Damian Mason - Do Business Better: Traits, Habits, and Actions to Help You Succeed

1. Chapter 18

As a small business owner, I find myself sifting through business books seeking information that is realistic and relevant. While reading this book, I was able to take suggestions and apply them immediately. Do Business Better is helping my business successfully roll into our second decade.

Angie Carel,
Owner of IBA Design

Better always beats best, and this book will show you how you can get that competitive advantage. In this book, Damian Mason provides practical, actionable ideas you can use to better your best. I recommend it.

Mark Sanborn, author,
The Fred Factor

Common sense principles delivered in a noholdsbarred, Midwest farm boy conversational tone. If you have a profound desire to Do Business Better in a rapidly changing, disrupted, global economy, I wholeheartedly recommend you read a copy and share a few copies with your most valued clients or prospects!

Jamie Shinabarger,
President/CEO Springs Valley Bank & Trust

DAMIAN MASON

Copyright 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data:

Names: Mason, Damian, 1969 author.

Title: Do business better : traits, habits, and actions to help you succeed / Damian Mason.

Description: Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., [2019] | Includes index. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2018061444 (print) | LCCN 2019003661 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119566298 (Adobe PDF) | ISBN 9781119566304 (ePub) | ISBN 9781119566281 (cloth)

Subjects: LCSH: Success in business. | Management.

Classification: LCC HF5387 (ebook) | LCC HF5387 .M3475 2019 (print) | DDC 650.1dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018061444

Cover Design: Wiley

It is my firm belief that people want both life and business to be hard so they will have an excuse for not doing well. After all, who wants to admit failure at something that is really pretty simple, right? But the reality is that life just isn't all that hard. Neither is business. Sure, it can be difficult from time to time, and disasters may happen along the way. But for the most part, when you boil it all down, success in both life and business is really based on some pretty simple, basic stuff. It isn't hard, but we sure seem to enjoy making it hard and believing it's hard.

It has been my experience that the reason most people aren't as successful as they want to be is that they never learn or they too quickly forget the simple, basic principles it takes to do well. Then when they struggle in either their life or their business, they go searching for answers and will invariably gravitate toward intricate, complicated solutions. Interesting approach, since what got them into trouble in the first place wasn't intricate or complicated at all; it was the lack of application of simple, basic principles. Want to lose weight? Eat less, exercise more. That is a simple solution that works 99% of the time. But people don't want that solution; they would rather spend money on silly ideas like an Ab Cruncher or a pill promoted by a celebrity. That's why the weight loss industry is a $66 billion industry. Eating less and exercising more won't cost you a dime, but the solution just seems too simple and basic for people to accept.

Even when people are doing well but want to do better, they skip the simple, basic stuff that would help them do better and go for the complicated, sexier stuff that seems to be all the rage. Business books have become more and more about offering complex solutions to simple problems. Authors know that few people really want to be reminded about getting back to basics. People believe they are already doing the basics well enough and want what's hot and is the flavor of the day. Well, what's hot is rarely the solution to the problem. The problem, 9 times out of 10, was caused because the basics were ignored.

That's what I enjoy most about Do Business Better; it's about the basics. That's even what I like best about the title. The title doesn't promise you anything grandiose like how you will become the biggest, the best, or the richest. And it isn't one of those silly titles we see way too often that is hard to understand, with ideas inside that are even harder to implement. The title of this little book is basic and reminds us of what we all ultimately want: the ability to do business better. The content inside is the same way. This book gives you solid, basic ideas that will show you how to do business better. And if you are honest with yourself, that is what you are really looking for. You aren't looking to totally overhaul what got you where you are. That's too big of a task, and you aren't going to do it anyway. What you really want is a handful of ideas, strategies and tactics that will help you tweak what you are doing today so you can do business better tomorrow. And the simpler to implement, and the fewer of them there are, the better.