When I was a kid and we went to work the soil, I saw how my parents hewed around seventy percent of the corn plants. A few weeks later, when those plants grew enough, we went back, and they pulled out at least half of them. Why??? First they plant them, these pure plants grow because they PLANTED them there, hired someone to dig them in the ground, and now they cut them out. Absurd.
Later, I got to know that they keep only the strongest plants growing because the weaker ones would not make the most desirable crops and additionally, they take away the nutrients from the healthiest and biggest ones. A few weeks after the first round of selecting the best samples, they were able to keep only those which can really make it until the end and feed all the animals during the whole year.
1 great or 15 good?
The lesson is clear enough. You rather keep one plant from fifteen, take care of it, water it, pull the weeds around it regularly, protect it from the harmful seedlings and insects rather than tend to fifteen, because this way you will have one amazing corn in the end, instead of fifteen small and weak crops.
In autumn the neighbors were always asking if the harvest was satisfactory, whether the corns were big and nice enough, which was the sign of the wealth of the year. If the answer was no, you most probably didn’t do a good selection in the beginning, you might have put effort into growing the less promising plants and as a result your animals whose main food is this corn, will not do their best either.
The key word is filtering.
The reason why you should be pro at filtering your plants and selecting the most promising ones, is to avoid burnout, and most importantly, to be able to create a prosperous, joyful, energizing and loveable business, career, professional life which is in harmonious balance with your personal life. But there is an extra reason besides these: you help the most beautiful, most valuable and healthiest plant reach amazing results, higher achievement, perform high quality work and, besides, contribute to the world by being an example, inspiration source, motivator and leader of others. It sounds weird as I am talking about a plant right now, but let’s uncover the story beneath:
Your plant is your client.
If you have a lot of clients, it means that you have less time for your best client, who would most probably pay more if he/she received a higher quality service. But this high-level service usually needs more attention, care, creativity and time from your side.
If you have a lot of clients, most probably a great percentage of your client circle drains your energy as many of them don’t share your values, they hardly understand your working method, your system and your unbreakable rules.
If you have a lot of clients, your best client has fewer chances to make the best out of your collaboration as you would spend more time with the others’ needs and issues rather than helping your no1 client prosper. If your best client is a high-performer, you are threatened to lose him/her in a short time.
If you have a lot of clients, the result you accomplish most probably will stand at an average level.
If you have a lot of clients, your business might be less wealthy throughout the year, creating less income because of the extra energy, personnel and errors produced thanks to the lack of time, distraction of focus and the multitude of clients.
If you have a lot of clients, there is a low chance that you will develop your skills and knowledge in the process as your unfiltered clients most probably will not inspire you and will not push you to your boundaries, out of your comfort zone where your creativity, genius and real power lies. You would be OK with the regular, manageable, standard, predictable, stagnant.
A great client challenges you in a positive way, teaches you and inspires you. A good client is mainly invisible, shows up rarely, only in case of emergencies, but normally he/she does not need you exaggeratedly. He/she leaves you in the land of the ordinary and habits. A bad client drives you crazy and reduces your energy level pulling you away from the creative and visionary thinking.
If you have a lot of clients, you will most probably face burnouts, exhaustion, lack of passion and enthusiasm, apathy.
Please, no client.
Your clients are the heart of your business. This is why the client creation process needs your attention, awareness, patience and a lot of care. What do I mean?
Say NO to your clients who cause you headache at the moment you hear their names. You don’t have to be rude, maybe it is enough if you raise your prices or initiate a new standard in your partnership offer, and they will quit the collaboration themselves.
Say NO to your client who calls you too often, doesn’t pay you in time, tries to negotiate all the time, asks for discount too often, who is late all the time, or throws plastic in the selective bin without prior washing even if you told him/her several times how it has to be done.
Say NO to that client who thinks he/she does you a favor by being your client or be bold and put your focus on shifting the roles first.
Say NO to that client who has less potential to succeed, less drive to achieve high results, less passion to become great, less motivation to reach their goal.
Say NO to those future clients who do not say a 100% YES to your collaboration.
Say NO to those future clients who don’t inspire you.
Say NO to those future clients whom you would enroll in your partnership only because of your need for money.
Say NO to that future client who is not ready yet for the collaboration but he/she is not aware of it.
First, practice saying NO, as it will bring you close to the HELL YES-es.
Would you like to be really efficient at creating NO bad clients, but instead be awesome at creating the BEST MATCH? If yes, we should have an online call.
love, d.
dorialbert.com 