I was standing in the middle of Cavanaugh’s Bakery looking at their bulletin board which contained a substantial number of business cards from patrons of this fine establishment. The bakery in an attempt to support their patrons had kindly allowed them to post their cards hoping to get more business. While standing their I thought of Rob Clifton an associate from Birmingham Alabama, Rob had formed business group at a local coffee shop that had introduced him to many of his business connections so I thought I’d give it a try.

I took one of each card of the board and counted 90 cards with a total of 68 professions. Four hours later everyone represented by a card had been called. Those reached had been invited to a business get together, the people who hadn’t answered were left a message that said “I saw you’re card on the bulletin board and would appreciate it if they would give me a call”. Two days latter I called everyone that had not called me back and two days later I did that again.

After 8 hours of calling the results were the fallowing. One third of the of the people never called me back. Of the ones I talked to 6 said they couldn’t make it 2 said they would try and 52 said they would be there.

The day of the meeting 17 showed up. To recount one third of the people never even called back and of those that committed to come less than one third kept their appointment. Of the 90 cards less than twenty percent came to see if they could get more business. Six did get more business that day and four more received business with in two weeks. Over fifty percent of the people who showed up got business but less than twenty percent even showed up. Could the challenge with business be simply that we don’t do what we need to do?

The business world offers us many choices of what to do in the coarse of the day. The problem is that what we feel we should do is not always the right choice. We have the added complication that we tend to believe we are doing the right thing. This belief that we are doing the right thing is so strong that when the presidents of the fortune five hundred companies where asked if they where in the top ten percent of the five hundred presidents a full ninety percent said that they were in the top ten percent. So how do you know if your doing the right thing? It’s easy are you getting the results you want? If your not getting the results you want you need to not only except your not doing the right thing but you need to change it. They way you figure out what to do is just imagine what the best would do then do it. We usually know what to do but resist doing it out of fear insecurity doubt or any other emotion that freezes us. Don’t wait for the feeling to go away. Start the actions now.