At my very first major speaking engagement, I got one of my biggest lessons, one I’ll never forget. I’d been asked to speak at a conference at Uluru (Ayers Rock); I’d never been there and I was really excited about going. It was a massive opportunity for me so, as always, I did my homework. I spent a huge amount of time on research and made sure I found out as much as I could about the company and their people. The key objectives for the conference were firmly fixed into my mind. And in the lead up to the conference I constantly communicated with the event organisers.

Another speaker was on before me and it was then that I saw something I’ve never seen again: part way through this guy’s address, the company’s CEO pulled him off stage and said that’s enough. His message was obviously inconsistent with those of the business he was speaking about. To see that happen in an auditorium full of people was a huge lesson for me that I now put into one word: preparation. While it was obvious that this speaker had let himself and the company down, I recognised that if you don’t do your homework it could happen to you, to me or to anyone else.

At this time of year a lot of people are thinking about exams. And, of course, to paraphrase Muhammad Ali, all the hard work is done long before you get to dance under the lights. That was certainly the case when sitting for exams at Pharmacy College while studying to be a Pharmacist or for each and every martial arts grading in my quest for a black belt. I mostly knew long before I stood before the judges whether I would pass and go to the next grade. With any test or exam, whether it is secondary school, university, or even the daily examination that the workplace is, we have to be prepared; we must do all the homework we can.

And do you know a very powerful reason why we need to? Because it offers us a huge competitive advantage. Not many people do the preparation it takes to truly succeed – and that’s certainly the case in our businesses. We can’t control the economy, the climate, earthquakes or so many other factors, but we can control how much homework we do. We can focus on the things we can’t control, or we can focus on something we can: our own preparation. It’s our choice and it is so often the difference between incredibly average and extraordinary achievement.

Let me tell you an amazing story that illustrates this. There was a young man, ‘Andrew’, who in his first year with a sales company that I worked with wasn’t having much success. But what was happening was that he was playing the blame game: the reason why he wasn’t achieving sales success was, according to him, everyone else’s fault.

Customers were in bad moods or didn’t work with him the way he wanted them to. He criticised others and used what he saw as others’ failures to justify his own lack of success. But the truth was he didn’t know his own portfolio well enough, he hadn’t researched the products he was trying to sell, and he didn’t make appointments with customers even though they’d said that was what they wanted.

We sat down with Andrew and talked to him about the value of respect and doing his homework. And to his absolute credit, he took it on board. He took the path of looking for an opportunity to be successful rather than looking at the obstacles and barriers. He focused on what he could do, the choices he could make, to turn his results around.

He got to know his products inside out; he made appointments with customers at times that suited them. He got face-to-face, treated his customers with respect and used those meetings as an opportunity to shine, to dance in the lights because he was super-prepared. That young man went from being a routine – or worse – salesperson to achieving the remarkable feat of being named his company’s salesperson of the year.

His response to being questioned about his performance led him to new and better outcomes. He looked honestly at himself. He asked what he could do more, differently and better. And the key for him was preparation and consistently “doing” that led to ongoing improvement. Andrew is still known for focusing on the little things that make a difference. He has built wonderful businesses with his customers. He has amazing relationships with them and his own team. He even told me that the self-esteem he gained in the workplace has had a major impact on his family life and has made him a better partner and father.

Andrew’s success was all down to preparation. If we’re stuck in a rut it’s easy to blame others. And that becomes our focus. The blame gets bigger and so does the rut. But when we focus on the things we can do, not the things we can’t, then the opportunities for success increase. And if you choose better preparation then you will set yourself up to dance brilliantly under the lights and have wonderful success.