PRODUCTIVITY

It’s so much easier to do what you want to do than do what you have to do. Productivity means not taking the easy route but the one that will, for sure, get you to your destination.

This past week is one where I met with several small business owners who set up appointments to discuss getting help with their businesses. Our meetings consisted of my asking questions, receiving a few answers and then trying to impart some suggestions while the owners sat staring at me like a deer caught in headlights on a dark road.

While my two meetings with these owners were about growing a business, I could tell that they did not want to work as hard as they needed in order to achieve success. Neither of them were willing to get out of their comfort zone and take on a lot of structured work. (No, I did not get either one of them as clients)

Too many small business owners fail to approach the growing of a successful business as an obligation both to themselves as well as their families. When their businesses fail, they will spend the   rest of their lives making excuses for their lack of success. Success is not a game of chance where only one person can win. Success is available to all those who seek it and are willing to pay the price to achieve it.

It is difficult to discuss success when the mindset is centered on the 94% failure rate. One of my visitors did ask how he could possibly succeed with the odds being against him. He cited the current rate of failure and already envisioned himself in that group.

Remember that success is not something that happens to you; success does not happen because you are working a lot of hours. Productivity is defined not by how much you do, but by how much you accomplish towards reaching your vision.

As small business owners each of us has to assume responsibility for our businesses by taking control and being disciplined, consistent and persistent in the quality and quantity of our individual productivity.

“I like things to happen; and if they don’t happen, I like to make them happen.”  Winston Churchill