David Reiss Shares Truisms for the Business World and Success

Dallas TX

04 June, 2021

9:57 AM

Description

Truisms for the Business World: David Reiss Shares How You Can Be SuccessfulYou could argue that “truism” is an underappreciated term in business, mainly because of its proximity to “cliché” and “platitude.” Be honest, what went through your mind when you read those latter words? Bad movie dialogue? Fortune cookies? Cheesy Superbowl speeches? There is a reason for such evocations: Put simply, these terms are commonly seen as hokey or overused rather than constructive or progressive. Yet, business truisms are crucial for the same reason they are perceived as ineffective: They are so obvious that they are inherently timeless. Many truisms may sound like clichés on the surface, but they speak to deeper, nuanced concepts that consistently reflect success and forward-thinking in the workplace. Throughout his career as an entrepreneur and marketing consultant, David Reiss has embraced truisms to help businesses become more lucrative and ideologically sound. Here are some of his observations on truisms and how they can help your business hit the ground running. “When we set a goal, we focus on the reward and how it will feel; this propels us into action.” Goals are a key variable for almost any endeavor, and in business, they are especially vital when it comes to productivity and accountability. Typically, the goal-setting process consists of forming a goal, aligning all necessary resources and plans and putting forth the effort needed to reach the goal. That said, as David Reiss notes, once we identify what is required to meet a goal, we shift our attention from the reward to the associated effort. The problem here is that many people focus too much on the effort and not enough on the goal, which, in turn, lessens motivation, increases the risk of burnout and ultimately creates a shorter path to failure. Your effort is important, but dwelling on its implications is unhealthy. “Everyone else is scared too.” Fear is often cited as a blessing in disguise for entrepreneurs. In other words, it pushes them forward despite its discomfort. This is considered a communal experience for all entrepreneurs. David Reiss, however, does not subscribe to this school of thought, as he is unable to relate to fear’s perceived constructive purpose. Rather, Reiss views fear similarly to goal-related effort. Will over-focusing on fear teach you anything? Will fear foster progress en route to your envisioned goal? In most cases, the answer to both questions is an emphatic “no.” There is no direct payoff for being afraid. If one door closes, two more usually open — so long as you have a solution-oriented viewpoint. “Today is tomorrow’s yesterday.” This observation may be cliché-esque, but it is one of the most enduring truisms in business. You cannot get yesterday back; that time is gone forever. All you can do is work to prevent tomorrow’s regrets. Therefore, you have to make every day of the week count, embracing each present responsibility and forgoing procrastination as much as possible. As soon as you let a task roll over to the next day, you have begun to foster a poor work ethic, which is an unavoidable gateway to failure. Try this Exercise: The 15 Point Success Plan At the end of each day, strive to accomplish three things you can be proud of; three things you can write on a list that evelopes you in a sense of true accomplishment. Now, do this every day for the five-day work-week and at the end of the week, you should feel great about the 15 items you have accomplished. (Don’t make these small victories like, “I took out the garbage,” but real, substantive accomplishments. And, then, be proud. Next week your goal moves from 15 to 20. “What counts is not the content of your thoughts, but your relationship to the thoughts.”There is a key distinction between this truism’s closely related halves: The former is usually constant while the latter is fluid and impressionable. What’s more, the latter often submits to the former, creating a vicious cycle of cognitive fusion in which our thoughts are driven down emotional rabbit holes to nowhere. Think of it like watching an intense horror film. As soon as you emotionally succumb to the film’s content, it can be difficult to re-establish the distance between the screen and your theater seat. In the same manner, work-related conflicts and challenges are not easily diffused once allowed to run rampant — a dilemma similar to the “worried well” concept in medicine. If you tell yourself repeatedly that the worst-case scenario is occurring, your quality of life and work performance will decline even if this is not true. Therefore, you must put your anxieties into perspective as separate, approachable variables. This is perhaps emblematic of all truisms in business. Look at your fears, your challenges, your current realities; do not look from within them.