The overwhelming message that came through time and time again was how purposefully these men and women worked to get the life that they dreamed of having. Life was certainly difficult back then. Often it was literally life or death. In Daniel Boone’s case he faced starvation, Indian capture, the burning of his home, and much more. Yet, he did not say “Oh the heck with it, I’m going back east.” Instead, he became more determined than ever to build a life for himself, his family, and the many others who followed him west.
Without him, and all the many others who followed, we would today be living very different lives. Our lives as we know them now, while being filled with sometimes difficult, sometimes pleasurable situations, is certainly a much different world than back in the 1700s. All I can do is shake my head when thinking about how lucky I really have it and everyone around me too.
All this got me thinking about running my business and how many of us deal with running business in general these days. I know for myself that I really want to succeed, and that I’m willing to do a lot to make that happen. But given the circumstances faced by Daniel Boone (or any of the men featured in the segments on the Industrial Revolution) I’m not sure I would say it was worth it.
And therein lies a problem that I see with many small business owners today. Sure, we want to have successful businesses, but are we willing to put in the hard work and energy that it takes to get there? When asked why someone wants to start their own business often the answer is: 1) to be the boss of my own time, 2) do the things I like to do, 3) make as much money as I want, etc. all sounds good yes? Those are all things I wanted to do when I started my business too.
I truly believe that it is of utmost importance for us to have goals and next steps to accomplishing those goals. There needs to be timelines, and accountability, to move ourselves forward. I just don’t often see the drive to accomplish things the way they did historically. Even a simple task like making a loaf of bread was difficult back then. Today, go to the store and buy a loaf. Or if we’re industrious, we may buy a mix, and in a half hour we have a hot fresh loaf of bread. Unfortunately, the same should not said about our business. “The Four-Hour Work Week”, and other similar concepts, make it sound so simple. And it can be. But I think it portrays a very real danger for people contemplating starting a business and not understanding truly difficult and time-consuming work that one generally must put into a business startup.
My advice to anyone thinking about becoming a business owner is to know what their true intention is, and to have a plan – thought out and written – before even taking that first baby step. I don’t believe that a 120-page business plan (taught in business school) is necessarily needed. However, a simple business plan, with goals, steps to accomplish those goals, and understanding of the values and benefits provided the customer, a target market, as well as a series of other well thought out rationales and understandings, including financials, needs to be incorporated.
There still is no guarantee that your business will be successful: at least not initially. Yet, you are giving yourself a leg up if you can think of yourself as the modern-day Daniel Boone. Work your business as he did his life so many years ago and you will be much further along the road to success.
