The C word

The new reality is now everywhere:  the business landscape is much more complex and convoluted today than it was yesterday.  Wikepia has an explanation for just about whatever you want. You can buy damn near your whole life on ebay and if you aren't on the latest and greatest new social networking site or aren't aware of the greatest new technology that will crush your competition then you're way behind the times and in danger of being left in the dust (or so they say. . .).

Businesses, organizations, ventures, non-profits (you name it)  are in search for the latest and greatest that will give them the edge on their competition.  Maybe not all - but many.  Yet often, the basics are overlooked – like being consistent.

You can be smart, gifted, savvy, beautiful, charismatic, proactive, determined, ambitious and every other thing in the book, but if you aren’t consistent . . .throw in the towel now.  If I had a dollar for every time a web designer didn't call me back or had a business "colleague" with erratic behavior, or I was dealing with someone who I simply didn't know what they were going to do from one day to the next I would be Warren Buffet (a billionaire). 

Left and right people say they want to do this or want to do that. They want to start a business. They have this great idea and they want you to help bring to life. Everyday gurus, thought leaders, and social media experts will all claim to have the drop on how to succeed (and some of them actually may), but what I rarely come across is the conversation about consistency.  People, their ideas, their actions and what they "claim" to want to do are as unpredictable as gas prices. 

Steve Jobs started Apple Computers back in 1979 (almost 20 years ago) and he has positioned Apple as a revolutionary company today, not because he just “happens” to be a smart guy, but a good part of the reason is because he consistently pushed forward. He consistently tested his ideas (which I imagine, many went nowhere) and consistently made sure that other people knew that he was consistent (and truly successful people only deal with consistent people).

Tiger Woods isn’t phenomenal because he just is. It’s because he makes sure that he is consistently reviewing his golf game. Consistently practicing his swing. Consistently doing something again, and again, and again until what he is doing is just short of perfect. This approach to consistence gives him the position of arguably the greatest golfer of all time.

Now being consistent doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be the greatest in your field but what it will allow is for you to be extremely good at whatever it is you set out to do and that in itself is extremely valuable.