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Mastery of business systems

It is general knowledge that a business person stands to make a lot more money in his/her lifetime then a person who “works for a living”. The difference might be in the amount of work that a business person has to do. A business person often works very hard in the initial stages of the business development. There is also an inherent risk associated with starting a business. 3 out of 5 businesses fail in the first 5 years. So how does a business person avoid the pitfalls and sore to the success in his/her enterprise? The answer to that are business systems.

We all know the McDonald’s model of doing business and its success. Let’s now look at it in more detail. McDonald’s is in the fast food industry. It has a system for making the food exactly the same every time. It also has a system for the restaurant layout, management, supply management, accounting and anything else a business needs to run smoothly. Here comes the interesting part. McDonald’s is run by teenagers. Its success isn’t contributed to how smart kids are these days. Systems are responsible for any and all of its good fortune. The reason why teenagers are able to run it, is simply because those business systems tell them how to, at every step of the way.

In order for a business to be really successful, systems need to be put in place that will make this business efficient and profitable, regardless who’s running it, otherwise this business becomes just another J.O.B..

We always must seek a balance between innovative spirit, creativity and logical, practical approach to doing anything – especially in business. This applies pretty much anywhere else in life as well. Business systems are just another example of this principle.

The Key to Success

What do you think is the absolute key to the success of 100% of people who really made it (what ever the definition of “made it” may be)?

I can guarantee that it isn’t some magic formula or technique that they learn. One technique will not help your success in the long term. It will not play a great part in your overall self improvement. It is just a tool to get you there.

Let’s look at an example. Imagine a successful stock market trader, who finds a system of making money in the market. He does extremely well in the bull market and is so confident in his success that he uses only that one system. Then the market turns on him. His system no longer works in a sideways market. Unfortunately it is the only system he knows. He looses all of his great gains, and now he is back to square one. In order for him to succeed long term, he needs more then a system. He needs a way to adapt to the constantly changing market. The only way of doing that would be to constantly learn new systems that would be adoptable to all of the behaviors market might exhibit. To learn, for this trader, means to succeed in all market conditions. This concept also applies to other parts of our life.

The fact is that if we use learning as a tool for constant and never ending self improvement; no matter what life troughs at us, we will be successful. Learning is one thing that all successful people have in common. As the matter a fact, to sustain success, we need to have certain easily definable qualities. Ability to “think outside the box” is one of them, constant learning is another one of those practices that will ensure that your business is constantly improving and expanding. We don’t associate these simple qualities as being ultimately responsible for our success, but as we have seen in the previous example, they do make a great difference.

Imagination – the hidden power of our mind.

I don’t know if you remember, but when I was a kid my imagination was everything to me. I could spend hours being engaged in imaginary worlds. I remember how I imagined my tricycle to be a motorcycle; how I would ride it and in my imaginary world I was tough. My imagination brought me adventure, made ordinary objects special and most of all it made my life more fulfilling.

Unfortunately when we grow up we start paying less and less attention to our imagination. We often use such expressions as “Stop imagining” or “Get your head out of the clouds”. This point of view isn’t entirely without merit. Being grounded is important, but it is also important to use imagination to its full potential. Here are some of the benefits of using imagination:

1. Greater ability to envision goals.

We all know that planning is important. As the matter a fact it is so important, that you will not be able to achieve success, unless you have a clear goal you are working towards. Imagination helps you to give form to your goals, first in your mind, then in the real world. Without imagination we would not be able to envision where we are going.

2. Greater ability of understanding abstract concepts

In order to be able to grasp some of the more abstract concepts in our life, we first need to imagine them. In order to understand what love is we first have to imagine how it feels to be in love. This concept is so abstract, that a simple description will not do it justice. The only way we have to be able to grasp this concept is our imagination.

3. Greater planning and conceptualizing ability.

Any time we are involved in planning anything, we first have to conceptualize it. If we want to come up with a solid plan of action, we need to see it clear in our mind first, and then organize it on paper. Same goes for when we want to come up with a new idea or concept. The process is the same. First we envision it, and then we bring it into the reality.

4. Increased creative ability.

Big part of being creative is being able to use your imagination to its full capacity. We go through a similar process as conceptualizing when we create. The difference is probably that creativity is more of a stream of ideas and concepts, where as conceptualizing is the ability to give these ideas form. In both cases imagination is paramount.

5. Rich internal experience.

When we use our imagination often, our experience becomes rich and colorful. Imagination adds an emotional overlay to our often unexciting day to day life. By seeing the world through our imagination, we see it as if through “Rose colored glasses”. We need this kind of experience, and if this part of our life is lacking, we can often become unhappy and depressed.

To sum up our imagination is crucial to our success and the quality of experience we have. The best part of all is that all we need to do to develop it, is simply use it. The more we do, the more developed it will become.