - and it didn’t work. That’s when “I can do a lot better than this” inspiration hit and she started a company called Geeks On Time, one of the first companies that send technicians to repair computers on-site. McNabb started small, focusing on residential computer-users. Then she expanded to servicing business systems. Now, at age 28, she heads a company with more than 700 technicians in all 50 states and her sales revenues are doubling annually. She started by noticing what other companies were doing badly and then decided that she could do it better. Then there is Diane Hessen, founder of a market research company called Communispace (http://www.communispace.com). When Hessen became frustrated over the slow pace of market research in assembling focus groups to evaluate products, she created a better way to conduct market research using the Internet. She started Communispace, which maintains an ever-present cyberspace community of consumers who answer market-research questions immediately. The result is supercharged market research that takes hours, not months. Plus, she undersells the competition by a wide margin. Like Geeks On Time, Communispace is doubling its revenues annually. It started simply because Hessen once said, “This is terrible and I can do a lot better.” Of course, it is one thing to notice where other people are messing up and another thing to look at yourself and see areas where you can do a lot better. One of the most effective ways is to complete the following sentence: I could __________________ (fill in your immediate life goal) if only I could _____________________ (fill in the thing that is holding you back). The words you entered in the second blank describe the roadblock that is stopping you from reaching your goal. Take a look at that obstacle. Maybe you need to pay back some credit card debt before you can get a mortgage to buy your first investment building. Maybe you need to learn how to write a business plan before you can get a loan to start a new business. Maybe you need to part ways with a partner who is dragging you down. Is something like that really making you put your dream on hold? If so, can’t you do better than that? Of course you can, and the time to start is today.