My eldest son who is 9 asked me today, “You know, mummy, when we are little, we always think about what we want to be when we grow up. Well, how come there are old people still waitressing and stamping passports? Is that what they wanted to be when they were little?”
I had to stop and say, maybe. Everyone has different goals and maybe that’s exactly what they wanted to do. However, probably not. Maybe they weren’t taught how to set goals and then how to work towards those goals.
We then got into a rather Jim Rohn Esq discussion about the fact you can’t just make a list of all the things you want (he wants a massive house with 3 pools, one inside, one outside and one for Bentley our Leonberger dog and his playmates!). I explained you have to make a list of the things you need to *BECOME* in order to get those things. The skills you need and the values to have to then be able to get the stuff. I realise that isn’t very eloquent, but I wasn’t going to go down the whole abundance route!
Later this evening we then got onto pocket money. “The other kids get £40 a week for not doing anything” he grumbled. (Forty quid 😮 I wonder if his friends are exaggerating somewhat!)
“Hmmm, well you know those people that get paid for their time we were talking about earlier? They are given chores and they have to do those tasks to get their money, right?”
“Mmmm” he mumbled I can see him thinking, I’m definitely not getting £40!
“Well” I pushed on, “The really wealthy people don’t get paid for chores, they get paid for results”
Without dissecting the whole conversation, I’m sure you can see where this was going and what was great is that he ended up agreeing to pocket money based on results. I’ve asked him to go and make a list of the things he thinks he can achieve and then we will put a value on those between us.
Now, I realise I may be opening a can of worms but those are the rules of the game and he wants to play the game. So if he wants to play the game properly he may as well get used to it now as far as I’m concerned.
And now for the crafty tie-in to make this relvant to you. Here goes…
This principle is crucial in the world of enterprise. It isn’t enough to simply tick off tasks or chores; we must focus on the outcomes these tasks achieve. We should also consider what our businesses need to *become* to succeed at the level we would like. This might involve investing in better technology, developing new marketing strategies, or enhancing customer service.
Let’s aim not just to do more, or to have more, but crucially to *become* more as individuals but also as organisations.
Maybe we can all learn a little from a child’s perspective of aiming for the big dreams, in the simplest of ways.
