Ruminations Of A Happy Anniversary (circa 2004)
August is the month that my company, Empowered Investor International celebrates its 7th anniversary in business. Normally, anniversaries, birthdays, and other days of remembrance are cause for mindless celebration; in most cases, the celebrants are content to eat cake and drink champagne. I was about to do just that as the remembrance of that day seven long years ago caused me to come to my senses and reflect on what it took to reach this milestone. There are lessons to be learned, and I will share a few of them with you here.
The past seven years have been a mixed bag of emotions ranging from elation to disappointment and huge challenges. The peaks have been high and the troughs have been deep. Anyone who tells you that starting and operating a business is easier than holding down a job never started or operated a business. During the years that I simply sold real estate for a living, I was responsible only for myself. After I became a business owner, I had to deal with the day-to-day issues and problems of managing 50 to 100 people plus rather large number of vendors. That magnified my responsibilities immensely at the same time that it leveraged my potential success. There were days that I felt as if I could take on the world and other days that made me wonder what I was thinking when I decided to become the President of my own company!
What I experienced by operating my own company validated and reinforced the lessons I learned through many “how to succeed” seminars, audios and books. Even though I thought I had absorbed it all, there were lapses and my journey proved to me how important it is to periodically go back to review the basics and apply classroom theory to real life situations. Virtues such as “consistency,” “tenacity,” and “persistence” clearly made the difference between success and failure. It would have been easiest to just walk away from all the challenges; however, the easy way is usually the least fulfilling.
However, I always kept my long-range goals clearly in mind and that gave me the proper perspective to persevere and overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. What appeared to be huge boulders in the road when I was looking out the windshield turned out to be pebbles when viewed in the rear view mirror. I learned from the “School Of Hard Knocks” to face these obstacles head on and to heed the legend on life’s rear view mirror, “Obstacles Seem Bigger Than They Really Are.” They could easily have sapped my strength if I made a U-turn and retreated from them. In the face of adversity, we must remember that God usually tries us with a little first to see what we would do with a lot.
I was often tempted to take the road most traveled, and avoid the big potholes while focusing on all the little ones. It seemed like the big potholes were just too deep and it was far easier to ride through the minor ones – in other words, micromanage the small stuff and avoid big looming issues. If I had done that, however, I would not be where I am today. That approach to business is akin to not going to the doctor because you’re afraid he might discover a tumor. Ignoring it does not make it go away. It only makes it worse when the day of reckoning finally arrives. The lesson learned is that when I focused on the little things, the big things got bigger, but when I attacked the big things, the little things tended to take care of themselves.
I also saw first-hand the virtues of consistency. As I have said many times in this column, one of the primary efforts in building a successful business should be in creating a well-defined and unique brand. I decided when I founded my company seven years ago that I would position my firm in the high-end market. I chose the name Empowered Investor International as a manifestation of that vision. I worked tirelessly to build an “elite” image, paying attention to even the smallest detail, while the temptation to deviate into the seemingly more lucrative high-volume mainstream constantly tugged at me. However, I realized that if I watered down our exclusive image, we would have no image at all, so I stuck to my guns. While our brand is still a work in progress, we are well-positioned in the high-end market, with a large proportion of our listings in the million-dollar-plus price range. Everything we do is high class, right down to the quality of the paper for our promotional pieces and the overall client experience.
This is of necessity a short column, so I can’t describe all the pleasures and pains of starting and growing a business of your own. However, I can say without hesitation that consistency, tenacity and persistence will pay off big time. Don’t waver in the face of obstacles or setbacks, and never forget that success is largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go!
Jason Hartman, CRS, GRI, CSP is the author of “Become The Brand of Choice – Make Your Name A Powerful Brand and Earn Millions” and President of Empowered Investor International. For more information visit www.PlatinumSells.com or www.BrandofChoice.com
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