If I asked you to describe the business you really want you’d probably find it hard. Here’s why.
We have conditioned ourselves to pay attention to popular metrics of success and we often don’t want to make the sacrifices or the compromises it takes to achieve them.
It’s akin to wanting Jennifer Aniston’s body, without wanting to be Jennifer Aniston.

Our limited worldview of success is relayed in sound bites about those who have built seven-figure businesses and companies with billion dollar valuations. We don’t hear so much about the impact they are making on their communities, one person at a time, in the lives of customers, employees and the business owners themselves. And we also don’t hear about what they gave up to get there.

To be clear I’m not knocking building a profitable, sustainable business, or striving for goals that fulfil you, what I’m saying is that you should define what success looks like for you. That takes time, reflection, personal insight and the courage to be vulnerable. You are only around bound by other people’s metrics of success when you choose to be.

The business you want doesn’t have to be defined by what’s easy to measure—things that don’t tell the whole story about what you have built, the impact you have created, the legacy you will leave or the things you had to give up along the way.

The business you want may not be a seven-figure juggernaut or the next Uber. Just because these kind of metrics are not your primary goal doesn’t mean you’re thinking small. It means you’re running your own race and you know what the finish line looks and feels like.

Image by Benjamin Lehman.