What differentiates successful entrepreneurs and leaders from ones who are unsuccessful? We all have ambitions to grow and to achieve success, but why is it that so few actually accomplish this? Now is the time to reflect on this. When you see a leader abandoning their long term vision in favor of impulsive decisions, whatever those might be, you start to question how committed they were to that long term vision.
You have to be clear about where you want your business to go. Having a clear vision means that you know the actions to take to move you closer to achieving that vision. If you don’t know where you’re going, then chances are at least half of the decisions that you make may be working completely against you. You may be taking action every single day without a clear objective or a clear destination. It starts with, “Where are we going? What is our business going to be five years from now? 10 years from now?” When you’re committed to that, then the decisions you make become much easier.
If you’re committed to a long-term vision, then the decisions you’re making are ultimately either working for or against you.
When people hear commitment and think, “Well look around you, these are uncertain times. How can I be committed in light of all of this uncertainty?”
I’m not advocating making decisions that could sink the ship and wipe out your business. Absolutely not. In fact, if you’re committed to a clear long-term vision, the idea would be that you don’t go out of business.
Aspire to be better than you are today and for the organization to be better than what it is today. If you have clarity over what the organization looks like three years, five years,10 years from now, then you’re going to have more clarity over the types of decisions you are making now.
If you’re doing things that are constantly moving you forward, perhaps laying off 50% of your organization may not make sense in two, three months when we’re all back in business. You need to hang on to these people and find other roles within the organization so you can come out stronger.
If you’re committed to growing the organization, perhaps dialing back on marketing right now is counterintuitive to long term growth. We did another vlog on this a while back where I talked about preservation versus focusing on opportunity. I agree that you would not want to do anything that could wipe you out entirely. However, when you’re committed to a long-term vision, the decisions you make during times of prosperity and times of adversity, oftentimes don’t change.
When you’re committed to growth and you stick with it, focusing on long-term goals and having clarity makes sense. The business owners that I’ve seen who have been committed to a long term vision are the ones taking the most care of their team, clients, and community. I don’t want to abandon that even when we’re going through periods of adversity. It doesn’t change where we want to go.
If you agree or disagree with anything I said today, I want to know about it. Text me at 404–531–7691 to tell me what your long-term vision looks like.
