Setting up a new business is a terrifying endeavor. Many of the shadier business types like to tell you it is easy. They propose to have simple short cuts, outsourced staff and guaranteed automation with push button set and forget solutions. When you speak to a real entrepreneur with an incredible track record of success, you tend to find the story is a little different.
As the author of The 80/20 Principle, Richard Koch (pictured left) understands what is required for real success. In simple terms, the 80/20 suggests 80% of results come from 20% of causes. Therefore, if you can find and harness that top 20%, you are going to excel well beyond the competition. The bad news is it can take real effort to find and harness the top 20%. The good news is you don’t have to find it alone.
If we surround ourselves with the best people, such as the top 20% of a particular industry or group, then finding superior solutions becomes that much easier. In my interview with Richard Koch, you discover just how he did that. A large part of the process for finding the top 20% of people is trusting your intuition based on first impressions. These are called ‘snap judgements’ and they tend to be quite accurate when properly followed. Below is a process to help you learn how to review and better create your own first impressions.
1.) Review Emotions – Tune into how you felt during the event. What were you feeling when with him or her? Did you feel more positive emotions like excited, energetic, comfortable, joyful or more negative emotions like uncertain, bored, edgy or disappointed?
2.) Review Physicality – How frequent was eye contact? How close did you sit or stand to each other and how did it feel? Did one of you pull back or edge forward as it progressed. Was body language open or closed and was there any physical contact. How did the conversation feel and sound? Did it seem respectful, fun and flowing or was it stilted and awkward?
3.) Quality of Contact – What was the quality of the physical contact (handshake or hand on shoulder) if any? Whether you touched each other or not, did it feel right as an idea. Did they look you in the eyes when shaking your hand or away. Did they smile or did it seem more obligatory? Were they simply going through the motions or did it feel genuine? Did the contact if made feel right in regards to firmness?
4.) * OPTIONAL: What could you have done differently to have enhanced the interaction? Could you have smiled more, spoke with more authority or less, listened more, engaged in more eye contact, changed your body language, touched more or less and so on. From all these considerations choose 3 in particular and consciously aim to use them in your next important set of interactions.
To learn how Richard Koch used 80/20 thinking to create his first incredibly successful business (hint: it was in the way he found his staff), you can listen to my interview with Richard Koch by clicking here.
