The Lucky 500 is Not a Stock Car Race!(A Lesson I Learned About The ... of ... Brents, "The 80/20 Guy"I have been a seminar and workshop leader for over ... mixing The Lucky 500 is Not a Stock Car Race!(A Lesson I Learned About The Importance of Gaol-Setting)Robert Brents, "The 80/20 Guy"I have been a seminar and workshop leader for over fourteenyears, mixing in stints as a consultant and project leaderin order to stay current and be able to speak fromexperience.Over those years, I have refined my message and created myniche. Im now known as The 80/20 Guy, and mypresentations are based on what I call The ParetoPerspective.For about the last three years, however, I had pretty muchjust let things happen, taking gigs when they came along,delivering a wide variety of topics. Jack of many seminars,master of one - but not focusing on delivering itconsistently.Well, folks, when you coast along like that, eventually themomentum runs down and your vehicle comes to a stop by theside of the road.Thus, for the first time in fourteen years in business formyself, my income last year wasnt higher than the yearbefore. In fact, it was lower.So at the beginning of this year I decided to consciouslyset goals. Specific goals. Long-term goals, because I knewthat they would drive my short-term goals. And I did this ina way I had never used before.I started with the largest end-objective, and then workedbackwards to figure out what I would have to do specificallyto make it happen.I determined the financial goal I wanted to attain withinthe next six years. Then, based on my current speaking feeschedule, I calculated that to produce that result I wouldneed to deliver 500 presentations.Hence, The Lucky 500: the 500 companies or decision-makerswho will hire me to deliver my message that will help themfocus resources on breakthrough objectives to improve theirproductivity, profitability, and creativity, and createoutrageous success.So the lesson I learned through painful experience (which Ihave incorporated into the Planning segment of my keynotespeech, Frank Sinatra Didnt Mover Pianos!), start withthe end in mind.P.S. I have also discovered that using this approach -having a specific target of 500 presentations makes iteasier to take the Nos that are an inevitable part ofcold calling prospective clients. (The close ratio in mybusiness is only about 1 out of every 20 to 30 calls.) Myaversion to those Nos was what caused me to stop makingcold calls, which led to the decline of my business. Now, myattitude is that I only have to find 500 companies ordecision-makers to reach my goal. So, if not this prospect,then possibly the next. If I get a no I move on to thatnext call immediately because the sooner I do, the sooner Iwill find my Lucky 500! Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com