Take a minute to read this true story about a troop of young Hungarian soldiers lost in the Alps during training.  There are some key learnings we can take from this story and implement in our day to day business lives.

In abysmal weather, with no food or supplies, this troop of soliders were cut off from their colleagues. After two days of snow and sleet, they were frozen and weak from hunger. They had no idea how to get back to base. They lost the will to live.

Then a miracle happened. Searching for a cigarette in the lining of his tunic, one of the soldiers suddenly found an old map. The soldiers confidently used the map to march through the mountains back to safety.

It was only when they were warm and fed at base camp that they discovered it was a map of the Pyrenees, some 2,000 kilometres away.

Valuable take-outs from this story:

1. It is better to act constructively than to have the right answer and not act at all.
2. Each of us has to find the answer to our own circumstances. The soldiers got home safely because they made sense of the map for themselves and related it to their immediate surroundings.
3. There is a principle known as Pareto’s principle which states that in businesses/customer groups/ products/ relationships, in almost anything, that 20% of the activity produces 80% of the results. In this instance one event completely changed their outcome.
4. When you want something all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. But you must know what you want.
5. Focus on what you want and come up with a plan.

We can all make our businesses function better but it does require some action.

What we must do:

1. Allocate some time on a regular basis to plan for the future.
2. Set aside time weekly to compare progress back to your plan.
3. Ideally have a mentor or someone that will hold you accountable and ask you the tough questions. You may or may not know this, we serve this role with a number of our clients and we are keen to help more of our valued clients with this service.

We will leave you with a thought.

Come up with the 3 things you feel you must get right to make the 2018 financial year a better year than the 2017 financial year. Write them down and put them somewhere where you can see them. Make them your resolutions and always take action, compare your results and make changes where necessary. 

Contact us and let’s have a chat about how we can work with you to achieve the results you want.  After all business and life is about getting to achieve the goals we set out for ourselves. As Warren Buffett (one of the greatest investors in businesses) says: “It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results”. What he means by that is that we need to do things and take action, we don’t need to do completely amazing things – even though that doesn’t hurt. We must take action.