A Secret About Business Success (and Life in General)
The secret is Listening.
Not hearing. Not skimming. Not reading. Not reading without comprehending.
Listening.
Listening to your niche.
Listening to other authorities.
Listening to your coworkers
Listening to your customers.
Listening to your competitors.
Listening to your listeners.
It’s impossible to do true improv without listening. To be in a given moment, you have to pay attention to what’s going on in that instant. To improvise, you have to be able to adjust to new information, which you can only gather from listening.
True listening runs at a slightly slower pace than today’s technology-driven society. But the results are worth it. Listening develops carefully thought-out perspectives, which can inform your impulses.
Listening also requires humility. It requires that you’re not stuck in your ways and that, even if you ultimately disagree, you respond with respect. You get respect when you give it. And listening helps you gain respect among your coworkers and customers.
What are your thoughts on listening?
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For a short time, I was a member of BNI, an international networking organization. For various reasons (not least because I’m not a salesman), I left.
But some good did come out of being in their for a while. One of the nuggets of knowledge that stuck with me was the “you have two ears and only one mouth” mantra, which sort of reinforces what you allude to.
I suppose a distillation of that idea would be to say: to sell is to listen…
This is really good advice. Rare for the internet
I caught your newb post at SEW a minute ago then Googled your name. I’m glad I visited. I sincerely love this post. There’s never quite enough listening as compared to voicing is there? I am guilty myself.
“Listening develops carefully thought-out perspectives, which can inform your impulses.”
So it does.