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"Soon after entrepreneurs and business owners start businesses, we become trapped in the day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month struggles and goals of generating more sales and profits, improving employee performance, and trying to reduce our hours and stress.
At some point, virtually all of us become 101% focused on these short-term goals and lose sight of our long-term visions. As a result, we begin to wander, and never achieve our initial vision. How can we find success given the daily struggles of building a company?
Forget Today; Start at the End
[...] In business, as in everything else, you need to have a clear vision of where you want to go. Then, and only then, can you create a plan to follow to get you there. The key is to "start at the end." Figure out where you want to go. And then you can reverse engineer the path to get there."
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"40 years ago a brand such as Jolly Green Giant could sell a lot of mediocre corn with a great jingle and a huge television advertising budget. 20 years ago a company such as Circuit City could be a miserable, secretive place to work but it wouldn't matter much to shareholders or customers because they likely would never find out.
Social media has changed all that, very quickly. The speed and ease with which information travels—the good, the bad and the ugly—is faster than ever before, and only accelerating. Today, the brands that succeed aren't the ones that spend the most money on disruptive advertising—they're the ones that spend the most money on creating valuable, meaningful products and customer service. Today, the businesses that succeed aren't the ones who keep costs down by not giving perks to employees—they're the ones who create an open, transparent, fun place to work where passionate people can exchange ideas. Today, more than ever before, for businesses, brands, and entrepreneurs, it pays to be likeable."
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"When we realize that our mind is a creative platform—a vast network of networks—we experience a revolutionary and profound transformation. New possibilities emerge. The process of realization and transformation is the essence of life. It means that everything in this world has an inherent purpose—and that is to find its optimal form. This is why we are constantly trying to improve ourselves, why we venture out into the unknown, why we have children, and why we want to be the best in the world at what we do.
The more creative we become, the more resourceful we will be. We can transform ourselves and everyone around us. These connections, and this archetype of innovation, uncovers the building blocks of life itself, revealing our origins. Innovation is intrinsic to essence, and essence is intrinsic to the act of creation."
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"This isn’t a manifesto for other people. This is a manifesto for you. It’s a manifesto for anyone who has been overlooked or brainwashed or seduced into being invisible."
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"How much time is left? Do we know? Does our plan know? What happens when we thoroughly hold and understand that our lives are finite? How does this understanding of our end shape our present? And how do we become more 'present?' Because each moment is an opportunity and a decision.
We all have dreams for the future: Making a million dollars, getting a new car, finishing school, getting a promotion, and achieving any number of goals, while potentially important, might not be possible in this instant. But considering an overdue apology, sending a positive email to someone, calling a family member, talking to a co-worker about a project idea, connecting in any way with someone in order to make something good happen can be done right now. And consider the affect those immediate actions might have on the longer-term goals listed previously. Many big events in our lives are the results of a series of immediate but important smaller events that take place before them. Immediate positive actions are the structural building blocks for what's to come."
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