Cinderella’s fairy tale gives us
some insight here. Cinderella wants to go to the ball, her fairy godmother
conjures up a carriage from a pumpkin for her to go in, she steals the heart of
the price but has to flee at midnight when the magic runs out and she has to
dive out her carriage as it turns back into a vegetable. Every day the ‘magic’-the
input, the effort that you have put into creating something amazing in your
business- is going to run out at midnight. There is a need for new input in the
morning. In the same way that a marriage needs daily commitment and daily
winning of your spouse’s heart to flourish so does your business.
You can dream of the day that you
can leave your business to run itself and you just reap a profit at the end.
Keep dreaming. At some level you and your staff will need to fight the natural
tendency of entropy that has systems breakdown and causes relationships to
degenerate. It takes effort to keep inventory in stock, to chase debtors that
are letting you down, to hold a creative and positive environment at work.
Realise that at that moment when you reach a point where you could step back and
hand over your business that you face the opportunity to get bigger, to provide
more, to work even harder, and produce even better work.
Your life and your work will not
get better because of one magical day that changes it all. It will get better
as you embrace the daily discipline of working, of building, of making each day
magical.
Today pick one thing that you can
do to improve your work or someone else’s life. Perhaps it is buying a round of
coffee for your staff who are working later than normal. Maybe it is reviewing
your customer contact policy or drafting your top client a letter of gratitude.
Pointing out where your client relations are not up to standard and encouraging
your staff to maintain or go beyond the set standard. There is always something
you can do. Then tomorrow do something else.
We can dream of a better future.
We can dream of a better nation. Our dreams need to motivate us to action every
day. Every day that we put effort into our lives and businesses, every day that
we fight the pull of second-rate and corruption, every day that we spend not
settling for the excuse of ‘This is Africa’ is one day closer to seeing that
dream come true.
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