It's never too late.

A friend of mine had a saying which I've always liked. "It's never too late to become the person you've always wanted to be." It might be a well known quotation from someone famous. I'm not sure, but I've always attributed it to my buddy, Jim.

I admire Jim because he is the kind of person who decides what he wantes to do and then somehow figures out a way to be able to do it. For example, at one point he decided that he wanted to spend a few years in Europe. And he got a job and a flat in the UK. He wanted to become a writer. He studied writing relentlessly. He even attended a writing school. Not every move he made was the smartest (sorry, Jim), but he wasn't afraid to keep trying. And, eventually, he usually got there.

The same thing is true in business. It's never too late. There is no reason you have to keep doing the same thing over and over just because that's what you've been doing in the past. You need to constantly be working to refine your processes and your business.

In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins (not the Jim from the first paragraph) talks about the breakthroughs that great companies have made. This is the point of transition where a company seemingly pulls itself out of mediocracy into greatness. This is the point where you start to see articles mentioning the company published on a regular basis. This is the point where their stock chart hits the heel of that hockey stick shape and starts to rise rapidly.

The interesting thing is that none of the companies that Collins talks about could point to any one defining moment that pushed them into greatness. The dramatic positive change was simply the result of many previous smaller tweaks that each company had made. At some point, the convergence of all of these tweaks begins to drive the company forward to become something that is more than the sum of it's individual parts.

Just like my friend, Jim, and the great companies that Jim Collins talks about, your company can become what you want it to be. You can't let your short-term obstacles stop you from trying new things and constantly refining your business.

Jim had to pay his bills and feed and clothe himself just like everyone else on the planet. He didn't have a trust fund or a windfall from some dot-com sellout. But he also didn't make excuses. He took action.

Just like my buddy, the great companies Jim Collins talks about all had significant short-term pressures that they had to deal with. But they never lost sight of what they wanted to become and they made the changes necessary to get there in spite of their circumstances and other pressures.

What action can you take today to help your company become the business you've always wanted?


photo credit, iamwahid