By Howard Partridge
Last month, I shared that I had learned two secrets that changed my life. The first is that you’ve got to have systems in your business if you want a predictable, profitable, turnkey operation.
The second secret is what I call “the greatest business lesson I have ever learned”. The greatest business lesson I have ever learned is that my business exists for ONE and
ONE reason ONLY.
And your business exists for the same reason…to be a VEHICLE to help you achieve your L.I.F.E. Goals!
The everyday demands of a business have a dramatic impact on our personal lives. The good news (no, phenomenal news) is that the impact can be POSITIVE! It doesn’t have to be negative. So, the first step toward a phenomenal business is to understand why it exists – to enhance your life. To be a vehicle that takes your life from where it is to where you want to go.
You went into business because you had a dream of working for yourself and having more free time, but then you got sucked into the constant demands of the business. Before too long, you were enslaved by it.
The key is to design your LIFE GOALS first. You must have a vision for what freedom looks like to you. One of the tools I use is the Wheel of Life that has the 7 core areas of life. You rate yourself on the 7 areas on a scale of 1 through 10. You assess your life as it is now and compare each area to what you want it to look like.
You develop a vision for your life first.
If you don’t have a clear vision for the life you want, you won’t build the right kind of business. You must get the fact that your business works for you. You don’t work for the business. Your business is a vehicle to help you live out your life goals. It’s the vehicle you have chosen. You design the business to facilitate your life goals.
Don’t get me wrong – you’ll still work just as hard – and if you don’t have money, you may have to invest more “sweat equity” than you ever imagined to get where you need it to be. You may have to work long and hard in the beginning. But if you design your life goals first and build your business around that vision, you will avoid being a slave to your business. Your business will add to your life instead of taking away from it.
When I first read The E-Myth Revisited, I finally understood how to stop being a slave to my business. Michael Gerber talks about your primary aim. When you design a compelling, purposeful, phenomenal picture for your life and design your business around your life goals, you’ll approach your business with more purpose and direction.
You’ll have a compelling reason to build it. With a compelling vision for your life, you’ll be willing to learn what you need to learn and, more importantly, implement it.
The other side of the proverbial coin is that your personal habits have a dramatic impact on your business. To grow a phenomenal business, you’ve got to become a phenomenally successful person with positive habits. Just knowing how to build a business is not enough.
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Howard Partridge, President of Phenomenal Products, Inc., is the author of 7 Secrets of a Phenomenal L.I.F.E. and 5 Secrets of a Phenomenal Business. You can contact Howard by phone at 281-634-0404 or visit his website at www.HowardPartridge.com.
