This year was all about finding opportunities and change. 2007 will be a further evolution on those themes.

Reflecting a bit on opportunities and change, I’ve come up with 3 business rules to live by, rules I’m going to follow more closely and we’ll see where they take me.

1. Work With People You Want To. You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose. That has little to do with anything but I can’t get it out of my head.

   My point is simple: Pick your partners carefully. Work with people you want to work with.

   I hope never ever ever to break this rule again. Ever. Seriously.

2. Don’t Try And Ride Other People’s Coattails. It might work for awhile but there’s a very good chance it’ll end badly. Either they’ll dump you or they won’t live up to their promise or what you perceived the success would be. Getting mentored is not the same. Mentors are good. Expecting others to make you successful is not good.
3. Operations and Administration Suck But They’re Essential. Most people find administrative and operational tasks boring as all heck (cause they are!) but they’re critical to business success. Budgets, managing finances, running a lean organization … not particularly fun but worth every bit of effort. Vision, dreaming, big picture — all good, but if you don’t handle the nitty gritty details, watch out. Take some time each week, each month, each year to put your house in order. Find ways to save a bit of money, streamline operations, double check that the machine is well oiled.

Oftentimes, people know something but they haven’t truly learned it. That’s the case with my 3 business rules. Intrinsically I’ve known for some time these are rules I should follow, but it’s only this year that I really learned to follow them.

This post is part of my Group Writing Project where we ask, “What Have You Learned in 2006?” Please read the submissions made so far by some awesome bloggers:

• Inspiration Through The Learning of Others
• More Lessons Learned From the Blogging Community
• What People Have Learned in 2006

I’m donating $5 to charity for each post you write! And there are some great book prizes to be won.

The group writing project ends December 24th — you’ve still got time to participate.

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