The most successful businesses use a strategy or a game plan for literally designing their successes. A game plan drives you in the direction you want to go. Can you imagine trying to steer a car without a wheel? Sail a boat without a rudder? The same can be said of trying to run a business without a plan. Imagine asking the Chairman of the Board of any company, How did you get to where you are today? Chances are she wouldn't say, I don't know. I just kept showing up at work and they kept promoting me! Here are three suggestions you can use for setting your course and getting you where you want to go when the times are a changin'.
1. Act like a God, work like a Dog.
Gods have vision and the power to create it. They think differently and create the rules. They are true power brokers and attract other enthusiasts like a magnet. You may have to defy the status quo and purge your old ways to become "god-like," but it will clear the air of outdated baggage and set you on a course others will want to follow. This is the stuff of which leaders are made. Leaders are the ones who sponsor and initiate change! Be the one rocking the boat, not the one who's thrown overboard. I'm not talking about becoming a person who thinks they're a god, but one who acts as if. Big difference. People who think they're gods are self-serving and blinded by ego. People who act as if they are gods simply exercise their enthusiasm for what they are doing and where they're going. The word enthusiasm comes from the words, en Theos meaning, the "god within". When you're enthusiastic, you exercise your ultimate creative powers. Whatsmore, those who work "as if," have a G.O.D: Grand Organizing Plan.
OK, it's day one on the god job. What first? Write a vision and mission statement of where you are going. A business plan starts with a vision and mission of what's possible. Only after you've decided what the future looks like, will you be able to employ the appropriate steps or tactics along the way. It sounds basic, and it is, but many people spend more time planning a party or an installation than they do their own lives. Try writing out your vision statement by answering the question, I see myself as ... Then follow it up with your mission statement with more specifics such as, My mission is to... This defines your scope of focus (high end versus discount, traditional versus trendy, local versus global, tangible versus intangible etc.) and will start to shape the strategies you choose to reach the mission.
Next, let your vision go to your head, but work like a dog. (I'm not sure where that expression came from. My dog naps all day, but when he's up and about he's tearing around the countryside.) Harness running around to your vision and you'll set the standards and pace for others to follow. The future belongs the swift.
2. Go backwards to the future.
Start with the vision of where you want to be and work backwards. What would I be doing right before the realization of the vision? What's right before that and so on. Make a list and then examine it for wasted time and effort. Today's virtual business world has eliminated the drain on profits by streamlining channels--in the virtual world, there's no need for office space (people can work from their home), no need for packing and shipping (it's thin air), no need to offer discounts to stores (it's on the internet) and so on. Rethink how you're doing business by going backwards to the future. See how your business will be impacted by the tremendous influence of technology. Are you in the future, or out of it?
3. Finished is better than perfect.
My husband is a writer. We had an opportunity to visit his literary agent in New York, located in the Grammercy Park district. As we walked up the creaky stairs of the old brownstone, I imagined the hundreds of writers who had tromped these stairs over the thirty years he's been in the business. He's assisted such notables as Dr. Spock, Calvin Trillin, Andrew Wyeth, and Georgia O'Keefe. Once in the front office, I was struck with the volume of books he'd help bring to print--1650 books lining the walls. We were led into his inner office, a brightly-lit room with huge high windows, window seats, and throw pillows. As my eyes scanned the room, they fell on a small crossed stitched pillow that read, Finished is better than perfect. Ahhh....I imagined that this agent was so tired of telling his writers to JUST GET IT DONE that he had it permanently stitched into a sign. Nothing is ever perfect. A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. Nothing is ever perfect because there's always room for improvement. Today's winner is who can get it out there first and keep making it better. As Leonard Cohen once wrote:
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
When change is making swampland out of solid terrain, it's important to be the one making the changes and doing faster-better-cheaper than anyone else. Act like a God, work like a dog. Secondly, see your future and work backwards to create your step-by-steps. Be willing to redefine and remain flexible as newer-better-faster redefines the future. Finally, remember nothing is every perfect. Do it, get on with it, and continue to make it better.
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