Just as when mapping a journey we must have a starting point and a destination, so it is as we travel through life. To reach a ‘destination’ or purpose, there has to be intentional preparation. We must be ready when life’s events, tragedies and opportunities come our way, because they certainly will.
There is a parable in the New Testament of the Bible which says:
“Watch therefore for you do not know the day or the hour your Lord is coming.
“But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.
“Therefore, you also be ready, for the day of judgement is coming at an hour when you do not expect it.”
This passage is referring to being spiritually ready, because we don’t know what tomorrow has in store, but I believe the principle of being ready can be applied to our business lives too.
It is a well-documented fact that it’s too late to get ready when opportunity comes. You are either prepared or you’re not. The results are obvious. If you are prepared, you’ll grab the opportunity and move with it. But if you’re not prepared, you’ll miss the opportunity, and many times opportunities only come around once.
I have had this experience, and it haunted me for most of my life. Let me tell you the story which played out in the 1980’s, the boom years in South Africa. This happened before I understood the Law of Trade-Offs and I am certain that the outcome would have been completely different if I had grasped that at the time.
When I was very young, I started a business distributing industrial hoses for a local manufacturer. A few months later I was granted distribution rights for Dunlop hoses, which put my little business in a better position because it gave me access to a wider range of products. I soon started treading on the toes of Dunlop’s main distributor, a company called Chick Henderson (Pty) Ltd, a long-standing and well-established company, owned and managed by Chick himself. Some of you may remember Chick Henderson as a rugby commentator. He had played flyhalf for Oxford University, for Scotland, and for Transvaal in his earlier days. At this point I was 26 years old, and Chick was 57. I had not purposefully targeted Chick’s customers, but they were part of the wider market, and I was fighting for survival back then. He lodged a complaint with the MD of Dunlop, and I was called to a meeting with both Mr Henderson and Mr Beebee. They had an old relationship, and Henderson was quite correct to call on his old friend for help.
I’ll cut the details of the meeting, which is a story on its own, but the result was that I agreed to sell a minority stake of Highveld Hose to Chick for a sum of money which gave me some financial freedom. The basis of the agreement was that we would be friendly competitors and cooperate in the market. The result was that my business grew almost exponentially. The name JH Henderson at the bottom of my letterhead gave my business credibility and opened many doors.
Fast forward seven years and both businesses had grown and were flourishing, but I was becoming restless. Between our two businesses, we were in a dominant position in the market, and we had a perfect foundation for diversification and real growth if we joined forces. Chick had a great network as well as international connections, and I had energy, technical expertise, and intimate knowledge of the players in the market. Despite this combination and all the options available, I chose to sell my shares instead.
I took the easy payday thinking that because I had made a success of this business, I literally could do anything, and my future success was assured. That single decision had the effect of changing the course of my life, led me to many dead ends, and left me feeling frustrated. For years afterwards I regretted having sold a perfectly good business with so much future potential, and for decades I asked myself what the underlying reasons were which had prompted my decision. It took years of introspection and soul searching, during which time I justified the poor decision by claiming many and varied reasons but never arriving at a satisfactory conclusion.
There are two critical lessons to be taken from this story.
- Early success is not a guarantee of future success.
- The Law of Trade-offs always applies.
- Early success sometimes creates an impression of invincibility. It happened to me. This impression of invincibility led me to believe that I could undertake any business venture, and that success was a guarantee. This is arrogance and retards learning and personal growth, both of which are essential for continued success.
- After years of reflection, I came to the realisation that I took the early payday because I was not ready to apply the Law of Trade-offs which simply states that you may have to give up some things you value in order to grow into your potential. I had not been willing to abandon some of my lifestyle habits to accommodate a position of greater responsibility and move forward. The options I mentioned required personal and internal growth and I was not prepared to let go some of my comfort zones. The result was that I allowed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity pass because I was not ready. I did not have the maturity to rise to the occasion.
I thought talent alone was enough to see me through. It never is. I needed internal growth, and a complete overhaul of my thinking process. I now know that maturity does not come with time or age. It involves personal growth, which is the only guarantee that tomorrow will be better than today. Internal growth powers external growth and we need to be continually and intentionally looking for growth opportunities and be in a constant state of readiness.
If you want to improve your circumstances, you need to remain curious and teachable. Everyone has the capacity to grow. I believe it is our duty to explore our potential and make full use of our gifts and talents. But it must be intentional, because growth does not happen accidentally, and is not related to time or age.
As I have become older, I realise that I have limited time to develop and make full use of what gifts and talents I have so that I may fulfil my purpose, and this reminds me of this quote attributed to Buddha:
“The trouble is we think we have time.”
In my forties and even fifties, I considered that there would be time enough to make up for ‘lost time’. I did not visualise then how quickly time elapses, until ‘all of a sudden’ you can see the finish line and there is so much still to do.
How ready are you? Are you expanding? Are you using your strength zones?
Allow us to guide you on a journey of personal growth and leadership by participating in one of our Mastermind group programs which you can find by clicking on the link.
