It’s been an interesting week. Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show and Halloween.

Let me ask you something. What haunts you?

Several months ago, I told a friend on Facebook what haunts me:

that I might not think “big” enough.  

I want my eyes and brain to open wider. That’s right. You see, I am just back from the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS).  In a word, it was OVERWHELMING.

One huge, amazing yacht after another, backed in to the docks, side-by-side, supplemented by Bentleys, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Rolls Royce’s, helicopters, private submarines, and million-dollar “tenders” – the “little” boats one carries on a superyacht to shuttle oneself and guests to the marina and back.

One yacht we admired was being offered for the price of 37 million euros – that’s about 46 million US dollars at today’s rates.  We toured a new Monte Carlo (owned by France’s Beneteau) 86-footer that debuted.  Sale price – just a little over $8 million! The total value of yachts at last year’s show was over $3 billion, and this year had to be bigger.

Unbelievable.

As I walked past and admired these beautiful, amazing, floating palaces, I thought to myself, “who buys these yachts? What do they do? How do they THINK differently?” The boats and money being spent are just SO BIG, it must take an entirely new way of thinking, of visualizing, of making things happen.

A bigger way.

Allow me a quick side story.  My younger brother and I used to race mountain bikes in the early 90’s.  We were pretty good.  Won our fair share of trophies, and most people we rode with couldn’t keep up with us once the terrain turned downhill, fast and treacherous. That was how we liked it. We pushed and challenged each other, sharing braking techniques and lines through corners.

We were fast, no doubt.

One summer day, we were at a ski resort on a practice run before a downhill race. Away we went, dicing, passing, pushing, and trying to find that edge – to be just a little faster. Incremental.

And then it happened – some guy came blowing by and passed us like we were standing still. Monumental.

It was a gut-wrenching eye-opener. Amazing! It was like he was from another universe and rocks, roots, and ruts we saw didn’t even occur to him. It was a game-changer.

A whole new level. A whole new way of thinking. BIGGER.

So as this year comes to an end in two short months, as you start to think about next year’s goals for your business and career, how are YOU thinking?  Are you thinking about five percent growth? Ten? Twenty? How much do you want to make?

Go ahead, take a moment and do the math.  Build that forecast spreadsheet out for the next three years.  What does it look like? Good?  Know this: you probably won’t hit those numbers. Because we rarely reach our goals.

That’s why they’re GOALS.

NOW put that conservative, I’m-in-my-safety-zone, incremental growth plan aside for a few moments. Go ahead.  Forget it.  Think about what it would take to double your income next year.  Or triple it.

Or even move it 10X! I’m talking monumental growth.

Imagine. Dream. Visualize.

How could you get there? How could you serve 2X, 5X, 10X the customers you do today? Concentrate! Work that brain hard. I mean it. THINK.

BIGGER. (Thinking’s free – big or small. Go ahead!)

WOW, right?

Oh, and one last thing. Over the past couple weeks, I’ve also had my share of crappy customer service. People who say, “I don’t know” and drop the problem back in my lap, or who can’t return calls or emails, or who find some reason to shove my request off to someone else.

Drives me crazy! And yet they’re still in business?!

So if you’re passionate about what you do, how you serve your customers, and the value you can add, THEN GO DO IT, and do it well! Don’t just be good at it – be GREAT! Because you can take a lot of market share from people who are lazy or just don’t care. And they deserve it.

Push. Think. Bigger. Be great!  Incremental or Monumental. Your choice.

–Rick

The post What Haunts You? Incremental vs. Monumental – Podcast 47 appeared first on Business by Day with Rick Day.