How Do You Get Ready for the Battle?

CEO’s and business leaders must be life long learners.  Your past creates your experience and sets the lens you view the world from.  Education helps you learn how to learn.  Once you get the degree, you never stop learning when you are a successful leader.  CEOs and top leaders read to learn and apply new concepts to stay fresh and innovative.  Constantly working on self-development keeps you growing.  When you are the leader, you are the lid on your organization.  If you want a $10Million dollar company, you need to be a $10Million dollar CEO.  If you want a $100Million dollar company, you need to be a $100Million dollar CEO. 

There are battles in business.  The battle for the account.  The battle for the market.  The cash flow battle.  The battle for top talent.  The battles I help clients fight- legal battles.  Often the stakes are high and they require the right foundation.  The CEO needs to be ready and they need to be confident.  If the case is won, it will mean the business continues and can prosper.  If the case is lost, the business may fail and be shut down, people will lose their jobs, their livelihood, and the vision will die.  It’s the pressure I know, and the reality that doesn’t even usually need to be discussed. 

So, how have I gotten ready?  I was born with and cultivated entrepreneurial DNA.  My parents helped instill entpreneurial traits in me as I watched my dad suit up with his big deal boots and negotiation farmland transactions.  My mom taught me to network and bring work home if need be.

Then, I went to school and studied business.  Then I want to law school and studied law.  After practicing for 14 years and rising to the level where I regularly represented CEOs, I went back to Dartmouth’s CEO school.  School gave me knowledge, but real cases provide the foundation for the experience to build upon.   Regularly working on the nine and ten figure cases taught me negotiation tactics and the tenacity it takes to play in the complex commercial litigation world. 

Whether you believe it’s a battle or just business, you need to be ready for battle to be ready to win.  Business can be a battle and business cases are a battle.  No one just admits to being wrong and writes a check with gravitas.  You have to investigate the facts, build the case, present the case, prepare and prepare again.  You need to have bullets in your pocket and be mentally ready for them to come after you.  If this sounds awful, you need to have the confidence of the right advisor leading you through. 

For more, my new book, Worth It, will launch on August 23, 2019 on Amazon and I’ll be presenting live at the BE WORTH IT leadership conference.  For details and to register now before the tickets are sold out, go to www.beworthit.com.  

To reach the author contact Jeana Goosmann, CEO & Managing Attorney, at  GoosmannJ@Goosmannlaw.com or (712) 226-4000.