One of the sources that Mine Your Own Business follows closely is Doug Fleener's "Daily Retail Experience" newsletter. You may recognize Doug's name because he has been quoted here many times. His blog, "Retail Contrarian" should be daily reading for anyone in the retail business.
Doug hit a real milestone last week when "The Daily Retail Experience" number 1,000 was posted. Trust me, it's not easy to crank out worthwhile content every single day! To do it for 1,000 consecutive days is amazing.
In issue 1,000 he talks about the 1,000 lessons he's learned. (You may recall that MYOB recently passed 500 posts, meaning that Doug is at least twice as smart as your humble blogger.) Among other things, he's learned to do what ever's needed, whether you want to or not. He's learned that learning equals growing. He's learned, as I have, that some of the best business lessons happen outside of business.
He also points out that you must be passionate about your subject. Trying to write every single day about something you either don't know or don't care about would be deadly dull and it would show in the content.
Finally, Doug says you can't over-communicate the basics. A writer wants to come up with something exciting and new every day. But, without a foundation of the basics, the rest is just window dressing. He says, "But then all I have to do is go shop some stores at the mall and I'm reminded stores win or lose on the basics. You can never, ever, over-communicate to your staff about the basics."
I would apply these same truths to anyone in the world of business. You have to be constantly learning, and the learning often comes from the most unexpected places, if you're looking for it. Every activity, every interaction, every conversation may contain the seed of a great business idea.... if you have the radar turned on.
Congratulations to Doug for the first 1,000 newsletters! To paraphrase what he wrote when MYOB hit number 500, "Doug, you don't look a day over 900!" And thanks for sharing what you've learned.
Comments