What do you stand for?

The other day I was having a chat with my mentor…I love having a mentor – someone who’s been where you want to go, knows the positives and the pitfalls, the short-cuts and the sure-things, and just won’t stand for any of your ‘can’t’ nonsense.

I’ve had a few over the past few years.  Each one has been different.  Each one has challenged me to step out of my comfort zone, to improve an area of my business, to decide what I want and how I’m going to get there.

But until this week, none of them had ever asked me ‘Who are you? And what do you stand for?’

The ‘who am I?’ bit, I think I’ve got pretty well nailed to be fair.  I’m comfortable in my own skin, I’m not trying to be someone I’m not, and I know what makes me, me.

But crikey!  What do I stand for?  That really got me thinking.

I know what I do.  I know who I help and how I help. I know what I’m good at.  None of those answer the question though.

So I came at it from the opposite direction and asked myself what I stand against…what riles me…what gets my goat and sends me off into a fulsome and passionate rant?

Regular readers of the Frog Blog won’t be surprised to hear that what registered in the ‘stand against’ column were things like…

• People peddling the nonsense that if you’re not up with the larks and still awake with the owls then you’re somehow not a serious business person.
• Complex systems that waste lots of time and money
• Waste of any sort
• The people who say you must always put your business first (and be as friendless and relationship-less as they are)
• Clever sales people who con new business owners into buying programmes that are obviously not right for them
• The popular business definition of the term professional – serious, dull and boring

The stand for column is still a work in progress.  I guess you could say it’s the antithesis of all of the above, but I’m not sure that would get to the heart of it. And that’s what I want to do.

I’ll report back when I’ve nailed it.  But in the meantime, tell me…

What do YOU stand for?

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For more information on how MPL can help you visit www.mariannepage.co.uk or contact me on hello@mariannepage.co.uk