The Iceberg Illusion - Success and Failure

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When I talk about strategy thinking™ and my inside out business process I use with clients, a significant component of what I facilitate is the emotional stamina, resilince, and open minded thinking required to push ahead. Structure and strategy is totally in the mix, but those are almost the easy parts. The emotional parts and the people dynamics will make or break a company. Our fears, blocks, and bad habits create the lessons we need to learn to achieve success.

In this world of venture money and sexy start-ups with huge valuations, we can very easily live in the illusion that success just happens with little grit, sacrific, hard work, and disappointment. Ask any entreprenuer about their origin story and you are going to hear some version of The Hero's Saga. It is the grit, sacrifice, and disappointment that is essential to understanding the next move, the better way of thinking about challenges, and breaking through to new ideas. That is the loop that builds resilience and then momentum. Do we have to suffer to acheive success? No. Do we? Yes, frequently.

Few businesses and owners gain much momentum or sustain the tough years of building a business without having one or several coming to jesus moments with themselves and for their company. Clear visions, high self-awareness, good habits, and healthy narratives are necessary ingredients for success. This is why strategy is a process and why working from the inside out matters. Persistence, failure, sacrifice, disappointment, good habits, hard work, and dedication are rooted in digging deep, emotional awareness, resilience, reflection, and facing the truth.

Don't be dis-illusioned. It's a journey.