Daring to be different takes guts. And as you go about delighting your customers, in many cases you’ll be going against the grain. Keep going. Keep pushing fearlessly as far as you need to in pursuit of making life better for your customers. Keep finding new ways to delight them. Be fearless in whatever you do. Your customers will take notice and appreciate you for it.
Examples
- Dr. Sheryl Broverman, a professor at Duke University fearlessly started a school for girls when she learned what a terrible time girls were having getting educated in a small community in rural Kenya. She didn’t have any prior experience in setting up and running a school, let alone doing it largely from a different continent. But because of her fearless pursuit of making life better for the girls in this community, the WISER school now educates 120 girls annually.
- You’ve heard of the Wright brothers, right? 🙂 They’re the guys credited with inventing and building the world’s first successful airplane. The thing is the Wright brothers did not have pilot’s license. They changed the world of travel as we know it today, and they did it fearlessly without having any type of qualifications or credentials giving them “permission” to do so.
Suggestions
- Ask for forgiveness instead of permission. That permission may never come. And if your goal is to go out and make life better for your customers, you don’t need anyone’s permission to do that. Just make it happen (just don’t do anything that will hurt someone, or get you thrown in jail, or anything like that.) 🙂
- Next time you feel the fear about moving forward with something that will make life better for your customers, ask yourself “what will happen to my customers if I don’t do this?”
Application for your business
- Write down two things you would like to do in your business, but have been a bit fearful about moving it forward. Next write down what you are afraid of happening.
- For the answers to the question above, write out a simple plan to help minimize the likelihood or the effects of your fears being realized.
Previous tips
1-22. Section 1: Build a relationship with your customers (series)
23-48. Section 2: Make your customers’ lives better (series)
49-62. Section 3: Reward your customers (series)
63. Be cool (code for be yourself)
64. Love what you do (and let it show)
65. Give your business some G.A.S.
67. Take care of your awesome people
68. Be remarkable
69. Be memorable
70. Shake things up
71. Be awesome in unexpected small ways
72. Be awesome in unexpected big ways
73. Start a movement
