Unexpected Gold
I have a dot in my wallet. It's gold. It’s made of shiny foil and is about one-quarter inch in diameter. You'll find it if you open my billfold and look on the left-hand side, where I stuff any receipts I get during the day.
I have a dot in my wallet--and I haven't a clue why.
Well, I've got a hint. The dot was a memory technique from a seminar I attended. It was supposed to represent some brilliant piece of knowledge from the speaker. At the time, the message apparently resonated with me. And whatever that idea was, I should be inclined to think of it every time I open my wallet.
Darn, I wish I knew what it was supposed to remind me. It might be what is keeping me from stardom, or riches, or glamour, or fitness, or...well, who knows.
I bet that you have a dot or two lying around somewhere. No, not a little piece of golden foil stuck to something, but those ideas that just never went anywhere--or at least not as far as you thought they would. At least I hope that you do. If you don't, you are missing out.
Throughout the year I listen to many a teleconference and webinar, attend a conference or three, and read tens of thousands of pages of material. Frankly, so much of it seems worthless. Just like these articles I write. It’s likely that most of them, at best, entertain. At worst, they are a complete waste of your time. Does that mean you should stop reading now? I hope not. See, hopefully for you, and definitely for me, one idea from an article, lecture, or meeting hits, sticks, and makes a difference in your life and/or your business. But you don't know unless you go through all the rest.
My dot, or at least what that dot represents, is apparently just one in a collection of unused ideas I've got building in a quiet little corner of my brain. Who’s to say when it will be time to dust any of those collectables off?
Think about it. Let's say that you go to a seminar in a distant land (like Chicago) and between the cost of the training, the hotel, and the flight, you're out $2000. Now imagine that after three days spent in many boring lectures, you come home with 10 seemingly useable ideas. After sitting down with your staff and thinking through them, only three are deemed worthy. And of those three, only one sticks. However, that one idea makes a difference.
$2000 for one workable idea. A waste of money? Hardly.
Imagine that you have 100 clients. That idea would only have to generate an additional $20 in profit from each to pay for itself. Have 1000 customers? Then an extra two-dollar bill from each of them covers your cost. And that assumes it happens only once. If the idea generates additional profit every year (or even better, every month) then you've found a gift that keeps on giving.
So business person, spend some time and money on you and your people to learn new things. Most of that time and money will be a waste. But among the discards are kernels that will sprout. Some will wither and die, but others will grow. They'll have to both be the right ideas for your environment and be cared for--given the right amount of water and light to grow and blossom.
And that blossoming can be very nice on your bottom line.
Now my dot has a purpose: to remind me to continue exposing myself to new concepts, equipment, procedures, processes, and anything else that, while they could turn out to be just forgotten dots, they have the potential to become that breakthrough I've never dreamed possible.
I guess I'm keeping my dot.
This article was published under the title "My gold dot has purpose: Keeps me seeking ideas"
in the Wichita Falls Times Record News September 2011 Biz to Biz
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