Conventional thinking:  In order to be successful I must please my customers, my employees, my investors, my colleagues, my boss, etc.  I must make sure the requirements of all my stakeholders are fully met.

Contrarian thinking:  If you try to please everyone you will be very ineffective and will end up not completely satisfying the needs of the few stakeholders that really matter.

“I can’t give you a surefire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time”

Herbert Bayard, American editor and journalist; first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize

People’s needs will exhaust your ability and available energy to attend to their needs just like air fills an empty space.  The more you give, the more they will take.  In order to use your talents and energy effectively you must prioritize whose needs you will try to satisfy.

If you have a few annoying customers that buy very little from you but that require a high amount of maintenance, get rid of them.  It will be to your advantage and they decide to go annoy your competitor.  You do not need to satisfy every single customer in order to be successful.  You must satisfy only the ones that are responsible for most of your revenues.

When the phone rings, you don’t have to answer it.  Put a system in place for screening your calls.  If you have a personal assistant, have him screen the calls for you and only let him put through the ones that really matter.  If not, use your voice mail or caller id as a screening device.  Do not give you undivided attention to every Dick and Harry who happens to have your phone number.

If your employees are demanding and require you to attend to their needs, prioritize the ones that you should spend time on.  You typically have a few stellar performers who you should reward and pay attention to.  Don’t spend too much time on the ones that can be easily replaced.  If they are not happy with your management style, so be it.  Their replacement will be happy to have you as a boss.

If your boss is demanding, try to manage her expectations.  Show her the list of things she expects you to get done and ask which ones are most important.  Ask when they have to be completed so that you can schedule your time appropriately.  If your boss is always unreasonably demanding, then maybe it is time to fire your boss.  Find another job before you lose your sanity.

Make sure you pay attention to the people that really matter to you.  The ones you love, and the ones responsible for most of your revenues or pay.  The rest can wait in line.

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