photo by terren in virginia 

Success is all about finding your strengths (what you’re better at than almost anyone else) and figuring out how to leverage those strengths to reach your goals.  Once you know what you’re good at, what you really enjoy doing and how to translate that into something that others will pay for, then it becomes a matter of refining your model and adding in more traits.

I was reflecting on what makes people successful recently and decided to ask my clients that are in my Peer Group Advisory boards to find out what has led them to the success they’re having to this point.  I was expecting that we would end up with 2 or 3 key points, but surprising (to me at least) everyone had a different key that really reflected on their particular strengths.  They were all great points and things that almost anyone could use to be more successful, but it makes sense that you have to figure out what’s going to work for you.

We ended up with 10 different success traits – would any of these be your first choice?

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I had the chance to go to 5 Guys Burgers and Fries over the long weekend (the closest one for me is over in Olathe on 119th and Blackbob.

If you haven’t been to 5 Guys, it’s a burger franchise originally started in Washington D.C. about 20 years ago and it’s growing really fast.  They do one thing really well – and that’s more than enough reason to make a 25 minute trip to pick up a really good burger! 

Although they’re fast food, you will wait a while to get your food – generally there are some lines and more importantly, they don’t start cooking your burger until you order it, so it comes out fresh and custom made with your fixins.

As I was waiting for my burger this weekend, I thought about what really made this an excellent operation – and how that could apply to any business.

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  photo by fotologic 

There are a lot of people actively using Social Media, but there are still many, many, many more that aren’t and they don’t really understand the whole thing. 

The biggest issue that I hear over and over again?

“Who has the time for all of this stuff?” – generally followed closely by the observation that they are currently getting swamped by email, phone calls and all sorts of other time killers.

There are two issues at work here – the first one is that a lot of people need a better handle on time management (check out 3 ways to create more time).  The second issue is that people really don’t see the benefit to Social Media – by many it’s still viewed as the province of kids and online marketers (not necessarily exclusive groups…) 

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I’m a big fan of games…and who doesn’t enjoy Zombies?  Well Popcap Games has combined the two into their latest time sink in a game called Plants Vs. Zombies, an addictive, very funny and challenging game – “Get Ready to soil your Plants”!

What can Plants and Zombies teach you about running a better business?  Read on to find out (and get a quick review of the game…).

Of course this is a business blog – but it’s amazing the lessons you can pick up from games – a couple of weeks ago I looked at what the game of Craps could teach you and if you’ve been a long time reader you might also remember What Team Fortress 2 can teach you about business or what you might get out of a friendly Poker game of liar’s dice.  Today however is all about Plants Vs. Zombies from Popcap Games.

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I’ve been really busy the last few months (which is a great problem to have these days), but it’s been challenging to keep up with all of the great stuff that’s out on the internet.

I pick up a lot of ideas for articles and blog posts from Social Media (LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) when I get the time to surf a bit – or if I’m doing research.  I also have a lot of blogs set up on various RSS readers, on my Yahoo home page, my Google home page and even some just tucked into odd corners.

I also follow blogs from a variety of local folks that I see around Kansas City that I think are very good – here’s a few – Sarah at Dog Eared Pages of course.  Although I haven’t met him personally, I like Sam Meers at Smoke and Meers and a couple that  new to blogging,  Tara Renze at Prospects to Partners and Jason Terry (of the upcoming Blue Gurus) are going to be good reading.

On a national level, there are just a few blogs that I value enough that I sign up for their email feed – several of them because they have good content, but more importantly because I just enjoy reading them.  These are the kinds of emails that you look forward to reading – a treat to look forward to.

Here are 4 of them that add a real splash of color to my inbox!

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