Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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April 28, 2009

When Anything Is Nothing Next to Something … One Sentence that Will Keep You Stuck

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 6:42 am

People Who Need Help

In my business and though my conference, I meet people and businesses who are looking to move forward. I love helping people be successful. I love building businesses. Some make easy to help them. It’s a pleasure to help them get what they need or want. Some think they they make it easy, but in reality they do not.

One sentence I’ve heard too often lately has made me realize that it has the opposite effect of its intent. The sentence is …

I’ll do anything.

That sentence doesn’t win clients, doesn’t gain partners, doesn’t attract friends of the very best sort.

When Anything Ix Nothing Next to Something

Attraction happens when we know who we are. Whether we’re an organization or an individual, we need to attract people. Nothing attracts like focus. Focus draw others to us in the same way our eyes will follow a shining light curving through the dark.

That focus says they know where they’re going. They’re predictable. They’re productive. They’re positively contributing. Even when they aren’t in our business, we can learn something from them while we’re helping them.

Focus drives people and organizations to know things. You can bet they’ll know what sort of help they need. They’ll also know what values and skills they have to offer. When they ask for assistance, they’ll make it a conversation about working together. You’ll meet on the same side of the table.

People with focus offer something — they offer best of what they’ve got.

Focused people and organizations are easy to work because they come with an offer, a package put together with some thought. They do the work before you meet, which shows a high possibility that they’ll deliver. If the offer doesn’t match perfectly, it’s a place to start.

“I’ll do anything” is nothing next to something.

“I’ll do anything” leaves it to you to decide the offer. It leaves it to you to think up what the package might be and how to construct the relationship. It’s your time and it’s your thought put to work guessing at their values and their skills. Not a good idea. How can you be sure that they will deliver? It’s like saying “Here’s a tool you’ve never seen. Use it for anything you want.” The anything offer is nothing, because you have to decide everything about it for it to work. You do the work of thinking. You take the risk. They’re delegating up.

Turning Anything Into Something Valuable

Anything might only seem like something to the person who is offering it. Anything is nothing if the person getting the offer doesn’t know what to do with it. To turn an anything into a something think it all the way through. Be able to say exactly how your finished work will make what they do

Then you’ve got something valuable — something worth talking about.

Ever taken someone up on an “I’ll do anything” offer. How easy was it to figure out what that anything would be? Would you take the offer again?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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8 Comments to “When Anything Is Nothing Next to Something … One Sentence that Will Keep You Stuck”

  1. April 28th, 2009 at 8:59 am
    Dave Pancost said

    “Ever taken someone up on an “I’ll do anything” offer. How easy was it to figure out what that anything would be? Would you take the offer again?”

    I have back a number of years ago, and it was a miserable experience. I was totally unprepared for the work involved, and it turned out to be almost a total failure for me. The only thing that was positive is that I learned not to do it again. :-)

    Actually, the only time I *might* do it again is if the client was in the process of figuring out just what he or she should be focusing on, or maybe in the process of changing an unproductive focus. Then they are ready to do some hard thinking and will work with you instead of putting the burden entirely on your shoulders.

    Outside of those two circumstances? Forget it. Unless the client is ready to do the hard work of thinking, it just isn’t worth it.

  2. April 28th, 2009 at 9:01 am
    Alasdair Munn said

    “I’ll do anything” in relation to talking to a potential client shows you have not listened. If you had listened you would have an idea what the needs are.
    If nothing much has been said then the question, “What can you do for me?” needs to be turned into the questions
    “What do you do?”
    “What are your objectives?”
    “What resources do you have available to obtain those objectives?”
    “What are you already doing to reach those objectives?” etc.

    Gaining some understanding of what the needs are allows you to position yourself or your offering to meet those needs.

    Don’t be scared to say.
    “I can help you with that. Give me some time to digest what you have said and I will get back to you.” No-one expects you to have the answers right away. Besides answers without context are not so relevant.

  3. April 28th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
    Kathy | Virtual Impax said

    AMEN!!! AMEN!!! AMEN!!!!

    Every “nightmare” experience I’ve had in trying to hire help has always begun with some form of “I’ll do anything” from the potential hire.

    My worst experience of all included signing a 3 month contract with a VA who assured me she could “do anything” - in this case, create online video tutorials.

    At the end of the 3 month contract - I had paid her several THOUSAND dollars and she hadn’t produced a single video. As she asked for me to renew her contract, she confided, “This turned out to be harder than I thought it would be.”

    Yes, Camtasia has a learning curve and NO, I would never have signed a contract with you had I known you didn’t know that!!!

    The thing is - all of us in business have our own story of being burned by the “I can do anything” service provider… to the point where I’ll run screaming at any semblance of the phrase being uttered.

    You are so brilliant Liz!!!! “I’ll do anything” means exactly as you’ve said it here - it means absolutely nothing!!!

    Even if you can do ANYTHING - specialize in doing SOMETHING!!!

  4. April 28th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
    Zen Mommy said

    love this.
    anything = everything(w/o focus) = nothing at all

    a great reminder to declare what we are all about…not only in our words but in our thoughts and deeds as well! thank you. thank you. thank you.
    -suzanne

  5. April 28th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
    Todd Smith said

    Great point, Liz. Focus is what attracts people to us. I hadn’t thought of it so clearly before, and you’re absolutely right. Can you imagine if you caught a train to “anywhere”?

    Enthusiastically offering to do anything seems great at first. It shows a willingness to listen and to follow. But, to be valuable, an assistant has to bring something to the table besides just listening. Maybe it’s focus. Maybe it’s responsibility. Maybe it’s just plain ability (which requires both focus and self-reliance).

  6. April 28th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi David,
    Yeah, Without a plan and definite ideas about who’s able to do what well, we’re sunk. I’ve been there too. It’s not pretty. :)

  7. April 28th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Alasdair,
    So much wisdom in your comment. Listening to someone’s goals and dreams is what lets sit beside them, walk along side them — our dreams next to theirs. It’s a lot easier to offer to help when we feel that we’re on the same team.

  8. May 1st, 2009 at 5:59 pm
    Meryl K. Evans said

    Amen, Liz! How about we ask, “What do you need?” or “What are you working on?”

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