Winner or Loser?

1. The Winner is always part of the answer.
The Loser is always part of the problem.

2. The Winner always has a program.
The Loser always has an excuse.

3. The Winner says "Let me do it for you".
The Loser says "That's not my job".

4. The Winner sees an answer for every problem.
The Loser sees a problem for every answer.

5. The Winner sees a green near every sand trap.
The Loser sees 2 or 3 sand traps near every green.

6. The Winner says "It may be difficult but it's possible".
The Loser says "It may be possible but it is too difficult".

My mum gave me this little excerpt on "Winner or Loser" when I was in my teens. It is laminated and still with me up today. I thought I would share it with all of you.

My past life

For those of you who know me now, you probably would not have known that I was an avid and competitive sailor in my past life. What do I mean by "avid" and "sailor"? What has all these got to do with business?

Avid sailor:
I was training on the water 3 times a week (that's a minimum). Wed, Sat and Sun. When I was not out at sea, there was land training and the days of the four packs on my abs (this is very difficult to believe now since I am not hitting the gym as hard). Essentially this is how I have gotten used to the fact that weekends are no big deal since I am always doing something. As a teenager, when most of my mates were out at the movies and blowing their money on clothing, I was busy training and blowing my money on parts and ropes. Yes! I was a maniac (and still am in some ways).

Do not get me wrong. In my past life, I had a goal. I was not training blindly and "just-for-fun". The goal was to train and get into the Singapore sailing team. Did I realise this goal? Yes I did. Within a year and a half, I made it into the Singapore sailing team, the Schools sailing team and I was on a roll and kicking asses. No words can truly express the exhilaration and high I felt. Nothing was impossible after you conquer and tame the natural elements.

I represented Singapore in several international regattas in Dubai and Cape Town on the Laser Radial. My first ever regatta was in Dubai. I was not used to the big scene of sailing and did not quite enjoy the regatta as much. To top that off, I lost $400USD when I was there...someone nicked my wallet (that's another story).

The next event was the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Sailing Championships held in December 1998 in Cape Town, South Africa. I spent that week sailing next to seals and hoping that they would steer clear of me for fear of capsizing during the race. The experience of being able to be by yourself with only your boat in 20-30knots of wind blowing in your face (and trying to recover from a throat infection at the same time), was amazing and truly empowering. I came out feeling triumphant and fearless. Unfortunately, my performances at both international regattas were disappointing. Nonetheless, I learnt that I needed to train with more strategy and expose myself to more high seas. At the end of the day, the seas in Singapore is comparable to Canada Bay in Sydney. No chops.

Forgive me for being self indulgent and narcissistic here. I was enroute to be a part of the Asian Games and the Olympics. I received grants from the Singapore Sporting Association. I was the ranked in the top 5 amongst the boys and I was the number one girl in Singapore. The sailing fraternity was telling my dad that I would be the one to bring home a quarter of a million bucks (when you win the gold medal at the Asian Games, the generous Singapore government rewards you with $$$....not bad I say).

However, things did not turn out the way it was supposed to. Towards the end of my sailing career, I had severe tears in my ligaments on my left wrist. That impeded my movement and the ability to play the piano. To make matters worse, while I was crewing for my sister, I slipped and fell on my back. This is the biggest injury that I have ever suffered and still do suffer from it today (along with my wrist injury). These injuries made me rethink sailing in Sydney altogether. By that time, I was also severely burnt out and sailing became a chore rather than an enjoyment. Hence June 2000 officially ended my sailing career. I did try to get involve with the varsity teams. That did not quite work out as their version of training was to get pissed and only train 2 weeks prior to a major regatta. That was a major culture shock for me and it was ridiculous. How can you win if you only train 2 weeks prior to the event???? I have not sailed since then.

The lessons learnt in my past life are invaluable and words cannot express how grateful I am towards my parents for giving me the plentiful opportunities to experience what I did especially when sailing is not a sport that anyone can get into easily. Without my past, I would not have today.

The 'today' where I am able to work at my own pace and create the cashflow that I am aiming for. To date, I have implemented discipline, sacrifices, goal setting (yearly planning instrument a.k.a YPI), visualisation techniques and etc in my business. My control freak nature was developed in my past life when I was always in control of myself and my boat. I relied only on myself to decide which path I had to take in order to win the race and in turn the regatta. I had to visualise my success and cross the finish line in reality. I love that feeling, passion and the sea! In this life, I am very fortunate to be in business and not dependent on others to provide me with things I need out of my life. It is a wild feeling that I have achieved and succeeded in my small little way. I like the taste and feel of success, achievement and being on the podium-- these are the things that has made my life interesting. The sea will always be a reminder to me that nothing is impossible.

Goal setting

After speaking to one of my mates, I decided to attempt John McGrath's You Inc. for the second time. He is after all one of Australia's leading real estate agent. This time around, I read the book with a goal. Instead of just being a casual read (read and put away type of book), I treated You Inc like a textbook that is full of fantastic resources and started underlining and writing out my thoughts on the various questions. You Inc coupled with Kirsty Dunphey's e-book fueled me through the night. Both authors challenged me to write out my goals and keep to them by reviewing them EVERY SINGLE DAY!

The goals are on lists like the following:

• 25 places I would like to visit
• 25 things that I would like to do/experience
• 25 things I would like to have
• 20 things that make me happy

These lists got me wrecking my brains. When you put pen to paper, it is not exactly that easy to describe that picture of perfection that has been sitting in your mind. For starters, I was only able to come up with 10 things that make me happy, 14 things that I would like to do (no. Getting married never made it to this list) and 10 things that I would like to have (shoes and handbags made it here) and 20 places that I would like to visit.

Goals for this weekend...

1. Complete my list of goals and set time frames in which I would like to achieve the goals.
2. Decide how I will be tackling the immediate goals and write out a plan of attack.
3. Stick the plan of attack on a wall so that I would be able to see every single day and be reminded of it.

Creating a brand that works

2 different customers came up to me a couple of weeks ago at different times. One is of Fillipino background and the other is Chinese. Both told me this "My friends said they have heard about Shine Music School." My reply to both was "Did you tell them about us" and the answer was no. That really got me thinking...

Our branding has worked after years of marketing and advertising. These components constitute at least 30% of our expenses. It is good to know that we are known all over Western Sydney and people actually recognise our brand.

I believe that good branding starts from the most basic:

• Chosen colour/s of the logo
  
• Simplicity of the logo
• Relevance of the logo
• Most importantly, sticking your logo all over the place! Be loud and BE KNOWN (This is a highly controversial topic amongst marketing gurus when it comes to start ups).

Some marketeers believe that as a small business and start-up, you need to actively promote the benefits of what you offer instead of your brand name. However, I believe that if you have a strong logo, correct colours and shapes, you should include your logo in all your advertisments and marketing. This is how you build a brand that is remembered by everybody. There is no point drumming about all the benefits of what you sell if the consumers cannot remember where to look for these benefits. On the contrary, there is no point in sticking your logo everywhere if benefits are not communicated effectively.

For example, Coca-Cola has built a fantastic brand and has used effectively tied in their brand with the benefits (of looking cool and etc) of drinking the drink. You know that Coca-Cola makes you look cool and funky because these are what their advertisements tell you. On the other hand, you have Volvo the car makers who have failed to promote the benefits of buying a Volvo over another luxury car. The recent TV ad that asks consumers what they think about the Volvo is highly ineffective.

1. You never ask what potential customers what they think about your product. You tell them what you want them to think about your new products.

2. The advertising did not mention or associate itself with any potential benefits that the end user will experience should they decide to purchase the Volvo. To me, that is just ineffective marketing that is every expensive. What Volvo should have done is the following:

• Determine who their target market is (Is it women? Families? Men? Gen X? Baby boomers?)
  
• Analyse their competitors' marketing and decide what works and what does not.
• For example, if their target market is women, they should learn from Ford and advertise in ways to attract women. They could use fashion and associate their brand as being a fashion accessory to match fashionable outfits.

Companies and marketing gurus should look around and take note of the changing demographics and work accordingly instead of blindly aiming and thinking that they will be able to build an outstanding brand just because they have millions in their marketing budgets.

More free business and success stories

For those of you who are keen, I have added more links under my "FREE" stuff. Some of them are pretty good and inspirational for those wanting to start a business or just be successful in life. Yes. I understand that the definition of success can be measured very differently by different individuals, however, it will not harm anyone to read more. Have fun and enjoy.

Hello!!! Can you please help me find Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr and May?!

Had to teach on Sunday and that was a real bitch. However, as all things always have some good in it, I realised that today is the 28th of May. That really got me thinking. Where did the last 5 months go? What have we achieved over the last few months?

So what have I or really we (me and Will) achieved? Let's see if I can categorise this accordingly:

1. Operations:
• We are currently in a position where we have hired a part-time administrator to help do the stuff that we have on our to-do list (that we keep putting them off because they are too mundane). 3 cheers to this great person who is assuming the new role
• We have also hired 2 wonderful people to help us run the school. This means that we can get days off!!! Finally. So long, farewell to working 7 days a week! Absolute nightmare!!!
• 
  
2. Marketing (This is my favourite past-time, apart from shopping for shoes and my new iPod poker):
• I have been reading up a lot on marketing. The library is getting there and it is looking great!
• We have a beautiful website (www.shinemusic.com.au )now and getting plenty of leads.
• I have to see that I am proud of my internet marketing skills. Shine Music School is consistently ranked in the top 5 of the Google searches! YES~!!!
• Parents have come up to us telling us that their friends have heard about us. This means that we have successfully created strong brand awareness.
• It is official: Shine Music School has established itself as the leading music school and the biggest one in Parramatta!
• Implemented a marketing system that has streamlined our marketing and sales process.
3. Finance:
• Getting an accountant to finish up our bookkeeping work and paying them a whole heap of $$ but not getting the results (really useless people they are).

These achievements are a result of the cumulative hard work and fights over the last few years. The only person who understands this roller-coaster of a ride, is Will. For he was there when all these happened. So what is next in the pipeline? Plenty... that I will tell you at a later stage.