The End of the Year

We’re at the bottom of the year. In reflection, here are a few things learned and remembered as this year of the new comes to a close – some personal, some professional. But at the end of the day, it all mingles together:

1. The art of the ask. You have something to learn from others. You have everything to learn from others. Listen. Pay attention. Read. Download podcasts. Ask questions. Ask one more question after you thought you were done asking questions.

2. Pick up the phone. Call your mother. She misses you. Then, if you have more than three sentences to say to anyone else, pick up the phone. Call your client, customer, or person who needs to hear from you. If you have bad news, call. If you have good news, call. But do not deflect important or difficult phone calls through email.

3. Take pictures of things other than yourself. You look great. Take pictures of your kids, your employees, your great lunches, or nature. Take pictures of things that make you laugh. Because at the end of the year, you’ll sit on your couch and wonder if it was all worth it and whether you lived while you were closing the deal. You can thank me after you’ve scrolled through your pictures and realized that yes, you’ve closed a great deal and you’ve lived your life to the fullest.

4. Keep your family, friends, and employees close, and your cleaning crew even closer. Life is hard. Love your family. Lean on your friends. Give as much as you get. Be kind to your employees. When you are awake at 3:13 a.m. worrying about your deal, they probably are as well. Talk to your cleaning crew. Learn their names. As we all know, life is cyclical. The deal is cyclical. Work is cyclical. Don’t forget your relationships.

5. Leave grain in the fields for those who need it. Don’t be greedy. Give generously. There’s enough.

6. You are not faking it. You’ve got what it takes to imagine the deal, close the deal, grow the deal, run the deal, and sell the deal.

7. Fight for it – sometimes. Fight for what you’re worth. Negotiate, research, and volley the ask while you require answers. But know when it’s the battle and know when it’s the war. Battles can be lost but wars cannot.

8. It’s not like it is in the movies. Enough said. Strategy requires time – but just the right amount.

9. Listen to music. Play Sonny Rollins’ Way Out West all the time.

10. Do not stop until you find the answer. The answer may be yes, no, or not now. Or something totally different. But get your answer. And once you have your answer, don’t forget to rest.