• Spending long, snug evenings with your significant other.
• Making time to look after your family.
• Jesting, gabbing and chilling with friends.
• Building something from nothing; persevering even when everyone else around you has given up; giving everything you’ve got; climbing up arduous dips and tobogganing down slopes so quickly you don’t even know which way is up or down; and emerging smiling no matter what, because you know you held on so tightly during the ride - and you survived!

In order to be incredible, you first have to credible - to have people who trust you and your ability.

The winner of the 2007 TED Prize was awarded $100 000 for his wish of creating a world-class health system in Rwanda. He wrote the following to TED:

I wish you to help create a better future for Rwanda by assisting my foundation, in partnership with the Rwandan Government, to build a sustainable, high quality rural health system for the whole country.

Sounds incredible, doesn’t it?

But what if I told you the winner was Bill Clinton, ex-Commander in Chief of the United States of America? That’s credible.

When Richard Branson was in talks to sell Student Magazine to IPC Magazine, he shared his ideas for extending Student into a travel agency, bank, nightclub, hotel, train service, and airline with the board of directors. They thought his dreams were incredible and immediately backed out of the deal to buy his magazine. They didn’t want a loony guy running one of their magazine subsidiaries!

Now, over forty-years and eight billion-dollar companies built from scratch in eight different industries later, when Richard Branson speaks and outlines his plans for the future, people sit up and listen. Richard Branson is credible.

How credible are you to achieve your incredible goals? Work on your credibility, and you will achieve the incredible.

Go. Do it. Make a wish. Be wild! Be wise! Be audacious!

How much does your wish cost?

Can you afford it?
Then pay and do it.

You can’t?
Calculate how much you’ll need to achieve it, then pay and do it.

It’s free?
Go and do it!

1. Make sure everyone is clear about the meeting time and location.


2. If you are the one hosting the meeting, show up. Woody Allen has a quote, “80% of success is showing up.” If you’re the one calling the shots, and you’re not there - what’s everyone else meant to do?


3. Be on time. You’ve scheduled the meeting for a certain time, and everyone has allocated that time in their diaries. Something comes up at last minute? Unless it’s a real, unforeseen emergency which you had absolutely no control over, who cares? Think of everyone else. I’m sure they could have all thought of other things to do to occupy the time they spent waiting for you. Your being there makes a difference.


4. Always have an agenda. Plan out what you want to go on in the meeting, and what you want to get out of the meeting, otherwise, the meeting turns into conversations with no outcomes. People can have conversations with their friends - they don’t need to go to meetings for that. People go to your meetings because they’re inspired by your project, your vision, what they can get out of it, what they can contribute towards it, and because they want to cause something with you.


5. Have an end time. That way, people can have and plan a life outside of your meeting. Also, it’s so you don’t feel disheartened if 50 people come to your meeting initially, then filter out slowly until you’re left with 3 people at the end, and you’re left trying desperately to find a way to end the meeting (politely). Be straight about when you want people to be there, what you want them to do and when you want them to leave. That way, people know and are conscious of the deadline for achieving results in the meeting.


6. End on time. Even if you don’t have anything planned after your meeting, keep in mind other people might. Let people know beforehand if you’ve planned anything that involves them after the meeting. Otherwise, let people know when the meeting officially ends so that they feel free to leave without having missed anything important and so they don’t feel rude about leaving on time.


7. Take notes. If you say you’re going to do stuff, write it down so you don’t forget. That way, you won’t get a shock when you get an email asking you for your part of the project.


8. Fulfil on all your agenda items and come to a conclusion on everything. Remember, that was the point of you having the meeting in the first place. Don’t loiter around in indecision - weigh up all the choices, and if it’s not life-altering, come to a conclusion.


9. Decide on next actions. Allocate tasks to everyone. It makes them feel useful and a part of the project. Best way for people to really take on ownership of the project.


10. If it’s not essential, don’t hold a meeting.

If you tell people you are going to be at X location at X time, people take your word for that. If you’re not there, they decide that next time, you’re not reliable for being where you say you’ll be. If you tell people you’ll do something, people expect you to have done it by when you say you’ll do it. If you don’t, people rely on you less the next time around. If you give your word to things offhandedly, and then don’t fulfil on it. People see you as someone who throws your word around, but doesn’t get stuff done.

If you want to be seen as trustworthy, credible, reliable and powerful, it’s simple.

Be your word. Do what you say you’ll do by when you’ll say you’ll do it. Furthermore, deliver on the intention of what you say- do things wholly, completely and with integrity. That way, people will be able to relate to you powerfully, and your word will be powerful.

What is power? Power is being able to say whatever you want to say, whatever the situation.

If you don’t keep your word, don’t make yourself wrong. All there is to do, is to clean it up, so that your word may be powerful again. To clean up with people you first have to think about what you will put in place so that what you did doesn’t happen again. How will you do it differently next time? What’s going to make the difference? Once you’ve figured that out (and don’t take too long - life’s short) you say to them what you gave your word to, you say what you did, and then you tell them the structures you’ve put in place such that it’ll never happen again. If they get your commitment behind what you’re saying then they will forgive you and relate to your word powerfully again. If they don’t, don’t stress. Keep your word again and again and again and again and again… and show them!