Gordon Ramsay doesn't get involved in the petty struggles, he focuses on delivering value

Kitchen Nightmares is my favorite Gordon Ramsay show. It’s so satisfying to see him go into a struggling business and turn it around.

Gordon Ramsay knows the secret of success. He does what he loves and he learnt to do it well. He concentrates on the essence of business, creating value that customers will want to spend their money on. He compliments this with strong business prowess, ensuring that he delivers quality products and service in the most efficient way possible. On top of all this, he is in a niche that affects everyone – food.

The businesses Ramsay helps are mostly clueless. They’re so hung up on emotional issues, focusing on the problems with their workplace relationships while expecting customers to swallow bad food and bad service. I can’t believe how much crying, tantrum throwing and power struggling happens instead of concentrating on what the business is there for. It’s usually always grown men, too.

Business is about giving the customer what they want and providing it in a way that is better than they could provide it to themselves. Having a business all too often gets caught up in the politics of people, the needs of the staff instead of the needs of the customers. It’s a simple change of focus, that when combined with Ramsey’s inspiring talks, turns businesses around.

This simplicity is testified to by the makers of the show. They have a working formula of “Bad restaurant > Crying staff > Shouting Ramsey > Fixed restaurant” that they repeat episode after episode to keep their customers happy.

And I for one can’t get enough.

Simplicity

If you simplify every job that you, or your employees do, you will not only save time,  but there will be less scope for mistakes. There is also the added bonus of being able to document your procedures more easily, which helps with training and also with obtaining industry standards such as ISO 9000 etc.

Look in detail at how you perform each task. There will be many attributes to the task that could be streamlined. Reduce the reliance on other people. Shorten distances travelled if possible. Break the task down, perhaps it can be done more effectively if you perform one part of it many times, then another part many times, in a similar way to an assembly line.

As a manufacturing metaphor, if you are building a car, it might simplify processes if the car was designed from the beginning with the asssembly process in mind. Allow for parts to be slotted in easily, click together, and be easily accessible.

In other jobs, think about how you can simplify development of how things work in a way that will simplify other tasks done all the way down the line. Live with this mentality and you will make every aspect of your life easier.

Automation

It’s amazing how many tasks can be automated nowadays, especially computer related tasks such as spreadsheet manipulation. Automating these tasks could help you save hundreds of man hours per person or even allow you to downsize the workforce.

Technology is getting better every day, allowing for more sophisticated yet cost effective robotics and computers. There are also a growing number of freelance programmers who can work for much less than full time employees. So even though programmers and robotic equipment may be expensive, it is definitely worth doing the cost projection analysis.

More Efficiency

Simplicity and Automation will help bring efficiency to your business. However, look at other ways you can improve efficiency. Practice effective Time Management. Look for ineffective processes. Think about the long term – do certain processes cause problems further down the line?

By simplifying and automating many processes, your business productivity could be streamlined, saving a fortune as well as radically improving efficiency and productivity.

Quality is in the finer details!

Improving Quality is a pursuit that every business, and every person working for a business, should undertake. It is a vital component of value creation that could easily put you ahead of the competition on its own. So just exactly how do you go about implementing quality improvements to your business?

Improving Quality by paying attention to the details

You’ve probably heard the phrase: The Devil is in the Details. Well, so is the profit, and the word of mouth. By looking at the details you will see things that most other people won’t generally see. You will see ways of improving the product or service. You will see how it is falling short. Most impressively, by understanding the finer details, you will see opportunities for off-shoot products or services, or powerful new solutions.

Don’t just look at the end result.

If you are dealing with a product, look at every stage of the production. Look for problems in supply. Ensure your supply chain always delivers the highest quality. Ensure that everyone in your organisation, from your goods in department to dispatch, are dedicated to a culture of quality. Everyone dealing with raw materials must show absolute respect at all times. Those dealing with testing must have high standards and incentives for delivering them. Acquire, or create, the most cut-throat, unforgiving, Quality Assurance team that you possibly can. Give them authority to reprimand those without respect for quality and attention to detail.

If you are looking to improve a service, look at the service as a whole, and the reactions and responses of the users. Then look at every stage of deployment. Ensure that if you are cutting corners, you are not doing it to the detriment of your service. Focus on the details of your service suppliers, from their training down to their personality type and even looks if relevant. Imagine, in detail, the experience you would like to receive. Compare it with the reality. Adjust accordingly.

Improving Quality with Your Passion

If you’re not in a job or business that you can invest vast quantities of passion into, you’re probably in the wrong career. If you enjoy what you do, you will do it so much better. You will devote more time and energy to it. You will focus on learning more about it. You will have the motivation to take it in previously unexplored directions. You will be driven to be the best you can at it.

This will give you pride in what you do. This pride will naturally lead to you improving quality throughout your business.

For more on finding your passion, check out our free ebook.

Improve Quality by Raising Your Standards

Work to achieve ever higher standards in everything that you do. Look at everything with a view to improving it, even it might seem at first to be perfect. Always strive to supply the best you can at the cost you have. This will allow you deliver more desirable products and services to your customers and out-compete the competition.

Look into the Essence

We’re not called Power Essence by coincidence. Our name was chosen to reflect our very purpose – seeing through to the essence. We look into the core of everything we do to understand and improve it at its most basic level and throughout.

Look for common denominators in your business problems, and use them to integrate effective solutions. The essence of business is essentially making money. To make money, a business must provide a desirable product or service – create values. Focus on creating value in every business action you perform and in every thought you have.

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Nowadays, people are very sceptical of any kind of money making scheme, “There’s no such thing as getting rich quick”, “You have to work for it like everybody else, or win the lottery.”

The fact is, most get-rich-quick-schemes are a waste of time and effort. Usually the only people who get rich are the people at the top of the pyramid. In a way, most of the businesses are just other dictatorship rat races and most are designed to put people under the delusion they have an advantage if they join.

So what choice do you have, try scheme after scheme trying to escape the rat race? What else can you do?

Well, most people want to escape the rat race. Everyone wants financial freedom and contentment. Most people don’t want to get up in the morning and go to work day after day in a boring job that makes someone else rich. There must be something else, right?

The problem with both get-rich-quick schemes and the daily grind is that you are not in control. If you really did have control, would you be in this situation, a slave to the system? If you really were in control, wouldn’t you have everything you wanted?

Ask yourself how much you want financial freedom and success. If you really do want it, why are you relying on someone else’s enterprise or idea to bring you financial freedom and success?

Granted, you can achieve limited success and gratification working for someone else. But if you want mega-success, you need to be an entrepreneur. It’s the only way. There’s no point in relying on luck or even just working hard to get you where you want to be. You need to take control and make it happen.

The dictionary defines an entrepreneur as someone who has the skills and initiative to establish a business. That’s a self-made person. Not someone who made it rich off other people’s efforts with someone else’s enterprise. Don’t you want to create your own world of success?

We strongly advise seeking out some kind of business venture of your own for maximum results. However, everything we talk about here can be applied to your current job. You don’t need to go through the difficult process of setting up a business just yet. You can start improving your career right now and get experience of being a mini-entrepreneur at the same time!

Almost every job has the potential to be expanded into its own mini-business within the company where you work. The rewards are satisfaction, excitement, and very possibly promotions.

You will shine like a beacon to management when your productivity goes up, when you easily handle many more responsibilities, and when your efficiency sky-rockets. The figures will speak for themselves, and management can’t fail to notice.

Getting rich and escaping the rat race requires one vital ingredient. Of course, you need ambition, drive and a passion for what you’re doing, but these are pre-requisites. You’re not going to get anywhere without these. Yet, there is one other, less known requirement that is fundamental.

Introduction to Self Authority

Most people are conditioned to follow a set of procedures in their job. They react to things that happen in the workplace but rarely are they proactive. You need to break away from this following-others, reactive mindset.

You might think that without authority, you are unable to advance in your job, as you’re unable to make changes or take the initiative. Don’t let any excuses become an obstacle to your growth. You can always make suggestions to your bosses. The point is that you should always be looking for opportunities to make suggestions. Whether you’re allowed to work on them or not is irrelevant.

Whatever your political standpoint, there is nothing stopping you from developing self-authority within yourself – right now. Whether you agree with the premise of self-rule as a political base or not, it will always be better to separate yourself from the control and guidance of the government, media, and academia.

There is a new breed of people waking up and breaking away from the follow-the-herd mindset. People that claim self-authority for themselves don’t wait for anyone else to tell them what to do or how to think. Self-authoritarians look at things objectively and come to their own conclusions rather than blindly following the mob. They look to themselves for ideas, direction, self-esteem and power. It is better to be this type of person in order to succeed in the forthcoming era. Avoiding external guidance and control is absolutely essential to getting ahead of the competition.

In most, if not all cases, following and relying on the direction and control from anyone else will only hold you back and slow you down in your own progress. Being a follower also allows people with self-authority to take advantage of you.

To develop your own self-authority you must first: become aware of your self-authority, and second: practice self-authority constantly.

Be aware of when you are not thinking for yourself. When you’re first made aware of what self-authority really is, you will be amazed at how much you follow other people’s lead. Learn to be constantly aware of when you are taking things at face value – that is believing anything that is told to you, or following someone else’s lead. Then, make a conscious effort to make your own decisions.

But what does this have to do with escaping the rat race, success, and getting rich?

By being your own authority, you will develop initiative, motivation, productivity, control, a competitive edge, ideas, and far-reaching goals. These in turn can bring you immense success in business.

By developing self-authority, you will develop initiative. This will allow you to become aware of what needs doing and then you will take immediate action to do it. Look at what problems need solving in your workplace or in an area that interests you and just do it – solve the problems.

Most people don’t take the initiative. So, by taking initiative, you will have an immediate advantage over your co-workers. You will get things done. You will be productive. And since they are all jobs you have uncovered and take immediate action with, you will have control of the situation. Also, by using the implication tree method, you can uncover problems before they even happen, giving you even more of an advantage.

Rest assured, there is no shortage of problems to be solved, whether it’s in your workplace or in the marketplace. Your initiative and looking ahead will reveal these problems to you as you work. These problems, or rather the solutions to them are better known as business opportunities.

Business problems are the source of your business success.

With the help of your imagination, you will be able to think of creative, marketable solutions to problems. This kind of thinking will give you incredible motivation that will turn your life around. You will actually start to enjoy work, whether it’s at a work-for-hire job or working in your own business enterprise.

The satisfaction that comes from a business-orientated job will blow your mind wide open with enjoyment. You will no longer be stuck in a routine rut because you will be making things happen. You will be using your imagination, one of the biggest motivational tools of all. This will cause ideas to flow through your head like enriching water, piecing together more opportunities for other jobs and advantages.

The motivational intensity of these jobs will keep you focused, make you feel alive, and bring incredible satisfaction. This productivity will allow you to be super-competitive against either rival companies or other people who may be after that same promotion. You will be unstoppable, and most of all, you will probably love it.

Now, imagine if everyone was in that frame of mind.

Let’s summarize those main points.

• Self-authority and initiative help you find problems, in other words: business opportunities.
• Problems and opportunities help to fuel your imagination.
• Imagination fuels creativity.
• Creativity fuels motivation.
• Motivation fuels productivity.
• Productivity and Creativity breed success

Review

Beware of get rich schemes. They are typically a waste of your precious time and money. If you want mega-success, you need to be an entrepreneur. We strongly advise seeking out some kind of business venture of your own for maximum results. Yet, you can start improving your career or current job right now and get experience of being a mini-entrepreneur at the same time!

Take the initiative. Taking the initiative can increase your value to your business by getting things done and even discovering new opportunities to enhance the business. Almost every job has the potential to be expanded into its own mini-business within the company where you work.

To achieve a powerful mindset, become your own authority and apply that to your entire life.

As our economy remains in turmoil, big changes are already underway in its fabric, and many of these changes will be permanent. What was once stable and reliable is no more, so now may be a good time to consider charting an exciting new course in your life.

Becoming wealthy and successful as an entrepreneur requires an integrated approach and a shift in mindset.

Here is a list of traits that successful entrepreneurs share:

• Think big. They see the potential of their business and keep a laser-sighted focus on what exactly it is they want to achieve.
• Highly motivated and action-oriented. They do not allow stagnation and strive for continuous personal growth.
• Knowledge and solution-seeking – about all aspects of the business landscape they are in.
• Planners – they are thorough and develop short, medium, and long-term plans. They set clear goals and have a game plan for how to achieve them. They have a plan for everything that might arise, surprises may still come along, but these can be minimized.
• Risk-taking – carefully considered risks – not recklessness  – that they can reasonably absorb.
• Adaptability – continuous change is part of the landscape, so a quick-thinking response to new variables as they arise is critical. They are on the lookout for opportunities and challenges, so they are ready to act when they appear.
• Excellent time management skills – they have a zero-tolerance policy on procrastination and time-wasting activities.
• Develop and maintain strong, positive working and family relationships – a positive, winning, mutually supportive attitude will pay big dividends.
• Enthusiasm for what they do – that will be infectious to those around you.
• Customer-focused – their customers are everything, so they do their best for them every single time.
• Sacrifice – they understand and accept that many sacrifices are going to have to be made along the way.
• Reputation – they always maintain an excellent public image, and stay true to their word. Credibility and a strong reputation are key competitive advantages.
• Know Thyself – they find the business that suits their skill sets, personality and interests and are keenly aware of their own strengths and talents, and how to best put them to use. They know when to seek talent to enhance their business.

Switching gears into an entrepreneurial mode is much like training for a sport requiring extreme endurance. This will not happen overnight. Take a long-term view and realize that hard work, patience, planning, an indomitable spirit, and strong faith in and for what you have to offer will bring you to where you want to be. Obstacles will be par for the course, so seeing them as that, rather than roadblocks is key.

These are the traits that successful entrepreneurs have. Make them habits and you will be well on your way to achieving the success you envision.

Recommended Free E-Book.

Profiting From a Recession

I’m sure you’ve done it at some point. Have you ever wondered what you would do with all that cash? It would be the best birthday gift ever, wouldn’t it?

You may have done mystical things to try to help your chances – such as rubbing your ticket with a crystal maybe, or kissing it for luck. The trouble is, all that wishful thinking is actually holding you back from making a fortune in other more realistic ways.

You might think that you don’t let it hold you back, but by playing the lottery, you’re subconsciously hoping that some secret power will give you the financial freedom you desire. It is a distraction designed to keep you happy with what you have. Subconsciously, it is holding you back from making real effort to make your fortunes.

Forget about the lottery. To make money you need to use your own personal effort and hard work. Nothing is going to be handed to you on a silver platter. Sure, for a few people it will be that easy, and we wish you all the best. However, even if you do win, ask yourself: do you really expect it to last forever? Just how far do you expect a few million to go these days?

You’ve probably heard the phrase: “Money doesn’t make you happy”. There’s a lot of truth in this. It’s not the money that makes you happy, its how you spend your life. Money is a tool, nothing more.

If you’re like most people, you can become very happy by turning what you love doing into a profitable enterprise. That way, you will have a way of creating endless wealth – and you can spend your time in the best way possible – doing what you love!

That’s right, by turning what you love doing into a business you can become rich. First, let me explain the theory.

If you’re doing a job you love, you will do it well and to the best of your ability. If you’re running a business doing what you love, you will do it even better, knowing that your livelihood is on the line. You will strive to give your customers exactly what they want wherever possible, and therefore create a better reputation for yourself and your business. This will set the stage for you to earn more and more profits. Such is the beauty of business.

As much as you see it as an essential thing, playing the lottery is a total distraction from the pursuit of business. If you are secretly wishing you might win a few million, you are totally undermining your business potential. Know that your business is providing an invaluable service to the community, as well as making you happy. If you were suddenly no longer needing the money, you may stop your business, taking away both your happiness and a value-creating service.

I can almost hear you say to yourself that this all sounds sensible, but will this really help me to become a millionaire? The honest answer is yes it can. No matter what the enterprise, there is no upper limit to how much you can earn. It’s a long way off and another topic for the future, but know that it’s possible and start building a business based on what you love doing.

For now, look at how you can turn your attention away from wishing – and start doing. Success will not land in your lap or simply come to you – you have to get out there and get it by making things happen for yourself!

Whenever normal people are presented with ideas that are so far fetched, they tend to just dismiss them. They usually look at the first step, see it as impossible, and give up. Or they see moral dilemas being raised by it and then take the stance that we shouldn’t do it.

However, once one is able to integrate Super Concepts, these ideas become feasible. Ideas that are so radical that they not only look impossible, but are highly controversial, are rejected when following the typical mindsets that we have been brought up with. This is because most of us have had our minds corrupted from an early age by irrationality, the reliance of authority, and a dampening of our problem solving abilities by laziness and easily digestable information.

A more evolved person, with a mind free of external authority and irrationality, would not dismiss the ideas, they would see them as a big jigsaw picture with many of the pieces missing.

Whereas the average person thinks linearly and gives up on that first step, an integrated thinking person thinks creatively, using the left and right sides of their brain together to see a partly assembled picture and work out how to find the missing pieces. It may involve breaking the missing pieces into smaller pieces, but the idea itself is not out of reach like it is from a non-integrated thinker.

If an idea is seemingly controversial, most people would get into a debate about it, calling to bear all their personal feelings, beliefs, religious views or whatever. The debate is not founded in reality, it is corrupted by irrationalities. Usually when you strip away the irrational, biased, non reality based concepts, it’s often clear that something isn’t really controversial.

We are capable of so much more, but too many people stop at the first step, without looking at the big picture from a rational point of view. When Gallileo said that the Earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around, he was controversially going against everything that society had led him to believe. He stripped away irrationalities and thought for himself to imagine a concept that completely changed the world and gave us a better understanding of the entire Universe. He had created his own Super Concept.

This is where you can take the opportunity to out-compete the company. By doing this you can bring about better service and value to the world, whilst achieving financial independence and incredible job satisfaction. If you’re already thinking how to improve things everywhere you go, then the chances are you will have what it takes to out-compete any company you want.

Now we’re not saying just because they were rude to you in your local supermarket that you should open your own just to get back at them (although we’re not ruling the idea out – if you’re ambitious enough go for it! It may be possible to get the edge by only beating the company in one or a few areas.)

However, there are ways to take advantage of such a situation. You don’t need to out-compete the whole supermarket, just a small part where you think you could beat it. For instance, if you think their produce is bad, you could open up your own greengrocer’s. You don’t always have to beat them completely, being better than them in just one way can often be enough. Always be on the lookout for these kinds of opportunities.

Being competitive is not about being richer or bigger, it’s about being better. Even the smallest entities can out-compete the major corporations in this aspect, and they have. If this were not the case then most small shops would have closed down – but many of them remain open despite supermarkets and large corporations. There is still room for the little guy IF the little guy can offer something the corporations can’t. Imagination is the key. Be critical of everything (but do it silently to avoid giving your ideas away and looking like a moaner!)

Out-competing any business, no matter what the size, is easier than you think. Incompetence is everywhere at the moment, you should have little problem finding an opportunity to take advantage of. The only trouble you will probably have is choosing a venture. You should focus on something you both enjoy and excel at. That way you will have a far greater chance of success.

Remember the ongoing nature of competitive business. They’ll come back with their ideas and you need to be ready. You can’t just out-compete them once, you need to do it continuously. By loving the enterprise you are in you will have an edge that will drive you to constantly improve.

Keep your mind open to new ideas all the time, don’t dismiss anything. This is how the portable music player was conceived. Some bright spark actually thought of removing certain features from a product – namely the speakers – and the rest is history. Don’t be afraid to be different.

In fact, it’s not always necessary to be totally different. Most businesses are just reworked versions of products and services that already exist. Think about a current product or service and how you could run it differently.

Once you’ve thought of an idea, you should be able to create it with your own spin, offering a business that is totally different from any other.