Results matter, and appearances matter, but...

What we achieve matters, and how what we achieve is interpreted by others matters, but how we get those results matters just as much.

Covey says, in The Speed of Trust (2006), p. 114, "In considering results, you always need to ask two critical questions: What results am I getting? and How am I getting those results?"

Past results matter because they are one thing that others have to judge us on. How people view them matters because they're the ones we're counting on to promote us to others, and how you get them matters because you don't want to use methods that are so Draconian that everyone feels bruised in the process.

If you achieved the highest sales ever in your company, you're not going to do any long-term good if your suppliers hate you, your partners can't stand to work with you, no one will sit on your board, and no one will work for you, your wife divorces you, and your children can't stand to be seen with you. An extreme example, I agree, but you get the point?

So we need always to think about what we want to achieve, how want to achieve them, and our achievements will be interpreted by others. We can't control this last one, but we need to at least consider it.

My goal here is to bring out more skilled entrepreneurs. How am I doing?

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. It informs my connection strategy.

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.timswritingblog.blogspot.com for my ideas on writing and publishing and read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

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.