I love telling the story of an entrepreneur in Des Moines, Iowa who had a dream. He had a successful welding business and he liked to tinker. In 1903 to be able to carry supplies and deliver machine parts to his customers, George built an engine for a buckboard to make it easier to carry those parts. He later built another engine for a carriage to take his family out in. Today George’s “truck” sits in the back field of an Iowa farm, rusted and rotted. Maybe his dream was to sell his idea, maybe it was only to create a convenience for his business, because that is where my grandfather in law, George Eldridge’s dream ended. You see he built his engine 5 years before Henry Ford built the Model T.
Perhaps it was a challenging time like many businesses have felt during the COVID pandemic shut down. Potential is there but the unknown has held many back.
Napoleon Hill in writing about the principles of success stresses that your definite purpose should be something that evokes motivation, focuses action and inspires your imagination. When we go into business the dream and desire seem clear, but then events and circumstances start to affect the business climate, competition ramps up their marketing and customers seem to need more information, a better deal or just more of our time. We start to shed doubt on the wisdom of our decision, and pressures mount because cash flow is slow.
Now is precisely the time to turn up the volume on your “dream”. Here are some steps Hill subscribes to, to help keep a positive mental attitude and to sustain belief:
- Get busy reconnecting or even expanding that major goal/purpose.
- Affirm the object of your desire daily.
- Find the compelling motive for doing what you want to do.
- Use self suggestion to recall the advantages of the goal.
- Get the encouragement of those of like mind.
- Don’t let a day pass without making a definite move toward attaining your major purpose –persistent action is key.
- Choose someone as a pacesetter whom you can emulate.
- Surround yourself with things that symbolize and reinforce achievement and success.
- Never run away from disagreeable circumstances.
- Recognize that anything worth having has a price tag and requires “eternal” vigilance.
You must stay flexible in a changing world but you must increase and apply the above steps to draw on the power and potential you have at your disposal and reap the rewards.
The Challenge: Review your Goals as you head into the second quarter, and renew your belief and desire in them.