Perspective

“He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality.”

~ Anwar Sadat, Former President of Egypt

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

You cannot build a business alone. A business is the orchestration of people serving a common goal. Establishing the success ecosystem of people around your business – those who will advise, direct, recommend and implement your ideas – means carefully choosing people who have experience, integrity, loyalty and honesty. It is not one person but a community of trust principals who may or may not have direct influence into your business. And, of course, you participate equally in this ecosystem, which is reciprocity in action.

The most significant part your people ecosystem at this stage of building your company are business mentors. You will have more than one mentor but start with a financial mentor who will talk straight and provide you examples. This mentor is NOT a bookkeeper, but an experienced Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

CPAs have examples of both very good and very bad companies and they focus on the numbers (the language of business). This mentor can show you exactly where the turning points and trends of business are because they have dissected the lifeblood (tax returns) of hundreds of businesses. They know the secrets, the shortcuts, the mistakes and the key performance indicators that you must know and have in place to be successful.

Accountants are not advisors – they are historians. Let’s repeat that for impact – do not listen or take advice from an accountant on the strategic direction of your company. DO use an accountant for proper examples as to how to maximize inflow of money and reduce expenses. (We love accountants and do not recommend sending a cat into a dog fight by asking them for visionary direction!)

Key Point: The language of business is accounting. Do not let ideas or fantasy determine how you will build your business. Everything you do will take longer, cost more and require more people than you expect at the outset. In the end, it is the numbers that require first consideration. This is how success in business is measured. And, it may seem counter-intuitive, but the more tax you pay, the more successful you are, so get used to paying taxes. Even more, actually enjoy paying taxes as a celebration of your success.

Authentic Leadership is a Daily Practice

Think of yourself as someone with a unique perspective but not unique gifts as many were born before you with the same qualities and similar background. Instead, the reason that people remember a particular individual is based on their personal and authentic power. This type of presence cannot be bought, adorned or assumed – it is earned through consistency, integrity and honesty. You are only as powerful and as humble as your mind creates and as the world perceives.

Authentic power is also not in any hurry – just as you cannot push a river, you cannot rush true power. If you find yourself surrounded by people who are always frantic and insist on your immediate decision, that is a red flag. Applying pressure is a sign of weakness and potentially signals that you are being manipulated.

In fact, the speed at which people move is a direct reflection of their life, lifestyle and personal integrity. Slow and steady may not win the race, but it does reveal who is certain about their power position. And it also makes the race last a very long time which, in business, is really what matters – sustainable revenue and profit for an extended period of time.

Interestingly enough, authentic power can only be experienced in the now because yesterday is a memory and tomorrow is imagination. The present moment is where power lives. If you tell yourself stories and make decisions from your past, rest on yesterday’s achievements, or make decisions based on assumption, projection or judgment, you are living from what was rather than what is today. Functionally, that is the equivalent of driving your car forward while looking over your shoulder.

Throughout the process of creating your business, you will discover that your life is filled with first-time meetings. Abandon all initial judgment as you will gain insight into people only by exposure and continued experience. Pay attention to the impression you make on others as that is your power point in creating a positive connection. Being your best is always a good thing; being transparent about your vision and skills is better.

Key Point: Avoid talking about yourself and your background as a new general habit. Ask questions, be here, be now and be attentive to what’s actually happening in every situation. This means no cell phones or emails while you maintain eye contact and active listening. It can be difficult to develop this skill and to practice it consistently but it is one that will serve you well.

Authenticity As Irrefutable Power

The place to begin thinking about your your business or company is actually from within – because your business will eventually weave who you are through its operations, systems and corporate culture.

To that end, your corporate culture needs clear guidelines from which to make decisions and take action. You must know and define your core operating values for yourself as you build the company, cultivate relationships and set the foundation for your business.

 

Your core values do not come from your ego, which is a conglomeration of conscious and unconscious values and beliefs that represent your assumptions about how life is supposed to be… rather, your core values determine the choices you make, the actions you take and the life and business you create.

 

An interesting point of information about values is that we often live by the values we inherited from our parents, authority figures and childhood socialization. The irony is that we who have grown up in a culture where freedom is prized above all else are often operating from unconscious or assumed values from someone else. Very few people consciously choose their values, much less build a living for themselves and others based on them.

 

To know your values, look around you right now – what do you see in the choices you’ve made and the lifestyle you now live? More importantly, is that what you want for your business or is this moment an invitation to go beyond where you’ve been to create something new?

Run To, Not From

As you are grow your business, make sure that you are going toward something instead of running away from something. All too often people see the development of a business as a way out of a job or financial pressure; the reality of business is that it’s much less forgiving than your current situation. If you want to look good in business but not go to the trouble of actually being good in business, consider another career path. Entrepreneuring is an investment of everything you have to give to it – and it’s not about what it looks like on the surface.

Thinking like an entrepreneur pulls you forward and makes you feel good; thinking you will be escaping something and looking over your shoulder at the proverbial boogeyman will pollute your thinking.

Perhaps more significant is that you must realize that you cannot escape yourself. You are creating your experience and everything counts – everything. Authentic power demands that you take responsibility for what you create on every level as an expression of your personal integrity. Who you are, what you stand for and how you create must be in congruence with positive strength; it becomes your beacon to call in resources, relationships and opportunities that match that frequency. If you are growing a business based on fear or a negative state, you will be transmitting a ‘tainted’ signal and, ultimately, will have a broken business.

The entrepreneurs who have ‘made it’ each had their mistakes along the way; they just don’t talk about it because they are focused on their present reality. They lost money, had big snafu’s, disasters, hardships and some have even cheated to try to get ahead.

However, they consistently share one thing in common – they were persistent regardless of failure. Whether by genetics or conditioning, people are predisposed to be optimists or pessimists. As an entrepreneur, you must know how you are wired so that you can consciously choose your strategies to remain persistent. This is actually one of the real incentives to become an entrepreneur, because the light of authentic power will clearly show you what’s out of integrity.

Being a Good Communicator

One of the most essential skills required for business success is to be a high communicator. Essentially, communication means transmitting a message, the other person receiving it and confirming their understanding back to you and, likewise, understanding the messages being transmitted from that other person to you.

Communication is the exchange of our ideas, our path to understanding other people’s perspectives and our ability to solve problems. The act of communicating happens on three levels: verbal (spoken words), non-verbal (body language) and paraverbal (intonation, cadence, volume and pace of speech). Since it’s actually impossible for you to NOT communicate (at the very least through body language), it’s a good idea to develop your communication skills in order to say what you mean.

The best business people are strong communicators, demonstrating emotional intelligence as well. Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive both your own feelings and emotions as well as those of the people around you and using that information to inform your thinking and taking action. This is a huge field of study that is impossible to convey here; the point is that you cultivate your mastery of your ability to communicate and connect with others as a personal skill for business success. By relating well with others, your success ecosystem can flourish.

The Core Trinity of Decision Making

In Michael Gerber’s book, The E-Myth, he describes the Entrepreneur, Manager and Technician. The Entrepreneur, Manager, and Technician will all make decisions using different input but the entrepreneur tends to take more risks and makes decisions more quickly. Bijoy Goswami’s book, The Human Fabric, describes a less clinical definition of the same trinity using the Relator, Maven and Evangelist. Both of these authors have outlined a very important concept – the trinity.

The point here is that there are three individual personas that make up a decision-making core team. Just as a stool with three legs, your core power trinity becomes a stable foundation for the growth of your business. You cannot and should not build a business without all three divergent and complimentary personalities.

You can explore the persona definitions from these brilliant authors on your own but it comes down to creating a system of decision-making based on the vision, potential and reality of the business. Your business is a promise and these three individuals ensure that promises are kept regardless of human factors, weather and acts of God. The very simple system of having these people in place is that you ask questions about the business in unique ways. Which of these statements describes you best?

  1. I will share and promote the promises we can make to strangers and friends and be a constant provider of ideas and opportunities.
  2. I will determine if the promises are capable of being fulfilled with our resources and at what price.
  3. I will manage the promises the business makes until they are completed and the customer is satisfied.

Knowing you cannot be more than one, which one are you? When making decisions, are you knowledge-driven, relationship-driven, or action-driven? Decisions are where the business gets real so you must have a system by which you can make them solid and well-rounded and your core power trinity achieves that.

Developing a Core Team and Making Decisions

To develop a method of business decision-making, look to your core team. Rarely can a successful business be built with only one person; two people create a situation of polarity. There are “sides” to decision-making when two individuals unite to find a solution.  If you haven’t yet found your core team of three, consider adopting what we refer to as the Divine Decision.

For example, let’s say that you have a critical decision to make about a business opportunity. You narrow your choices down to two – you proceed or you reject the proposal. If you and any of your partners, principles or core decision makers cannot come to a united decision, then you all agree to leave the judgment to the Divine Decision. You find the nearest coin, choose a side for each position or decision point, then flip once. Decision made.

Now that may not sound reasonable or easy. It is neither. However, when you adopt a method of chance and divination for making decisions, your mind becomes more rational. For dispute resolution, this is a practice that goes back thousands of years. Sigmund Freud explains this more eloquently: “I did not say you should follow blindly what the coin tells you. What I want you to do is to note what the coin indicates. Then look into your own reactions. Ask yourself: Am I pleased? Am I disappointed? That will help you to recognize how you really feel about the matter, deep down inside. With that as a basis, you’ll then be ready to make up your mind and come to the right decision.

Ideally, a third person can break ties or be a mentor who understands the dichotomies of doing business as well as the personalities actually involved. Each person within the core team will have a perspective and needs which must be addressed. So, while the decision process occurs in twos, three people are required to effectively make decisions that need a complete perspective or holistic view of the impact and potential outcomes. All parties must agree to decisions; the unity created from decision-making matters. And once a decision is made, universally detach and embrace.

Note: Your team can be made of up more than three. 😉

Authenticity

Your corporate culture needs clear guidelines from which to make decisions and take action. You must know and define your core operating values for yourself as you build the company, cultivate relationships and set the foundation for your business.

Your core values do not come from your ego, which is a conglomeration of conscious and unconscious values and beliefs that represent your assumptions about how life is supposed to be… rather, your core values determine the choices you make, the actions you take and the life and business you create.

An interesting point of information about values is that we often live by the values we inherited from our parents, authority figures and childhood socialization. The irony is that we who have grown up in a culture where freedom is prized above all else are often operating from unconscious or assumed values from someone else. Very few people consciously choose their values, much less build a living for themselves and others based on them.

To know your values, look around you right now – what do you see in the choices you’ve made and the lifestyle you now live? Look at the people you work with, whom you’ve chosen to share a majority of your waking hours with. More importantly, is that what you want for your business or is this moment an invitation to go beyond where you’ve been to create something new?

Money is a Tool not a Goal

Money is a unit of measurement, and, being human, we measure our success through how much money we are able to generate, attract and maintain. This measurement is a social standard, reinforced through community judgment that we then internalize. The danger is that we learn to assign our value based on the money, status symbols and material accumulation, confusing those things as a measurement of human capability and capacity rather than valuing skill, expertise, opportunity and intelligence. For some people, it’s that very concept of being measured by and valued for money that becomes a prime motivator for significant achievement.

Throughout the entirety of our lives, we walk around with the vision of money guiding us in making choices and taking action – essentially, money becomes the holy grail. Many entrepreneurs (or entrepreneurs in the making), think ‘I could do this if only I had money…’ or ‘I have to keep my day job until I have the money…’. The tragedy with such thinking is the time lost in pursuing a full life filled with serving the world, navigating change as a way to grow personally and professionally and, frankly, the false limitation being in charge of their lives, preventing them from taking a chance in the first place.

“Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.” ~ Donald Trump

So what do you need to know about this in order to do something different and build your business? Only this… money is a tool, just like a hammer or any other garden-variety tool. The only meaning it has is what you give it; that is, just like any other tool, it’s useless unless you know what to make of it and how to use it. You must detach yourself from anything that you have made money mean in your life so you can learn how to use it effectively. It’s hard to see a kite if you’re attached to seeing a heap of paper and sticks in a pile on the ground.

 “Successful people make money. It’s not that people who make money become successful, but that successful people attract money. They bring success to what they do.” ~ Wayne Dyer

People often embrace money as though it were life force itself; rather, it’s a symbol that measures the exchange of energy between people. Money is very literal – it’s a tool – so it doesn’t judge where it should go and who should have it. The money paradigms, or systems of beliefs that you developed over time about how you predictably understand and relate with money, including your expectations, habits and behaviors, actually determine your experience with money.

In general, the money exchange system as we know it is about paying for value provided. People package resources into solutions that other people want, need and are willing to pay to get… and for those consumers to have the money they trade to get what they want, they had to understand their own access points to attracting, creating and having money.

In my personal experience, focusing on money has always led to bad decisions and bad people. Sure, it is a necessity for life and family but it cannot, and should not be your primary motivation for starting, managing, leading and operating a business.

Play the game, find other players of which you like and trust, the formula will solve itself.