When the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear.

There are many versions of this saying. I have no idea when I first heard it. I think that I now understand what it is saying. It has nothing to do with any teacher. It is all about you and me and our journey through life and how our minds evolve with experience.

Think of it this way. There are many boxes of matches in the world, but it only takes one match to light your fire. But which one. It is the match you choose when you recognize the need. It is the same with our “teachers”. When our minds are ready, we seek answers. Many people have these answers but at that moment you select the one in front of you that you hope will give you what you want. It could have been any of dozens of other people, but they were not there when you asked the question. Just this one.

So, why on this day and at this time are we looking for an answer to that question? Could it be that the answers were there all the time, waiting for you to be ready to ask the question.

I cannot recall how many times I have said to people in the first flush of entrepreneurship that every day in business is a school day from the day you start to the day you finish. You learn something new every day, and a lot about human nature. Your experiences shape you and the way you approach future tasks. These experiences influence the way you think. There is the technical stuff you must know. There are best practices in sales, marketing, looking after employees. That stuff is easy. You either read it or pay someone else to do it.

But there is something else. However much you know of the technical side of your business, there is one aspect that can defy study. It is your own Operating System. It is your DOS (showing my age here) or your Windows. It is all about how you marshal your thoughts and knowledge and how you apply yourself. It has a lot to do with your planning, application, and focus.

It is with these things that many people struggle. It is not something that they teach you in school, unless you count what you learn outside of the formal lessons.  Some people never learn it. Those that do and apply what they know will do well in whatever career they choose.

The results are probably most noticeable when someone has been self employed for a few years. They know their business. They understand the technical stuff. They can deal with customers. But they may come to feel that there is something missing. There is something out there in the fog of business, but they cannot see what it is. They can however see that there are others out there who have found it.

So, what to do?

There are plenty of ways that you can increase your technical ability. We attend courses frequently and still struggle to keep abreast of the breadth of the tax system and the myriad changes that seem to happen all the time. Obviously, the Biggy is the Budget, but there are plenty of other changes throughout the rest of the year.

But that is just memory. It is what is stored in your hard drive. How do you upgrade your mental operating system. A coach!

Coaches come in all sort of shapes and sizes and can be dealing with very different aspects of business and life. Let me share a couple of examples of coaches that I know and whose results I have seen. Upgrade your personal operating system!

Clare Humphries, originally from Wales (and has a voice to prove it) is a personal development coach based in the Highlands. On her website ( https://will-to-win.co.uk/) she says:

Do you feel you can achieve more? You can, change is easier than you think.Let me help you to realise that your true potential for your business is already within you, waiting to be discovered and unlocked – putting you and your business on the path to achieving anything you want.

Stuart Mason, author of the book “How to Wreck Your Business”. Stuart built up a successful business but then lost it all. He wrote a book about it so that you could learn from his mistakes. You can get it on Amazon, or just Google the title.

On his website ( https://actioncoach.co.uk/coaches/stuart-mason/) Stuart says:

Running a successful business can mean hard work, and perhaps not the rewards you know you deserve. Do you have more ambitious aspirations?  Are you now at a stage in business where you demand more and ask yourself, “How do I get my business to the next level?” Today, I get to work with successful business owners, just like you. Motivated and driven business professionals that want to go from good to great in the shortest time possible.

There are plenty of others out there, you just have to find the right one for you. But first, are you ready to absorb that sort of information and really ready to act upon it? That is the question. Is the pupil ready?

Alan Long

The Long Partnership

07770 738770