Small Business Strategies: Make a Promise Day

Last week when Sarah and I were in New York City, we met Matthew Cossolotto, an author who decided to declare May 4th, Make a Promise Day. It’s an interesting concept, so I wanted to pass along his small business strategies in goal setting.

You may be wondering what the story is behind “Make A Promise Day” and why Matthew, a former congressional representative and CEO speech writer is so passionate about spreading the word about this.  Matthew made a promise to his mother on her death bed that he would finish writing a book he had been discussing with her and then dedicate it to her memory.

Matthew kept his promise and the resulting book is The Real F Word:  The 7 FAILURE Traps of Highly Disempowered People (and what to do about them). While I haven’t read the book, you can check it out at www.MakeAPromiseDay.com if you’d like.

More interesting to me, however, is the notation that unlike goals, once you make a heartfelt promise to someone you care about, you will find a way to make it happen. Failure is simply not an option. As Matthew describes it, keeping that promise, one way or another becomes a magnificent obsession.

So we challenge all of you today to make a promise. We’d love to hear about it, too. Just post a comment on the blog, below. And make sure you’re signed in!