“Feed the beast and the beast will feed you” — 3 LinkedIn examples from my week that emphasise why doing this effectively increases my surface area of luck

Last year I took part in a interview with a class of British school kids in what was billed as “An Inspiring Talk From An Entrepreneur”.

Each student got to ask me one question and I was prepared for a range of hard hitting questions.

The students did not disappoint, and one in particular has come to mind a lot recently, especially when I talk to Small Businesses that are struggling.

The question was:

“How do you choose what to do each day? Wouldn’t it be easier to get up at lunchtime and just play video games all day?”

Now this may have been that particular teenager’s dream job [and probably mine when I was their age] but, as I answered him:

“It’s hard identifying the right set of activities to do each day. On the one hand if I did nothing all day then I wouldn’t bring in any Money. Equally I could be busy all day with the wrong activities and it still might not bring in any money but given the choice between the two I always lean towards the latter; by doing something, at least there is a chance that I will make something happen”

By referencing this I don’t mean to imply that the businesses I’ve been speaking to have been sitting around doing nothing but, when it comes to sales and marketing in particular, they may have been leaning more towards the doing-less end of the spectrum.

Let me introduce you to one of my sayings

My mantra has always been: FEED THE BEAST AND THE BEAST WILL FEED YOU

Having studied physics, I like to think of it as a bit like Newton’s Third Law that states “Each action has an equal and opposite reaction” or to put it another way:

“You make your own luck, make the right choices and you can increase the surface area for that to happen” — as a wise cabbie once told me

What’s this got to do with the week I just had?

Last week, was a classic example of the mantra coming good as I had a hell of a week with lots of good things happening to me, which on the face of it may seem to just be down to luck but, as I say, you make your own luck.

All 3 examples also highlight why for me LinkedIn is such a valuable beast.

Example 1:

On Monday, I attended a talk by John Amaechi (former NBA basketball star and current renowned psychologist).

John was firing out amazing insights that I took so many notes on my phone; at the end of the talk I tidied these up and posted them on LinkedIn [I’ve always been a person to look for two outputs from one input].

“That was that,” I thought.

How wrong I was as the next morning my LinkedIn blew up!

John had only gone and liked the post and all his fans began piling in. By the end of the day the post had already been one of my biggest ever and it still keeps growing and growing.

I’ve received hundreds of messages and connection requests just from this one action. I even have a meeting with John and his team arranged as a result.

Example 2:

On Tuesday, I had the privilege of spending the day with Marks and Spencer running leadership training for their high-potential leaders.

I posted on LinkedIn about it at the end-of-the-day to celebrate.

The next morning, my phone rang; it was a loose connection I had met 4 years ago at a golf day.

“Hi Faris, I saw your post about your day with Marks and Spencer and that’s exactly what I need for my team. Could we discuss you coming to help us out next month?”

It doesn’t get better than that as a small business owner.

Example 3:

Later in the week, I delivered a online taster workshop for somebody I had randomly connected with on LinkedIn 2 years ago. We had loosely stayed in touch and finally had a virtual coffee at the end of last year, in which I suggested working together.

Obviously having no track record of my work, she asked for this taster session for her team, and I was happy to oblige.

What I thought would involve just a handful of people, ended up with over 200 hundred on the call [I had to quickly change some of the interactive tasks that I had planned].

I’m happy to say that the session went incredibly well; my inbox was flooded with messages and connection requests afterwards.

Not only that but I’ve now been invited in to talk to the company’s Head of L&D to discuss how we can support them going forwards.

Spot the theme?

Yep, the Beast is feeding me!

Those who are astute, will realise that I could equally have written about all the actions I’ve taken that didn’t bear fruit but those beasts might just be taking their time to get back to me.

It really does work and I encourage you to embrace it.

For anyone mulling it over, my advice is threefold:

1. It’s always better to do something rather than nothing — I suggest pick things you enjoy doing and do them a lot [for me that’s posting regularly, reaching out to connections and having virtual coffees]
2. Consistency is key — 90% of success is about turning up time after time
3. Don’t get wedded to one particular action you have taken — it will all come good in the end and if not, it wasn’t worth dwelling on

Phew! What an amazing week; I wonder what next week has in store 🤔.

You can always find out by following me on LinkedIn and reading next week’s blog.

If any of these topics inspire you or you’d like to hear more then I’d love to hear from you. After all I assure you that I am a friendly beast 😊.

Faris is the CEO and Founder of Shiageto Consulting, an innovative consultancy that helps firms and individuals sharpen their effectiveness. Connect with him here

Success = IQ x EQ x FQ

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Originally Published on https://farisaranki.medium.com/

Faris Aranki Strategy & Emotional Intelligence

Having spent over 20 years delivering strategic change for the corporate and non-corporate worlds, Faris has experienced first-hand the fine differences between strategic success and failure.
His work has spanned numerous companies (from global behemoths to small start-ups), in numerous countries, across a range of sectors, supporting them all to unlock strategic success.

He came to realize that often what hinders institutions from achieving their goals goes beyond the quality of their strategy; it is their ability to engage effectively with others at all levels and remove barriers in their way. This has led to his passion for improving strategic effectiveness within all businesses and individuals and the foundation of Shiageto Consulting.

Over time, Faris has worked to distill his knowledge of how to solve complex problems in a structured manner combined with his skill on engaging effectively with others and his ability to quickly determine the barriers to a strategy's success. This knowledge has formed the foundation of Shiageto’s workshops, courses and methodologies. Faris believes that any firm or team can adopt these improvements; all it requires is a little of the right support -something Shiageto provides!

On top of leading our business, Faris is now an accomplished speaker and contributor for a variety of outlets.