What does an old Russian joke have to do with getting new business?

Did you increase your business in the past 12 months? Don’t discriminate between more new clients or old clients spending more money–count the increase either way. If you didn’t, you really should be asking yourself why not.

Yes, I know–it all started with the Internet implosion. Then came terrorist attacks. Next, the global recession. And after that a war that threatened to destabilize the worldwide political structures for peace and harmony. Who knows what’s next, but the fact is, none of these “cataclysmic” events has really mattered.

How can I say such a thing? Because for most of us, several more clients or a few additional transactions can turn a mediocre year into a great one. And large scale macro-level trauma and transition don’t really impact our micro-level ability to find that next client or do the next deal. The only place those macro-things matter is in your head, but– for good or for bad–what happens in your head tends to powerfully affect what happens in your business.

Yefim, a Latvian