Hope +/-…

Hope is Not a Strategy© is a book by Rick Page I like to quote.  I hear that word, “Hope” spoken often by business people, salespeople, and entrepreneurs.  Successful businesses always make me wonder, “How did they make it?” 

I wonder about a lot of things.  How planes fly for example:

Launching a business can be like flying a plane - extremely challenging.  On the business side, what makes one business succeed when so many others fail?  It’s certainly not air, magic, or even important magic.  

Maybe its belief.  What do you think?  Does success require belief instead of hope?  Well, there’s this story by Gino Wickman: 

An entrepreneur slips and falls off the edge of a cliff.  On his way down, he manages to grab onto the end of a vine.  He's hanging there, a thousand feet from the top and a thousand feet from the bottom.  His situation seems hopeless, so he looks up to the clouds, and decides for the first time to pray.  “Is anybody up there?” he asks.  After a long silence, a deep voice bellows down from the clouds, “Do you believe?” 'Yes" replies the entrepreneur. “Then let go of the vine,” says the voice.  The entrepreneur pauses for a second, looks up again, and finally responds, “Is there anybody else up there?” 

Perhaps success requires both hope and belief.  Perhaps even more.  I enjoyed Phil Knight’s book Shoe Dog © about how he started Nike: 

The cowards never started and the weak died along the way.  That leaves us… 

Ahh, bravery and strength.  Maybe successful businesses are started and operated by the brave and the strong.  Well, farmers are definitely brave to make a living on crops, livestock, weather, and the marketplace.  They certainly have to be physically and mentally strong.  Farmers add another ingredient to success: 

ACTION: 

Having the world's best idea will do you no good unless you act on it.  People who want milk shouldn't sit on a stool in the middle of a field in hopes that a cow will back up to them. 

Curtis Grant 

Now we’re getting somewhere.  In researching successful entrepreneurs and business owners we find this: 

Don't hope more than you’re willing to work. 

Rita Mae Brown 

Ahh… “Work”.  A recent speech by this billionaire sought to debunk thinking about work-life balance   for entrepreneurs. 

I’m sure there are even more ingredients that go into a formula for business success.  Starting with Hope + Belief + Bravery + Strength + Action + Work – Work/Life Balance, what else would you add or subtract? 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.