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Go with the Flow

During the summer of 2016, I went whitewater kayaking with my daughter. It was a new experience for me, and even though technically, I was “playing,” I learned some important life lessons from the experience and want to share them with you:

  1. You can’t control the river. All you can do is navigate it to the best of your ability, and isn’t it the same in life? You can’t control life or predict what it’s going to throw at you, but instead of understanding that, we tend to either over-praise or over-criticize ourselves. The people who lead you can help, and you do the best you can to steer, but the river’s going to do what the river’s going to do, and so is life. It’s easy to think we have the knowledge and skill to control our lives, but maybe if we recognize we can’t control it, we’ll become better navigators.
  2. You may need help to get back in the flow. When you’re navigating the river, it can pull you in unexpected ways, wedging you into a tight spot. They teach you to wiggle a little to get off the rocks…or you can try to push off gently. But occasionally—when you’re stuck—you can’t do it all by yourself and need a guide to help. This is true in life too: no matter how much knowledge and experience you have—or how high you might climb on the ladder to success, when you’re floundering (and you will be from time to time), you need to consult with others for help and perspective.
  3. When you fall out of the boat into white water, turn on your back and float. Your first inclination will be to struggle and swim, but the current will only make you more exhausted and fill your nose and mouth with water. Turn over on your back and let the current take you to a safer place. If you’re in real trouble, someone will come get you or throw you a rope. That’s what you need to do sometimes in life too, when you find yourself in a rough place. Maybe we just need to chill and lean on our support team members, because they’ll throw us a lifeline and pull us out. Fighting it can cause greater injury than floating on downstream.
  4. Giving up has its own risks. Whitewater kayaking is a rigorous activity and you can get tired and be ready to give up, just like in life. When you’re on the river, even when you find a place to rest, just getting out of the boat can be dangerous, because the rocks can be slippery or the bottom can be unstable. They tell you not to get out of the boat, but I didn’t always listen. Rather than getting out and giving up, consider the next lesson.
  5. It’s okay to just coast sometimes. In kayaking, you can work too hard instead of finding a pace and moving through the water efficiently. Don’t we do the same thing in life? We push too hard and wear ourselves out unnecessarily when often we just need to pause and take stock before kicking into high gear again.

Yes, indeed, there are life lessons you can learn from “playing” to make you more effective as a business leader, as a partner, and as a friend. Most importantly, these lessons will help you learn how to live your dreams and not your fears.

I want to give a shout-out to River Riders (http://www.riverriders.com/) — they guided us with skill and patience to make sure we had a safe, memorable experience.

Profit With A Purpose: The Amazing Story of Thistle Farms

“You’ve just gotta meet these people!” Amy Sarch’s eyes were gleaming as she dragged me to a display being set up here in the lobby of our Byrd School of Business.

There I met Regina Mullins, outreach manager to Thistle Farms, a two-year residential program for women survivors of prostitution, trafficking, addiction, and homelessness. It was founded in 1997 by the Rev. Becca Stevens, the Episcopal chaplain to Vanderbilt University.

Little did I know that Regina’s story would stop me in my tracks and change my plans for that day’s radio program “The Valley Business Today” on The River 95.3/WZRV. I had to make sure others heard this inspirational, powerful story—a story about redemption and entrepreneurship and about how to make your way in a world that wants to drag you down.

When Regina Mullins got out of prison, she faced the dreaded spiral: “No one would hire me. It seemed as though my only choices were to go back to the street and then probably back to prison. Others wanted to hold me hostage to my past.”

Thistle Farms offered Regina another alternative. When she got out of prison, she went through the program’s alcohol and drug treatment, with housing provided for up to two years. She had an opportunity to deal with health issues, including nutrition and dental work. “I got a chance to go back to school, get my children back, and figure out why I was in the streets for so long. I knew I wanted to stay on this side of recovery.”

But here’s the distinctive, unique thing about Thistle Farms: they offer an underlying business model, and that really got my entrepreneurial brain cells firing. The women in the program make a line of personal care products: lotions, body balms, bath salts, candles, and much more. Regina’s tee shirt read “Love Heals Every Body.” Regina was quick to add, “Love heals through our ministry, and love heals through our body and bath products. The money goes back into the program for the next women who come in off the streets, and it helps us make a living wage.”

Wow. What a business model!

A woman needs assistance. Someone offers her a chance and hope. Then she is taught entrepreneurial skills that can sustain and expand the program while providing customers with a quality line of products they’ll use and enjoy.

A business should never exist just to make a profit. It should also make a difference in the world. Thistle Farms takes that to a whole new level.

UPDATE: Since my interview with Regina Mullins, the Thistle Farms founder Becca Stevens was named among the top 10 CNN Heroes for 2016. 

Listen to my entire interview with Regina Mullins.

Learn more about Thistle Farms and find their products.

An Entrepreneur’s Formula for Managing the Stress of the Season

Regardless of your religion or culture, in the United States—and much of the world—the holiday season between November and the end of the calendar year is one of high activity, high potential profits, and high stress for any business person, even if your business isn’t retail. Add to that our recent contentious U.S. presidential election and the uncertainties that come with any change of administration, and you’ve got a potent cocktail for anxiety.

If your business is dependent on the holiday season for success you should already have buckled your seatbelt in anticipation of a wild ride. The National Retail Federation reports up to 30% of annual revenue can come from holiday sales, with jewelry stores reporting the highest percentage. When the economy is strong and sales are robust, this can be a heady time, but too often stress and worry can put a serious damper not only on your holiday mood but your health.

Stop, breathe, and take control of your life and your business!

Yes, it’s easy to get caught up in the frantic swirl of the season, but if you’re an entrepreneur, you’re smart and savvy. Trust your instincts and plan now to avoid the pitfalls ahead. Not only will you help yourself, but you’ll be a beacon of calm for everyone looking to you as their leader.

Here are a few suggestions for making the best of the weeks ahead and setting an example of balance and vision:

  • Play the long game. It may be important to keep your foot on the gas pedal during this time of year, but try not to imbue it with “life-or-death” importance for your business. Remember there is next year and the year after that.
  • Take care of yourself physically. Practice deep breathing or even meditation. Be vigilant about getting enough sleep. Move your body as much as possible. Make healthy food and beverage choices when you go to those holiday parties.
  • Connect with friends and family. It’s tempting to shut down and crawl into a proverbial hole to handle your stress, but phoning a friend, taking a couple of hours to do something outside with your children, or going to the movies with your spouse can be enormously therapeutic.
  • Laugh and smile as much as possible. Laughter unleashes those stress-smashing endorphins, and oddly, our bodies can’t tell the difference between a real laugh and a fake laugh. Researchers say that even on the telephone, when you’re smiling, your tone and conversation convey much more warmth and sincerity.
  • Be realistic about what you can do and take some things off your plate if you can. Instead of Christmas cards to your clients, for instance, New Year’s cards will be equally appreciated. Instead of an office Christmas party, perhaps a mid-winter party would make more sense and spread out the expenses a bit more. Take a good look at all your holiday “traditions” and decide if they can be eliminated or modified.
  • Take charge of cash flow, in both your business and your household. I’m amazed at how many people seem to spend recklessly—mostly without thinking or planning—during the holidays and then pay the price when the credit card bills come in January.
  • Count your blessings. The practice of gratitude—and that means regularly and specifically counting your blessings—is a powerful antidote to stress and unhappiness. I commend to you writing down those things for which you’re thankful in a gratitude journal. Dating them and revisiting these lists later is a wonderful practice for wholehearted living.

Live your dreams, not your fears!

You know this is my mantra, and it’s not just a platitude. It must be woven into your mindset as well as your actions. This holiday season is the perfect time to consider what it might look like in your personal and professional life. Adopting this philosophy and embedding it into your heart and soul is the most precious gift you can give yourself, your family, or your business.

Wishing each of you a holiday season and new year filled with light, love, and bounty.

Slow Down and Unplug: My life-saving advice to you this summer

It’s hard to slow down.

I’m often the first to embrace new technologies and digital devices. Like they do for so many business professionals and entrepreneurs, they keep me connected to the important people and organizations in my life. They enable me to be untethered from my desk and office, because I can be reached from anywhere in the world.

That’s the good news.

The bad news, as you may well know, is that unless we’re extremely intentional about it, those connections follow us even to the times and places that should provide rest and relaxation: evenings, weekends, and vacations. That’s when the connections can become chains, and the result is the insidious erosion of down time and its essential restorative impact on our lives.

This is not just theory.

Science has shown that insufficient rest, sleep, and time away from our work can impair performance, reduce mental acuity, jeopardize good judgment, and increase stress with all its detrimental health effects. Too often, we forget we are the most important asset in our life and in our business. We must give ourselves—our souls and bodies— at least the same attention and respect we give the equipment and machinery in our factories and warehouses.

I’m not alone in preaching this message, and I need to practice it more diligently than I do. With summer being the traditional vacation time in many parts of the world, it’s natural our minds might turn to the value of rest and relaxation. I’ve recently read several articles that approach the issue from various angles. Here are a some of the best:

  • “How to vacation like a pro [podcast],” an interview with Michael Hyatt by Michele Cushatt. They cover a key strategy for eliminating work worries while you’re away, being clear about the purpose of your vacation, building margin into your schedule so you don’t go back to work the day after you return, and how to prepare your clients and business associates for your absence. You can either listen to the podcast or download the transcript if you prefer to read.
  • “How to slow down summer” by Kat Lee on The Art of Simple Website. Ms. Lee suggests ways to step off the fast track and still live life to the fullest, especially during the summer. These include doing something different or unexpected, putting down your cell phone and paying attention, or undertaking a challenge that gets your mind off of the routine stresses and pressures of your life.
  • “The importance of vacations to our physical and mental health: Why Presidents (and all of us) need vacations” by Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D., for Psychology Today. This was apparently written in response to criticism of the President taking a vacation, but Dr. Whitbourne explains the toll that chronic stress plays on our ability to resist illness and avoid injury. She enumerates many other effects on our health, performance, and even relationships. She offers tips for getting the most out of vacation time and urges that you occasionally take enough time to really get the rest you need—not just a long weekend here and there. She even makes a case for staycations.

So stop a moment and take stock of your life and your schedule. Consider ways you can intentionally unplug from your electronic devices and be unavailable to your clients and staff for a while. One of the most radical approaches I’ve read about lately was suggested by Michael Hyatt, who—when he goes on vacation—changes his out-of-office message to say his assistant will be deleting all emails that come in while he’s away and that if the message is important, the sender should send it after a given date or contact whomever is in charge until he returns. He expected anger or frustration from his peers and clients. Instead, they congratulated him and said they wished they had the guts to do it too.

Yes, it takes guts to really take those breaks from your work that truly nourish your body and soul. And here’s another interesting thing about how creativity works: you’re much more likely to come up with your next billion-dollar idea while floating down the river on an inner tube than while sitting in your vacation cabin talking on your cell phone or answering emails on your laptop.

I dare you…see if you can take a real, old-fashioned vacation this summer. Your family will love you for it, and your business associates, clients, and staff will manage just fine.

Graduates, The World Needs You

It’s that bittersweet time of year again

As we celebrate Commencement at Shenandoah University and the Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business, my faculty associates. staff and I bid our grads farewell with a poignant but potent mixture of affection, pride, and hope for your future.

You have become part of us.

You’ve challenged us and inspired us and, yes, occasionally surprised us, and I hope we’ve done the same for you. If so, we’ve done our job.

For you—because you’re graduating and leaving these hallowed halls—it’s a huge milestone in your life, and I’m sure it’s bittersweet for too. You’ll get lots of advice – in commencement speeches, in cards and letters, and in person. You won’t remember much of it, but the advice successful men and women have for young graduates often contains some of the best, life-altering, motivational resources you’ll ever hear.

Advice from a few influencers

A couple of years ago, LinkedIn launched the “LinkedIn Influencers” program with over 250 participants, including Richard Branson, David Dameron, Jeff Immelt, Arianna Huffington, Meg Whitman, and President Barack Obama. Over 90 leaders responded to the question about the ideas they’d like to give or wished they’d received when they were first entering the workforce. Here are a few reported by writer Jacquelyn Smith in an article* on the Forbes website as well as a couple of others I believe are worthy of sharing:

  • Richard Branson: You’ll never again be so unburdened; do something bold.
  • Elizabeth Warren: Try the unexpected.
  • Spencer Rascoff: Work incredibly hard, find a mentor, and know what you don’t know.
  • Michelle Obama: “Don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have, because history has shown us that courage can be contagious, and hope can take on a life of its own.”
  • Maria Shriver: Never lose sight of your core values: who you are and what’s important to you. Always take the high road.
  • Joel Peterson: Set goals and aim high. Master the rules and master breaking them.
  • Arianna Huffington: Don’t just climb the ladder of success—redefine it.
  • Nelson Mandela: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
  • Tom Keene: Passion is overrated. “Move your marginal listening skill forward for future happiness and stock-option success.”
  • P. Diddy: “The only way out of the darkness is to become your own light.”
  • Jeff Immelt: Embrace volatility and summon determination. Believe in better.

Why does it matter?

Why do we who are older than you feel such an imperative to give you our best, most heartfelt advice and guidance?

Because you are our legacy.

Because you are our future.

Because the older we get, the more we realize our life’s value will be measured much more in how we have helped others—how we have helped you—than any other yardstick.

YourFutureSign_52735083_550So, go forth…

Go with our love and our prayers, our well wishes and our blessings.

Go with confidence that your years at Shenandoah have given you a firm foundation on which you can build and grow, both personally and professionally. And make no mistake, you will need to grow both personally and professionally to succeed in life, and each will have its challenges and pitfalls.

Yes, you have indeed become a part of us.

Whether you’ve majored or done graduate work in business—or just taken a few classes here at the business school—we want you to take a little part of us with you as you make your mark on the world. We’ll be here for support if you need us, and we’ll be cheering you on.

And never forget what I’ve tried to instill in you since the day you arrived:

Live your dreams, not your fears.

___________________________________

* Smith, Jacquelyn. “The Advice Top Leaders Wish They’d Received At Graduation.” Forbes/Leadership. May 24, 2013.  

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How To Build Rapport: 10 tips to strengthen your skill set

“Good conversation is the access point for the relationships we so deeply desire.”

~ Michael Hyatt, This Is Your Life podcast

When we’re developing our businesses, we learn the hard skills like math, accounting, or budgeting, but it’s equally important to develop the soft skills too. These might include leadership, self-control, and communication. Today I want to focus on how to build rapport with your employees, your business associates, your clients, your vendors—with all those you encounter on a day-to-day basis and on whom your business depends. This is a soft skill that can have a huge impact on your success.

I’m surprised how many people don’t realize that their ability to build rapport involves a skill set that can be learned, even if it’s not something that comes naturally to them. You may not feel comfortable talking to others, for instance, but when you’re building a business, you need to learn to do it, and do it the right way.

Here are some tips to keep in mind as you interact with others. They will help you become a master at building rapport:

  1. Listen with an ear for helping the other person. When they sense you are interested in their well-being, it changes the dynamic. Offer to help or provide information, even when you don’t have anything to gain from it.
  2. Suspend your ego. Give them a chance to tell you about themselves. After all, it’s usually their favorite topic.
  3. Remember quid pro quo. This is a balance to #2, because it’s important to share a little bit of you too. It should be done in response to what they’ve said and should not be an attempt to negate or top what they have said.
  4. Be sensitive to nonverbal cues and body language. You don’t want to put the other person on the defensive with your stance or how close you are to them. Even your handshake is important, because it shouldn’t last too long or be too firm. Be careful not to display inappropriate or unintended intimacy. If you’re with someone from a different country, be aware of cultural differences too.
  5. Slow down. This is one I have to remember myself, because I get enthusiastic and speak rapidly sometimes. When you’re saying something you really want people to listen to, you should slow down and lower your voice to hold their attention.
  6. Validate the other person through your interest and thoughtfulness. Repeat what they say—it shows them you’ve been listening. You can validate someone’s opinion even when you don’t agree with him or her. What they most want is to be heard.
  7. Ask How, When, or Why. These are open-ended questions that can’t be answered with a Yes or No, so it ensures the other person will engage in a substantive conversation. It helps them open up and express themselves, and when you listen to them, they feel valued.
  8. Give unexpected gifts. This doesn’t relate to having conversations, but it’s like magic for building rapport. When you surprise someone with a gift out of the blue (e.g., “I saw this and thought of you.”), it is evidence that you care about them and are interested in them.
  9. Establish artificial time constraints. This is a great tip when you’re uncomfortable with long conversations or simply pressed for time. Just set some parameters by saying something like, “I’ve got to go in a few minutes…” This allows you to get in and get out of the conversation more easily.
  10. Always try to be your most authentic self. Don’t put up a façade. Remember the difference between shallow schmoozing and real interaction. Be transparent. When you genuinely are interested in others, it shows, and as they begin to understand this, you will be building trust and rapport.

The mindset behind all these tips can be summed up in the wonderful words of the late Maya Angelou: “People will forget what you said; people will forget what you did; but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

When you can learn how to make people feel seen, heard, and cared for, you can be sure you’ve learned how to build rapport.

3 Things Managers Must Do Every Day

In determining what we need to teach our students to succeed in business here at the Business School, I have really begun to hammer in on leadership – authentic leadership. When we think about management, it’s typical to think about controlling or directing, but the nature of what we do is built within different constructs than those. If you want to move from being just a manager to being an effective leader of your organization, there are three things you must do:

1) You must build trust.

You can’t influence people who don’t trust you. You must work to cultivate the trust of people you work with, and you do this by demonstrating two things: competence and character.

Being competent means understanding the work well enough to make solid decisions. You don’t have to be an expert on everything, but you must be as knowledgeable as you can and then have the courage to ask questions when you’re missing the information you need to inform your decision-making.

Demonstrating character means basing decisions and actions on values that go beyond self-interest. So many of us have been taught to look after #1, ourselves. But looking beyond our own self-interests is at the root of being a good parent, being in a successful relationship, or being an effective manager. You must care about the work and about the customers—both internal and external—and about those doing the work.

If people believe in your competence and character, they will trust you to do the right thing. Unless you get the trust piece right, nothing else matters.

2) You must build a real team.

Being an effective manager is not just about rules, regulations, and processes. It’s about “We’re in this together.” In a genuine team, the bonds of the team members are so strong, they believe they either succeed or fail together. You can’t become a winning team until you realize the whole team has to succeed. When you can impart a strong sense of purpose and values, your team will learn to engage and interact effectively. The best individuals will lose to the best team every time. It’s not about you. It’s about what we—the whole team— are going to do to make this better.

3) You must build a network

Every team depends on the support and collaboration of outside people and groups. Thus an effective manager must work daily to build this network. Here at the Harry F. Byrd, Jr., School of Business, for instance, we have an Advisory Board to help us stay in touch with the community and work with us to address our current and future goals. We also cannot build a successful business school without collaborating with the other school departments. We depend on each other to uphold the reputation of the whole university. Organizations must do the same in the context of their wider geographic and professional communities.

Networking is not just schmoozing and socializing. Networking can be done with honesty and integrity when you understand—and can convey—the values and goals of the whole organization to the wider community on which it depends.

If you hear someone say, “Why aren’t they following me?” there’s a good chance they’ve ignored one or more of these three management principles. This indicates that person, as a manager, needs to change himself, not expect others to change, because leadership is not just managing processes. It’s making yourself into a leader worthy of being followed. This is done by focusing on these three action steps every single day:

Build trust, build a team, and build a network.

And remember, live your dreams, not your fears.

New Beginnings Sometimes Require Endings

The entrepreneurial mind is always spinning out great thoughts, ideas and innovations. Sometimes new, unexpected, and alluring opportunities present themselves. We want to do them all, but trying to take on something new—without letting go of something you’re already doing—can be a ticket straight to stress and unhappiness. Too often, we try to start new projects without being realistic. We should always ask ourselves, “Does this have the potential to move me more quickly towards my goals and dreams?”

If the answer is yes, the next questions must be “Do I have time for this?” and “Do I have the emotional energy for this?” If the answers are not a resounding yes, you’d better consider bringing something you’re already doing to an end to make physical and emotional space for this new endeavor.

What makes us hang on when we should be letting go?

  • Good intentions. Sometimes it’s just that road to you-know-where, paved with good intentions. We want to do good things. We want to make a difference. We can’t always see past our intentions to what might really work.
  • The Tyranny of Shoulds. Just because we can do something doesn’t necessarily mean we should. The Tyranny of Shoulds has led to many a nervous breakdown.
  • Fear of missing out. When we decide not to pursue a particular path or project, there can be a kind of fear and regret that we’re missing out on the road we didn’t take.
  • Fear of loss. The prospect of bringing something to an end—whether it’s an activity or a relationship—makes us feel as though the time we put into getting us to the present point would be wasted. There’s a sense of dread about starting all over again.
  • Fear of failure. Endings—especially premature endings—can feel like failures, and no one wants to be a failure. What will others think of us if we quit?

Does bringing something to an end mean you’ve wasted your time?

I don’t believe any of our life experiences are wasted, ever. They have made you who you are and will serve you well as you move on. When you decide to end something, give thanks for what you’ve learned and then put it behind you. Get excited about what’s ahead.

Saying no doesn’t have to mean never

Sometimes it just means “Not now.” Always capture your thoughts and ideas in a list or notebook or Evernote document. The timing may be better later, or perhaps your idea will morph into something different and much for appropriate for a new time and set of circumstances. Keeping such a list will help minimize the fear of forgetting.

Letting go is not the same as giving up

Letting go, rather than being a passive surrender, is actually a strategic action, the purpose of which is to make room for higher priorities. Every successful entrepreneur, if they’ve been in the game awhile, is intimately familiar with failure. What they have learned is this: failure is a critical part of success. As long as we’re “failing forward,” we’re moving in the right direction.

It’s the right time to get real

The beginning of the calendar year is often the perfect time to take a good honest look at what you’re doing and decide if it is moving you forward or holding you back. Maybe it’s time to bring one or more good things to a close to make room for something bigger, something better, something amazing.

And don’t ever forget this:

Live your dreams, not your fears.

Step Back To Move Forward

by Dr. Miles Davis

The end of the business year and the beginning of the next is the perfect time to step back to take a higher level view of how your business did over the past year so you can make plans and adjustments for the year to come.

Have you set aside time to do this kind of thinking? Don’t shortchange this critical investment in your business.

Sometimes, we need to slow down

We might even need to step back to move forward.

I watch a lot of soccer. People who don’t know soccer often get frustrated because there’s not a lot of high scoring. One of the things they don’t understand is why the players are always kicking the ball backwards to the goalkeepers or defenders.

This is called a reset—instead of just attacking when they see there’s not an opening, they build the play from the back and kick the ball back.

Isn’t that a lot like business…and life?

Sometimes we’re trying to make something happen, and our tendency is to keep trying to move forward. But this may be the time we need to stop pushing and step back.

I also love adventure shows. Have you ever watched a tiger as it’s stalking a prey? Before it pounces on that wildebeest, it sort of pulls back, gets a better view, and then pounces. We’d do well to learn this principle from nature.

What I’m urging you to do is to look for those times in your business cycle when you can pause, step back, and take a moment to reflect. We and our business need to occasionally rest and recharge our batteries.

Americans don’t rest enough

Americans have the least vacation of any countries in the developed world, and they don’t use all their vacation time. Other parts of the world work 35-hour workweeks, but we don’t feel productive when we do that. Studies show American employers need to take more of their vacation time, because when they don’t, it negatively impacts their family and personal life.

Our body needs to reset sometimes too

Consider the folks who are always in the gym—gym rats. They hit a plateau and stop getting results, because their body needs rest and time to reset. Even fasting for a day can reset your metabolism.

We must psychologically and physiologically look at the effects of our running and pushing. I’m a competitive guy, and I believe in doing my best, but you can’t go at full speed all day without stopping. When you do, the returns are diminished and there are repercussions in your physical and mental health.

Consider your family

The whole purpose of our work is to provide for those we care about the most, but are we really taking care of them when we bring our work home and take it on vacation – checking emails, responding to messages, being distracted? Our attachment to technology is almost like a drug. Business life doesn’t just bleed over into personal life, it often obliterates our personal life.

I once had a conversation with S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick fil-A, about his decision to close his stores on Sundays: “People AND machinery need a day of rest,” he said. “If you run either of them too long or too hard, you wear them out.” The millennial generation has seen the price their parents paid for giving everything to the company. They are trying better than we did to find balance in their lives.

Make time to plan and dream

We associate increased productivity with activity and confuse activity with forward momentum. When do we make time to engage in the strategic planning and visioning our business needs to grow? We find ourselves on a treadmill, because we’re so busy producing and delivering. If our business isn’t moving the way we want, maybe it’s time to step back and reset.

Not only does stepping back give time for reflection, but it affords us a different, wider-angle view of our work, just the way a mountain overlook view is broader than the one from the valley floor. Everything in nature confirms this lesson.

So take the time over the next few weeks to step back and take a look at your business. What’s gone well? What needs changing? What needs to be added? What needs to be scrapped? Ask yourself if your activities are aligned with your goals and values. When you’ve done this, you’re ready to move forward with renewed focus and energy.

Never forget to occasionally step back to move forward. Live your dreams instead of your fears.

THE SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR’S SECRET: Mission Is More Important Than Money

by Dr. Miles Davis
Dean, The Byrd School of Business

The mission of this school

Our mission here at Shenandoah University’s Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business is to produce successful, principled leaders with a global perspective.

But what does success look like?

I often get students in class who want to start a business. When I ask them why they’re attracted to an entrepreneurial endeavor, their motivation is often all about the money they think they can make.

Yet, if you talk to successful entrepreneurs—CEOs of businesses that have, indeed, made a lot of money—very few started their business with money at the top of their priority list. The real driving force behind their success is often hidden in their story:

  • They delivered value.
  • They kept getting repeat business.
  • They took pride in their work.

Here’s the secret:

What really drives most successful start-ups is not the money, it’s the mission.

The founders who go on to create the greatest value for themselves and their investors are those who are out to change the world in some way.

Living the mission at the Byrd School

Here at the Byrd School, we have a major in Entrepreneurship. We approach it not just as a career path, but as a way of thinking, because you can work for someone else and still be an entrepreneur.

The dean from another university recently said to me on the phone, “Miles, why is it that whenever I talk to you, you sound like you’re having so much fun over there?” My immediate response was, “It’s because of the mission!” We are doing things here to change students and to be transformative in our learning.

We try to live our mission, so I know it by heart and can tell anyone. We just had our largest enrollment ever, because everyone here—staff, students, and administration—knows and believes in our mission.

It should be the same for a company and its products or services:

  • Have a mission.
  • Know that mission.
  • Teach that mission to everyone who works with you.

But what about making money?

Former CEO of Netscape, Jim Barksdale, famously said, “Saying that the purpose of a company is to make money is like saying your purpose in life is to breathe.” In Harvard Business Review, business blogger Kevin Laws took the Barksdale quote one step further, “Of course if you’re not breathing, it doesn’t much matter what your purpose in life is. If you believe in your mission, it’s your moral imperative to attach a business model to it…The business model exists to support the mission, not the other way around.”

Every company has an obligation to make money, but its reason for existence is its mission.

Mission-driven successes

Google and Facebook are great examples of companies who succeeded by sticking to their mission throughout all the skepticism. If money had been more important, they would have taken early offers from Yahoo of more than a billion dollars. But they knew Yahoo would not embrace their mission the way they wanted, so they turned down those offers, and today they are worth many more times than that. They became successful because of their missions, not their business plans.

WHY comes before HOW

If you want to inspire people who work with you and for you, spend more time sharing with them WHY you’re in business. The WHY cannot be just to make money. It has to be mission driven. It’s more important than the HOW. If you want your business to be successful, move beyond the HOW and connect your employees with the larger purpose. Both Apple and Microsoft were known for paying low wages, but what they offered was ownership in the company. The employees were vested in the outcome, and they believed in the mission.

You know I’m a firm believer that we have to learn to live our dream, not our fears. Live those dreams—that mission— then share them with those working with you in your business so they can understand why you do what you do. If you want to run a successful business, the mission is the most important thing – even more important than the business plan.

That goes for life as well as business.