2019 was a great year for us in terms of business as well as in my personal life. We had some major breakdowns which taught us lots of good lessons while we resolved them.
1. Do not get your company to rely on one major client
The major mistake we made was our 80% staff had been working for one client for years. And when that work got stopped the 80% company had no work with 50% staff was a senior and experienced developer with top salaries.
Of course, a long term relationship is important but always keep working with multiple clients/people. It will keep your business moving even if one of your work got stopped for whatsoever reason. Because even if you have top talent, getting really good clients is too tough in the market.
2. Everything starts with YOU
Before you transform your business, the first thing that needs to be transformed is yourself. Once you start transforming everything else into your business, your team will start transforming automatically.
Your team learns a lot from you, they are your main observers. Once they see you transforming, their life will also start getting transformed.
3. Wake up Early
All great leaders are early birds. Once you win your morning, you can win the rest of the day. 3 hours of early mornings are the main productive hours. That’s the time when you can complete things that you are not able to complete throughout your day or you are not getting time for.
Also waking up at a fixed early morning time will help you a lot in your health. Wake up at 5 am at least, do some exercise, read, and complete the most important thing in the morning only.
4. Power of Reading
“Not every Reader is a Leader but every Leader is a Reader.”. This sentence has a lot to say. Once you start reading it will transform your life a lot. The good book contains years of research by the author. So you can directly get those years of knowledge by reading that book in just a few days.
5. Increase your Networking
I will say you should meet lots of people. Meet them, talk with them, know them, learn from them even if you are not working with local people.
Plan to meet one good CEO or Coach every month. Invite them to lunch or dinner and try to learn as much as you can from them. Ask about their processes, structures, systems, technologies, etc.
6. Contribution to other’s lives
When you contribute to other people’s lives, that contribution will come directly back to you by double. When you transform their life, your life will automatically get transformed.
7. Get a Coach or Mentor
Always surround yourself with Coaches and Mentors at each stage of life. In Business and Personal life as well. Your coach can be anyone from Friends, Family, or some specialized Mentors and Coaches.
You always need someone who can push you, help you, guide you. Get someone who can give your honest and transparent advice and guidance.
8. Never stop Learning
Never stop learning. Always learn something every day or at least a week. Read Books or Watch Videos or Learn new technologies or Purchase some Courses. Even if you are super busy, put a dedicated time to watch 10 mins video or Read 10 mins every day.
In the long run, just 10 mins of every day will help you a lot.
9. Write Daily Journal
Writing your daily Journal helps a lot. List down your today’s achievements and your tomorrow’s goals. It will help you track your daily progress and plan your day off tomorrow.
When you write a Journal, you will have an exact idea on the next day, what are your priorities in the morning only. Once you plan your day a day, it has tremendous benefits.
10. Delegation
Delegation is really powerful. Before doing any task, just think if you can delegate it then delegate it. Your time is limited and precious, put it on the things where it’s needed rather than doing things that someone else can do from your team.
And if they are not able to do it right now, start training them and make them capable to take off your load.
11. Power of ToDo List
Start Maintaining To-Do list. It has huge power and will bring a great impact. Anything that you need to do, add to your ToDo list. Need to make a call to a friend? add it. Need to send an Email to the client? Add it.
Every small thing should be added to the ToDo list with a due date if possible. It will help you prioritize your tasks and motivate you at the end of the day when you check the list of complete things.
12. Write a Blog
Start writing your blog. It doesn’t need to be fancy or content-rich. Just write down anything that seems to be useful to at least one person in the world. Just write down about things that came to you across the day.
Your blog post doesn’t need to be long. Just write 2-3 small paragraphs and that’s it. But at least start writing something daily/weekly whatever is possible for you.
Hope you enjoyed it and see you next year with new learnings.
