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Setting Your Own Standards

This is a difficult subject to understand, most would think we are going by our standards. But are you really? If you think about it, what are standards? It’s simply a measuring stick by how you measure results. The problem here is “Who’s Ruler Are you Using?” Are you using the standard your manager gave you, the standard your managers manager gave you, or the standards set by other employees also known as the status quo? When you want to become wealthy you need to understand Standards intimately. First of all you need to determine what war you want to fight, as they say some wars are not worth fighting. There is no sense in setting extremely high standards for making a perfect cookie cutter, no one will pay much attention to that minute detail and a higher standard for cookie cutters and it wouldn’t equate to much more profit or customer service. It would be wise to instead re-direct that effort to a different area that would produce results.

So the lesson on standards begins with determining if the reward for the higher standard is worthwhile first of all. Assuming you have determined whether the high standard is meaningful or worthwhile to you, then you can determine just how high you should place your own standards. The main thing however is ensuring you are truly the one setting the standards, when you control your own standards it also helps you control the level of success or failure you want to attain because it’s a direct correlation to how much effort you put into something, high standards requires higher effort. This is not the same as having a good work ethic however is similar in some respects. Ideally you should normally set standards above the norm, you will also notice a difference and sometimes problems may arise when you disrupt the status quo, co-works will look bad when comparing against your own high standards so you may notice animosity.

From a business owners perspective you should attempt to encourage employees to go above and beyond and ensure the environment is comfortable for those who want to go above and beyond by removing the status quo and complacency in the work place. This will ensure no employee is leaving skills on the table that could have otherwise moved them up in your business and become an even more valuable asset. Moreover, that is what it takes to break free from an everyday life and everyday paycheck, you need to go above and beyond, however it is Extremely important to ensure the effort is going towards a true opportunity and building a real asset that will provide you true wealth most efficiently, not the same old cookie cutter routines living paycheck to paycheck building someone else’s asset.