Get Better, Be Best
Do you know what the number one enemy of success in business is, for CEOs of any age? It’s not cash flow or ideas or team chemistry. It’s complacency. If you’re not growing and getting better, you are falling behind. There is simply no such thing as status quo in business. See, someone is looking at you right now and seeing if they can find an advantage, a way in, a way to compete and beat you in the marketplace. That competition is definitely coming from outside your doors, but it may be coming from inside as well. A weak or complacent leader appears vulnerable and ripe for the picking. Don’t be that person. Get better and stay the best. Here’s are some ways to make that happen. Depend on others, not just yourself. You should be bringing new ideas and perspectives to the table, but you need to make sure you are also learning from those who have been doing this longer and better than you. Call them a mentor, a coach or an advisor — names don’t matter, only results. You need to have someone in your life who knows more and can challenge you. Someone you respect enough to allow them to push you without demanding your attention. Someone you listen to because they’ve earned it.
Don’t be a self-important idiot. Look, you’re talented and driven or you wouldn’t be in this position. But don’t start believing your own press. If you don’t realize your own limitations, you will start to ignore them. That might work for you, but it also works for your competition. While focusing on improving your best skills and assets, make sure you also target your weak areas and get better. You may never turn them into assets, but you need to keep them out of the liability column. Keep track of what the best in your field are doing and build relationships with key people. Spend time “talking shop” with your peers and colleagues. Learn from each other and cultivate influence with people who could be your allies or enemies down the road. You don’t know what the future will bring, but if people like and trust you, that will always work to your advantage. Remember, these directives are not destinations, they are pursuits. Never stop doing any of this. Never. Roman Temkin is a real estate developer from NYC.