Motivational talk by Colin Sprake urging small-business owners to create clear, written goals and business plans. The speaker emphasizes that unwritten plans are merely hopes, the importance of a vivid, specific yearly goal (reference to 2012), and that defined goals enable commitment and resilience through down periods.
How many of you have a business plan for this year? Great. How many of you have it written down? Okay, good for you. Awesome. Because a business plan that's not written down is not a plan. That's a hope. It really is. A business plan that's not written down can change inside your head according to how you feel on a day. A business plan that's written down can also change. But a business plan morphs when it's written down inside your head. It becomes part of your emotions. Really, really important. So here's the thing. So when you look at things, let's just say you have a goal. The most important thing is getting to that goal. Don't you agree? How many of you have goals for this year? Crystal clear, vivid vision of where you're going? Okay, so here's a key thing. This is exactly what Mark Cuban was talking about yesterday on Shark Tank. Unless you got a goal, you don't know where you're going. Unless you've got a goal. When you wake up every single morning, you will not know where you're going. So you need to have a very defined goal of where you're going. Is this the easiest way to get there? Absolutely. But how does it normally happen? Not that way. Okay. It normally goes like this. Okay. To get to your goal. So that's how you get to your goal. But it's going to take. If you have a vivid vision of where you're going and understand that you have to have a specific goal and that nothing will stop you from getting there. And as long as today's low is yesterday's high, and today's low, tomorrow's low is today's high, all of a sudden you know you're going up. But people don't have this. You have a low. What happens if you have a low and you have no goal? Stay down. You don't know where you're going, you go down, it goes normally into that helix and you go into the big black hole. So the key thing to understand here is until you've got a very well defined goal of what you want to achieve for this year, how can you really be committed to your business? I ask people, I'm committed. What are you committed to? I'm committed to growing my business. What does that look like? Not sure. How can you be committed? It's like saying, I'm committed to my relationship. What does your relationship look like with your spouse? Not sure. I'm committed, though. We won't go too much into that one. I was getting into a counseling realm. Okay. But the thing is, business relationships are no different too. So spousal relationships at the end of the day, because why do most business relationships fall down? Lack of commitment, lack of communication. Why do most relationships fall down in marriages? Lack of commitment, lack of communication. No different. Okay. So that's one key concept is to understand you have to have a very well defined goal for where you want to go. Let's say for this year, for 2012. Where do you want to go for 2012? When you have a defined goal, you know what you want to get and you go and get it and nothing takes you out of the game. You're going to have down days, down moments, whatever those might be for you. But if you don't have a goal, where the hell are you going? That makes sense. Really, really important. So just one concept for tonight. So the one thing you can write down there is what you know, getting goals well defined for the year is really, really important. Really, really.
