Building A Legacy

Take a moment and take in through your nose a deep cleansing breath.  Breath in as much air as your longs can take. Now hold, and slowly exhale, breathing out gradually.  Read the following questions

• Do you have a Dream?  
• What is your dream?
• What are you willing to do make that dream a reality?
• How do you want your family, friends and colleagues to remember you? 

Now take a deep breath, think through those questions and close your eyes.  As you exhale focus on the answers to those questions. Take one last deep, powerful breath in and slowly exhale.  Are these questions triggering emotions in you.  Think for a moment and connect with how you feel. The purpose of this exercise was to reunite the passion within you to keep dreaming and to see how self  can either defeat or ignite the drive we innately have within us.

Plato said: "The first and best victory is to conquer self, to be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and file. "

Building a legacy that spans a life time and has long lasting effects takes self discipline and mastery. Part of that discipline is knowing and understanding yourself.  This understanding of self brings a sense of confidence in your abilities.  Self discipline means implementing life changing processes. A process that includes casting your  line to your dream.  Determining your course of action or plan to meet that endeavor.   A course of action includes the characteristics and traits that you hold close and under no circumstances will compromise those beliefs. In other words your integrity. Now with a charted course arm yourself with as much willpower you can muster.  In the end all  your tenacity, strength and will power will drive your ship forward.

 In reading several articles this week it seemed that initially there are activity that will help to visualize and see your dream.   Firstly, be creative and forward thinking as you filter what ideas and ventures will yield the results you dream about. Ask yourself, What is the objective of my venture? . Other considerations when developing this venture are:

1. Are there any leverage opportunities where there is changes in external markets
2. Integrating action with analysis 
3. Have a working knowlegde of your industry and contacts, daily business operations and how to raise capital
4. Build a portfolio of people resources who can fill in the gaps of your skills and abilities.

There are many opinions and thinking on how to build a legacy particularly in the field of entrepreneurship.  However, Amar Bhide, found in his research that often in start ups for entrepreneurs that 41% had no business plan at all.  Of course this was at a time in 1989 when business was booming and out of 100 founders of "500" Corporations, the majority utilized their passion and knowledge to make their dream come true.  Those that did write up a full blown plan were 28% of the 100 surveyed.

Bhide also gave solid recommendations to increase strategies while building your ideas.  A synopsis of those strategies are as follows: the process of M Handling Analytical Tasks in Stages.

• Leaky boats need plugging up efficiently and effectively:  When challenges appear or initial unknown risk show up entrepreneurs have propensity to look for solutions.  An example of this would be perhaps there is an obstacle raising capital. Instead of canning the entire project, the entrepreneur would find a solution to the problem with their creativity. 
• Intellectual Confidence: It is easy to get over inflated, however an entrepreneur with well meaning arrogance will take the time to self reflect upon their mistakes and make the necessary changes to strategies as events present themselves in real time.  Remember even the best tested and set plans can be deflated unexpectedly.  Perseverance married with tenacity are invaluable, however a handful a willingness for continued learning and flexibility will increase the odds of success during problematic situations. 
• Often new ventures develop entirely new markets, products and sources of competitive advantage and that is why it is important to as Bhide says, "be prepare to exploit opportunities  that didnt figure in the initial plan." (Harvard Business Review, How Entrepreneurs Craft. March April 1994)

In the immortal words of Leonardo da Vinci

 “You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself.” Then he goes on to say that “the height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. … And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.”

As you move forward remember the enemy within you is your self.  You can either become the master or the servant.  Who are you - the servant or master? Decide today which path is yours.