Are you sitting comfortably? Then let me begin.
Starting a business can be like going on an amazing adventure. With a great idea and a burning desire to change the world, entrepreneurs embark on expeditions like heroes in fairy tales. Driven by the need for change and the promised fulfilment of making something better; we don’t ride white chargers or carry shields, but we are armed with business plans, a hero’s passion of wanting to make something better and the determination to succeed. We are the architects of our success or failure. 
As you start out on your entrepreneurial journey everything is new and exciting and perhaps you go into it with wide-eyed innocence about the challenges you’ll face, the mountains you must climb or the waves you will surf. Like the hero of our fairy tales, you depart the world you know on a quest of change, plunging headlong into adventure in search of that unique elixir. With the momentum this brings, it’s easy to forget that each stage of the journey requires different strategies and simply wanting a happy ending is not enough. You have to make it happen.
My name is Inigo Montoya…
Like the hero of that famous fantasy movie, The Princess Bride, you can be single-minded about your goal, but remember that along the way you may have to change direction or tactic, or even the team you have assembled to help you. We’re not suggesting you take up sword fighting or throw down a gauntlet every time you need to make a change, but you do need to be open to new skills and challenges. Being a business hero is more than having a good first idea and making it happen; as the world constantly changes, so must you and your business must evolve along with it. Your acquired elixir that brings you the magical solution to begin your business may not be the potion to grow it.
If you find that your original elixir is losing its intoxication, you must find new motivations. Your passion to make a change for the better was what drove you in the beginning, however growth is a continual adventure. To survive the twists and turns in the road and sometimes changing external forces, we need to remain the hero, to stay relevant and strong towards what we set out to change. Like with any great series, the hero travels with revived intentions, renewed energy to continue to make the difference and a team with added skills to journey with greater strength. Without this renewal your purpose could become muddled and diluted and, as we all know, for every fairy-tale hero there is a bandit waiting in the wings ready to sabotage our aims with poisoned apples. Sometimes the bandit being the world around us.
And everyone lived happily ever after?
To block these threats, use every challenge to learn and adapt. Accept that to move forward you should look for the opportunities, or as with every hero’s journey there is a “call to adventure” and keep innovating to grow, not just in your products or your service but in your organisation and processes, too.
As with every hero, never remain in a world that feels ordinary.
Once upon a time, you started your entrepreneurial journey with a great adventure. And if, in the words of Bonnie Tyler, you are still holding out for a hero, look no further for motivation than your bathroom mirror for the hero of this particular story is still you and the difference you always set out to make.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, am I still the hero after all?
Our Lift-Off programme includes an interactive business growth workshop, one-to-one session with one of our Wyseminds and an in-depth, 35+ personalised report on your company and where it stands today based on your input to a growth evaluation… Why not find out more to ensure that you remain looking at making the difference you always set out to do. Trial it for free here >
Or, book at virtual coffee with the Wyseminds founder, Julie, here >
