The Facts of Business Life: What Every Successful Business Owner Knows that You Don't

Conclusion

Success—it’s why owners do what they do. And one of the really cool things about success is that you have the freedom to define what success means for you and your business. Unfortunately, that freedom is also a trap. The trap lies in that if you don’t define success for yourself in financial terms and map out how you will achieve that success, the odds of your business failing or having limited success are significantly higher. That’s just the way it is. But it’s your choice.

Success, in my mind, is made up of two macro realities. First, having defined what success means to you, you need to have the courage and drive to commit yourself to achieving it. Second, in order to improve and grow your business, you have to be willing to try new and different ideas and take additional risks. It’s true that when you do this, mistakes—and even failure—will sometimes result. But failure can be a bittersweet pill because by learning from your mistakes and understanding why they occurred, you can turn them into opportunities you may have never realized existed if you hadn’t tried to stretch and improve your business.

For example, after nearly 100 years, Babe Ruth is still a baseball icon, especially for the home runs he hit. The truth is, though, that while he hit an extraordinary number of home runs, he had nearly twice as many strikeouts. Even so, he would never have hit the home runs he did if he hadn’t stretched his talent and learned from his strike outs. Michael Jordan understood ...