How many times have we heard and use that phrase in our business circles? How many times have we really sat down to strategize and plan for that one major move that will fetch in the millions of dollars and change our fortune overnight? We have drawn business models, built empires in our sleep and dream and we wake up to expect a crystallization of the dream voila!!!!

But that next big move may be a mirage unless you understand some key, basic fundamentals of running a business or company.

A. Have you Paid Your Dues?

Yes, have you paid your dues yet? Do you just want to wake up and start a business or company without knowing the rudiments of what it takes to excel or succeed in that business? Have you taken time to understand the ethics of the profession, disciplined yourself to know the dos and don’ts and familiarize yourself with the pros and cons of that enterprise? The adage that Rome was not built in a day, tells the story of dues being paid and the necessary home work done to build Rome. Have you been tutored? Have you taken time to submit yourself to learning, training, and acquiring the relevant skill set that will set you apart? Feasibility Studies may not be enough to launch you into that market, how disciplined are you to entertain, that freedom of thought, that does not put you in a strait-jacketed position, but rather allows you to operate in a knowledge-practical based conditioned atmosphere that does not allow you deviate from your core focus. Jim Collins called it Fanatic Discipline.

B. The Real Feasibility Study

Yes, we have carried out feasibility studies of the business we want to dabble into, we have seen other companies striking gold when they launched out and we are eager to do so. But do we have our own empirical data to back our findings in the feasibility study? Are you convinced, based on your own data, compared with the data you have researched on, that the time is ripe for you to launch out to strike Gold? Doing research is not enough neither paying for that data. Having empirical proof, and data that you can defend anywhere by yourself is key? That is the real feasibility study.

C. The Fear of Failure is Real

We have most times, been taught to conquer our fears and put in a suggestive thought that the fear is not real but imagined. Wake up and smell the coffee folks!! That fear is real! Business can fail with a singular move that can either be orchestrated by you or by factors outside your control. And what will you do? Sit down, whine and blame everyone else apart from yourself? Perhaps you have not read the Story of Steve Jobs been fired from his own company, or the morbid fear of Bill Gates that Windows will fail? These would be story for another day. The fear of your business failing is a fear you must make accommodation for, by allowing you to be creative in the way you address it. What am I saying, instead of the fear paralysing you, let it motivate you to press on, and plan re-innovate yourself should the fear eventually occur. Luck is when opportunity meets preparation, but you need to be able to define that luck by your preparation now for the unknown.

I will share more insights into building business corporations and nation building in subsequent posts. Thank you.