Unlocking Your Full Potential By Taking Risks Outside Your Comfort Zone
Written By: Scott Koepf, Vice President of Strategic Development – Cruise Planners
“The Phantom of the Opera” was one of the longest running shows of all time on Broadway and continues to delight audiences around the world. One of the songs from that beautiful show got me thinking about our businesses (what a surprise!) and leads me to a question for you to answer: When do you know that you have committed enough?
To be successful in our business, or any business for that matter, requires a number of things including passion, knowledge, skills and commitment. We all know what it takes to be passionate about what we do. We also know that knowledge and skills are imperative for success and require an ongoing quest to keep learning and improving. But how much commitment is enough commitment? When have you committed enough? Some may argue that the measure of commitment is working full time versus part time. Or maybe the level of commitment is measured by a certain dollar amount invested in your agency. Or perhaps the full commitment occurs after a certain number of years in the business. Although all of that may be true to a degree, I think true commitment occurs when you move from taking a ‘safe risk’ to risking beyond your comfort zone.
We can apply the beautiful lyrics from “Past the Point of No Return” and discover that true commitment is when you go…
Past the point of no return,
the final threshold – what warm, unspoken secrets will we learn?
Beyond the point of no return …
You have brought me to that moment where words run dry,
to that moment where speech disappears into silence,
silence …
When you have put it all on the line you will indeed learn the secrets of what you are capable of. This same concept can be used not only in the evaluation of your commitment to your business but to each and every one of your customers. Do you get to the moment where words run dry? Have you asked all of the questions? Have you been authentic and vulnerable where the silence…the pause…will lead to the sale? When you reach the point of no return you are truly in a relationship with your client. There is no ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’ that will play back in your mind if you have built a relationship with honesty that has taken you to the final threshold.
If your business or your relationships with your clients are not where you want them to be, it may be because you are holding back. Maybe even just a little. To increase sales and maximize the success of your agency you must go…
Past the point of no return.