I was speaking with a floor dealer not long ago and I asked him what was his goal?
“To make more money,” he replied.
That got me to thinking. Making more money sounds like a good goal, but is it? Is it even a goal at all?
Imagine a Pharaoh in ancient Egypt sending for his chief architect.
The architect arrives and the Pharaoh says to him, “Hey, thanks for coming. I want to build something big.”
After pondering this for a moment the architect replies, “What did you have in mind, Sire?”
“I dunno … something big. Really big!”
“Well, Sire, could you be a little more specific?”
“You know … like the stuff those Babylonians built. Only bigger. WAAAAAAAY bigger!”
Long pause. “Did you have any particular design ideas in mind, Sire?”
“Oh, ‘designing’ is no fun. Tell you what. Why don’t you just head out into the desert and start piling up massive stone blocks? I’m sure you’ll figure it out as you go along.”
The beleaguered architect turns and leaves, scratching his head.
“And don’t forget!” The Pharaoh calls after him. “Make it really, really BIG!”
Sound ridiculous? Obviously.
When a business owner tells me that their goal is to “make more money,” I think they are approaching business building like our fictitious Pharaoh friend approached building the Great Pyramid. Mr. Pharaoh knows he wants something built out of stone blocks, but he’s fuzzy on what exactly he wants the end result to be.
Think of money as stone blocks.
When you say my goal is to “Make more money,” really you are saying, “I just want to pile up a big ol’ heaping pile of stone blocks” and hope it makes something useful. Money is a tool; a building block. Acquiring a bunch of building blocks is not a bad thing, but what do you want it to look like?
I’m not sure what the planning process was for building the Great Pyramid (modern engineers aren’t sure how it was accomplished), but I guarantee you that there WAS a planning process. And at the end of that process, everyone involved knew exactly what the end product was going to look like, where it would sit, and the exact size to the fraction of an inch.
In other words, they had a very specific, detailed WRITTEN goal in mind. Maybe it was written on papyrus or maybe clay tablets; maybe in a 3-ring binder and CD’s purchased from alien ‘coaches’ visiting from another galaxy. Who knows? But whatever it was, they had to have a written plan. Something built on that scale, to such exacting specifications, had to be crystallized in writing so the builders could keep a clear picture of the end objective during the decades it took to complete.
Look at the result.
The Great Pyramid has stood for over 4,000 years; some speculate much longer.
I’m assuming you want to build your business for the long haul. Maybe not 4,000+ years, but certainly one that outlasts economic ups-and-downs; something you can sell or pass on to your heirs.
Having a concrete, written goal – a crystallization of your end vision – is critical for making this happen.
I recently hosted a one-hour webinar where I walked the participants through a one-page worksheet to crystallize their personal and business goals for the year. (Inner Circle Club members have access to the webinar video and worksheet on the members-only site.)
During the first 30-minutes, I walked the participants through a step-by-step process to crystallize their personal goals for the year. During the second half, I walked them through a similar process to crystallize business goals which would fund and facilitate their personal goals.
I always say: The purpose of your business is to fund and facilitate your Ideal Lifestyle.
If your goal is “to build a business that stands the test of time; that won’t be in danger of collapsing every time the economy “burps;” that you can sell or pass down to your kids,” then crystallize your goals in writing.
The Pharaohs did.
To Tons Of Customers!
Jim Augustus Armstrong is The “Coach”
Jim Augustus Armstrong is the President of Flooring Success Systems, a program that equips dealers to double their profits, cut their work hours in half and beat the boxes! Many dealers have totally transformed their businesses and their lives for the better after joining Flooring Success Systems.
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