Showing posts with label growing your business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label growing your business. Show all posts
Monday, July 19, 2010
The Truth About Legacies
The truth is that legacies just aren't the same anymore. You spend your entire life building a company only to find that your children have no desire to take over that company, or worse, your company is sold and broken apart, piece by piece. Loyalty is increasingly difficult to come by in the world of business. Today, business owners need to stop and think about what kind of legacy they really want to leave - a world of Enron style legacies or a world of legacies that do some good while they're here.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Business Floors
My parents have a beautiful, cherry, hardwood floor in their house. In fact, when I was in high school I helped my Father put that floor in and while it was nice then, it is so much prettier now.
See, my Father had a plan in mind when he put that floor in. He chose the cherry wood carefully, knowing that as time passed and light hit the floor, it would start to change. Every inch of sunlight that crept through the blinds and spilled across the floor would change it from a light wood, with no real character, into something more. When you look at the floor today, there is little left of it's original color. Instead, what you see are variations in the wood from light to dark.
This change didn't happen overnight. And my Father always carefully watched over the transformation - no rugs or furniture were allowed on the floor, because the light wouldn't hit those spots. We always took our shoes off, so we wouldn't scratch the floor. If we ever spilled anything we always cleaned it up quickly.
Of course, even with being careful, things happened. There are dents and scratches from the grandchildren. You can tell where things were dropped and where things were moved.
The floor isn't perfect, but it has character - it tells a wonderful story.
Does your business do that? If you built your business, you've been there from the beginning. You had a plan for that business. So how has it turned out? Does your business have a beautiful character? Do all those dents and scratches tell your story? It's not too late.
See, my Father had a plan in mind when he put that floor in. He chose the cherry wood carefully, knowing that as time passed and light hit the floor, it would start to change. Every inch of sunlight that crept through the blinds and spilled across the floor would change it from a light wood, with no real character, into something more. When you look at the floor today, there is little left of it's original color. Instead, what you see are variations in the wood from light to dark.
This change didn't happen overnight. And my Father always carefully watched over the transformation - no rugs or furniture were allowed on the floor, because the light wouldn't hit those spots. We always took our shoes off, so we wouldn't scratch the floor. If we ever spilled anything we always cleaned it up quickly.
Of course, even with being careful, things happened. There are dents and scratches from the grandchildren. You can tell where things were dropped and where things were moved.
The floor isn't perfect, but it has character - it tells a wonderful story.
Does your business do that? If you built your business, you've been there from the beginning. You had a plan for that business. So how has it turned out? Does your business have a beautiful character? Do all those dents and scratches tell your story? It's not too late.
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