You have undoubtedly heard the depressing statistics of how many businesses fail within their first few years. I am one of the many that talk about the causes of failure and what to do about it but also have the privilege of being able to not only look from the outside-in but also from the inside out. I to have and continue to have my own experiences and understand why some business owners succeed and others fail repeatedly. Business owners only succeed because once they know what they want, they:
- First, accept the challenge and work that goes into building their success and the failure that naturally forms as part of these efforts.
- Choose to partner with those that have been successful not because of their “success” but because of what they learned from their “failures”.
- Relentlessly execute to achieve what they’ve set out to do.
Human beings only make progress because of adversity and their insistence and commitment to execution – nothing more, nothing less. I wrote an article several years ago trying to explain (and justify I suppose) how business owners fall in love with their goals but out of love with the actions that make these goals a reality. The notion that business owners/CEOs would not grab what was staring them in the face to ensure success was mind-boggling. I asked myself “are people lazy?”; “are people this complacent?”. Many are guilty of laziness and complacency when they don’t execute and fail as a result but many also act out like a “wounded animal” blaming everything they can other than themselves. Why? Because they become driven by their goals first as opposed to becoming driven by the concessions they will have to make as part of achieving success.
Business owners, I work with achieve their success because they choose to think and behave differently in the following six ways:
- They decide what they want but become excited by what they must do to become successful.
- They seek out those that are successful as a result of their failures.
- They map out their plan and system(s) they will use to respond to inevitable failure that they will use to achieve success.
- They will succeedand be motivated to succeed again.
- They will fail and be motivated to fail again in the name of increasing their strength and resilience.
- They will not point fingers to justify their failures but identify the reason for failure and use it as a reason to continue to succeed.
I would love to take credit for their success, but realistically, I can’t. I provide business owners guidance and best-in-class business practices, but only they can decide if they want to succeed. I experience their successes and their failures with them, but the successful ones see their failures as building blocks not obstacles to their achievements. You don’t need to be an expert Accountant or have a post-graduate degree in business to be successful. What you need is resilience, drive and a sense of humour!
