If I could only.., I want to be better in.., we need more results.., I want to be more successful.. Everyone recognizes at least some of these ambitious thoughts. Failure seems to be our biggest enemy. We always strive to be more successful in our life or career and that’s a good quality when running a company. But what is success and what is failure?
Failure is part of the road to success.
Learning from mistakes is what makes you grow. You do not want to make the same mistake a second time so you make sure to handle the situation different next time. This is what makes a person or business grow and become more successful.
Maurice Hennequin taught us this same lesson over coffee. Friday morning he shared his story with us during a Startup Boot event. Maurice started his career with another definition of success than he has today. He started out as a man of traditional ambition of success through wealth. While traveling the world for his job, he created a check list of things he wanted to achieve. This resulted in a list of 20 boxes to check. And over the years, he found himself checking off all of these boxes;
– Become a million dollar man
– Buy fast cars
– Have several businesses
– Have a family
– And much more
Throughout the years this made Maurice successful and proud of himself. What happened? Following the financial crash in 2008 he faced a period where his business and life were becoming less successful (the failure), a situation he had climb out of (the road to success). This failure gave him insight and an opportunity to live a different life and redefine the meaning of success. He recognised that it wasn’t material success or social status but in developing meaning, purpose, generosity and humility. He realised that success was an inner journey and while this may sound cliché his personal rendition seem to give everyone in the room a little something more to think about.
Another lesson we have learned that was the lesson of Veronica Guguian, a marketing consultant for startups and SME’s. She said not only to have an end goal, know your audience, measure everything you do in order to improve, be present for your audience so you can build a community around your brand, but also to remember that not all companies in the market are your competitors. Some companies can make for great partnerships. One company, especially startups and SMEs, will not be specialized in all aspects which can make your company grow. Instead, different companies can work together to combine their knowledge and become successful together.
The road to success. A lesson well taught by Maurice Hennequin, founder of Keen Folk and businesss coach and Veronica Guguian, owner of SPIN Ideas.
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