Calculated Risks to Achieve Results

You cannot manage the future by looking forward. Businesses have to believe that they can manage the future by understanding the past. Most, if not all of our management reports, report the past; financials, sales, and market research. Businesses use this information to anticipate, forecast, and make decisions about future results. Running a small business requires an amount of experience, gut intuition, and a belief that they can do something different; something better.

Businesses will have some ups and some downs. Anyone can feel good about running a business when the company is doing well. It is easier to have a larger vision under these circumstances. The real challenge comes when we acknowledge we want to grow and scale the business and need to implement. It takes courage to act and implement based on the future goals and visions.

This challenge can destroy future goals and visions. It takes discipline, awareness, and ability to implement and take action. It is not easy to take the risks. If it was, everyone would be a business owner. But business owners take risks to achieve results.

Can Popcorn Improve the Bottom Line?

In business, when something is working or doing what it is supposed to do, we tend not to look at it. When it breaks, we will fix it. There are more pressing issues to focus on that requires our time and attention.

Take the self-service popcorn machine in the corner of the local pub. It’s been doing its job for many years; maybe decades. It makes popcorn. If the light bulb burns out or the stirring mechanism in the pot stops, you fix it. Although it may have seen better days, its working fine.

Let’s think about it as it is part of a business process.  

Cultivating Authenticity

The other day I read an excerpt from the book "The Gifts of Imperfection" by Brené Brown on authenticity and I was reminded on how simplistic being authentic is and should be, on one hand, and yet most of us struggle being so because of the energy and awareness that it takes to be truly authentic.  She says, "authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are."

She also reminds us that it is our choice. It is a choice that we make with every decision, every interaction, and every feeling. It is that choice that allows us the ability to be authentic all the time, and it is that choice that takes constant self awareness and energy. "The idea that we can choose authenticity makes most of us feel both hopeful and exhausted. We feel hopeful because being real is something we value. We feel exhausted because most of us know that choosing authenticity is a huge undertaking."