This article explains why it is crucial for the long term survival of any business venture you wish to embark upon, for you to search deeply within yourself and ensure you KNOW and are CONVINCED that it is what you want to do. Failure to do this could result in the untimely death of the product of your hardwork many years down the line.

Why Are You In Business?

What is your reason for being in (or wanting to go into) business as an entrepreneur? Maybe you realised you might never get as rich as you really want to be by remaining in paid employment. Maybe you have some ideas about how to use your unique gifts and/or skills to change the world around you to a better place – among other things – by influencing new ways of thinking and doing things.

The point is that you need to KNOW exactly why you want to embark on this kind of journey. Knowing why you want to do it, as Jim Rohn said, makes it easy to know why you cannot give it up – ever!

Having reasons helps you achieve your aims no matter how long it takes or how slow or painful it becomes – because your reasons or motives give you CONVICTION. A person who is convinced about his/her concepts will NEVER give up trying to make them work. It only becomes a question of time then, before s/he finds success.

Find A Reason That Goes Beyond Making Money

Desiring money can provide adequate motivation to pursue business success. The problem I have with it is this: What happens AFTER you achieve your desired level of business success that results in wealth – and financial independence or security for you?

Some successful people have advised that you avoid making money your major focus. This is because, (from their experience) when you relentlessly pursue your vision, success will eventually come with significant monetary rewards (there are those who think differently of course). So, why bother your self about it up front, they ask.

I actually share this philosophy about having motives for starting a business, that go beyond just making money. To really be successful, we must be able to do something that makes a positive impact on others/society. Or it could be something which gives us fulfillment regardless of whether or not we get material rewards from doing so. When its ONLY about the money, a person may not be able to sustain his/her initial hunger or passion to take things to another level, once the money comes.

Examples Of Real People Who Have Motives That Go Beyond Making Money

Painters/Artists and many authentic entrepreneurs in a way are soul mates of sorts in this area. They will be very often found willing to continue for unlimited periods of time pursuing their vision regardless of how much lack they suffer before succeeding. And even when they have achieved material success, their passion for work never diminishes, because they stay focused on achieving the ultimate vision of making a difference using their unique gifts – visions that may be pursued for their entire lifetime.

Take the case of Bill Gates. Considering that he has been the richest man in the world for quite a while now, if that had been his sole motivation for starting his business or building it up to its current size, I doubt that he would still be working the way he does.

Gates – as I learnt from a Newsweek magazine interview I once read – has a personal vision to "evangelise" to the world, the "gospel of software development" as it were. From CEO, he now plays the role of a chief visionary, for the Microsoft company – influencing how/where new developments in the business should go, and bringing in capable hands to complement his efforts as necessary. On a different front, he is also working hard on the "…Gates" foundation to help people around the world.

To Achieve Long Term Business Success – Your Employees Need To Have The Right Reasons Too!

My personal experiences – even from when I was in paid employment – assure me the above philosophy guarantees significant and long term success for anyone who follows it. For instance, by working hard to help my former company manage her brewing operations better using my self-taught skills (in spreadsheet programming), I got attractive career advancement opportunities offered to me fairly early on in my career – with significant monetary and other benefits.

One example. I thoroughly disliked the idea of spending hours and hours over 3 or more days (as often happened at the time I just joined the company as a brewer) doing cumbersome calculator based computations to determine performance indicators for week/month end reports. So, I decided to build a spreadsheet to eliminate the problem. Did I achieve my goal, you ask? Yes, I did – and I got a lot of recognition for it in the process. But if you notice, my reason for embarking on that activity was initially to solve a problem I personally found distasteful. But in the process, others found my developed solution to be something they also wanted – so it was formally adopted.

But even if I had not gone the extra mile to use my free time and self-taught skills to add this kind of value to the company.

Even if I had simply done exactly what was stated in my job description, I would still have gotten paid a comfortable salary, and earned the normal annual performance reviews bonuses for doing my job! It is therefore obvious that I chose to do more, because of a compelling need I had, to influence changes I believed would boost workplace productivity.

Going by the above, it might not be a bad idea to study each of your employees to determine what primary motives they have for working in your company. Their willingness to take the initiative in solving problems; to develop futuristic solutions or to go the extra mile on the job when necessary, for the company to succeed, will be useful pointers.

Summary

In entrepreneuring, it is generally recommended that your business idea should be one that you are passionate about, and which solves a problem that your prospective customers will appreciate. You can usually identify such opportunities from those instances when you experience feelings of frustration/anger or dissatisfaction with a particular situation, product or service condition. When you feel that way, you might find that others also feel the same, but have no idea what they can do to eliminate the problem.

If you can provide that solution, it is likely to be (eventually) perceived as useful by others. You will have met a NEED. Working daily to be able to meet that felt need to your customers’ satisfaction will ensure long term success for your business: you will always be relevant. If you make providing this enduring solution – with appropriate adaptation to changes that occur over time – your primary motive for being in business, you will easily sustain your passion to keep the business going for the long term – even when you experience tough times.

I’ll end by saying if you do NOT have a compelling reason for doing whatever it is you’ve chosen to do as an entrepreneur, you will not have enough motivation to keep from giving up when things get tough – and every once in a while, business WILL get tough! Back to top

“Make your vision so powerful that when you finally accomplish your goal, you have a sense of deja-vu – Haven’t I experienced this before?” – Cynthia Kersey

“If you don’t do what you love you will fail, and fail big time.” – Michael Ross