What does the word success mean to you?
If you look at Instagram, it is money, cars and watches.
If you look at Facebook, it’s being on a permanent holiday it seems
I think it is more important to ask the question “what is success to you”?
During my business coaching sessions, I always start with the concept of success and getting the business owner to define success for themselves. I need to know what his or her definition of success is.
Success has so many different meanings in itself and for every single person on this earth, success can be measured differently.
Some define success as driving a new Ferreira 458, while others define success as driving a Ferreira 458 that is paid for and does not belong to the bank.
Some define success as living in a fancy house on an estate, while others define success as living in any house with their family as long as they are happy.
We are all different, made different, think different, live different and as a result of this, we need to define what success means to us as it will not have the same meaning as that of the person next to us.
Now, time to put it into a business context. In terms of your business, what does success mean?
Is success having a thousand customers every month?
Is it a million rand in the bank?
Is it having 10 branches across South Africa?
Or is as simply having happy returning clients.
Write down your definition of success
Success is defined as achieving an end goal or aim.
As a business owner, you need to define this end goal or aim for your business.
What does success mean to you as a business owner or as an entrepreneur? It is extremely important to write down your measure of success and then to build your business so that it works towards that goal or aim.
There are thousands of books and papers saying that you need to write down your goals, get a picture of your visions and stick it up on your wall, write yourself a cheque for R1million and keep it in your top drawer.
While some of those ideas are wild and some are downright dumb, I do agree that you need to write down your goals somewhere where you can focus on them daily.
The reason for looking at your goals or reflecting on them daily is to ensure you know what you are working towards.
How many companies can you name that have the most amazing vision and mission statements, but once you ask anyone in the business to recall these statements, they simply cannot? That is pathetic.
The most important part of defining your success is measuring yourself against that definition.
How can you adjust your actions if you don’t measure yourself against your goals? A CEO I used to work for always said: “you cannot improve that which you do not measure”.
So true!
Every day, every action you take needs to take you towards your goals.
Working towards success
At the end of the day, what is the point of having this great goal or aim and you don’t work towards it?
I see so many entrepreneurs who have these grand visions of what they want their business to be, what their definition of success is, but then they don’t work towards it at all.
They either don’t focus, or they work in a different direction and the worst of all, some even actively work against that vision. Silliness!
I am a firm believer that you need to firstly define your goals or aims and then let everyone in the business in on it.
Let the secret out! Tell your employees, shareholders and customers your grand goal!
Let them know that you want to achieve a specific target and that they will form part of this amazing journey. Why do you want to keep your vision, the goal or aim, a secret?
I do agree, do not let any Jack and Jill in on how you are going to get there, do not give them your plans, but give them the grand vision. The more you let your employees and customers in and make them a part of the business, the more they tend to support the business.
Every day everyone’s actions can be measured against their goals or aims. Everyone in the business needs to work towards the success defined by you, the business owner
This ensures that the business works towards success and does not work towards liquidation. My laptop’s background image is a picture of my goals that I want to achieve.
This way I get to see my goals at least once every hour of every working day.
NOW GO AND BE SUCCESSFUL!
