#2 Simple and Practical Ways to Bring Change to Your Business Reading books is one of the best investments you can make in your professional career

By Jonathan Michael

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When it comes to the idea of proposing change within a business or an organization, a lot of processes and a lot of awareness would be needed to bring about measurable change. Such kind of change may take months, in some cases years to come about, depending on the size of your organization.

Strategy Should Come from Top-down

When there are immediate needs for innovation and a new strategy for a business, it has to come from the top-down. Senior leadership need to and have to pave the way with their innovative leadership. As an entrepreneur, how can you make a quick change with a limited amount of resources? If the business has to change and improve, guess who else needs to change and improve? The founder, the CEO or whoever it is that is holding the reins at the top!

For this to happen there are two simple and practical ways to go about it. These two ideas can be immediately implemented and the change that you hope for in your company can be as immediate as the speed of your implementation. To quote Tony Robbins, "The path to success is to take massive, determined action."

Find Friends Who Have Made it

For you to change, your circle of friends has to change unless they are in some way able to help you reach your business goals. Does your friend circle have a positive impact on you? Do they inspire you?

Truth is that you are the sum average of the five persons you spend time with. There are tons of networking events that you can attend to. Find people who share similar goals, initiate friendships, build your relationship with these people, bring value to them too and grow together.

A single piece of wisdom from a friend could be the only thing you may need to double or triple your revenue. Change your friends and change your life.

Quit the club and the usual round of drinks with your pals and find where all innovators hang.

Read Read Read

We are privileged to have everything we need easily available to us because of the giant strides we have made in technology.

Ten years ago, you would need a library and card and an expensive shipping cost to read a book of your choice. Books will expand your mind and challenge your innovation.

You can actually get inside the world of a world-class thought leader, billionaire or visionary leader and understand what methods they used to transform their business.

How amazing is that! Reading books is one of the best investments you can make in your professional career. Again, the key to overcoming a challenge in your business may lie within a book that costs less than INR 500. Pearls of wisdom worth far more than money can be found in the collectible knowledge of books. Find a way to buy and read a book.

Apply

If you're not much of a reader, a great and simple starter book would be "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. You can also research a book that talks about a struggle you are facing in your business. Promise yourself to read this book within a month. And finally... build a simple action plan from the ideas you get in the book. Now, implement! Only ideas don't mean anything. Implementation is the game.

In the words of the legendary Charlie "Tremendous" Jones, "You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read."

Jonathan Michael

Founder, JM School

Jonathan runs a fashion school in downtown Bangalore which I founded along with my partner in October of 2014. We are trying to disrupt traditional teaching methodologies with a more practical approach to learning. He writes on Leadership and Entrepreneurship for a startup magazine based out of Vienna, Austria.

 

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