February 13, 2014 Uncategorized

A journey of a thousand miles DOES NOT begin with a single step!

We’ve all heard Lao-tzu’s saying that “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” so many times, we accept is as truth.  We’ve accepted it as truth for over 2500 years!  But I think it is wrong.  The journey actually begins before the first step.  It begins with the commitment to make the journey in the first place.

I’ve been watching the events from Sochi and have marveled at how the athletes make the difficult look easy.  Winning a medal at the Olympics isn’t an accomplishment.   Doing something better than anyone else on earth is the accomplishment.  Winning the medal is just the recognition of that accomplishment.

While working on the electric light, Thomas Edison remarked that, “I have not failed.  I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”  As those Olympians spent years training, one can only imagine how many thousands of times they fell, tried something that didn’t work, and took risks.  How many bruises, cuts, sprains, strains, aches, pains, and broken bones did they have to endure before they got it right?  Their childhoods and adolescent years were certainly not like mine!  They spent countless hours practicing, training, and travelling to events.  Many of them had to do fund-raisers to pay for coaches, facility rentals, equipment, apparel, event entry fees, and travel expenses!  But even before they did all of that, they did something even more important – they made a commitment.

They committed to be the best, to put in the necessary effort, and to give up a “normal” adolescence in pursuit of a dream.  They committed to push just a little harder at the gym, to run through that routine or down that course one more time, and to try that new trick, spin, jump, or combo again in spite of the aches, pain, and fatigue.  Most importantly they committed to put their ego out on the line at every competition, risking falling on their butts (or worse…coming in 4th place!) in front of friends, family, competitors, audiences, and the world.  Winning a gold medal at the Olympics isn’t the result a single performance in Sochi.  It is the result of the commitment that was made years ago and the thousands of hours of practice and training in years since.

Business works the same way.  Before anything significant happens, there must be a commitment.  What are your commitments for 2014? What about the next 5, 10, or 15 years?  What will it take for you to achieve them?  I am a firm believer in the power of writing down both a personal and company vision.  A vision statement gives you direction, focus, and most importantly, something to which you can commit.

Once you have committed to your vision, what will it take to achieve it?  As a business owner it will probably involve four main components:

  1. Attracting and retaining good customers
  2. Attracting and retaining stellar employees
  3. Implementing efficient ways of using those employees to deliver significant value to those customers
  4. Paying attention to the financial health of the company.

It sounds simple, but we all know that it’s not.  It also sounds simple to be the fastest person to get from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain, to be the one who does the most spectacular tricks with the fewest mistakes in the half pipe or on the skating rink, or to be the team that gets the puck into the goal more than any other team, but it’s not.

Every day, when an Olympic-level athlete goes to practice, they have a goal.  Every day!  Skaters don’t just go to the skating rink to skate around in circles a few times.  They go to the rink to work on a particular spin, jump, or lift.  Their goal is to leave the rink that day just a little better than when they arrived.  Snowboarders don’t go to train every day just to slide (or skate) up and down the sides of the half-pipe.  They go to work on a particular trick and to leave just a little better at it than when they arrived.  I met a prospective TAB member this week and while I was waiting in her conference room, I noticed on her white board were three questions and below each question was a set of initials, and next to each initials was an answer to that question.  When I asked about it, she said that each morning – every day – they have a short staff meeting and each person has to write their answer to each of the three questions.  The questions are:

  1. What did I accomplish yesterday?
  2. What do I plan to accomplish today?
  3. What did I learn yesterday?

As a business owner (and natural over-achiever), perhaps you want to take a page from an Olympian’s playbook and ask yourself these 4 questions every day – yes, every day!:

  1. What did I do yesterday to be a better boss and what do I plan to do today?
  2. What did I do yesterday to be a better supplier/vendor/partner and what do I plan to do today?
  3. What did I do yesterday to improve my operations and what do I plan to do today?
  4. What did I do yesterday to improve the financial health of the company, and what do I plan to do today?