In business and life today: It’s not enough to be good, you have to be great, It’s not enough to be impressive, you have to be influential, It’s not enough to be a winner, you have to be a champion

It’s not enough to be creative, you have to be innovative

Reflect on what is truly important to you, what is working for you, what is not. Be brutally honest with yourself. What would you like to change? How can you do things differently to get you where you want to be?

Networking is a fact of life, whether we believe it or not. We all need to network, reach out to new people, whether it is professionally, personally, career or business focused. Please do not kid yourself, we are all in the relationship building game whether we are building sales relationships, relationships within our organization to make getting things done easier, relationships with prospective employers if we are in job search mode, or relationships with people who have the same social interests as we do.

I was reading recently of a grandmother in South Korea who passed her driving test after failing 950 times. Yes, you read correctly, 950 times. After four years of trying and failing, 68 year old Cha Sa-soon who lives in Jeonju, 130 miles south of Seoul, finally achieved her dream.

I realized a long time ago that no matter what you want to achieve in life, personally or professionally, you have to surround yourself with good people who are supportive, committed, and competent at the skills they bring to the team. It is rare, the goal that you can accomplish completely on your own.

Belief is the most crucial game winner because if you do not believe you will achieve, overcome or succeed, you will probably be right. Belief is the lightning rod, the catalyst for all that follows. Truly, truly believe and you will have a better chance of succeeding. Positive attitude is everything.

When was the last time somebody said to you, “you WOWED me!!” We are always looking for the competitive edge in business today, differentiating ourselves from our competition. Organizations throw around buzz words like branding, culture, mission statement, but how often are these words and not action?

Continuing on from the last issue of the newsletter with five further keys to productive and successful networking.

January – the start of a fresh new year. This is a wonderful time to take stock and reflect on the year gone by, the triumphs you achieved, the times you shared with family and friends, the good choices you made in business. But in order to grow and develop both personally and professionally, you also have to look back at and acknowledge the things that challenged you, the things that did not go so well.

Growing up in England, Marks and Spencer was a way of life and major outing for me and my family. M & S or Marks and Sparks, as we used to call it, is today the largest clothing retailer in the United Kingdom, as well as an up-market food retailer on most if not all of the major high streets throughout the United Kingdom.