This week at a regional BNI networking event held in Natick, MA, I had an opportunity to meet Dr. Ivan Misner, CEO and Founder of BNI, the world’s largest networking organization (http://www.bni.com/). As many of you know, I am the President of one of the 5,600 worldwide BNI Chapters, BNI Nashoba (http://www.bninashoba.com/). Dr. Misner spoke about many things including the weekend he spent on Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island in the Caribbean and the “butterfly networking principle” which was the circle of events that caused him to be there. Very interesting the cards life deals out when you are open to receiving them. One thing that really rang a chord was his statement that success is the uncommon application of common knowledge. He wrote about it in his book The 29% Solution. Just think about these simple words and what they mean in your business. You need to think long and hard to see if there is some way to apply this principle when you can’t see the forest for the trees. Our businesses are built on some pretty basic concepts but it’s very difficult to think outside the box and come up with a new angle, a new approach. Take a half-hour and consider what you do and how you do it — as if you were your customer. Become an empath. What can you come up with. I’d be interested to hear.
