Covey on Restoring Trust

Covey, on pp. 36-37 of The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything. (New York: Free Press, 2006), argues that, even thought trust has been wiped out, one can restore trust.

He trots out a number of hypothetical characters to illustrate. Perhaps they're real people, we don't know.

Perhaps a more powerful example Covey uses is the the restoration of trust between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Adams was president from 1797 to 1801. Jefferson was Adams' vice president, then ran against Jefferson in 1800 and got himself elected and then reelected in 1804.

They did elections differently then. Everybody ran, and the top vote getter was President, and the guy who got the second most votes was sworn in as Vice President. They changed it after Burr killed Hamilton in a famous duel. But that discussion should be reserved for another blog.

Suffice it to say that two former political allies became political enemies and said about, and did horrendous things to, each other both in public and behind each others' backs.

They were able to put aside their differences and reestablish trust on the basis of their alliance during the War for Independence. Adams always felt inferior of Jefferson, and that never ended.

They both died on the same day, Jefferson first of course. Adams, on his death bed is reported to have commented on that, something like, he even died before me.

So, trust can be restored, and relationships can be reinvented.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Five Waves of Trust

Covey, in The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything. New York: Free Press, 2006, p.33, puts forward a model that "derives from the 'ripple effect' metaphore that graphically illustrates the interdependent nature of trust and how it flows from the inside out."

He argues that it defines the five levels or contexts, in which we establish trust [and] forms the structure for understanding and making trust actionable."

He gives us, on pp. 34-5, these five weaves:

1. Self Trust -- Trust with the self, with credibility the key underlying principle.

2. Relationship Trust -- Trust with others, based on consistent behavior.

3. Organizational Trust -- Trust with organizations, with alignment being key.

4. Market Trust -- Trust in the market place, dependent on reputation.

5. Societal Trust -- Creating value for others and for society at large, contribution underlying.

Follow along with Covey and apply it to your own experience. You'll see how correct he is.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Character and Competence Compared

Covey says on pages 30-31,

Character is a constant; it's necessary for trust in any circumstance. Competence is situational; it depends on what the circumstance requires.See The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything. New York: Free Press, 2006.

You might leave your children with someone for the weekend, but you might never use that person to do an organ transplant.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Covey: Confidence as a Component of Trust

Covey says on p. 30, trust is a function of character and competence: "Competence includes your integrity; your motive, your intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, your skills, your results, your track record. And both [character and competence] are vital.See The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything. New York: Free Press, 2006.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Trust = Character + Competence

Covey says, "Trust is a function character and competence. Character includes your integrity, your motive, your intent with people."(The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything. New York: Free Press, 2006, p. 30.)

But character isn't all. I might trust a person enough to ask him to watch my computer when I took a break in a coffee shop, but I might not trust him to stay with my kids when I'm out of town.

That's where competence comes in.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

How Trust Works

Covey says, on page 29 of The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything (New York: Free Press, 2006),

People want to be trusted. They respond to trust. They thrive on trust. Whatever our situation, we need to get good at establishing, extending, and restoring trust--not as a manipulative technique, but as the most effective way of relating to and working with others and the most effective way of getting results.

This is exactly true. But I would add as the best way to a rewarding and rich life. When people trust you you received riches beyond money.

One day when I was a practicing agent, I got an email that said something like, "Breaking News--90% of all respondents on an recent survey said they would only do business with people they trust." Recommendation: get trusted.

Well, folks it's a lot easier to be trustworthy when you are already behaving in a trustworthy manner. Trust is something that you can build, but you have to work at it and you have to continue to act that way consistently.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Covey's Eight Trust Myths

On page 25 of The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything (New York: Free Press, 2006), Covey presents and counters 8 myths about trust.

Here's what he says,

Myth #1: "Trust is [unmeasurable] and soft." Reality: "Trust is hard, real, and quantifiable."

Myth #2: "Trust is slow." Reality: "Nothing is as fast as the speed of trust."

Myth #3: "Trust is built solely on integrity." Reality: "Trust is a function of character (which includes both integrity) and competence.

Myth #4: "You either have to trust or you don't." Reality: "Trust can be both created and destroyed."

Myth #5: "Once lost, trust cannot be destroyed." Reality: "Though difficult, in most cases lost trust can be restored."

Myth #6: "You can't teach trust." Reality: "Trust can be effectively taught and learned, and it can become a leverageable, strategic advantage.

Myth #7: "Trusting people is too risky." Reality: "Not trusting people is a greater risk."

Myth #8: "Trust is established one person at a time." Reality: "Establishing trust with the one establishes trust with the many."

These are themes that Covey talks about throughout his book. It's something that not many people have dealt with, which is why he wrote this.

My favorite lesson out of this is that trust can be taught and learned, and though once you lose some one's trust it's hard to get it back, it can be done.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Covey

On pages 19-20, of The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything (New York: Free Press, 2006), Covey posits that

S X E = R, where S=Strategy, E=Execution, and R=Result. (Results equal strategy time execution.)

"But," Covey goes on to say, "there is a hidden variable to this formula: trust--either the low-trust tax which discounts the output, or the high-trust dividend which multiplies it: S X E +/- T = R, where T = Trust. ([Strategy times Execution] +/- Trust equals Result.

He works out a nice little chart which shows how this work. There's an error in the original one, but the sense is correct. Go to p. 20 of the book and see if you can find it. I've altered it a little.

Assuming that both strategy and execution are rated at 10 (best), and trust is low (40%) the result is 60 (10 x 10 - .40 = 60). But if there's more trust, say only a 10%discount, the result is 90. And if trust is high, say 140%, the result is 140.

Despite the math, I'm sure you can see the point. I'd like somebody to actually measure trust in terms of, for every $1 of transaction, trust amounts for $x?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Covey: Trust as the Hidden Variable

On pages 19-20, of The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything (New York: Free Press, 2006), Covey posits that

S X E = R, where S=Strategy, E=Execution, and R=Result. (Results equal strategy time execution.)

"But," Covey goes on to say, "there is a hidden variable to this formula: trust--either the low-trust tax which discounts the output, or the high-trust dividend which multiplies it: S X E +/- T = R, where T = Trust. ([Strategy times Execution] +/- Trust equals Result.

He works out a nice little chart which shows how this work. There's an error in the original one, but the sense is correct. Go to p. 20 of the book and see if you can find it. I've altered it a little.

Assuming that both strategy and execution are rated at 10 (best), and trust is low (40%) the result is 60 (10 x 10 - .40 = 60). But if there's more trust, say only a 10%discount, the result is 90. And if trust is high, say 140%, the result is 140.

Despite the math, I'm sure you can see the point. I'd like somebody to actually measure trust in terms of, for every $1 of transaction, trust amounts for $x?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. Go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Covey's High Trust Dividend

The other side of the coin: from Covey, p.19, of The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything (New York: Free Press, 2006),

Just as the tax created by low trust is real, measurable, and extremely high, so the dividends of high trust are also real, quantifiable, and incredibly high....When trust is high, the dividend you receive is like a performance multiplier, elevating and improving every dimension of our your organization and your life.

When people trust you, you begin the discussion at a higher plain.

I used to be a practicing real estate agent with Coldwell Banker. Coldwell Banker is a trusted company. It's worked hard for over 100 years to become trusted in the market place.

If I had introduced myself as a real estate agent from an unknown company, they would have asked me who I was and what I had done. Instead, I could introduce myself as from Coldwell Banker. They would say, "Oh, that's a great company."

As I said, when you have people's trust, you begin the discussion at a higher plain.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. For my ideas on writing: www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Covey's Cost of Low Trust (COLT)

Covey's basic insight, on p.17 of The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything (New York: Free Press, 2006), is that low trust acts as a tax. He things it doubles the cost of doing business (p. 18).

That's about the factor I saw in real estate the last full year I was in it, a doubling of the cost of doing business. Covey calls it the Cost of Low Trust (COLT). Whatever you call it, it weighs us all down.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing. For my ideas on writing: www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Covey on the Economics of Trust

Covey on p.13 of The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything (New York: Free Press, 2006), gives two formulas that he says takes the intangible and unquantifiable to the tangible and quantifiable.

His assumption is that trust affects two outcomes: speed and cost. According to Covey's formulas,

As trust diminishes, the speed of transactions goes down and the cost up.
As trust increases, the speed of transactions goes up and the cost down.

So, trust is positively related to speed and negatively related to cost.

I saw this disgustingly documented when I was practicing real estate in Philadelphia. In the mid-200s, we had transactions moving along briskly. Fast forward to 2008, the speed of transactions had dropped by a factor of 2 to 3, and the cost of transactions in terms of time and money has increased dramatically. So based on the amount of sales you needed would have taken you 2-3 times as long to realize. The sales you would normally do in a year would take you 2-3 years to achieve.

Why? Trust had washed out of the system.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing go. For my ideas on writing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Crisis of Trust

In 2006, Covey wrote about the "crisis of trust":

You don't need to look far to realize that, as a global society, we have a crisis of trust on our hands.

--Steven M. R. Covey, The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything. New York: Free Press, 2006, p. 10.

And he wrote that in 2006. Imagine what he would write now.

If there's anything about the past 2 years, trust has washed out of the system. It's why banks wouldn't lend. It's why investors stopped investing. It's why home sales and construction starts slowed to a trickle in most places and in some places stopped altogether. No one trusted anyone else.

If we're get back on track, we have to start trusting again. Ourselves, and others around us.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business, go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It powers my writing go. For my ideas on writing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it.

It fuels my publishing enterprise, By and for Writersgo. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Getting a Handle on Trust

We've asserted that trust is important in business and life generally. So what is trust?Covey writes:

Trust means confidence. The opposite of trust--distrust--is suspicion. When you trust people, you have confidence in them--in their integrity and their abilities. When you distrust people you are suspicious of them--their integrity, their agenda, their capabilities, or their track record.

--Steven M. R. Covey, The Speed of Trust. The One Thing that Changes Everything. New York: Free Press, 2006, p. 5.

Would you do business with someone you distrust? Would you give them all your money to invest. Would you allow them to babysit your kids or let your kids spend the night in their homes? No, you wouldn't, and neither would I.

We've seen what happens with trust is violated. Look at what happened to the people who gave Madoff their money. You say the pain, anger, disappointment, revenge in their eyes. They wanted to torture and kill the guy for ruining their lives. Yet they trusted him at one time. It's a shame, really it is.

To be successful as an entrepreneur, you must act in a trustworthy manner. There's no two ways around it. And you have to be trustworthy.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes my Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It makes my writing go. For my ideas on writing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can copy it.

It makes my new publishing enterprise, By and for Writers go. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Trust and the Global Economy

Finally, on p. 2, Covey makes a point that's really in tune with the way the world economy is developing:

The ability to establish, grow, extend, and restore trust is not only vital to our personal and interpersonal well-being; it is the key leadership competency of the new global economy.

This is absolutely true. How do you trust to work with someone you don't know?

I'm considering collaborating with a software developer in England. People I trust know people who trust him. He looks fine as far as I can tell on paper. We've emailed a lot, and he seems on the up and up.

But do you really know anyone? There is example after example of people you thought you knew who were leading lives you never imagined. How do we extend trust to people you've never met. I've resolved that before we work together, I have to meet him in his environs.

But if we are to connect and collaborate, we have to trust. Simple as that. And trust is one thing these days that's in short supply.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes my Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It makes my writing go. For my ideas on writing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can copy it.

It makes my new publishing enterprise, By and for Writers go. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Steven Covey: Importance of Trust

I can't say enough about the importance of trust and of acting in a trustful way in our dealings with others.

On pp. 1-2 of his terrific book, The Speed of Trust New York, Free Press, 2006), Steven M. R. Covey says:

There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, economy, and civilization throughout the world--one thing which if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love.

On the other hand, if developed and leveraged, that one thing has the potential to create unparalleled success and prosperity in every dimension of life. Yet, it is the least understood, most neglected, and most underestimated possibility of our time.

That one thing is trust.

Trust impacts us 24/7, 365 days a year. It undergrids and affects the quality of every relationship, every communication, every work project, every business venture, every effort in which we are engaged. It changes the quality of every present moment and alters the trajectory and outcome of every future moment of our lives--both personally and professionally.

I cannot recommend Covey's work more highly.

What do you think of this? The goal is to produce more, skilled entrepreneurs. Is this helpful? Post a comment. I'd like to know. And follow me on Twitter.com.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes my Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It makes my writing go. For my ideas on writing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can copy it.

It makes my new publishing enterprise, By and for Writers go. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Trust in Entrepreneurship

Remember, back on February 3, 2009, we defined an entrepreneur as someone who undertakes an enterprise in an atmosphere of risk. Then on February 18, 2009, we revised the definition of an entrepreneur by substituting the words "a leader" for the word "someone" and came up with an improved definition: An entrepreneur is a leader who undertakes an enterprise in an atmosphere of uncertainty and risk.

Then, we found in John C. Maxwell's The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Follow Them and People Will Follow You, (Nelson Books, 1998) Maxwell's 6th Law of Leadership that says, "Trust is the foundation of leadership. See p. 55).

He expands this on p. 58:

To build trust, a leader must exemplify these qualities: competence, connection, and character. People will forgive occasional mistakes based on ability, especially if they can see that you're still growing as a leader. But they won't trust someone who has slips in character...Character makes trust possible. And trust makes leadership possible.

Steven M. R. Covey, in The Speed of Trust (New York, Free Press, 2006), spends a whole book talking about trust.

So trust is inextricably bound with leadership, and leadership with entrepreneurship. Therefore. Trust in inextricably bound to entrepreneurship.

In fact as we find out from reading Covey's work, trust is key in business dealings. One of the reasons we have the recession we have is because trust has been washed out of the system. Once gone, it takes a while to get it back.

For entrepreneurs to succeed, they must build trust. Trust with themselves, trust with their spouses and families, trust with their employees, trust with their customers, trust with their business partners, trust with his market, trust with the government.

We've spent some time with Ron Burt, Michael Gerber, Todd Duncan, John C. Maxwell. We're going to spend some time with Steven M.R. Covey looking at his work on trust. I hope you'll find it interesting and useful.

What do you think of this? The goal is to produce more, skilled entrepreneurs. Is this helpful? Post a comment. I'd like to know. And follow me on Twitter.com.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy. For my ideas on connection strategy, go to my new blog www.Connecting.blogspot.com.

It makes my Your Stop for Real Estate , my real estate referral business go. See www.yourstopforrealestate.blogspot.com.

It makes my writing go. For my ideas on writing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com where you can read my mystery for free, download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can copy it.

It makes my new publishing enterprise, By and for Writers go. See www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com where you can get a poem or a short story published.

Maxwell's Conclusions

After he lists and discusses each of the 21 laws of leadership--See The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Follow Them and People Will Follow You (Nelson Books, 1998), p. 225--He gave his conclusion: "Everything rises and falls on leadership."

He adds the following:

Any endeavor you can undertake that involves other people will live or die depending on leadership. As you work to build your organization, remember this:

-Personnel determine the potential of the organization.

-Relationships determine the morale of the organization.

-Structure determines the size of the organization.

-Vision determines the direction of the organization.

-Leadership determines the success of the organization.

Keep these in mind and read the rest of the book and the other things Maxwell has written. The books given in the notes are worth you looking at them, too.

What do you think of this? My goal is to produce more, skilled entrepreneurs. Is this helpful? Post a comment. I'd like to know. And check out my other enterprises. I'm on Twitter.com, Facebook, and Linkedin.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are their life's blood. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

For my ideas on writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

If you want to get a short story or poem published, go to www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com

Maxwell's 21st Law: The Law of Legacy

Maxwell's 21st Law says, "A leader's lasting value is measured by succession." See The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Follow Them and People Will Follow You (Nelson Books, 1998), p. 215. The point is how good a leader you are is measured by how well what you have crafted has done after you're gone.

A point to ponder. After all, great organizations do well after the leader is no longer there.

What do you think of this? My goal is to produce more, skilled entrepreneurs. Is this helpful? Post a comment. I'd like to know. And check out my other enterprises. I'm on Twitter.com, Facebook, and Linkedin.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are their life's blood. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

For my ideas on writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

If you want to get a short story or poem published, go to www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com

Maxwell's 20th Law: The Law of Explosive Growth

Maxwell's 20th Law, see The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Follow Them and People Will Follow You (Nelson Books, 1998), p. 205: "To Add Growth, Lead Followers--to Multiply, Lead Leaders."

He expands on this on p. 208:

Leaders who develop followers grow their organization only one person at a time. But leaders who develop leaders multiply their growth, because for every leader they develop, they also receive all of that leader's followers.

So there you have it. Surround yourself with leaders and nurture them.

What do you think of this? My goal is to produce more, skilled entrepreneurs. Is this helpful? Post a comment. I'd like to know. And check out my other enterprises. I'm on Twitter.com, Facebook, and Linkedin.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are their life's blood. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

For my ideas on writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

If you want to get a short story or poem published, go to www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com

Maxwelll's 19th Law: The Law of Timing

Maxwell's 19th Law, posted on pp. 193 of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Follow Them and People Will Follow You (Nelson Books, 1998): "When to Lead is As Important As What to Do and Where to Go."

On p. 198 there's a neat 2x2 table with Right/Wrong Action across the top and Right/Wrong Timing up the side.

Wrong Action + Wrong Time = Disaster.
Right Action + Wrong Time = Resistance.
Wrong Action + Right Time = Mistake.
Right Action + Right Time = Success.

How do you know the right action? It comes from deep inside of you. What's the right thing to do in a given situation. You know what it is.

But how do we know the right time? With our society turning over every 3-4 years and speeding up every day and having imperfect knowledge, it's getting harder and harder to judge timing. With business more and more resembling a random chess game where every day the players and the rules and the pieces change. In this landscape, you can know what the right time is to start a business as much as you can know the right time to buy a stock. And how is that?

You don't, is the answer. You make a reasonable move and then adjust as you go along. That move that looked right, may be all wrong and you die. Or that move that looked right may be right, and you're on the cover of Forbes Magazine as the entrepreneur of the year who won by defying the odds.

Entrepreneurship is jumping off a cliff and growing wings on the way down. That's what we have to do as entrepreneurs. See what the right thing to do is, try to get the best handle we can on timing, then jump and start growing. We will learn more about timing and what the right action is as we fall and then start to fly.

Remember, it's better to err on doing the right thing at the right time than doing nothing because we're scared.

What do you think of this? My goal is to produce more, skilled entrepreneurs. Is this helpful? Post a comment. I'd like to know. And check out my other enterprises. I'm on Twitter.com, Facebook, and Linkedin.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are their life's blood. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

For my ideas on writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

If you want to get a short story or poem published, go to www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com

Maxwell's 18th Law: The Law of Sacrifice

John C. Maxwell's 18th Law, posted on pp. 183 of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Follow Them and People Will Follow You (Nelson Books, 1998): "A leader must give up to go up." He elaborates on p. 188:

You have to give up to go up. Many people today want to climb up the corporate ladder because they believe that freedom and power are the prizes waiting at the top. They don't believe that the true nature of leadership is really sacrifice.

The corporate ladder still exists, but it's been sorely weakened. Companies are flatter. People collaborate in a flatter corporate landscape. It's harder to see over to the next peak. There's less desire to start in the mail room with hopes of being president in 15 or 20 years. The business environment is more like a random chess game now. But, still the tendency is to go for too much. Set yourself up in a company as CEO, rent some furniture, and you're a corporate executive. Easy to do but hard to succeed at without sacrifice.

On various tennis coverages, John MacEnroe, whom I think is the best commentator out there, often criticizes players for trying to go for too much with a shot. Rather than make that good clean passing shot that would have either won the point or forced their opponent to make a weak shot which they could have put away easily, they try to go for the winner and hit it out of the court or dump it into the net.

In short, the winning is in the sacrifice.

What do you think of this? My goal is to produce more, skilled entrepreneurs. Is this helpful? Post a comment. I'd like to know. And check out my other enterprises. I'm on Twitter.com, Facebook, and Linkedin.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are their life's blood. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

For my ideas on writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

If you want to get a short story or poem published, go to www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com

Maxwell's 3R's of Leadership

On pp. 177 to 179 of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Follow Them and People Will Follow You (Nelson Books, 1998), Maxwell lays out what he says is his 3R's of leadership: requirement, return, reward.

Here's how he explains them.

1. What is required? We're all accountable to somebody...For that reason, your list of priorities must always begin with what is required of you...

2. What gives the greatest return?...You should spend most of your time working in your areas of greatest strength. If something can be done 80 percent as well by someone else in your organization, delegate it...

3. What brings the greatest reward?...The things that bring the greatest personal reward are the fire lighters in a leader's life.

For entrepreneurial leaders, I would tweak this slightly.

1. What is required? What is required of you? Do you have it in you? What do you need to do to grow into an area that you need.

2. What is the return? What is the return both financially and personally.

3. What brings the greatest reward? Reward both financial and personal.

What do you think of this? My goal is to produce more, skilled entrepreneurs. Is this helpful? Post a comment. I'd like to know. And check out my other enterprises. I'm on Twitter.com, Facebook, and Linkedin.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are their life's blood. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

For my ideas on writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

If you want to get a short story or poem published, go to www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com

Maxwell's 17th Law: The Law of Priorities

Go to The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Follow Them and People Will Follow You. Nelson Books, 1998)p. 175 for this one, The Law of Priorities: "Leaders Understand that Activity is not necessarily accomplishment." There's a funny quote from Stephen Covey that says, "A leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, 'Wrong jungle!'"

I knew a lot of real estate agents who never got this distinction. They mistook activity for production. Activity is doing stuff, production is settling deals. You have to do stuff to get deals done, but you're judged on what you produce, not what you do.

A few years ago, I joined a prestigious business and social club here in Philadelphia. My objective was to make contacts that would lead to referrals that would lead to sales. Members were very prominent and had a lot of money so I thought there was a lot of potential. There was, but just potential. So I went to work and made oodles of contacts. It was costing me a bundle of money, but I figured from the commissions I would get, all I would have to do is settle one decent sized deal a year and I'd more than pay for my initial investment and over time would actually make a lot of cash. Fast forward several years, despite lots of money going out and lots of contacts and lots of referrals and lots of activity on my part, no sales. I decided to treat it like a non-performing asset, climbed up that tree Covey's talking about and yelled out, "Wrong forest."

With any marketing activity, you have to monitor your progress and change course where warranted. Sometimes you have to just cut your losses and take a different route.

What do you think of this? My goal is to produce more, skilled entrepreneurs. Is this helpful? Post a comment. I'd like to know. And check out my other enterprises. I'm no Twitter.com, Facebook, and Linkedin.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are their life's blood. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

For my ideas on writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

If you want to get a short story or poem published, go to www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com

Maxwell's 16th Law: The Law of the Big Mo

Maxwell, on p. 165, the law of the big mo, where mo stands for momentum. He says, "Momentum is the leader's best friend." See The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Follow Them and People Will Follow You. Nelson Books, 1998)

He elaborates saying,

The key is momentum--what I call the Big Mo. Just as every sailor knows that you can't steer a ship that isn't moving forward, strong leaders understand the to change direction, you first have to create forward progress--and that takes the Law of the Big Mo.

Here's an explicit metaphor for momentum: wind. You can't see or touch wind, but you can feel its effects.

How do you create momentum when none is appearing? How do you create wind when there is none. Or maybe there's wind out there that you're not feeling and you have to adjust your sails.

Obama's victory was carried along by momentum provided by the economy and the previous, horrendous 8 years of George I.

Maxwell doesn't give us any hints in this regard. You're on your own on this one. If you want to sail, best go somewhere there wind already.

What do you think of this? My goal is to produce more, skilled entrepreneurs. Is this helpful? Post a comment. I'd like to know. And check out my other enterprises. I'm no Twitter.com, Facebook, and Linkedin.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are their life's blood. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

For my ideas on writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

If you want to get a short story or poem published, go to www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com

Maxwell's 15th Law: The Law of Victory

P. 153 of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Follow Them and People Will Follow You. Nelson Books, 1998) gives Maxwell's 15th Law: "Leaders Find a Way for the Team to Win." The material in the box elaborates:

Victorious leaders feel the alternative to wining is totally unacceptable, so they figure out what must be done to achieve victory, and then they go after it with everything at their disposal.

There's little more to be said except that great leaders know when to cut their losses or to change direction when what they doing is likely not to have a desired outcome.

What do you think of this? My goal is to produce more, skilled entrepreneurs. Is this helpful? Post a comment. I'd like to know. And check out my other enterprises. I'm no Twitter.com, Facebook, and Linkedin.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are their life's blood. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

For my ideas on writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

If you want to get a short story or poem published, go to www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com

Maxwell's 14th Law: The Law of Buy In

Maxwell's 14th Law on p. 143, says: "People Buy Into the Leader, Then the Vision." He elaborates on p. 145:

People don't at first follow worthy causes. They follow worthy leaders who promote worthwhile causes. People buy into the leader first, then the leader's vision. Having an understanding of that changes your whole approach to leading people.

See Maxwell's book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Follow Them and People Will Follow You (Nelson Books, 1998).

Later, on p. 147, he gives a nifty little chart looking at the leader, vision, and the result. His equation is: Leader + Vision = Result.

The way he works it out, if people buy in to the leader, and they buy into his vision, they get behind the leader. Any other scenario, they either get another vision or they get another leader.

What do you think of this? My goal is to produce more, skilled entrepreneurs. Is this helpful? Post a comment. I'd like to know. And check out my other enterprises. I'm no Twitter.com, Facebook, and Linkedin.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are their life's blood. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog.

For my ideas on writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

If you want to get a short story or poem published, go to www.byandforwriters.blogspot.com