Setting a Course For Your Brave New Business World
So now you have decided it’s time for some life changes in issues that matter the most to you. You took a huge step maybe from thinking it was impossible, to believing that perhaps… just maybe…it isn’t foolish to dream. It is possible to create the kind of lifestyle that is going to set you and your family free and help them get what they need for a happier, healthier and wealthier life.
So what now? What are your first steps on this road to changing your world and those of others? Well let’s be totally clear from the start… YOU need to be ABSOLUELY CLEAR in your own mind what it is you want to achieve in life. This is a mindset you will build all of your dreams and achievments upon. Set your goals for: short term, medium term and even long term, because when the going gets tough, you need to know exactly where you are in the process and which direction you are going in to stay focussed. In short, your mindset is crucial to you staying on course.
Let’s be frank here; if we can sometimes get tangled up in our own minds, we sure as hell are going to get tangled up when sailing in strange waters and drown!
So keep your mind and diary fixed on regular goal setting and decide to do whatever it takes to get what you want, however, uncomfortable or even costly in the short term. I promise you, I have been there and am not even close to land yet! But I can see it ahead and that is what counts, because I just keep steering towards it, whatever the heat or tides bring! If you want to sail out this way too, I’ll not be too far away to look out for you too!
So what about this dream you have to become wealthy and do so ethically? What has that to do with tides and attitude of mind? Well, the truth is that we are into turbulent tides these days – climate change is not just about the weather any more; there’s a global recession still going on. The market environment we are now in no longer offers simple solutions to putting your money where your faith is, especially if you want anything approaching an ethical investment . This new world order demands your bravery and constant commitment.
People are sceptical that business and entrepreneurs actually can – or even have the will to – do things differently; business ethics are way down the list when profits are squeezed . On one side your family and friends want to tell you that your new business start up is madness; what you are doing won’t work and the government is certainly making it damned difficult for the small business owner, what with taxation, complicated employment laws, red tape and regulation, yada yada yada.
Speaking for myself, I have to remember that my values are now connected stronger than ever to the market as an entrepreneur and I have to steer a careful route through the slip streams, by taking advice and even getting second opinions if in doubt. Independent business owners we may be, but none of us are in this alone; there are plenty of others out there who also want to do ‘good works’ with their wealth. There are more of us out there than we know who have come from nothing, but succeed through setting a goal and having the sheer determination to achieve the goals we set.
The business ethics systems, constraints and hoops to be jumped through are merely there because society agrees that the selfish pursuit of wealth for greed aline has to be reigned in and checked. Without constraint, too many people can get hurt. If that happens, all hell can break loose, just like the riots that spread form the USA and went on all over Britain all those years ago – and let’s be clear, today is not so different from the recession back then.
As entrepreneurs, so long as we stay out of where we do not belong, we will find ways through whatever daily struggle we are faced with in business. So for instance, it’s increasingly vital that we operate a more ethical business position, give good service to our customers and do no disservices to our competitors. Making a fast buck at others’ expense is no longer a viable way to do business, if you are in it for the long run. If your business is online, business ethics are even more crucial as reputations can burn on this fastest of media. Profits can be smashed on the rocks of even a single poor transaction… The net is potentially the equivalent of there being a meeting of all your neighbours to discuss your bad habits and deciding to have nothing further to do with you!
I recently heard a retired business man saying that we have to remember to celebrate when things go right for us in our business, because 95% of the time, things will go wrong in spite of our smart goal setting! This could have put me off; the very thing I was pouring all my passion and money into letting me down…
But the point is we only get one life and we can either sell it to someone else for a pittance, living month to month in misery and frustration, being constantly broke between pay cheques, or be free of all those endless daily compromises. I am convinced that the struggles I faced working for others as an employee were still so much bigger than ANY constraint I might have to face working for myself. And believe me when I say that I have had some pretty tough days since starting a business online!
My team have kept me moving in terms of my business goal setting. My business community want my success; I want theirs. We are accountable to each other through mutual commitment. Whilst I truly feel this in my heart and even in my guts, I also know that at last I am working with people who are not only working on their businesses, they are working on themselves too and their professional commitment is what makes the difference to my wanting to achieve better also. We know that we are all CONNECTED. The success of each is to some degree dependent on the next person; this forms the basis of our business ethics. This business is how life really is; it’s the web of life…
Greed and over-inflated egoism is not an issue in my new community. Blind self-interest has no place in a community committed to supporting each other. Even those earning incredible sums in this business have kept their humility, because they are grounded in a bigger vision of how they want the future to be for people other than themselves. They want something different and they are so committed to their dreams and passions of creating a community of millionaires online, that they are willing to do whatever is necessary to enlist others in their support network too.
It’s a beautiful thing, when you see this community mindset in action. Whenever I think about it, it gives me goose-bumps… I feel like the wind is in my sails and the sun is out and land is in sight. I just have to keep steering towards my goal and here’s the thing… setting and achieving my goals makes me immensely satisfied even when the sea gets choppy and I’m spitting out salty spray!
Our unchartered waters are the ocean that leads us to our brave new world and that of like-minds. Come on in the water’s lovely…
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