I often reflect on my travelling years and look at what those years taught me later in life, and how what I learned helped me as a young businessperson. I think the first thing my travelling showed was a level of adventure and courage; an ability to give it a go and see where life takes me. Getting on that plane in the 1980s — where you could still light up a cigarette and some rows were simply marked as ‘nonsmoking' (which clearly made sense … not!) — and travelling to the other side of the world with no mobile phone or internet and snail mail as the only form of communication took a level of courage and adventure. Starting Boost was the same. Selling your home and putting everything on the line with no experience in running a business took that same sense of adventure (or naivety) and trust in the spirit of the journey.
Some of the experiences I mention in the book show that the young Janine needed to think on her feet and make quick decisions, aware that failure was not an option because the consequence in some circumstances were life and death. The same skills are required for businesspeople. You need courage, a bit of faith in your own ability, quick decisions and the power to stay at the problem until you find a solution. I would never have travelled if I knew the real dangers and some of the problems I was going to face. And I may not have started a business if I knew the struggles, sleepless nights and fear that came with having everything on the line. But then, how dull would life be? I have never had a desire to climb a huge mountain but I completely understand why you would want to: for the feeling of achievement, no matter how hard the journey can be.
Some say, ‘To succeed, you need money, a university education and to be really, really smart …'
Bollocks! I started Boost Juice Bars on my own kitchen bench and have grown it to over $2 billion in global sales since inception — and I've never spent a day of my life at uni or a business school. Worse yet (according to advocates of a traditional pathway to success), I've never had a job I was qualified for.
What you really need to succeed is:
Not having formal training to fall back on forces you to rely on your own innate abilities to achieve the unachievable.
A huge part of what makes a business succeed is the attitude of the person behind it. It's not about how many degrees they have or what blue chip companies they've worked for. It's about the hunger and the drive and the willingness to keep bouncing back from adversity and attacking the problem until you find a solution.
Doing Shark Tank was a bit like re-living my early days of Boost. The contestants were like all businesspeople in the early days of a venture. You have that confidence that the rigours of business have not quite knocked out of you yet. Every day brings a new challenge and it doesn't matter what education you have; it's like you're starting at kinder all over again. I'd never thought of myself as old before but I did feel it during some of the pitches. Seeing the naivety that some of the contestants had about their businesses was like going back in time to see myself when I started.
You often hear people say that they invest in people, not the product. The reason for this is that a great person can make an okay product good; a person who does not have that ‘X factor', however, will not make a great idea a success.
Spotting a person who is hungry, driven, positive, engaged and determined is easy. They ask questions, take notes and are switched on to the answers, and you can just tell that the minute they leave the room, they'll be putting all your advice into action. That's the kind of person who can make it in business.
When I saw Emma from Fly Babee walk through the door during Shark Tank, I realised she had that spark I look for. Steve slammed her for not knowing her numbers and thought she was flippant but I saw determination and a passion for what she was doing. She was the second pitch of the first day, so all us Sharks were still getting settled in. She mentioned that she had sales but the business was brand new. I decided to back her, but a few weeks after the show finished Emma called me in despair — the shipment of the stock she needed to get going had arrived but everything was damaged. She said she would understand if I pulled out. I had invested $80 000 for 33 per cent of the business so it was money I did not want to lose but most importantly, Emma was honest and upfront with the problem and she had a solution on how she was going to fix it. She didn't go into victim mode and she was talking solutions — which was such a great early sign. This is the type of partnership I am looking for.
I told Emma that these types of setbacks are part of business. This was only the first issue (of many) she would have to face — and how she dealt with it would be the making of the business. I told her she had my total support and, sure enough, Emma sorted it, learned from the lessons, adjusted her approach so that the problem never happened again and off she went, as a true entrepreneur does.
Ideally, investors want a great person and a great idea; but situations like these show why I would take the person before the product any day.
A clever acronym I heard years ago describes a particular mentality, and it has since become a part of my professional vocabulary. This acronym is VERB, or Victim, Entitled, Rescued, Blame.
In life and in business, I don't like a VERB mentality. A victim thinks ‘poor me' instead of finding a solution. They feel entitled to receive instead of driven to achieve and, when things go wrong, they wait to be rescued instead of finding a solution. Lastly, they blame others instead of taking responsibility.
The most destructive thing about a VERB mentality is that it places a person in a state of total powerlessness. Nothing is their fault; nothing is their responsibility; and they don't need to solve any problem because it's up to someone else to rescue them.
I don't want people who see themselves as victims — I don't want to hear ‘poor me', or ‘I will try'; I want to hear ‘can do' and ‘I will find a way'. In addition, there is no such thing as entitlement. I believe that people should be rewarded appropriately for what they do; I hate hearing someone say, ‘That's not my job' or ‘I don't get paid for that'. I also want people who find solutions rather than feel they need to be rescued. I want people to come to me with answers, not problems. Lastly, and this is a pet hate for me, I don't tolerate people who blame others. It's true we all do it at different times in our lives — and we wouldn't be human if we didn't — but don't be a serial offender.
The choice you can make is to instead use the SOAR approach, or Solutions, Ownership, Accountability and Responsibility. This approach is the opposite of VERB. If you use SOAR in everything you do, you will suddenly find things going your way.
You can find the solution to your problem; just stay with it. Take ownership of everything in your life and business, and soon you will see the power it gives you. Accountability is there to remind you to fix no-one else and, finally, take responsibility for everything you do — if everything is your responsibility, you can fix it. I challenge you to SOAR — and find staff who SOAR with you — and see the difference.
Spotting a winner is easy when you know what you're looking for, but how do you know what to look for? And how do you know if you have those characteristics? Before ditching your day job and going into business, it's important to be sure you have what it takes to be able to drive your venture and sustain it.
These days, people talk a lot about ‘integrity' and ‘values'. They've become buzz words, used to impress — but do you know what integrity really means? It's true that if your company is known as being one of integrity, you will attract and keep like-minded people — honest, reliable, moral people. Yet ideals often seem to disappear if the bottom line is affected. The words ‘integrity' and ‘values' mean nothing if they're not backed up with solid hard work and the right decisions.
So, what is integrity? To me, integrity means always telling the truth and acting in a way that is right for the business, no matter how hard that may be and no matter what the cost. You can't please everyone all the time. Some people may believe you haven't acted with integrity — whether it's an employee you had to let go, or franchisees who think it's your fault they haven't made more money. You can't always help what other people think, but as long as you know you've done the right thing, you can feel at peace. Having true integrity has made Boost what it is today.
Let me give you an example that shows how important integrity is. We had a senior executive in the business who was an amazing talker. When he spoke, his words and tone instilled confidence, and he always seemed to have the answers to all the hard questions. However, this man lacked true integrity — it was all about his ego and making sure that he looked as good as he could. So he would often lie and just tell you what you wanted to hear.
As we came to discover, these can be the most dangerous types of people to have in your business, because it takes a long time to realise what they are really like and, in that time, they can do a lot of damage. By the time we uncovered what this man was doing, his area of responsibility was in a terrible condition and we had started to get a high level of resignations — and, worst of all, the culture of the business had changed. Your business's culture is just like fitness — it can take months to get your fitness level up and only weeks to completely lose it. We realised we had (admittedly unknowingly) gone against one of our biggest rules: only hire people with the utmost integrity. At the time this man was hired, we thought he had integrity but we were sadly mistaken. Often mistakes make the business better, and this is true in this case — we now have better systems in place to make sure this does not happen again.
Here's how to act with integrity and ensure it in those around you:
Really emphasise your integrity by remembering the following:
I have five words for you: move it or lose it. Unfortunately, I can't teach you how to find the will to do so but I can tell you that you need all the will in the world to get where you want to go. Motivation, inspiration — call it what you like — is different for each of us.
To succeed, you must unlock that deep personal energy. So, what motivates you? If you can't answer that question, it's time for you to find out. Without that knowledge, you'll never experience the total joy of achievement.
I can't give other people motivation, but I can provide a culture where their achievements are recognised and rewarded in a way that is meaningful to them. When it comes to motivating staff, I look for their ‘hot buttons'. For some people, a small gesture is enough — a metaphorical pat on the back when all seems lost. Others may take more convincing and may appreciate incentives, such as time off work or a small gift of appreciation.
I believe that motivation is born from working with great people and achieving great things together. The bigger your purpose, the more fulfilled you'll be at the end of every day.
Many things motivated me on my business journey, but the biggest one in the early years was fear. I had everything on the line: we had sold our family home, all of the cash was in the business and we were renting. Not to mention the home doubled as our office. At 34 years old and with three children, I truly did have everything to lose. There is nothing like putting yourself in this position to give you motivation! The business had to work no matter what so, one way or another, I had to find the solution to every problem.
Fear was there as an underlining factor on the journey but something else also popped up — and that was passion. I found that not only did I love the world of retail and business but also, to my surprise, I was actually quite good at it. My brain worked in systems and in high detail. Whenever something went wrong, my mind immediately went to solutions, and then to ways of ensuring a problem of this type never happened again. Suddenly, the business didn't seem like work anymore — I loved it! And when you love something, motivation to continue is a by-product of the journey.
Keep yourself and others around you motivated with the following:
Here's how to get yourself and your staff super motivated:
Having passion is the easiest way to make money, but the hardest thing to find. You can teach anything and train anyone, but you cannot instil passion in someone. Passionate people are few and far between. To me, they are like gold. They stand out. People are attracted to them and believe in them; people want to be them and invest in them. Do you have to be loud, extroverted and opinionated to be passionate? No. You can be quietly passionate. This may mean you're overlooked — but not for long. Along with integrity, commitment and a strong work ethic, passion is always recognised.
So what do I mean by a passionate person? Essentially, passion is tied up with loving what you do. To achieve a goal, you need to throw your heart and soul into it. If you don't, you're in trouble.
When we have a problem at Boost and Retail Zoo, everyone on the team is focused on the solution. Their eyes sparkle with the challenge; they will do whatever it takes to sort it out — whether it's getting on the next plane or working through the night. When Boost first began, the business took over our lives. My husband Jeff and I were surrounded by work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That level of commitment gets tiring very quickly if you're not passionate about what you do. When you are passionate, it doesn't feel like ‘work'. To be passionate, you need to be doing something that means something to you. You can't fake it. If you do, you won't make it.
I have done an enormous number of media interviews over the past fifteen years, and the key thing that I'm often told afterwards is that I ooze passion. When people ask me about Boost, my eyes start to sparkle, my body gets taller and then I'm off — spouting all sorts of information about this business that has been so much a part of my life.
What I also have found is that passion is relatively rare — and so I'm lucky that Jeff has it in spades as well. Sometimes, I would say that a fine line exists between passion and obsession. (These days, when you ask my husband about a horse, his whole face lights up, and he can happily tell anyone who is listening the pedigree of any horse you care to mention.) But this energy and obsession is why others like passionate people and want to be around them — they're addictive and others want some of what they have.
Anyone who has achieved incredible goals has passion, without exception — whether they're a top sportsperson or an amazing musician, passion and commitment are the common bond.
Here's how to find your passion (and others') and act passionately:
Increase your passion with these tips:
Self-doubt is your greatest enemy. Confidence is everything. If you believe in yourself, others will believe in you too. Even if you have doubts, hide them! Your confidence is your shield — it will protect you and your team from that highly contagious disease known as defeat. (This is different from pretending you have all the answers when you don't — something I would never recommend.)
When Boost went from being very small in scale to a medium-sized concern, I found myself questioning whether I'd be able to manage the growth. I was worried that I'd had no formal business training or prior experience. The fact that the expansion happened practically overnight, because Jeff had secured 18 sites with Westfield, didn't help! How did I overcome my concerns? With common sense, a clear vision and by looking at the people who believed in me. I realised these people weren't stupid — and if they backed me all the way, who was I to question their judgement?
Sometimes, questioning your own ability makes you work that much harder; having great people around you is an invaluable safety net. And it turned out the keys to running a business were not as complicated as I thought. If you simplify everything, are sensible when making decisions and look for the solution that exists for every problem, you'll go far.
Don't think I'm kidding myself here — when I started Boost Juice, I certainly didn't have the confidence that I have today. In the early days, I used Jeff as a crutch and, if anything was too hard or too confrontational, I would turn to him. Jeff, of course, had no issues with telling someone how it was.
For example, early on I invested over $5000 in a cash register for the new store; however, I soon discovered that it was an absolute lemon. The salesman I'd dealt with was a pig and basically told me that it was my bad luck. We had hardly any money and the $5000 would not be easily replaced, so I went for my fallback response: calling in Jeff. He called the salesman, who again said he was not refunding the money. So Jeff told him that he was sending over a man and he expected him to give this man the refund in full.
Jeff hung up the phone and put on a dark suit, his shoes with the biggest heels and some sunglasses, and went to the showroom for the money. He introduced himself as Jeff Jackson and said that he was there to collect. The salesman was clearly shaken and told Jeff he would have the money in 30 minutes. Jeff was waiting in his car when the phone rang — it was the salesman, who told Jeff that he was not impressed that he had sent in a thug to collect his money. Jeff calmly told him that Jeff Jackson was not leaving until he had the money in total. Needless to say, ‘Jeff Jackson' had a full refund returned to me that afternoon.
I was always conscious that I hadn't gone to university, and believed that most professional people who I came across would know more than me. However, one thing I did have was a curious mind — I wanted to know more and I wanted to not have to rely on anyone but myself. The other thing I came to realise was that no-one could know my business like I did, so I shouldn't follow advice blindly.
So I started asking more questions, not caring if the questions clearly showed how little I knew. I started questioning some of the documents and discovered that common sense and logic were really the main skills you needed in business. By asking questions, I also discovered how often so-called experts actually make mistakes, and that they didn't always know as much as I gave them credit for. Slowly, I weaned myself off Jeff and started to take on more of the difficult problems myself — even if, in my mind, I always had Jeff Jackson ‘on ice' for another day. However, I'm happy to say that we never had to use Jeff Jackson again. It was my money that I was using, so I became a tough negotiator, making sure I was always over-prepared for every meeting. I'm not sure exactly when the change took place, but I do remember Jeff commenting that I wasn't using him as much anymore — in fact, I think he was a bit put out that his services as the ‘tough guy' were no longer needed.
Education is important, but you should never lack confidence because of any formal education you feel you've missed out on. Education comes in all different forms, and people learn in dozens of different ways. I can confidently tell you that I know more about local and international trademarks than most lawyers — not because of a course, but by actually working out the issues in practice and learning along the way.
As you get older, you do get more comfortable in your skin. I still, to this day, listen more than I talk, and I will continue to ask and ask my questions until I believe I truly understand. Knowledge gives you confidence.
Here are some tips for building your confidence:
Make sure your confidence is unshakable with the following:
Ask yourself: Would you do business with you? Many doors will open or close for you depending on your reputation, which will precede your presence every time. The people with whom you're doing business will have made it a priority to learn about you before you meet. What they discover — usually through the filter of other people — will either give you an edge or create early difficulties for you in your dealings with these new associates.
A ‘firm but fair' reputation is the best one to have. What is yours? Does it need work? Try this exercise: Write down five attributes that you'd like people to say you have. Stick that list in the front of your diary and refer to it often. Are you achieving your desired reputation?
I strongly believe that the presenter is more important than the presentation, the messenger more important than the message. If you have a good reputation, guard it with your life. However, if it has been tarnished in some way, now is the time to work on it. The only way to get it back on track is through action, not words. Don't tell me that you've changed — show me.
I remember dealing with an advertising agency that promised Boost the world but didn't deliver. In fact, it dumped us at another client's request. The ad agency rep claimed that he wasn't responsible, but he should have been honest about the process. If he'd kept me informed about what was happening, instead of blaming others when it was over, the situation wouldn't have been such a disaster. That rep is still trying to win me back over. I'm listening, but I'm cynical. He'd have to do (emphasis on doing, not talking) something amazing to win back my trust. All this is not to say that I don't believe in giving second chances. After all, everyone makes mistakes — just make sure you get it right the second time around.
Remember: every person and company has a reputation for something. It is the core of what you are. Jeff had a reputation for being a tough guy in radio and, even when he became a father and got a bit older and wiser (and a bit less tough in his core), he kept up his tough-guy behaviour because it suited his role at the time. I have worked with many businesses and suppliers over the years and have found it's usually no surprise why companies have the reputation that they do. What type of business it is and what type of reputation it's creating is usually highlighted when something goes wrong.
If it's a great business, managers and staff will go above and beyond to fix the problem, regardless of who is at fault. These types of businesses focus not on short-term losses but on the long-term reputation that they're developing — and so they thrive.
The other side is the type of business where, when things go wrong, managers and other staff put their heads in the sand and go into blame mode. This is a short-term view and often these types of businesses are the ones that don't survive — and the owners are left wondering what they did wrong.
Your business reputation is everything — it is why you will get repeat customers and referrals. A personal reputation is the same. I believe that my reputation is firm but fair — if you commit to me that something will be delivered by a certain date and you do not deliver it without any communication, I definitely have a reputation for not accepting this for too long.
Guard, or improve, your reputation with the following:
Self-discipline is the most common trait of great and successful leaders, while a lack of restraint can create big problems. Commit a few undisciplined acts in politics or business and soon you're being asked to drag yourself around the chat-show circuit.
Take alcohol, for example — just one alcohol-fuelled stupid instance at a work function and you could lose hard-won respect. As I've mentioned, one of my first jobs was working for an advertising agency as a media assistant. Back in the 1980s, the Christmas party where I worked was legendary. One year, a senior executive was absolutely blind drunk. He made a pass at anything in a skirt, threw a typewriter through a window and assaulted another client. He was fired the next day. The shame of it was that this guy was a good, solid executive who was simply a nasty drunk. If he'd had the discipline to respect that it was a work function, he could have had an amazing career in advertising.
In other words, if you drink and work, you're a bloody idiot! Nobody gets smarter after a few drinks. As a rule, I never have more than two drinks at a work function. Whether you're drinking with colleagues or suppliers, anything you say, can and will be used against you the next day.
Set aside time each day for exercise. If you have the discipline to look after yourself, you'll feel better, look better and function better. As an added bonus, fit-looking people seem to garner greater respect from others, probably because others see that personal discipline will carry over into business.
Being self-disciplined doesn't mean being self-denying; it's not about working harder, it's about working smarter. Self-discipline is getting to your children's sports days, being home when you told your partner you would be, keeping appointments and being on time. Self-disciplined people aren't the ones in the office from dawn to midnight — they're organised enough to get their work done within a reasonable time frame.
Here's how to choose the right elements for self-discipline:
Here's how to take your self-discipline up a notch:
No-one learns anything while talking. Everyone has ears and using them to listen might be the most underrated quality of all. It goes hand in hand with asking questions, which is one of my favourite pastimes.
Are there people you admire? People you consider successful? If you get the chance, talk to them. If they're not immediately accessible, perhaps send an email to their corporate website or attend a public presentation they're giving.
Asking questions of successful people helps to remove the aura of achievement that surrounds them. You could ask them how they got started. (Usually you'll find the start point was a very basic opportunity, perhaps something available to many — only successful people have the foresight to grab opportunities with both hands.) You might ask how they find the best people, how they motivate their staff, and whether there is anything they'd do differently if they had their time again. See if they have one or two pieces of great advice they could share. Generally, most people like helping others — why not let them help you?
When I started out, there wasn't one particular person whose success I aspired to emulate, but there were two people who helped me. Geoff Harris (co-founder of Flight Centre) had a profound effect in assisting Boost's growth. After he came on board, the business was able to go to the next level. Lesley Gillespie from Bakers Delight has also been very generous with her time and insight. She is an amazing woman who has been a great help to me.
At Boost and Retail Zoo, we're constantly looking for great talent on every level. A few years back, we were in search of a great board member — we felt that we needed more experience in international expansion on the board, and were recommended a man who had run a successful franchise business in the United States. We decided to try him as a board member. We paid for his first-class flight over from the United States and put him up in a five-star hotel. We then put him on the road with our senior company-store and franchise managers, so he could understand and learn about our business and get a feel for where he could contribute.
The feedback from our senior managers was horrific. They told us that all he did was talk — telling them how good he and his business were. He did not ask any questions on the financials, the product or the Australian market; he just talked and criticised. When I was told this, I initially thought that they may have been exaggerating a bit — until I got into the board meeting with him. The meeting opened and so did his mouth, and it just kept going. People were polite for a little while, but pretty soon I'd had enough and told him to shoosh. Yes — I said, ‘Shoosh. That is enough'. He looked at me in shock and then told me his wife tells him the same thing — at which I suggested he listen to this wise woman.
When he was quiet enough that we could ask questions of him, he didn't have any answers. We asked him how the Australian model and his model compared, what the differences in the systems and processors were, how our labour rates compared with his and what he'd discovered during his time on the road. He did not have one answer to the questions that we put forward — because he hadn't cared to listen and find out or to gather enough knowledge on our business to be of any value. He was shocked and mortified that we did not add him as a board member.
As I said, you never learn anything from talking.
Improve your listening skills with the following:
Here's how to really become a true listener:
Albert Einstein once said, ‘It's not that I'm so smart; it's just that I stay with problems longer'. You may not have all the answers to every problem you face. You just have to believe that you have the resourcefulness to find the solution to any problem — rather than asking your boss or mentor to come up with the answer.
If you're going to shine in the business world, you must be the person who presents the solution, not just the problem. I like it when a staff member comes to me and says, ‘We have a problem and I think we should do this to solve it'. Like solving a puzzle, finding the right solution is a big reward in itself.
We all have problems, but not everyone tries to come up with the answers. The employee who just sits there, looking like a puppy that needs rescuing and waiting for me or someone else to save the day, will not win Employee of the Month. In fact, if employees do that too often, I might start questioning if they're the right people for the job.
Think about it — don't you find that people tend to spend far too much time talking about the problem and not enough time finding the solution? People moving into ‘protection' mode is one of my pet hates — when a problem occurs, they care more about not being blamed for it than about finding a solution and then putting a system in place so that the problem does not occur again.
In 2002 we were opening a store in Hornsby, New South Wales. The store was built in South Australia, shipped by truck and then put together in the shopping centre. Every store created is specially designed for each site, so we can't just move one store to fit another site if there's a problem. The Hornsby store had cost us about $100 000 to build, and this was very early in the business when funds were at their tightest. Sharryn, my manager at the time, was on site making sure everybody was doing what they were supposed to. She called me at 10 pm on the night that the whole shop was meant to arrive and told me that the shopping centre had made a mistake and that they would not be able to get any services to the position, ever. If we could not open this store and had to write off $100 000 in shop fit, the business would be in a financially stressed position — one that we might not be able to recover from.
To her credit, Sharryn was on the phone to everyone and anyone for a solution. She managed to raise the centre manager and the construction manager for the site — and just would not take no for an answer. The store arrived and the so-called impossibility of getting services to the spot suddenly evaporated. We had services and all was good.
This is one of the biggest thought processes to learn in business — there is always a solution to every problem; you just have to stay at it longer. The person with the answers is you!
Here's how to stop looking at problems and start finding solutions:
Honesty is the bravest path you can take, and it is an essential element within a company's core integrity. It takes a brave person to be honest — in work and in life. Nobody likes to hurt another person's feelings, but most of us hate finding out that someone has been dishonest with us.
Often people don't mean to tell lies; instead, they filter the truth to justify their actions. This means that the picture you get is somewhat distorted, but the truth is in there — somewhere.
If you make a mistake, admit it. In most cases, trying to cover up an error will simply result in more problems. Trust is the first casualty of dishonesty. As a boss, I find that I get over someone's mistake very quickly if the responsible person owns up. We can then work together to find a solution. Once there's a question mark over someone's honesty, however, trust can take a long time to rebuild.
Here's another example. Scott, one of our best ever executives and currently the CEO of Retail Zoo, had a dramatic rise through the company ranks, and this was mainly because of something as mundane as his weekly work-in-progress reports (WIPs). These reports break down responsibilities by department, outlining who is responsible for what and when. They are one of our core strategies in keeping everyone accountable and on track.
In Scott's WIPs, I know he is giving me the whole story, without any sugar coating. We discuss the report and enjoy the positive side of the company's performance, but equally look at the dark side and try to figure out solutions. When Scott stuffs up, as we all do from time to time, he is always first to 'fess up. As a consequence, we have total faith and trust in him because we know we are getting the truth on every issue, no matter how confronting it may be to the company. Everyone answers to someone, no matter how high they are up the ladder. Even as owners, we answer to our customers.
Honesty is the most refreshing part of business — a problem shared should lead to a problem solved.
Here's how to keep yourself honest:
Power up your honesty with the following:
Financial success does not create emotional prosperity, so you need to make sure the person sharing your dreams is with you all the way. The truly rich life is a balanced one — unless you keep your work and family in harmony, your economic gains will be meaningless.
Having the right partner at home is vital. If your partner supports your dreams, your path will be a lot easier and, ultimately, success will come sooner.
The person you rely on may be a life partner, a friend or a family member. They may not necessarily agree with you, but this person must support you 100 per cent in your goals. The last thing you need is someone whispering negatives in your ear all the time.
Jeff and I are Yin and Yang — different people, but a perfect fit. We each have our own nuances and our own individual methods of operation, but we're highly effective as a team. He is the perfect complement to my style: an entrepreneur and the man with big ideas, but not always the attention to detail to make them reality. I am the planner and doer, the person who makes things happen. We often laugh that if it were just me in control of Boost, we'd have ten amazing stores. If Jeff were in charge, we'd have a thousand — although they might have gone broke. His backup has been integral to my success.
When Riverside Private Equity bought into Boost in 2010, one of their primary concerns was having a husband–wife team running the company. It was their experience that such a team can quite often be a compromise of skills and expertise, so they gave us one of those long fandangled personality tests to see where we both sat. Based on the results of this test, we now have in perfect graph form what we knew intuitively — we are the perfect business couple. Every area I'm weak in, Jeff is strong in, and vice versa.
Your partner is critical in your journey. I see lots of couples where the wife is completely underrated and the roles are set in stone — the husband is the main breadwinner and the wife takes care of the family. This set-up all seems to go well in the early years, when the kids are super-needy, but it starts to crumble as the family evolves. Hubby is still mentally stimulated at work, the kids are in their teens, or older, and are more independent, but the wife is — hmmm — lost.
We all need a purpose, we all need to be challenged; however, in this situation what does the wife's purpose become? Women aren't just there for their husband's and children's needs.
Just as you should seek support from your partner, you should also encourage your partner to explore and fulfil as many of their skills and dreams as possible. These skills and dreams could be anything, but the earlier you start supporting your partner, the better your relationship will be over the long term. And hey! Just like our Boost story, you never know where you could end up. I can't imagine what my life would be like now if I had fallen in love with a man who wanted a stay-at-home wife, but I think it's unlikely I would still be with him.
I have become the best I can possibly be because I had a husband who encouraged me to have a crack at anything and believed in me to take on the world of retail.
Don't let your ideas be squashed for the sake of your family — you can fit everything in. And remember — happy wife (or husband), happy life.
Here are some components for perfect partners:
Rome wasn't built in a day. Every cloud has a silver lining. If at first you don't succeed …
Looking on the bright side is not just for Pollyanna. Being positive is crucial to achieving success. Decide that you are going to be successful, and then be unfailingly upbeat in your pursuit of that goal. A firm decision makes you unstoppable — no ‘maybe', ‘could've' or ‘should've' allowed.
You will get knockbacks along the way. Problems may arise from every corner. How do you remain positive in the face of constant negativity? By knowing there is a solution and that you will find it. If ten people tell you your idea will not work, how do you keep believing that the eleventh person will love it? Well, it depends on who those first ten people are. If Jeff or Geoff Harris were to disagree with me, I'd probably have to reconsider my position. If it were a person with no retail or business experience, I simply wouldn't listen. So many people have missed out on attaining financial freedom because they couldn't handle the knockbacks. If someone says no to you, don't close the book on the idea. It just means that the idea or request was not right for that person at that time.
Release the power of positivity with the following:
Take your positivity to the next level with the following:
Negativity is like a disease that can bring down the best and the brightest. The average person can have 200 negative thoughts every day. How exhausting! If positive thinking is one of your greatest weapons, negative thoughts can be your biggest threats. They will bring you down, no matter how good you are.
From my perspective, a service-oriented company is at the mercy of its staff's emotional moods. It's vital to recognise underachievers or dysfunctional personnel and either retrain or remove them. Some people simply do not like dealing with people. This doesn't mean they're bad, just that they shouldn't be in the service industry.
As the boss, my mood has a huge impact on my team, and it can dictate the atmosphere of the environment around me. Every person on the team can also have the same effect on those around them. One negative person in an office can upset the whole apple cart!
We all have bleak moments — we wouldn't be human if we didn't. But we also have the power to choose how we feel about the situations we encounter every day. Not every situation will be great, but you will see a lot more abundance and opportunity with the ‘glass half full' way of thinking.
Throughout my journey I was driven by fear of failure, and in some ways it was a great motivator. This fear, for example, made me double- and triple-check everything I did to ensure that I did not miss anything. Fear kept my adrenaline at full speed, but there was a massive downside — you can manifest what you fear, simply because that's what you're focused on.
I'm not sure if I truly believe in books such as The Secret, but I do believe that if you have a positive mindset and you are looking for the good, then the good follows you. The more you focus on something (good or bad), the more likely it is that what you're focusing on is going to happen.
In the early days of Boost's success, I was a complete stress-head. Anything and everything would send me off, and everything was a drama. I was a terrible wife and mother and I was terrible to myself because I was so stressed. It got to a point when I stopped and realised that I actually hadn't eaten anything for three days. I was as thin as I have ever been and, while my mind and body was all about making sure the business was a success, I was not living Boost's ‘love life' philosophies, not even a bit. I was negative in my thoughts and my health.
This was a massive wake-up call, so I shipped myself off to a health retreat to get myself back on track. Once there, I came across a ‘healer' (as you do at health retreats), who recommended I read Conversations with God. I'm not against religion, but it has never been something that I have wanted to be a part of. I do believe that I am quite spiritual, but I think spirituality comes from within, not from a church. The title of the book put me off straightaway, but I had nothing else to read so I gave it a go. After the first few pages, I was ready to throw the book in the bin, because the author was basically saying that he was writing ‘through God's words'. I persevered, however, and in the end I could not put the book down.
I have no idea whether or not the book really contained ‘God's words', but I did like the messages. One key message was that you should not try to be better — you should just be better. Do not want to be a type of person, simply be that person. And the second key message for me was there is only love and fear — if you live in fear, you will manifest this; if you are grateful for what you have and be positive (or live for love), that will be what you manifest.
I do believe that books and people come into your life at different times for a reason, and this book (and the others in the series) did help me change the way I thought. I let go of fear and took more control over my stress, and that helped change the way I thought. Hundreds of books can tell you the same message. Forget about what you have or have not done in the past — all that matters is what you do now and into the future. Be grateful for what you have and don't focus on what you don't have.
Here's how to get rid of negativity in your life:
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