When I tell audiences they need to be their own
guru, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t pick up every idea they can from
whomever they might be able to pick it up from. We need to pick up everything we
can, but pick up nothing unquestioned.
Question authorities, question gurus.
Stephen Covey is certainly one of our most successful business gurus--and quite
possibly one of the best. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People has sold
nearly 13 million copies. At one point he was advising 82 of the top 100
companies in America on how to run their businesses. Then he teamed up with
Hyrum W. Smith, the guru who created the Franklin Day Planner. Who's also a
best-selling author.
I
mean, talk about guru wonderland: here's a guy who in the 1980s talked every
yuppie in America into lugging around 40 pound appointment books that they had
to take a course to use.
Covey
and Smith said that they were going to apply their expertise to make their
company a model for industry.
According
to Business Week, “ It turned out to be a model all right: of bloated
bureaucracy, poor planning, and internal bickering, turning Franklin Covey Co.
into a poster child for highly ineffective organizations.”
It’s
easier to say than to do. Are you familiar with Weiler's Law? Weiler's Law says
that nothing is impossible for those who don't have to do it themselves.
In 2001, the business
gurus at Fortune magazine awarded the coveted title of most innovative company
in America to . . . Enron.
Success
Magazine is a publication chocked full of tips for success from all the
country’s leading business gurus. Success magazine just went out of business.
I don’t know if the advice wasn’t any good or if they just weren’t
listening to their own gurus. I can’t get too cocky about this though, since I
was one of those gurus. In fact, they still owe me for the last article I wrote
for them. Obviously neither the article nor the advice in it did much for
Success magazine.
Question
the best. Question authorities. Question the flavor of the month. Question me.
Question
conventional thinking. Earl Nightingale said, "Whatever the majority of
people is doing under any given circumstances, if you do the exact opposite, you
will probably never make another mistake as long as you live."
Question
conventional thinking. Question Earl.
Question
accepted wisdom. Art Hammer is an idea expert. His company helps businesses
generate, refine and test ideas for improving their processes. Art has
empirically tested hundreds of thousands of ideas. Art says, "What we have
consistently discovered is that whenever everyone involved unanimously agrees an
idea is going to help, a quarter of the time it will improve results, half the
time it will have no effect and a quarter of the time it will actually
hurt."
Be your
own guru.
Then
don’t forget to question yourself.
Adapted
from Filling the Glass: The Skeptic's Guide to Positive Thinking in Business by
Barry Maher (Dearborn 2001).
Barry
Maher consults, writes and speaks on professional development, motivation,
management and sales. Filling the Glass: The Skeptic's Guide to Positive
Thinking in Business was recently cited by Today’s Librarian as
“[One of] The Seven Essential Popular Business Books.”
