One Small Step For A Man
It was 10.15pm on Monday the 21st day of July 1969. Many of you reading this blog were not born then. After travelling non-stop for three days, three hours and forty-nine minutes, Neil Armstrong took the next and final step to become the first man to step on the surface of the moon. In his own words broadcast live to more than 450 million listeners or one out of every eight persons on the of the earth, he described this as ‘one small step for a man and one giant leap for mankind’.
Think Big
To grow your life and grow your business you need to think big. In 1961, US president John F Kennedy’s goal of sending an American to the moon was an ambitious one.
You have big ideas you have been playing with for many years. Right there in your imagination, you have created the products, written the books and grown the business idea. Despite the planning, anticipation and excitement, when the time comes for you to take action, you freeze. You remain immobile and the opportunity passes you by. Time and time again you hesitate at the point where action is needed. How do you go about building the industry changing Business Empire you have in your head?
Start small
The key to your success as an entrepreneur is to keep thinking big and to take small manageable steps in the direction of your dream. Think big, but start small. There is no room in your imagination for small dreams. Yes you may be running a small business right now, but think of that as one of the small steps in realising your big dream. What small next step can you take today to bring you closer to the dream enterprise or the dream job that keeps you awake at night?
Experiment
Think big, start small and be willing to experiment with your small steps. Every experiment carries with it a risk of failure and very few adults want to fail. Our education and upbringing has thought us to avoid failure and so as adults we remain rooted in the same dull, boring and unproductive job for years because we are uncertain of the outcome of our next move. A small step affords you the privilege of failing forward and makes each unsuccessful attempt at change, growth or expansion a chance to learn what works and what does not work at little financial cost.
In my career as a businessperson, I have had several false starts and none of it resulted in my being disqualified from the race. While working as a consultant some year’s back, I got together with some of my friends and we felt the next logical step was to start our own consultancy company. We all contributed money, started the company and employed a manager to run it. We had big dreams but we started small. After a year and a half of not making much money, we closed the place down and I moved on to my next experiment. So think big and start with small manageable steps.
Ten small steps you can take today to bring you closer to your dream.
- Make that long planned phone call to that person.
- Submit that business proposal even if you think it makes no sense.
- Ask that person for help today.
- Do something different with your evening rather than spend it online watching movies.
- Apply for that job
- Sign up for that webinar
- Get out of bed early and get to work on time.
- Work on your book project today.
- Read that book
- Speak your mind at that meeting today.
Why not spend time today, think of the little things you can do to take you closer to your dream and then do it.