Do Business Well

Maximizing and actualizing the potential ofeveryone and everything around you.

The ultimate human tragedy

There is nothing more common in this world than wasted talent. Every day, talented people trudge through life being less than they can be. They are miserable, bored, unfulfilled and frustrated. They know that there must be more to their life but they just can’t seem to find the path to a better one. Maybe it’s because they’re not really looking.

Or maybe it’s because they’ve given up. Or maybe it’s because they don’t believe there is a better way.

Here’s the ultimate human tragedy: if you don’t develop your potential, your potential wastes away. Like any living thing, if you don’t feed it, it dies. And there are so many people in South Africa today whose potential is dying because it’s not being nurtured. Maybe it’s because these people are just struggling to survive. Or maybe it’s because their past has taken over their future. Or maybe it’s because they don’t have anyone around them to stimulate their dreams.

Well, here’s the message of this session: the most successful entrepreneurs are pure potential^-in-motion. They have one foot in the present and another in the immediate future. They are constantly growing into their next state of development. They never stand still.

And they never become complacent. They are always fired up with a sense of possibility. It’s like they are always stretching for the finishing line although they know there is no finishing line.

And do you know the most wonderful thing about these entrepreneurs? They take others along with them for the ride. Adam Smith, the pioneering economist who lived 200 years ago, called it the “Invisible Hand”. He said that these entrepreneurs, in seeking their own dream, helped others find theirs.

The Power Of Anticipation:

The Number One Skill for the Millennium

The ancient biblical quote says, “Feed a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” We say, “Give that man to us and we’ll show him how to open a chain of seafood stores”.

When you look at an acorn, what do you see? Do you see squirrel food? Do you see a tree? Do you see a forest? Or do you see all the houses that will be built from the forest that springs from the acorn?

Why are we asking you these questions? Simply because highly successful entrepreneurs are always thinking 5-10 moves ahead of their competition. They have the ability to see what something can become. They practice the power of anticipation. And then, as importantly, they take action. That’s why they are always ahead of their competition. To quote Rudyard Kipling’s words:

They copied all they could follow, But they couldn’t follow my mind;

And I left them sweating and stealing, A year and a half behind

So, right now, think about a development or trend in your industry. Think carefully about the forces of change that are at work around you. Identify three trends or forces of change. Now think about where these trends or forces are going. Think one year down the track, think two years down the track, think five years down the track. Speak to people around you. Speak to suppliers; speak to customers; speak to competitors. Then think about what you can do now to capitalize on these trends. Then take action.

We saw the forces of downsizing, privatization, affirmative action, increasing global entrepreneurial activity, the Internet and changing attitudes towards work. We spoke to the large companies. We spoke to people who had been retrenched or who just can’t find work. We spoke to students. We spoke to existing entrepreneurs. We spoke to banks, universities and schools. We spoke to the retail trade. We looked at what was currently on the market. We studied what was going on elsewhere in the world and then we took action.

So be an IAA, an Immediate Action Anticipator. Act with foresight. But act with urgency. See the gap. Then go for the gap. Yes, you need to look before you leap. But you also need to take that leap of faith before you’ve got all your ducks in a row. We didn’t know exactly what would be in it or how we would market it. All we knew was that we were staring at a big

opportunity and that we had to act fast. Remember, it’s better to be roughly right and first, than exactly right and nowhere.

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