WorkConnexions

These are difficult times for any business leader or entrepreneur (and most more people, regardless of what we do). We each feel the stress and challenges to achieve profitability in this climate in our own ways. I want to share my recipe for overcoming.

After 11 years running my current business, preceded by 10 in the corporate world and six before that running a publishing and writing business, I have learned three words that can make all the difference: Passion, Persistence and Performance.

Passion: When work, commitment, and pleasure all become one and you reach that deep well where passion lives, nothing is impossible.--Unknown

I believe that to be true. I have never raised Capital, and I wouldn't recommend that for any entrepreneur. However, I was raised by Depression-era parents who never owned a credit card and never bought anything they couldn't pay for with cash. That would be impossible today, as any of us with mortgages know well. Nevertheless, I avoid debt with every ounce of my being, when possible and smart.

In its stead, I pour passion into what I do and only choose to do those things I am passionate about. With a healthy deposit of passion (and a small business debt that we carry), we experience cash flow, profitability and continue to work hard to drive the top line upward, the most difficult of all business requirements. It is passion that allows us to focus on tasks at hand. We spend no money unless we believe it profits our business, and we spare no effort or expense to ensure our clients succeed. None of that would be possible were we not passionate about what we do.

Persistence: For all things difficult to acquire, the intelligent man works with perseverance.--Lao Tzu

We are nothing if not persistent. Even in times when cash is short and we haven't been profitable, never once did I consider closing the business or sharpening my resume.

In times like these today, sales cycles are long. It can take six months or even a year or more to get a potential client to recognize the value in meeting with us. If we had not persisted in continually building that relationship based on trust or credibility, we wouldn't have stood a chance. We persistently network; we persistently follow-up on every personal commitment; and we persistentlyly share what we know with anyone who asks, including competitors. We firmly believe we must give to get.

Furthermore, we are persistent in evaluating and analyzing everything we do. In the past 11 years, this business has made more right and left hairpin turns than San Francisco's Lombard Street. We are persistent in trying to achieve perfection, knowing it is impossible but the effort delivers great rewards. We change our mix of services, our fee structure, our own marketing strategies as well as those marketing and communications strategies we offer our clients. Always, we persist in change to increase our client's return on investment with us. We aren't always successful, and when we aren't we make another right or left turn.

Performance: He who is most slow in making a promise is the most faithful in performance of it.-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Under-promise, over deliver. Always do the best we can. Never charge a fee for time if it results in a client's failure. At the end of the day, clients care about our performance. Fancy words mean nothing. Promises kept mean everything.

Bottom Line: Times are tough. Those of us who endure will be rewarded. Passion, Persistence and Performance allow us not only to endure but to prosper.

Questions: These words inspire and motivate me to act with purpose and intent, and we hire and work with people who have those same character traits. You might follow another path, either in your personal or your business life? What allows you to keep going when times are tough? When hope is precariously perched on a steep ledge, how do you overcome falling into failure and find ways to succeed? What would you say to inspire other's during difficult times?