I believe trouble comes
in bunches. There’s no such thing as luck, good
or bad. We all have storms in our life. Some weather the
storms better than others. By working hard and being honest,
you’ll find that when a storm comes your way, you
will always have the money, friends and resources to see
you through. Don’t count on luck to help you, and
don’t bemoan it as the reason for problems.
Those things you set
into habit are the things that guide you when the trouble
comes. If you’re standing on firm ground through
practiced moral principles and are developing sound business
relationships, you’ll weather just about any storm
that comes your way.
There are four simple
steps in growing, improving or rebuilding a business.
Most of your competitors just won’t get it. The
first step is to recognize you have a problem. You have
to see that there’s room for improvement. That’s
where most have their downfall. Once you recognize the
problem, the second step is to more closely define it.
Once you’ve done that, then you devise a plan to
address the issues you’ve defined. But the fourth
and most difficult step is still in front of you: executing
your plan. This part can be immeasurably painful because
it requires a massive amount of new discipline. You’ll
have to deal with a whole new sector of problems because
you’re going to go beyond where you once were.
The funny part is that
nearly all of your competitors won’t get it. Most
know there is something amiss, the engine isn’t
running an all the cylinders, and mama didn’t get
her usual new car last year. They may even be piddling
over a solution, but I can promise you they don’t
have a plan. They haven’t committed anything to
writing. It can be as simple as listing what is wrong,
with the solutions, and a time line for planning. Hopefully,
you will use your operating metrics to identify the problems,
and whether they are bigger than a breadbox or smaller
than a car, and then to track your implementation of solutions.
By looking at the metrics, you can see if you are making
progress.
So if you do it, guess,
what? You win! They will be left behind.
