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Find Your Business Purpose: Find Business
Success
So
there was David, sat in his once classy office, surrounded by dirty boxes,
discarded invoices and half completed orders. His former employees were
drifting off one by one, each of them leaving the office for the last time
filled with sadness and happy (and not so happy) memories.
As he
sat in the office, now all alone, David wondered to himself ‘Where did it
all go wrong? I had it all … a profitable business, a great team, a top of
the range car for myself, a big house. What happened?’
David
didn’t realize that he had spoken his question out loud, because he was
surprised when Edward, his first employee, his friend, quietly said, ‘You
lost your way David. You forgot why you started all this; you simply forgot
what it was all about.’
David
sighed and silently admitted that Edward was right …in his pursuit of money
and the trappings of success, he really had forgotten his ‘why’, the reason
why he started out in business in the first place. If only he had kept his
‘why’ in mind it might have all turned out so differently.
Edward
reminded him of the first time they met. Edward was already in a well paid
and respectable job; he wasn’t looking for a new challenge but one day he
bumped into David. They got into conversation and David very quickly got
onto his favourite subject which was an idea he had for a new product which
would revolutionize the way people used their mobile phones.
David’s
purpose and passion was loud and clear; he knew exactly what his ‘why’ was,
which was to get out there and make communication easier. Edward reminded
David that during that first conversation, the money, the car, the house,
never came into the picture, his ‘why’ was very obvious.
Edward
said, ‘David, your purpose and your ‘why’ was the very foundation of our
early success. It defined everything that we all stood for and what we did
on a day-to-day basis. It was all about getting the product out to make
communication easier. All the team knew what this business was about and
what was expected of them.’
Edward
continued, ‘You brought that purpose to the business and everyone else
followed it. Yours and our ‘why’ was so strong that it guided us along the
successful path we took.’
David
thought back to the early days. He remembered the passion and laser-like
purpose he had. He remembered taking his ‘why’ and asking Edward what they
could do to turn it into a ‘how’. They both realized that a purpose without
taking specific actions to bring it into reality was useless. Finding the
‘how’ translated into objectives and what ultimately emerged were the steps
they had to take to bring the product to the market; it was the start of
their first Business Plan which eventually secured them a Bank Loan to get
the business started.
It was
this first planning session which defined their roles within the business.
David was always the ‘why’ man and Edward was always the ‘how’ man. They
both realized that on their own they were nothing but when combined
together, a ‘why’ and a ‘how’ was a very powerful force to have in business.
Edward
laughed as he said, ‘Do you remember that quotation I shared with you during
the early planning days?”
David,
also laughed and replied, ‘I sure do … “The man who knows How will always
have a job, the man who knows Why will always be his boss.” That’s why I
knew we would work well together – I knew my purpose, my ‘why’ but you were
the one who turned it into a ‘how’.
The
laughter soon died and David looked around at what was left of his business.
In almost a whisper David said, ‘So Edward, where did I go wrong? What
happened?’
‘It’s
very simple David. Just as your ‘why’ started your business, it also
destroyed your business … you simply lost your way; you lost your ‘why’. You
forgot what started it all for you. The cracks appeared when you saw that
BMW. Suddenly chasing orders and new clients was all about getting money to
buy that car. It was no longer about making communication easy; it was about
getting a car.
‘Then
when you had the car, it was the latest gadget, then the bigger office, then
the house. Your ‘why’ changed completely and you got sucked into the
trappings of success. From there it could only go one way and the end of
that journey is where we are today.’
David
looked intently at Edward and said, ‘So you’re saying that success is down
to knowing your ‘why’ or your purpose and sticking to it, never letting
anything distract you?’ Edward nodded.
Suddenly there was a sparkle in David’s eye that Edward had not seen for a
long time. Edward could see what was coming next as David said, ‘So do you
think if I have learned from what we have gone through over the last year
and I regain my lost ‘why’ that we could start again?’
Enthusiastically, Edward quickly agreed they could and suddenly they were
back to the first meeting held all those years ago. The ‘why’ and the
purpose were back, and with this solid foundation in place, the building of
a success business started again.
© Robert Warlow
Small Business Success
http://www.smallbusinesssuccess.biz
Small
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