People tell me that one of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of their involvement with NBCoach is the opportunity to ask and answer the big questions, because they never get time or space to do that in the ordinary course of business.

The hardest questions are the ones right at the start: What are you trying to create - and why? We have a pretty good process for helping people get to the bottom of that, and of course it's an important foundation for the goals they set and the commitments they make. 

Almost invariably their first answers to that question have to be revised within 12-18 months because they've either achieved their goals, or they've developed a better understanding of what they want. One person for example came in with a clear desire to groom the business and sell it, but before he'd even put it on the market, he decided that actually it provided a better return on investment than he could achieve with anywhere else.  More importantly, part of the reason he was selling it was because he no longer enjoyed it.  Having transformed the way he thought about himself and his role in the business, he worked out that he could indeed "have it all" - a passive income, interesting work, and  4 day weekends.

Those self-help books about how to get what you want in life all boil down to just two things: know with clarity what you want, and be prepared to do whatever it takes to get it.  Most of us stumble at the first fence - what we want.

I read a great article today in Fortune about Bill Watkins, CEO of Seagate Technology.  He brings 200 of his employees to Queenstown here in New Zealand for a week-long "extreme corporate bonding".  I'm inherently skeptical about team-building, but only because a lot of companies do it in the absence of a serious commitment to building the "character" of the company.  Watkins is clearly not just paying lip service - he participates himself and has a well thought out strategy behind it, including the possibility that as a consequence of learning more about themselves, some of his best people may leave.  And he's OK with that.

What really caught my eye was the story he told of running in the New York marathon, and finishing in under 4 hours.  The point to the story was about setting and achieving goals, but even more important was this comment: "Happiness comes not from winning, but from assessing what you're capable of and doing it."

The motto at my younger son's school is simple - "the best I can be".

What's the best you can be?  If you couldn't fail, what would you dare to dream?

Mike Ashby 16 May 2008