Revealed: The Science of Small Business Success
If you roll a ball along a flat surface, it will simply continue in the direction you’ve pushed it, unless it hits something – or something hits it – to change its course.
People are basically the same. We continue along the path we’ve chosen unless something outside of ourselves changes our direction. We are governed as much by the laws of human nature as a moving object is governed by Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of physics.
This is why self-help books make up one of the biggest categories in the publishing industry, and the self-help industry overall racks up more than $10 billion in annual sales. In their homes, many earnest people looking for change have shelf after shelf filled with self-help books.
If people were truly able to change themselves, there would be a handful of good self-help books on the market and they would do the trick.
For most of us to be able to change the course of our lives, both personally and professionally, we need an additional shot of energy. It’s just a law of nature or physics that as individuals we only have a certain amount of energy. The extra energy required to achieve change needs to come from outside of ourselves.
There is another dimension to this: We can’t truly and honestly evaluate ourselves. We need views taken from a perspective that is not our own to really “see” what we are doing.
It is for these reasons that there will always be coaches and these reasons also explain why savvy people from all walks of life align themselves with good coaches. Even a golfer as experienced and successful as Phil Mickelson relies on a swing coach and his caddy for advice, direction and correction.
We have several equivalents in the business world. There are many good coaches and other relationships or institutions that serve this purpose. Some business professionals maintain semi-casual “mentor” relationships with experienced leaders. Others join mastermind groups that provide guidance and accountability.
I think what separates those who use business coaches from those who don’t is their honesty with themselves and ultimately the degree to which they want to succeed. If you really want to make your small business one of the elite leaders in your industry and/or your community, you’ll do whatever it takes to achieve that – even if it means that you need to look outside of yourself to do it.
So how about you? How high are you aiming? There may be a much greater level of success awaiting you, but you may not see it or have the ability to make the required course corrections to get there without an injection of energy and expertise from outside of yourself.
With all of this said, there is only one more question to ask: What are you waiting for?