Commit To The Decision You Made
I learned how to make decisions, commit to them and be flexible in my first year of business.
I had to. Outside forces like the economy, financial institutions, government regulations, customers, and family all had a direct impact on my business. Therefore, my ability to succeed in business came down to two things:
- Commitment
- Flexibility
I know, sounds like a contradiction to some of you. Well, it's really not.
I made a commitment to a vision for my business. What I learned was that the commitment didn't require me to stick to a single path. As I discussed in the Success is a Moving Target post, I had the vision and simply needed to be committed to reaching it.
Flexibility has allowed me to survive, and thrive, as a business owner.
Be Flexible
Every day I make decisions. It's those daily decisions, not the big one (to start a business), that affect whether or not I will be successful.
Committing to a decision means that I have the long term vision in mind as I move through each day, work with each customer, mentor each team member. It doesn't mean “stay the course” even when I know things aren't working. That would mean I've put on blinders and am so focused on staying on one path that I ignore warning signs of potential failure. Flexibility allows me to make choices throughout the day and to see the warning signs … then to get more information so I can avoid failure or change direction.
Remember the moving target – my sights are set on my vision of myself and my business being successful – my willingness to be flexible means I'm not committed to a single path to reach the target.
