Whether you’re a business owner, entrepreneur, or manager, you have to pay attention to the business landscape and your place in it if you want to be successful. You don’t want to get caught languishing by the side of the road as the rest of the marketplace rushes by you. It’s important to assess where you are now and how you can maintain, regain, or create a competitive edge over the crowd.
无论你是一个企业的老板，企业家或者经理，只要你想成功，就必须注意你置身的商业环境以及你所处的位置。没有人希望市场中的其他人在自己身边呼啸而过，自己却步履维艰。评估你现在的状态以及如何维持、恢复或创造在人群中的竞争力是非常重要的。
1. Branding
1. 品牌
What do you do and what sets you apart?
你是做什么的，什么使你与众不同？
Branding is the buzzword of the day, maybe the decade. Though possibly overused, the concept is still an important one. Branding is far more than a memorable tag-line, catchy logo, or impressive elevator speech. The primary value of branding is in clarifying precisely what makes you different, what you have to offer that makes you stand out from the bulk of competitors in the marketplace. Branding is the cornerstone of any successful marketing plan.
品牌是当下甚至是这个年代的流行语。虽然有可能被滥用，但它仍然是一个重要的概念。品牌远不只是一个难忘的广告语，一个醒目的logo或者令人印象深刻的电梯演讲。品牌的主要价值是在精确地阐明什么使你与众不同，你能提供些什么使你从市场上的众多竞争对手中脱颖而出。品牌是任何成功营销计划的基石。
2. Relationships
2. 关系
What do people care about and what needs do they have?
人们关注些什么，他们有什么需求？
Getting to know and understand people is vital. The key is to focus on quality over quantity. Masses of social media connections matter less than relationships with people who can directly influence the success or failure of the business. Current and prospective customers, as well as employees and professional connections have the most relevant opinions and useful feedback to offer. It’s imperative to communicate, listen, and build relationships with those who can impact the future of your business.
去了解和理解人们是至关重要的。关键是要注重质而不是量。与可以直接影响业务成败的人建立关系比大量的社会媒体沟通更有意义。现有的和潜在的客户，以及员工和业内人士能提供最相关的意见和有用的反馈。沟通，倾听并与这些可以影响企业的未来人建立关系是势在必行的。
3. Leveraging
3. 借力
What are your areas of efficiency and areas of weakness?
你的优势和劣势分别是什么？
Small businesses and entrepreneurs tend to be resource poor. It’s just the nature of not having a large cash flow at their disposal. The most successful excel at squeezing the maximum value out of available time, money, and talent. Their strategy is to do what they do best and delegate or outsource the rest. Essentially, they know how to Do More with Less.
小企业和企业家往往是缺乏资源的。小企业没有大量现金流的是很自然的。而那些成功的企业擅于从仅有的时间，金钱和人才中挖掘出最大价值。他们的策略是做自己最擅长的，并剩下的则委派或外包。从本质上讲，他们知道如何用更少做到更多。
They spend their time on activities that provide more value, those activities that increase revenue or help the company to grow. What they don’t do is waste their time on activities that provide little or no value. While it may seem counter-intuitive to pay others to do tasks that could be done in house, it’s often more efficient and profitable in the long run. Leveraging unproductive activities saves time and money, by increasing the focus on the most valuable tasks.
他们把精力用于提供更大的价值、增加收入或帮助公司成长的活动。他们不会在提供很少或根本没有价值的活动上浪费时间。虽然花钱请别人做可以在内部完成的任务似乎违反直觉，但是这样往往更有效，长远来看更有利。将生产率不高的任务借他人之力完成，以此专注于更有价值的任务，实际上节约了时间和金钱。
4. Growth
4. 成长
Where are the opportunities for growth?
增长的几乎在哪里？
Complacency and stagnation are red flags that portend a grim outlook for future success. The danger lies in placing so much of our focus on digging in, completing current projects and managing small crises that we forget to be open to change and creative innovation. Unfortunately, this negatively affects our position in the business market and diminishes our competitive advantage.
若想在未来获得成功，自满和停滞预示着严峻的前景。危险在于我们将重点放在完成当前的项目和管理眼下的危机，而忘记了改变和创意创新。不幸的是，这将对我们的市场地位产生负面影响，并且削弱我们的竞争优势。
It’s critical to keep one eye focused on growth, evolution, and innovation. If you don’t, you will fade into the crowd while other more forward thinking businesses surge ahead, leaving you in their dust. This sounds overwhelming and somewhat intimidating when you barely have enough time and energy to focus on current needs, but it doesn’t have to be. All that’s really required is that you stay open to new opportunities and consistently take steps — even small ones — to keep growing and moving forward.
专注于增长，发展和创新至关重要。如果不这样做，你会在人群中消失，而其他更具前瞻性思维的企业会积极进取，将你甩在身后。当你几乎没有足够的时间和精力集中于当前的需要，这可能让你觉得力不从心，但也并不一定是这样。你真正需要的是，继续拥抱新的机会，并不断采取哪怕是很小的措施，不断发展和前进。
Growth takes many forms. It might be revising an existing process, updating skills, investing in new equipment or learning a new technology. It also might take the form of more significant changes such as shifting careers or business models, or launching a new product or service.
增长有多种形式。它可能是优化现有的流程，更新技能，投资于新设备，或者学习一门新技术。它也可能是更显著的变化，如改变事业或商业模式，或推出新的产品或服务。
5. Balance
5. 平衡
What do you need? What are you neglecting? What would make you work and life more enjoyable?
你需要什么？应该忽略些什么？什么会使你的工作和生活更愉快？
Balancing priorities and the different aspects of our life is the foundation for building a successful and personally fulfilling career or business. Modern society is buzzing with the work-life balance conversation, but often we misconstrue the meaning of balance, or at least the real world application of the concept. It’s not about trying to allot equal portions of attention, time, and energy to the separate parts or even making one a priority over the other. It’s more about discovering that right combination of shifting importance and focus that can meet the ever-changing demands of work life and personal life while still leaving us feeling happy and fulfilled, and not on society’s terms, but on our own.
平衡的优先级和我们生活的各个方面，是建立一个成功的、自我价值实现的职业或生意的基础。现代社会充斥着工作与生活平衡的言论，但我们常常误解平衡的意义，至少是误解了如何在现实中实现平衡。平衡不是试图平均地将注意力，时间和精力分配给各个方面，更不是将仅仅将一个方面的优先级至于其他之上。平衡更多的是如何转移重心来满足工作生活和个人生活的不断变化的需求，同时仍然让我们感到快乐和满足。这种快乐和满足是建立在我们自己的标准之上的，而不是社会的标准。
Success and fulfillment requires that we pay attention to where we are, how we’re doing, and where we’d like to be. If we can figure out what sets us apart, how we need to grow and what we need to do to keep moving forward, then we can begin to apply our focus and resources – namely time, energy and money – in a way that allows us to continue to thrive.
成功和自我价值的实现需要我们关注我们自己的位置，当前的状态，以及我们的目标。如果我们能清楚地知道如何脱颖而出，如何成长，需要什么来保持不断前进，那么我们就可以合理分配我们的注意力和资源，即时间、精力和金钱，使我们持续发展。
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