One idea to Build your Business, one idea to Scale your life. Every Wednesday.

Welcome to Winformation Weekly. My 13 years’ experience of growing a business from £0-£100m, and the life that goes with it. All wrapped up, in one winning weekly email.

Simon Says

One Quote I Can’t Stop Thinking About...

Over the Christmas break, we had 40 screens installed into our HQ to share company information and good news to the team. There is also the odd quote that makes it up to the screens in the sky and there’s one that really got me this week. “Become the person that would attract the results you seek” (Jim Cathcart). It’s a real reminder that when we set a vision and goals for ourselves, the aim isn't just to hit the goals, but to become someone or something different in the process. In today’s One Idea to Win in Life, we focus on how to stay on track with your goals to ensure that we can all become the person who would attract the results we seek!

In today’s One Idea to Win in Business, we focus on the negative (lol!). When launching a new project, business or product, we all too often focus on the big shiny outcome. I have personally got a lot from conducting a “pre-mortem” over the past 12 months to prepare for all big fall outs from anything you are looking to do. Today I discuss how to do this...

One Idea to Win in Business

The Powerful Pre-Mortum Exercise: The Time Machine Strategy

A pre-mortem is a really useful tool. It’s like having a time machine where you can travel 6 months into the future after you have launched a new business, product, or any project you really want to succeed. Only, it’s failed, really failed. This will help you understand what happened and why, so you can travel back in time to the present day and make it right prior to pressing the button! Here’s how...

1. Set the Stage - Gather your team if you have one, ideally, everyone involved in the project. Explain the concept: "We're going to imagine this project has failed spectacularly. Our job is to figure out why." Emphasise psychological safety the goal isn’t to point fingers but to uncover risks. If it’s just you with no team, ask your partner or parents to join in for a fresh perspective.

2. Define the Failure - Ask everyone to imagine the project is six months in the future, and it’s been an absolute disaster. Paint the picture: “Our client left, costs spiralled, timelines exploded…” Try and be vivid - the more real it feels, the better.

3. Identify the Causes - Give each person 5–10 minutes to brainstorm potential reasons for failure. Encourage thinking across different categories:

   a. Process failures (e.g., lack of clear milestones)

   b. People issues (e.g., team misalignment)

   c. Resource risks (e.g., budget cuts, supplier issues)

   d. External factors (e.g., market changes)

4. Share and Discuss - Go around the room (or screen) and collect everyone’s ideas. Group similar issues together and highlight common themes. Prioritise the biggest threats the ones most likely to derail the project.

5. Develop Preventive Strategies - For each major risk, brainstorm ways to reduce its impact or prevent it entirely. Assign owners for these preventive actions so everyone knows who’s accountable.

6. Document and Follow Up - Write everything down and revisit these risks throughout the project. Consider scheduling mini check-ins to see if any red flags are appearing.

One Idea to Win in Life

Becoming The Person That Would Hit Your Goals!

If the aim as Jim Cathcart says is to become the person that would attract the results you seek, then focus must be paid to change. Remember, your vision is your destination. Goals are your milestones. Habits are the steps you take.

It’s like the old saying goes, what doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get done. Research shows you are more likely to succeed if you track your progress towards your goals, but what is the more practical and effective way to do so?

1. Measurable Goals - You need measurable goals set before you start tracking them. And those goals need a set of initiatives and behaviours you are going to carry out over a period of time to achieve them. The SAS are good advisors on this. They believe your goals need to be crystal clear. Wanting to run a faster marathon isn’t a clear goal. Running a marathon in under four hours is a clear goal. With a clear finish line, you can plan and track towards that goal much more effectively.

2. Self-Help - Remember you are not alone. Think about the resources you have at your disposal when tracking your goals. If you’re struggling to budget a project, but your father in law is an accountant, it would be sensible to ask them for support. So have a think about the help in your network that can better help you track and progress your goals.

3. Key Performance Indicators - Some are not fans of KPIs. They think they are being held hostage by figures. But if created sensibly, KPIs can be the north star to help you track your goals. There’s lots of of online advice to help you set them.

4. Deadlines - Setting goals for the year can be vague if they have no milestones with deadlines. Otherwise, it’s just something in the future that you never get to. Better to have a number of milestones within your goal with deadlines throughout the year. It’s not so much about creating pressure but creating momentum to help you learn and grow.

5. Take Charge - Yes, there are a number of apps to help you do all of the above, but more importantly, you have to take responsibility for you. That means being connected daily to your overall purpose. In reality, it doesn’t matter if they are written in a notebook. The most important thing is you take charge of monitoring your progress.

Until next week! 

Let’s win, together!