In this post, I share some advice from my recent discussion with Brian Tracy.  Brian Tracy is Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, a company specializing in the training and development of individuals and organizations.  Brian Tracy has consulted for more than 1,000 companies and addressed more than 4,000,000 people in 4,000 talks and seminars throughout the US, Canada and 40 other countries worldwide. As a Keynote speaker and seminar leader, he addresses more than 250,000 people each year.  Brian Tracy has studied, researched, written and spoken for 30 years in the fields of economics, history, business, philosophy and psychology. He is the top selling author of over 45 books that have been translated into dozens of languages.

Here’s a few notes from this interview.

Todd:  What are the most difficult aspects of the career to set goals for?  How do can MBAs get around them?

Brian:  You start off with your income.  Make a five or your ten year plan. Then you say “what will I have to contribute for them to willingly pay me this amount?”  What MBAs have to understand is that the MBA degree is a like a merit badge in the Boy Scouts.  It indicates to the employer that you have certain abilities to achieve goals.  It doesn’t indicate that you can, just that you have the ability.  Most companies take two years to detrain an MBA to get them to the point where they can contribute something worthwhile.  The job of the MBA is to short circuit that learning curve.  The key focus to MBAs has to be results, not just the goals you get from your employer.  The most important results are financial results.  You have to increase sales or revenue, or either reduce cost, depending on your area of specialization.  A great opportunity in business today is to put great focus on increasing revenues through marketing and sales.  You have to find some way to have an influence on revenues.  That has to be the central focus of the MBA.  Now remember that 80% of people that graduate from college never use what they learned for the rest of their lives.  Therefore, all the courses you take are what I call mental pushups.  They indicate you can do mental pushups.  Now you have to get results to to help your company get more results today.  That has to be the focus.  With the law of indirect effort, the giver results in higher pay, job security, faster promotion and greater attractiveness in the market.   The indirect way of impressing another person (Law of Indirect Effort); however, is simply to be impressed by the other person.  The more you are impressed by the other person, by who he or she is, or what he or she has accomplished, the more likely it is that the other person will be impressed by you.  

Todd:  How should MBAs set priorities for achieving their goals (e.g. effort, time, reward)?

Brian:  The most important qualities for success with the MBA are focus and concentration. You must have absolute clarity about what you are trying to accomplish.  Then, concentrate on just these activities.  So, I’ve deemed what I call the Law of Three.  There are basically three tasks that we engage in that contribute 90% of the results or value in that job.  Everything else is in the other 10%.  So what you have to do is to make a list of everything you do in the course of a week or a month.  Then ask yourself if “I can only do one thing on this list which activity contributes the greatest value to my business?”  Put a circle around that.  Then, ask the question again, if I can only do two things? Then, try three things.  The answers should pop out at you.  If you don’t know the answers, you haven’t got a chance.  One of the ideas I share when teaching teambuilding is that you are not only competing with every other company, you are personally competing with your counterpart in every other company.  There’s an old saying that goes “if you’re not constantly learning to get better, somewhere some else is.”  If you are doing this, when you meet that person you will lose.  Therefore, you are competing with your counterpart who is doing the same job trying to get the same result in a competitive company.  Just like in the Olympics, you’re competing against athletes from other nations.  Your competing against business athletes from other companies.  The other thing is you’re also competing with the people within your business, who also want the same rewards, promotions, perks and opportunities that you do.  Don’t forget that while teamwork is working together, loving, hugging and sharing, every person you are working with wants to get more and better rewards, So you are going to have to outperform the people to the right and left of you.  The only way you can do that is first by focusing on the really valuable things that make a big difference to your boss and company and continually getting better at what you do. 

So I say with regards to the Law of Three, do fewer things but do more of them, do them more of the time and get better at it.  Getting better is one of the most important skills for an MBA; that is to continually get better at the most important things.  If you don’t know what they are, just go ask your boss.  Just say “Hey, I just got my MBA.  If there were a few major things that contribute 90% of the value to the company, what would you say I could do to make the biggest contribution I can?”

 Our thanks to Mr. Tracy for taking time to speak with us.  More tips and advice from Brian Tracy will appear in our upcoming ebooks for MBAs.

Go to www.briantracy.com to learn more.  You can also capture some great advice from his blog at www.briantracy.com/blog.