Boss of Busy, 2nd Edition

Part VEmbrace stand out

We have the greatest accountants in the world. Seriously — I never knew you could actually love your accountant, but Darren and I genuinely love our accountants. It's weird, right? But true. And the highlight of our quarterly meetings is the ‘bouncing balls' — an animated graph where balls bounce around a quadrant model and then land on the quadrant that depicts the current financial health of our business. We're always cheering when it lands in the top right quadrant.¹ Because, as we all know, when it comes to quadrant models, the top right box is the one you want to be in. When you land there, you know all the work you've put in has paid off.

The same is true for the Stand Out model. When we are clear on our ‘why' and we're making progress, our hard work means we can celebrate bouncing into the Stand Out quadrant. Perhaps a part of us believes when we hit this quadrant, the heavens will open up, the choir will kick into gear, and there'll be double rainbows all the way. Time to put your feet up; the hard work is done. Isn't it?

Sorry. But no. This is where the real work starts.

In fact, this is where the hardest work kicks into gear; the only real guarantee is that standing out will cost you your old identity. While shifting into Stand Out is aspirational (and a more desirable state than Check Out, Burn Out or Freak Out), to believe that's the end of the journey is to give yourself false hope. Success has knobs on it, and regardless of how awesome things ...