BMV Club

Goal setting is the single most important life skill in every successful person’s career.

Over 97% of people never learn how to do it properly.

The only way to define the real goal is:  “A dream with a deadline.”

In his book “How to Get Everything You Want Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible”, Brian Tracy claims that “Less than 3% of adults have clear written goals with plans on how to achieve them.”

The keyword here is written. 

Success is no accident. Those who become very successful, wealthy or win gold medals at major sporting events have one thing in common – they belong to the 3% club. They have written goals. 

They anticipate and create their future by writing their life goals.

Most entrepreneurs are often busy people – busy fire fighting most of the time. If not servicing customers then they are busy trying to win new business or watching competition or creating new products or offerings.

They resist taking an hour each month write-down their goals.  

A written goal has 10x the achievement possibility than a goal that just lingers in your mind.

You can find hundreds of resources on the goal-setting and goal-achievement.  Here is my highest recommendation:

• Website with free resources: Setting Goals 101
• Book: Double Your Income Doing What You Love 

In his book “The Success Principles“, Jack Canfield recommends that you should have at least 101 goals. 

Start today

Write 10 goals in each of the following 10 categories. You can start with a few milestone you would like to achieve in your lifetime. Write as many milestones as you can think of right now and complete the rest later.

The important thing is: be specific.

• Financial Milestones (pay off mortgage before 2015 save £50,000, own 10 properties, pay off credit card loans)
• Physical Change Milestones (size 32 waist, 17% fat)
• Places to Visit Milestones (Coral Reef in Australia, Oktoberfest in Germany, trek in South America)
• Relationship Milestones (get married, have dinner with family twice a week, take son to swimming every Saturday)
• Content to Consume Milestones (Books to read or Films to watch)
• Skill Milestones (skiing expert on a slope, C++ programming, Chinese cooking)
• New things to Learn Milestones (painting, French)
• New Creation Milestones (write a book, self build family home, paint a portrait)
• Risk Milestones (travel London to Kathmandu via road, climb Mount Kilimanjaro)
• Ownership Milestones (holiday home in South of France, Mercedes Benz SLK-Class 350, Diamond necklace, Patek Philippe watch)
• Professional Milestones (become department head, start a company, sign up 100 new clients)
• Certificate Milestones (qualify as engineer, get MBA, apply for MENSA)

Now it is up to you. Don’t just think … get writing now.

Remember: what gets written gets done.

You can comment here if you like. Tell the world what you would like to accompalish in your lifetime. 

Do it now while it’s still fresh on your mind because it will just take 5 minutes out of your day, but what you discover will last you a lifetime and help leave your legacy.

Most property investors or home owners want to know how much a property is worth? Whether they are buying a new property or have had one in their portfolio for a while, they are always interested in the value of the property.

One way is: as a surveyor. But the problem is, surveyors are not cheap. A mortgage survey will generally cost in the region of £400-500 and a private survey will cost around £250.

Alternatively you can pay a visit to your friendly estate agent and see the asking prices of other similar properties around your own.

But the main problem is: no two properties are the same. Some may have a conservatory or drive way and others may have a larger garden or an extra bedroom in the loft. Surveyors value properties keeping all these factors in mind.

To do that, they use a system, called AVM or Automated Valuation Model.

Access to this system usually costs money. But there is a way you can use this system for free. And it is so simple to use that any one can value almost any property without needing any special skills. Did I tell you that it is free?

Now you should be able to value your property and arrive at a similar valuation as a surveyor.

I have made a short recording to explain this system works. To listen, click the Play button below.

Please leave a comment afterwards.

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This true story is part of management folklore. It can help improve your productivity, just like it has helped many other entrepreneurs before you. Just pay close attention to the central message and act and son you could be sitting at the top of you own very successful BMV empire.

Year: Around 1904
A man called Charles Schwab was standing in his office late one afternoon staring out of a window pondering over all those things that needed doing before he could go home to entertain his visiting friends. He could not think of a way to get away any time soon. After all the buck stopped with him because he ran this steel mill.

Bethlehem Steel Company was hardly a name known to any one except its suppliers or a few customers, not that Schwab lacked any ambition.

About this time, his secretary informed him of the arrival of Ivy Lee, a management consultant, for a pre-arranged meeting. Mr Lee was visiting to pitch for his company’s services. He ended his presentation with the statement: “With our service, you’ll know how to manage better.”".

Ivy’s presentation was slick but his last statement struck a cord with Schwab. He asked: “Mr Lee, we are not doing badly at present but we can do better, of course. If you can show me a way of achieving more in my working day then I will be interested in your services”

“Alright, but then you will have to do what I ask you to”, said Ivy, aware that successful men are more used to giving rather than taking orders, “and I can guarantee that you will increase your as well as your company’s productivity by at least 50%, if not more.”

“I’ll gladly listen to you and pay you anything you ask”, said Schwab.

Lee opened his briefcase and pulled out a blank A4 sheet of paper and handed it to Schwab.

“Write down the six most important tasks you have to do tomorrow”. Schwab took about 3 minutes to do as told.

“Now think which is the most important task on this list”, said Lee. “Number all these tasks in the order of their importance, starting from one to six.” It took another 2 minutes.

“Tomorrow morning when you come to the office, start the task that you have prioritised as number one. You are NOT allowed to start any other task until you have completed this task”, said Lee, “after task one is complete start the second task, then task number three and so on.”

“But I have hundreds of other things to do too”, protested Schwab.

Lee said, “it does not matter. I want you to work only on the most important tasks, and none others because they can wait. If you can’t finish your most important tasks by this method then you couldn’t with any other method either. And without a system like this you probably wouldn’t even decide which are the most important ones”.

Then Lee added, “Spend the last five minutes of every working day making out a “Must Do” list for the next day’s tasks. This must be done the night before.”

Schwab was in deep thought, thinking ‘will it work… or will it not?’ Since he had made a commitment to Lee, he decided to give it a try.

“About my fees Mr Schwab”, said Lee while extending his hand to say good bye, “send me whatever you think my advice is worth – but only after you have tried it”.

The whole meeting lasted under half hour.

In two weeks Lee received a cheque of $25,000 from Charles Schwab with a note saying that this was the most profitable advice he had ever received.

Within weeks, Charles Schwab asked his management to start prioritising their tasks Lee’s way. He called it the ‘Rule of Six’.

Did the advice work? Within five years the unknown Bethlehem Steel Company became the biggest independent steel producer in the world making Schwab a hundred million dollar fortune, and the best known steel man alive at that time.

Lee’s advice helped Bethlehem management to develop H-beam which revolutionised the building construction and made possible the age of the skyscraper.

MORAL: Tonight, just before you finish work, make a list of 6 (or less) tasks of our own and do them first thing tomorrow. Follow Lee’s theory and judge the results yourselves. They work… trust me!

[tags]Rule of Six, Charles Schwab, Lee Ivy, Inspiration, Improve Productivity [/tags]