The final chapter of "What Clients Love" by Harry Beckwith should be read by anyone who wants to become extraordinary. Titled, "Why do Some people and Businesses thrive?, he hits it right on the mark thanks to Historian David Landes (The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why some are so rich and some are so poor.), John Dryden, Victor Hansen (The Soul of the Battle), David Pottruck and Terry Pearce (Clicks and Mortar) and a story about Howard Schultz and his belief that the difference between Starbucks and the rest of the coffee chains is his company's commitment and passion.
"Belief and passion: Is this any way to run a company? Give me process, a Gant chart, a system, the hardened executive insists. Give me something concrete: Seven steps, eight keys.
We try. But when we search for the hard nuggets that drive success, we don't find hard nuggets. We find something softer. We find that the equation seems elusive, defying all Intelligent efforts to reduce it to action steps."
I love Harry Beckwith. I am currently reading his latest book, You, Inc: The Art of Selling Yourself, which is as insightful as his previous three books. An excellent read, but I think what he has to say in this final chapter of "What Clients Love," is some of the most accurate, and seldom analyzed, insights he has ever published. But he had me questioning what I was reading until I read further into the chapter.
"You could struggle for a lifetime to translate these intangibles into your plan. That's why so few companies soar. If every business could reduce belief and passion into easy steps, almost every business would have.
What should managers do? Build something that fills you with passion and then spread its flames into every corner of your business.
Listen to Pearce, Pottruck, Hanson, and Landes: Belief and passion grow businesses. Clients love passionate people and passionate businesses because passion stimulates them-they feel it and feel better too-and because they know that passion produces great work.
Triumph then, then, belongs to those who believe. belief steels us with the courage to take risks that the faithless avoid, and to reap the rewards that follow-to realize that our loves grow in proportion to our courage."
This my take on belief and passion. I think it is fairly simple to put passion and belief into an organization. They are both part of The A's, B, C's, D's, and P's of Achievement. Awareness, Attitude, Action, Belief, Courage, Confidence, Commitment, Desire, Discipline, Development, Passion, Plan, Perseverance
Like everything in life, personal and organizational excellence requires knowledge, insight, and awareness regarding whatever it is a person is trying to accomplish. It all starts with awareness. A daily focus on learning will lead to individual and organizational achievement. It is the end product of an awareness that helps people believe in their ability to excel which in turn leads to commitment and passion.
In consumer sales and service, few businesses believe they can become extraordinary. Few have a communication (engagement) system that gets everyone on the same page, builds confidence in the company's ability to be special, or even hints at a creating a passionate team of front line personnel.
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