Leverage

“Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I can move the world,” stated Archimedes, the Greek philosopher.

What kind of leverage do you have in your business? Getting great terms from your suppliers? Being the market leader in your industry? Producing a product that is used in a very wide range of other products? 

What are your strengths and abilities that you leverage to achieve more than you thought you could?

Here are 7 simple forms of leverage that you can develop for yourself taken from Brian Tracy in Focalpoint. These forms of leverage are often available to you for the asking.

1. Other People’s Knowledge: Take a piece of knowledge and apply it to your situation which can make and an extraordinary difference in your results. It can save you an enormous amount of money, and lots of time. Successful people are constantly looking for any ideas and insights they can use to help them to achieve their goals faster.  So, should you.

• Other People’s Energy: Highly effective people are always looking for ways to delegate and outsource lower-value activities so that have more time to do the few things that give them the highest payoff. How can you use the energies of other people to help you be more effective and productive?

• Other People’s Money (OPM): Your ability to borrow and tap into the financial resources of other people can enable you to accomplish extraordinary things that would not be possible if you had to pay from them out of your resources.  You should always be looking for opportunities to borrow and invest money to achieve results well beyond the cost of that money.

• Other People’s Successes: You can dramatically improve the quality of your results by studying the successes enjoyed by other people and other companies. Successful people usually have paid a high price, in money and emotion, difficulties and disappointment, to achieve their particular goal. Start by studying their success and learn from their experiences. You can often save yourself an enormous amount of time and trouble.

• Other People’s Failures: Benjamin Franklin once said, “Man can either buy his wisdom or borrow it. By buying it, he pays the full price in personal time and treasure. But by borrowing it, he capitalizes on the lessons learned from the failures of others.” Some of the greatest successes of history came about as the result of carefully studying the failures of other people in the same or similar fields and then learning from them. What or who has failed in your field that you can learn from?

• Other People’s Ideas: You only need one good idea to start a fortune. The more you read, learn, discuss, and experiment, the more likely it is that you will come across an idea that, combined with your abilities and resources, will make you great success in your field.

• Other People’s Contacts: Each person you know knows many other people, many of whom can be helpful to you. Whom do you know who could open doors for you or introduce you to the right people? Who do you know who can help you achieve your goals faster?  One introduction to one key person can change the entire direction of your life.

These 7 forms of leverage will improve your business, free up more time, and change your life for the better.

How are you going to use one or move of these leverage strategies in your business?