Page 181 - The UnCaptive Agent

154 THE UNCAPTIVE AGENT

for their competitors or don’t see their incredible value.
I think having competition is a blessing. Competitors
make you better, and no one wins all the time. I have
found that I learn far more from losing than from win-
ning. My goal with competitors is always the same—I
want them to compete with my yesterday! This makes
me focus constantly on getting better. Whenever I am
tempted to skip the sometimes-hard work of working
on the business, I remind myself that my competitors
will destroy me if I don’t. I use a tool from The Strategic
Coach Program® called the Experience Transformer®
with all experiences we have, including those with com-
petitors, to systematically learn from our experience.
The idea is simply to reflect on what happened, what
was good and bad about it, and how we’d like it to be
next time.
I set aside time each week to just think about the
business. I also keep a file folder with notes in it about
things I want to think about or projects I want to work
on. This folder is labeled thinking projects. I do spend
some thinking time in my office but generally find
I’m more productive if I schedule time in a different
environment. It’s amazing how much work I can do
that way. I also carry a notebook with me so I can
always make notes of ideas that come to me, so I won’t
forget them during my next thinking time session.
I have found a great resource for stimulating me to
ask the right questions about the business in fellow
entrepreneur Keith Cunningham’s book The Road Less
Stupid, where he poses thinking time questions at the
end of each chapter.
Another very useful technique I use for working
on the business is to utilize my subconscious mind
to solve problems and answer questions. We only use
a fraction of our brain capacity in our life and work,