The greatest business lesson I ever learned is that my business exists for one and one reason only. And your business exists for the same reason: to be a vehicle to help you achieve your LIFE goals!
The everyday demands of a business can have a dramatic impact on your personal lives. The good news—no, phenomenal news—is that the impact can be positive! It doesn’t have to be negative. So, the first step toward a phe- nomenal business is to understand why it exists—to enhance your life. To be a vehicle that takes your life from where it is to where you want to go.
We go into business because we have a dream. We have a dream of work- ing for ourselves and having more free time. But then we get sucked into the constant demands of the business. Before too long, we are enslaved by it.
The key is to design your life goals first. In my first published book, 7 Secrets of a Phenomenal LIFE, I share that LIFE stands for Living In Freedom Every day. You must have a vision for what freedom looks like to you.
One of the tools we use is the Wheel of Life that has the seven core areas of life. You rate yourself on the seven areas on a scale of 1 through 10. You assess your life as it is now and compare each area to what you want it to look like.
Develop a Vision First
If you don’t have a clear vision for the life you want, you won’t build the right kind of business. You must get the fact that your business works for you. You don’t work for the business. Your business is a vehicle to help you live out your life goals. It’s the vehicle you have chosen. You design the business to facilitate your life goals.
Don’t get me wrong, you will still work just as hard—and if you don’t have money, you may have to invest more “sweat equity” than you ever imag- ined to get it where you need it to be. You may have to work long and hard in the beginning. But if you design your life goals first and build your business around that vision, you will avoid being a slave to your business. Your busi- ness will add to your life instead of taking away from it.
When I first read The E-Myth Revisited, I finally understood how to stop being a slave to my business. Michael Gerber talks about the primary aim. When you design a compelling, purposeful, phenomenal picture for your life and design your business around your life goals, you will approach your business with more purpose and direction.
You will have a compelling reason to build it. With a compelling vision for your life, you are willing to learn what you need to learn and, more importantly, implement it.
The other side of the proverbial coin is that your personal habits also have a dramatic impact on your business. To grow a phenomenal business, you’ve got to become a phenomenally successful person with positive habits. Just knowing how to build a business is not enough. I encourage you to read my book, 7 Secrets of a Phenomenal LIFE, to discover how to have a phenomenal life.
