The Best Advice

When I was in college, I remember receiving some of the best advice I had ever heard. I can't remember if I was in a business class or speech class or what it was. Obviously, the class must not have left it's mark on my memory, but the words I learned that one day have lasted; wherever it was I heard them.

The advice had to do with dealing with people in a business sense. It went like this. 'Under promise and over deliver.'

The simplest advice I've ever heard.

When you are asked to do a job, when you are dealing with people either in business, in your career, friends, family, whomever it may be, take a few seconds to consider your response. Under promise and over deliver.

When your boss needs that report done by next week, tell him or her that you will, but shoot for turning in completed after lunch on Friday. If you quote a job to paint someone’s house for five hundred dollars, try your best to do a great job in the four hundred dollar range.

The idea here is that when you make pledge to someone, that pledge becomes your word, your reputation, and sometimes your value.

If you are always under promising and over delivering, then you will always be seen as an asset because you over achieve, you are always on time, you've never let them down.

BUT if on the other hand, you over promise and under deliver, you quickly become a liability that no one will be albe to trust and depend upon. And no one will ever want to work with you.

So the next time you are given a task, take a moment to consider your time frame, and under promise and over deliver. At the very least, meet the time frame you originally promised.

I pass this on as the best advice I've ever heard with hopes that the whole world will hear.