Important Moments at the Beginning and
at the End
Volume 13, Number 6
Issue 606
Each October I send a birthday card to someone that I have known since I was 17. If I was Charlie Brown© in the comic strip Peanuts©, she'd be the little red haired girl. Actually, she really is. She was the first person that I ever dreamed out loud with.
Though she declines to take the credit, she was the original person back at Henrico's Douglas Freeman High School that motivated me to have exceptionally high professional and personal goals. She was the one that I made all the promises to about what I wanted to do in life and how I wanted to do them and over the last twenty-five years, I've done them. No matter what happened to me or whom I ultimately did them for or with, I have kept the promises that I made. I have gone out and done those high-school dreams.
Having more years professionally behind me instead of in front of me continues to be a sobering experience as well as a great motivating factor to do better and better in these years that are left before I officially pass-off to the next generation.
This past October, I was thinking a lot about a line from a movie that I saw where a character stated that a particular professional triumph was "the defining moment of my (the character's) career." So, I began to ask myself yet again, what would be (or was) the defining moment of my own career? While I am still undecided as to a specific answer, I have concluded that this is a question that all entrepreneurs should be asking themselves over and over and over.
For starters, I know that I have accomplished the vast majority (and more) of what I wanted to do when I first found someone who I wanted to make promises to. Even though they weren't the one who actually saw the promise come true or who assisted in the ultimate refinement and/or culmination of the goal, she was the one who first got the ball rolling. Who was the person that really got the entrepreneurial ball rolling in your life? All successful entrepreneurs have on original person whom they first dreamed unreachable goals with.
In the hundreds of entrepreneurs that I interviewed from all walks of life from all over the country (and a few, internationally) during the run of The Entrepreneurs' Hour Radio ShowTM, I always found that there was a parent or high school sweetheart or other mentor who played a key role in the entrepreneur's development. I would often ask my guests privately if they have gone back and honored that person and told them how appreciated they are. I often shared my own story of how I went back and found my special person. Have you gone back and told your original motivator how much you owe them? If you haven't, you should. Let them know how much you owe them.
As for the defining moment of a career, I often ask entrepreneurs "Have you done it yet? Have you done the most important thing that you will ever do?" The winningest of the entrepreneurs that I know answer that they haven't-even if they are well past the normal retirement age. Winning entrepreneurs keep setting higher and higher goals to trump what they previously thought was a great accomplishment. The best entrepreneurs don't rest on their laurels (great accomplishments) very long-they keep pushing themselves to do better and better things for themselves, their target markets and society.
Successful entrepreneurs know exactly where they came from and it's usually the first person that they ever dreamed out loud with. They also know that the best is yet to come because defining moments are just that-moments and they give daily credit where credit is due to the parent, sweetheart, spouse, mentor and/or business ally that gave them their start down the road of entrepreneurialism.
David B. Robinson, CPA
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