For nearly two decades now, Reuben Singh has been a major force in British business, which is quite surprising when you consider that unlike others such as Sir Richard Branson and Sir Alan Sugar, he has not branched out in all directions.
In fact you could even consider that a key component to Singh’s success has been that he values focus as an important attribute for running a business. It is a trait that he encourages fellow entrepreneurs to embrace, and also his own staff.
For example, when talking about his AlldayPA outsourcing business, he had this to say:
“We do one thing, and we do it very very well… we answer your phone.”
The beauty of this minimalist approach is that it helps to remind you of exactly why you are in business. Whatever it is that you are doing, you can be questioning whether your activity is serving your mission well or not. If it isn’t, then that activity is probably better to be outsourced so you can return your focus to the activities that are fundamental to your core service.
Singh has also shaken up the call centre industry by making a strong effort to ensure his staff are happy with their working conditions, even to the extent of including them in the decision making process.
This has helped to ensure that AlldayPA has a high staff retention rate, with staff being motivated, productive, and loyal to the company.
This is the other important aspect of the way Singh does business. He does not wish to meekly follow the traditional ways of doing things if he does not feel that they are right. He says that if we blindly copy others then it implies that we feel they are better than us. Obviously you won’t be the best you can be if you feel inferior to anyone.
“In business we need to listen to our heart, be natural and always be true to ourselves.”
In other words, Singh is telling us that we need to respect our own individuality enough to be able to make the brave decision to not necessarily conform… to instead do what we feel is right… and we can feel this on an instinctual level. By doing what we feel in our heart to be the right thing to do, success is easier to obtain.
Of course you would also feel much better about success derived from that process than from doing what you instinctively know to be wrong, because wrong actions have a tendency to rebound to you. If all this sounds familiar, it may be because Steve Jobs, the embodiment of another great entrepreneurial spirit, later said pretty much the same thing.
So if you wish to achieve the kind of success that Reuben Singh has enjoyed, you can copy him only up to a point. At some stage you must also act upon your own individuality.
Singh’s formula is quite a simple one: focus on what you want to achieve, and have the courage to believe in yourself enough to make it happen.
