The most successful in my industry understand some key fundamentals; having the quickest turnaround time, limited liability and a huge network. This industry has unlimited growth potential and to attain that and grow your business you must possess the knowledge.
I’m fortunate enough to know several remarkably successful people. Regardless of industry or profession, they all share the same perspectives and beliefs.
And they act on those beliefs:
1. Time doesn’t fill me. I fill time. Quality time
Deadlines and time frames establish parameters, but typically not in a good way. The average person who is given two weeks to complete a task will instinctively adjust his effort, so it takes two weeks.
Forget deadlines, at least to manage your activity. Tasks should only take as long as they need to take. However, without a skillset you are challenged as how to manage or ever to obtain your deadline goals. Do everything as quickly and effectively as you can. Then use your “free” time to get other things done just as quickly and effectively.
Average people allow time to impose its will on them; remarkable people impose their will on their time.
2. The people around me are the people I chose.
Some of your employees drive you nuts. Some of your clients are obnoxious. Some of your friends are selfish, all-about-me jerks.
You chose them. If the people around you make you unhappy it’s not their fault. It’s your fault. They’re in your professional or personal life because you drew them to you–and you let them remain.
Think about the type of people you want to work with. Think about the types of customers you would enjoy serving. Think about the friends you want to have.
Then change what you do so you can start attracting those people. Hardworking people want to work with hardworking people. Kind people like to associate with kind people. Remarkable employees want to work for remarkable bosses.
Successful people are naturally drawn to successful people.
I have never paid my dues.
Dues aren’t paid, past tense. Dues get paid, each day. The only real measure of your value is the tangible contribution you make daily.
No matter what you’ve done or accomplished in the past, you’re never too good to roll up your sleeves, get dirty, and do the grunt work. No job is ever too menial, no task ever too unskilled or boring.
Remarkably successful people never feel entitled–except to the fruits of their labor.
4. Experience is irrelevant. Accomplishments are everything.
You have “10 years in the Bounty Hunter Industry.” Whoopee. I don’t care how long you’ve been doing what you do. Years of service indicate nothing; you could be the worst Bounty Hunter in the world.
I care about what you’ve done: how many arrests you’ve created, how long it took you to locate those defendants, how many new associations you developed in the past year, how many client-specific applications you’ve developed (and what kind)… all that matters is what you’ve done.
Successful people don’t need to describe themselves using hyperbolic adjectives like passionate, innovative, driven, etc. They can just describe, hopefully in a humble way, what they’ve done.
5. Failure is something I accomplish; it doesn’t just happen to me.
Ask people why they have been successful. Their answers will be filled with personal pronouns: I, me, and the sometimes too occasional we.
Ask them why they failed. Most will revert to childhood and instinctively distance themselves, like the kid who says, “My toy got broken…” instead of, “I broke my toy.”
They’ll say the economy tanked. They’ll say the market wasn’t ready. They’ll say their suppliers couldn’t keep up.
They’ll say it was someone or something else.
And by distancing themselves, they don’t learn from their failures.
Occasionally something completely outside your control will cause you to fail. Most of the time, though, it’s you. And that’s okay. Every successful person has failed. Numerous times. Most of them have failed a lot more often than you. That’s why they’re successful now.
Embrace every failure: Own it, learn from it, and take full responsibility for making sure that next time, things will turn out differently.
6. Volunteers always win.
Whenever you raise your hand you wind up being asked to do more.
That’s great. Doing more is an opportunity: to learn, to impress, to gain skills, to build new relationships–to do something more than you would otherwise been able to do.
Success is based on action. The more you volunteer, the more you get to act. Successful people step forward to create opportunities.
Remarkably successful people sprint forward.
7. If I’m paid well, it’s all good.
Specialization is good. Focus is good. Finding a niche is good.
Generating revenue is great.
Anything a client will pay you a reasonable price to do–if it isn’t unethical, immoral, or illegal–is something you should do. Your clients want you to deliver outside your normal territory? If they’ll pay you for it, fine. They want you to add services you don’t normally include. If they’ll pay you for it, fine. Shut up, roll ’em up, do the work, and get paid.
Only do what you want to do, and you might build an okay business. Be willing to do what clients want you to do and you can build a successful business.
Be willing to do even more and you can build a remarkable business. Always remember you do not know everything. To climb the mountain of success, you need direction/instructions.
8. People who pay me always have the right to tell me what to do.
Get over your cocky, pretentious, I-must-be-free-to-express-my-individuality self. Be that way on your own time.
The people who pay you, whether clients or employers, earn the right to dictate what you do and how you do it–sometimes down to the last detail.
Instead of complaining, work to align what you like to do with what the people who pay you want you to do.
Then you turn issues like control and micro-management into non-issues.
9. The extra mile is a vast, unpopulated wasteland.
Everyone says they go the extra mile. Almost no one does. Most people who go there think, “Wait… no one else is here… why am I doing this?” and leave, never to return.
That’s why the extra mile is such a lonely place.
That’s also why the extra mile is a place filled with opportunities.
Be early. Stay late. Make the extra phone call. Send the extra email. Do the extra research. Get more education. Remember, you do not know everything and in this service industry, you must always be on top of your game . Don’t just tell employees what to do–show them what to do and work beside them.
Be a leader – leaders are also educators. Lead as they say by example.
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About the author: Scott Bernstein is the CEO of Bounty Hunter Training Academy and Child Recovery International headquartered in the Research Triangle of North Carolina. He has extensive experience as a Counterterrorist Consultant, International Apprehension Operative, Human & Sex Trafficking Expert and a Military and Law Enforcement Trainer. He is available as a Consultant and as a Speaker. In addition to his LinkedIn profile, you can also interact with Scott on his LinkedIn group http://bit.ly/1LMp2hj.
Scott Bernstein is the founder and director of both organizations: Child Recovery International (www.thelost.net) and Bounty Hunter Training Academy (www.americanbountyhunter.org). They implement unconventional techniques such as criminal profiling, victimology, behavioral Psychology, Neuropsychology, pre-text art and expert skip tracing. To reach CRI or BHTA, reach them at 984-235-4816 or in writing at usahunt@aol.com.
