"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail"
Benjamin Franklin was known for the following saying, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. It is true that if you do not set goals beforehand or plan ahead in life, you cannot succeed in life.
Success only comes to those with 3 critical traits:
Determination and commitment to your own good.
Capacity to set concrete goals in life.
Self-discipline to stick to your plan.
And successful people make sure to have short term, medium term and long term goals.
Since long term goals are the most complex to achieve, people come up with short term goals, which will slowly but surely help them to move in the right direction.
This way, you can become a bit more organised and well-planned. With so much preparation, one does not lose focus of his goals and objectives even when the going gets tough. And you know that things can get very tough. 2020 is a good example of a tough year.
People who fail to prepare goals beforehand lose their way easily. Since they are not clear about their goals, they give up when they are unable to face challenges in life and in business.
They forget the big picture (long term goals) and get overwhelmed by difficult tasks along the way. Success as a BTB Club member it’s very easy, all you have to do is to take care of your contacts. And at the same time it requires work. Working your professional contacts, as pleasant as it is, requires planning.
Why would you want to plan your activity at BTB Club?
When you fill up the Connectors Worksheet, you are setting yourself up for success. You know who to contact, and you have their contact details handy.
When you set aside time for your SE meetings and to prepare your referrals, you no longer fill pressure. You can then focus on the fact you are helping someone.
When you prepare your Weekly Presentation, you can be strategic about the message you are communicating. And other people understand much better how to bring you business.
As you book your time for BTB trainings you make sure you enhance your skills and strengthen your motivation, and your relationships with other members. You then can become a mentor for newer members.
Thinking ahead of time and rehearsing your Featured Presentation takes the edge of the public speaking difficulty. And if you are a great speaker, preparation helps you to enjoy your talk a lot more.
Following up on referrals is probably the most important trait of a great networker. And that also requires good preparation. It involves keeping informed the person who gave you the referral.
The way you educate fellow members to know how to bring you business improves tremendously when you prepare and review your 12 Questions worksheet. Every minute you spend working and sharing this document will give you 10 times return.
Your time spent on sprucing up your SP (SWOT Profile) and your Website Profile also helps other members to feel more motivate to put time into preparing referrals for you.
Preparing your visitors and substitutes is one of the biggest ways to add value to your colleagues in the club. A visitor can be the best present you can give to a fellow member.
Your preparation for your BTB Club is not an extra, is part of your commercial activity to bring customers through the door.
Charles Dickens once said, “I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, diligence, and the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time”.
These are the key ingredients for the ‘success’ recipe. Investing a bit of time in preparation can save you time and money and give you a sense of self-worth and satisfaction that will give you plenty of endorphins and therefore happiness.
By preparing for your success at BTB Club, you are also inevitably improving your skills and preparing yourself for success in your business, and also in your life.