Recently, I had dinner with some friends and business associates whom I’ve known for twenty years. I met them when they were struggling entrepreneurs and became one of my clients. They listened well and took my advice, added a lot of hard work and became financially successful. At dinner, we talked about many things and of course, we had to throw in some business conversation. My friend was concerned about someone he knew, a young couple who was working hard but struggling and doing as well as they would like in life. I thought about this for a moment, tilted my head down, looked over the top of my glasses and said to him in a very serious way: You mean they are not doing very well just as you and I weren’t at some point many years ago?! He laughed realizing that we worked very hard on our journey to become successful. And… we became successful because of the hard work.
But without changing our thinking we never would have reached the level of success we have. I do believe and have seen it over and over again with hard work and a little good fortune you will become what you think. I’ve seen other examples of how this works during the recession. There are business people who during the darkest economic days just gave up. They couldn’t see the future. Their vision was one of doom and gloom and not of success. There have been other business people that I know who didn’t understand the definition of recession and failure. Sure their business got hit just like other companies were affected. Their sales were down. Just for a moment they let their thinking go to the negative side. But then like a ray of hope their true nature kicked in and they did what was necessary to get their business back on track. They rethought how they did business. Who they did business with. Looked at their product lines. Stopped accepting excuses from sales people. And got on the road or on the telephone if they had to bring in business. Although these businesses have not yet returned to pre-recession profits they have stabilized business and will survive and prosper.
So what are you thinking? Are you looking to the future? Or are you in the depths of despair? You will be what you think. And your business will not prosper unless you have the right attitude. Let’s plan for the future. Let’s adjust our thinking.
As they say in football – Let’s get it done.