Having observed and worked with successful people I wondered what makes some people more successful in business than others.

What are the irreducible factors that contributed to their success?

Ultimately it comes down to:

  • Vision/Aspiration
  • Goals
  • Strategy
  • Knowledge
  • Skills
  • Flexibility
  • Motivation

But not in equal measure!

Your success potential (your likelihood of success) could be measured by:

(Vision/Aspiration + Knowledge + Skills + Flexibility) x Motivation = Success Potential

In this article we’ll cover Vision/Aspiration.

Why did you start your business?

There are as many answers as there are business owners, so a better question may be, “What’s your vision or aspiration?  What do you really want to achieve?  For yourself, the people who rely on you, maybe even the country or world?”

Do you know?

Or did you fall into business (inherited it, got a redundancy and thought what else could you do etc.)

No matter which, unless you have some bigger reason for doing what you do, you’ll just keep plodding along.  And while you might be successful, what more could you do if you really put yourself out there, playing a bigger game?

I strongly suggest you do this exercise:

Write down the vision/aspiration you have for your business.  Use these points as guide:

  • Why you do what you do. What your higher purpose is.
  • What do you really aspire to in business and how will it help you achieve your higher purpose?
  • Why do you want to achieve this? Unless your motivation is great enough, you’ll stall when the going gets tough as it inevitably will.  The best way to find your true underlying motivation is for every question above ask yourself, “Why is this important to me” until you come to a significant emotional reason.
  • Is your vision big enough? Or are you playing a small, safe game?
  • How clear are you?
  • Who will be positively impacted? (Just you, your family, the wider community etc.)

But remember a vision alone isn’t enough.

You need to have a strategy to get from where you are to your ultimate outcome.

In a business context you need strategies encompassing marketing, sales, delivery, HR and finance at a minimum.

We’ll discuss some of these as well as other critical action steps in upcoming articles, so look out for them.

In the meantime, once you’ve completed the vision exercise share yours with us!  Just reply to this email and let us know what drives you.  What difference you want to make in your world and for whom.

 

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