I recently returned from an overseas trip where I worked with several clients. The long trip back to the United States took 25 hours and needless to say, these long flights can be tedious. Yes, I packed my magazines and my books. I had my iPhone and my iPad and everything else that I needed to watch movies and entertain my self.
But on the return trip, I tried to focus not so much on closing my self off into my own private little world but being aware of what was going on around me. And by doing that, I engaged the people around me in meaningful conversations.
I met a chief executive of a major corporation. I met someone very high up in a major university here in the United States and I conversed with a couple of other individuals that were involved in the sales efforts of their organization. Through the process, I shared insights and information and I learned from them. I started building some relationships. I don’t know if these relationships are going to lead to additional business down the line or not, but I enjoyed the trip and I enjoyed the relationships that I built.
Many times, things happen to us in this world because we put ourselves in a position for those things to happen to us. We can close ourselves off and sometimes, that’s okay, but we can also open ourselves up and expose ourselves to conversations with other people. We can be out in the world, engaged and interactive so that we have the opportunity to meet people, learn about businesses and have opportunities come our way.
When you think about your business, are you proactively creating situations where positive things can happen to you? Are you constantly putting the message out that needs to be put out? Whether you’re marketing for your organization, whether you’re involved in sales, whether you’re the CEO trying to build your leadership team, by putting your self in a position for positive things to happen, you’ll be amazed at what does happen. And it won’t be by chance. It’s because you will have taken specific steps to allow these things to happen for you.
Create opportunities for success. We all have the ability to do that and when we do that, what we’re doing is being accountable for the success and the growth of the enterprise that we are charged with building.
