BUSINESS SUCCESS What does it mean to you?

People define success differently, so what actually does it mean to you? Is it how much money you earn? How many staff you have? The size of the company? The lifestyle? The freedom? The challenge?

Defining success is important, but taking a clear-eyed look at the impact of your definition matters even more. As in most things your intent is important but the results provide the real answers.

About 25 years ago, to me success was always about how many employees I had and how large the contracts were. It was always the case that, ‘bigger is better’. The only trouble was, ‘bigger’ didn’t seem to be ‘better’ as I hoped for. There were the continual problems of slow payers, staff issues, jobs not being ready (not good when you have multiple employees to find work for), long hours and of course, ‘the stress’. This is the case with a lot of business people. They have the tendency of working 10

or more hours a day and also on weekends as they are focusing their attention exclusively on building their career.

Over the years I ‘woke up’ to myself and realised having a large team was not what I really wanted in my business and that a smaller number was more manageable and less stressful. I even found my business was more profitable doing it this way. Working directly with a client and not a builder, was also more pleasurable for me as there was that personal interaction with them. When it came to invoicing there was never the problem of payment as I made sure they were always happy when the job was completed. This gave me a constant cash-flow into my bank account and therefore the ability to pay my bills and wages on time. This in turn, relieved the stress that most business operators encountered.

I am far from being rich but I am very happy in what I am doing and to me, this is how I interpret ‘business success’.

So determining whether you are successful should be based on one question: ‘How happy are you?’ Your level of success is based solely on your answer to this question.

If you’re making serious money but are unhappy on a personal level, then you haven’t embraced the fact that incredible business success often takes a heavy toll on a relationship. Other things should be clearly important to you besides just making money.

So think about what motivates you. What do you want to achieve for yourself and your family? What do you value most, spiritually, emotionally, and materially? Those are the things that will make you happy, and if you aren’t doing them, you won’t be happy.

If operating a small business and making a decent living from it is your definition of success, embrace the fact that you may not get rich but you will have more time to enjoy yourself.

If building a large company is your definition of success, embrace the fact that you may not have a rich, engaged family life.

You can be fortunate enough though to have both of the above ‘if’ you are a smart business manager, and to these people I take my hat off to as it is not as easy as it seems. To be amongst this group you must be prepared to ‘let go’ and delegate a lot of your business responsibilities to other employees. This will free up precious time to enjoy life.

So forget traditional definitions of success. Forget what other people think. Ask yourself if you feel happy — not just at work, not just at home, not just in those fleeting

moments when you do something just for yourself, but overall.

If you can do this, then you’re successful. The happier you are the more successful you are.

If you aren’t happy it’s time to rethink how you define success, and start making changes to your professional and personal life that align with that definition, because what you’re doing now isn’t working for you.

I put the question on Social Media recently to see how others thought about business success and the answers were very similar. Besides the ‘Freedom’, ‘Family Life Balance’, ‘Financial Security’ and ‘Making a Difference’, there was the aspect of the clients and keeping them happy. To them, this was success.

Kyle Passeri I’d like to think that I measure success by the success of my clients. If my clients are able to enjoy a happier life after working with me, then I see myself as being successful. Warwick King

Happy clients, mean the word of mouth referrals continue. I can maintain pricing to reflect quality of work so work perpetuates, money comes in; the result; ‘happy wife, happy life’.

So ask yourself, ‘Are You Happy?’ If not; then think what you can do to rectify the situation.

Life is too short. Don’t waste it on being unhappy. Think about what you really want.

Jim Baker www.mytools4business.com