The Secret Sauce of Starting a Business
First, I would like to thank Arman for inviting me to write on his site about business.
I am Dr. Barbara Rembiesa, mother to Jonathon, Holley, Ashlyn, and Hanna, and I’m the CEO and President of IAITAM. IAITAM is a very successful company in 126 countries. We have been able to save companies billions of dollars in 13 years and very few companies have that badge of honor. I have received awards from all over the world including my doctorate and the platinum award from Poland for bringing ITAM education to Poland. I also was the first female and the first foreigner to receive this award in its 125+ year history.
I have created jobs, helped organizations save money, took the company international, won awards, sat on the space shuttle (that is a story for another blog) authored 52 books and had dinner with a President. Those that know me understand that I keep my accomplishments close to my heart and I am not one to get up and shout about what I have done. I wouldn’t be lying if I said that I wish I could because at times I think the staff and IAITAM deserve that recognition. I decided to share a few of these accomplishments, but none are even close to the greatest accomplishment of starting a business.
The secret sauce of starting a business is very simple and only contains a few ingredients; passion, drive, dedication, purpose, E+ R=O and love. These ingredients work for both business and life and I’ll explain each one.
Passion is such a strong emotion. It can be responsible for success or destruction. Choosing how to use passion is the key in business, life, relationships, and family. Choosing to use passion to create extraordinary customer service will equal success while choosing to make sure you crush the competition at all cost will lead to destruction.
Drive that is focused can be very difficult long term, especially for someone who is passionate with an entrepreneurial spirit. Drive that is too focused can also be destructive. The balance comes when your long term goal is a moving target. Rigid goals without room for the unexpected can railroad an organization just as fast as an organization without any goals. Drive is the vehicle that gets you to your goals.
Dedication – Yes that is the word for hard work. Not just hard work, but complete devotion to the goal. Dedication to your business is more than believing in the product or service. Dedication means you will do whatever it takes to make sure it succeeds.
Purpose is the “why” to every puzzle in life. Why are you in business? Why are you choosing that product? Why are you offering that service? Why did you wake up this morning? Your purpose is something that can be found inside, or it can be built. It’s important to remember that purpose is personal. No one can dictate or drive your purpose other than you and for that reason it should be nurtured and protected.
Love what you do and who you do it with. Love your customers, love your employees, love your products and services and love to succeed. You cannot just like what you do. You must wake up every morning with a heart full of love for every aspect of your business.
E+R=O – This is my favorite quote; Event + Response = Outcome. If you change this equation and take a proactive response it would look like this: Outcome = Response + Event. You decide what type of outcome you want (your goal), then you gauge every response (drive, action, reaction, purpose, passion, etc.) you have to any event (obstacles, opportunities) that happens in life. Any two people given the same event in life will have two different responses and therefore have two different outcomes.
In conclusion the greatest accomplishment in business is looking back at all the hard work and realizing you changed lives. I will never be able to express the feelings of watching people learn and grow over the years, hearing of a promotion because of education we provided, hearing of a family that started because the education led to a better paying job, and hearing about jobs that were saved because of the best practices we taught. When you wake up every day and actively search for that accomplishment you know you have succeeded.
Until next time, lead with your heart and be TITANIUM!
Image credit: @startwithwhy