by E.R.
Everybody wants to be a big bad rich entrepreneur or business person, but rarely do people realize all of the trials and tribulations that go into establishing and maintaining a profitable and successful business that will sustain over the years. Not only that,but once your business reaches a certain level you’ll have to hire employees to help you keep afloat. This reminds me of the African proverb “if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together.” For those of us who have attempted to hire we are well aware of the difficulties this can present. Steve Jobs, when asked what the hardest part of running his company was responded after some deliberation that it wasn’t the creation of the I phone, I pad or I pod that was the most difficult thing but rather building a successful team of people who could bring these visions to reality. You can always hire someone to engineer a device but hiring a team of compatible and creative individuals is the hardest thing to accomplish.
Being the owner, CEO or entrepreneur of a business or enterprise is one the most challenging yet rewarding ventures one could undertake. In the beginning it is an all day everyday process. You feel as if you have no time for your personal life. All of the customers to meet and satisfy. All of the paperwork, taxes, permits, licenses and government officials you have to put up with. All of the equipment and employees that you have to lead and be responsible for. It is A LOT! But, Day by day and experience by experience you become wiser, more knowledgeable more confident and more competent. If you are smart you develop a system. A system that is simple, tried and true, and works no matter who is working it. This concept was illustrated by Micheal Gerber who is the author of the E-Myth. It is summed up like this, find a system, perfect it within reason and duplicate that system ad infinitum. Easier said than done, but aren’t most things. It is the components and moving parts within the system that the mastermind of this system must conceive and integrate into a working model.
The average person sees someone who has reached an admirable level of success or a quite respectable level of mastery in a given area or field and assumes that they were an over night success. Micheal Jordan, Henry Ford, Nikola Tesla, Benjamin Franklin, Booker T. Washington, Jeff Bezos, W. Clement Stone, Warren Buffet, Ray Kroc, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jack Ma, Sam Walton, Howard Schultz, Elon Musk, Damon Jones; just to name a few. What they don’t see is all of the long days and late nights that it took to be able to create and showcase to the public a service or good that they could benefit from. Ray Kroc has said that people considered him an overnight success and to that he responded, “Yes I’m an overnight success, a 20 year overnight success” or something to that effect.
Work hard, work smart and never leave any stone unturned. Look at every situation form every possible angle, no matter how small or large. Where there is a will there is a way. Think about that. The level of your competence and achievement in life will forever be in direct proportion to your personal initiative, knowledge and actions.
Nothing is guaranteed, but nothing is withheld.