eBusiness Weekly
Arthur Marara
Part 1
The desire for every serious business leader is to see the business grow. Growth is not accidental, it is a function of choices that have to be made. Growth intentional!
This means that you need to be proactive in terms of taking the necessary decisions, and actions that will help you grow the business. Life is about growth, its either you are growing or you are dying. The same applies to your business as well, it’s either its growing or its going down.
How do we attain business growth?
This is the question that we need to answer in this series, and share thoughts on how you can apply some of these principles in your line of business.
I am going to take you through what I call the Seven Laws for Business Growth. I will not be able to exhaust all the principles in this one instalment as we have a lot of things to cover.
I will do a follow up series covering the principles. In the present instalment, I need to work on the attitude for growth from the onset, as it is a key ingredient for business growth.
It’s not easy!
I do not excite people. Many people often experience heartbreaks when they listen to my talks seeking motivation. I believe in plain facts, and these are uncomfortable often at times.
The mistake most writers make is to create an impression that these things are easy, and once you follow the advice you will begin to see results. It does not work like that!
As you set out on this quest, you need to carry this reality, that growing a business is not easy. It may be easy to start a business, but it is not always easy to grow it. This why so many businesses are started, and they die in their infancy.
Should you give up simply because it is not easy! Affirmatively negative! Maybe the very fact that it is not easy, should be the reason why you actually have to do it. If it was easy everyone would do it.
Find your drive from the fact that many people will shy away from the challenge, that is where your success is.
Remember John F Kennedy’s moon speech? He remarked, “We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…”
This statement really got me thinking seriously on the power of choices for success in whatever that you want to do. Most importantly, that I can deliberately choose to do what is hard.
There is a context to John F Kennedy’s speech. On September 12, 1962, President John F Kennedy stood in front of the American people at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and prepared to give a speech that would serious shape the direction of the United States’ efforts over the following decade.
The speech was to change the history of humanity; and set an era of exploration and innovation in outer space. President Kennedy’s “we go to the moon speech,” was delivered near the height of the Cold War and at the beginning of the “space race” between the United States and the Soviet Union, were enormously significant.
The Soviet satellite “Sputnik” had been beeping overhead for 4 years, and only one-year prior Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first human being in history to enter space.
The United States was rapidly losing the race into space and in turn a competition in technological supremacy and prestige, to its Cold War adversary. The American public was on the verge of panic over the implications of a “Red Moon.”
President Kennedy clearly needed to forge a new direction for the United States, one that would excite and energize the American public and reestablish American eminence in global affairs. September 1962, Kennedy set a challenge to the American nation, to “go to the Moon before the decade was out.” The middle portion of the speech has been widely quoted, and reads as follows:
“We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people.
“For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own.
“Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theatre of war.
“I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.
There is no growth in what is easy
Growing your business and organisation is going to require you to step out of your comfort zone, and do things that are not easy. You do not grow by doing what is easy; you grow by doing what is hard.
It is the thing or things that you often find hard to do that will actually change your life. Business success is not dependent on luck, it is determined on the quality of choices that you make.
You need to make a commitment to be consistently challenging yourself to make and do difficult choices;
Waking up early to read and exercise is hard.
Working into the night is not easy.
Planning when other people are playing is not easy.
William Arthur Ward captures the above principle in an interesting and profound way, “A Winner’s Blueprint for Achievement BELIEVE while others are doubting.
PLAN while others are playing.
STUDY while others are sleeping.
DECIDE while others are delaying. PREPARE while others are daydreaming. BEGIN while others are procrastinating. WORK while others are wishing.
SAVE while others are wasting.
LISTEN while others are talking.
SMILE while others are frowning. COMMEND while others are criticizing. PERSIST while others are quitting.”
Do what is hard
You do not grow by doing what is easy; you grow by doing what is hard. Seven years later, July 1969, the Neil Armstrong became the first man to land on the moon and indeed it was, “one small step for a man, one huge leap for mankind.”
Did you know that the computer NASA used to send a person to the moon and return him back only had 65KB memory size?
Just to give you a bit perspective, this computer size was the size of your pocketsize calculator.
Your memory stick is actually more powerful than this computer, not to mention the fact that your smart phone is thousand times more powerful than NASA’s computer.
The distance from earth to the moon is 383 000 kilometres, and landing on the moon was clearly not an easy task, but that is the very reason why America chose to do it.
You see the moment you decide to do what is hard, you challenge yourself to stretch your capacity. You are forced to think, you are forced to grow in order to achieve your goals. Stop doing what is easy! This is the key starting for business growth, the attitude shift.
Are you ready for the challenge?
I trust that you are ready now! Next week I will deal with the principles for business growth. Do not miss the edition of the Business Weekly.
Arthur Marara is a corporate law attorney, keynote speaker, corporate and personal branding speaker commanding the stage with his delightful humour, raw energy, and wealth of life experiences. He is a financial wellness expert and is passionate about addressing the issues of wellness, strategy and personal and professional development. Arthur is the author of “Toys for Adults” a thought provoking book on entrepreneurship, and “No one is Coming” a book that seeks to equip leaders to take charge. Send your feedback to [email protected] or Visit his website www.arthurmarara.com or contact him on WhatsApp: +263780055152 or call +263772467255.
