Michelle LaBrosse, PMP
Vision – all entrepreneurs have it. We see things, we are passionate about things, we put our all into making them happen. The key is articulating it so we can get other people excited about what we see and feel we can make real. When I started my main business Cheetah Learning twelve years ago – I was living a vision I had had years earlier but was missing several critical components with creating a successful implementation. I know first hand people can quickly achieve amazing results when they are able to joyfully and skillfully leverage their innate strengths. I wanted to help make that a reality for millions of people. So I set about to do just that by creating an accelerated learning business – Cheetah Learning. We took a couple of diversionary paths as one product took over and dominated the business. But when the economy turned and it became more and more precarious to rely on one product for the base of our business, I went back to my true calling, the real reason I started Cheetah Learning in the first place. I’ve been working for the past several months on creating an approach to reach millions of people with a fifty hour online program where they learn how to play their “A” game by discovering and leveraging their innate strengths in learning, project management and negotiations – three skills critical for achieving every significant goal. As with any good vision, it has stood the test of time, and my vision, essentially my calling, is still the same variation of this theme – Help people learn how to joyfully and skillfully leverage their innate strengths to achieve their dreams at cheetah speed. For Cheetah Learning it is specifically articulated this way – Cheetah students create more time, money, and opportunities FASTER than everyone on the planet
When I was at the Dragon Fly Ranch B&B last week- I spent several days working with various members of the staff individually on their vision, mission and values. I started to be able to articulate the vision for the Inspired Eagle Eco B & B – in our highly connected techno world, people hunger for sustainable connection with the land, their food and each other. At Inspired Eagle Eco BnB our guests leave with a vision for how they can carry on these sustainability practices in their own world.
The vision is a critical first step in any business endeavor I pursue And it must be aligned with my passions, where I am willing to devote endless hours to make something happen. If I’m not passionate about it – it ain’t going to happen. Success in business is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Outliers” shows that people who achieve amazing success spend at least 10,000 hours in pursuit of their mastery. For me to do ten thousand hours in the pursuit of anything, I need to like doing it a real lot. I think the same may be true for most people.
I was lucky to get to hear Terry McBride of Y Yoga in Vancouver talk at the Wanderlust Festival at Whistler, BC in August. Terry pointed out that what makes an entrepreneur successful over someone just entering into a business for the money is their passion as they will keep going far longer at the necessary tasks to get and keep the business going than someone just motivated by the money.
But it takes more than just passion to be a success in business. It takes a clear vision of how the very essence of who you are can deliver significant value to someone else and following through with aligned actions every single day to make that vision a reality. The Vision to Action pyramid below is how I align my efforts to turn my business dreams into reality. Tomorrow I’ll give my thoughts on the Mission part of this pyramid.
Vision to Action Pyramid - how to turn your business dreams into reality
