First things first. Your business is life. What you do should be a reflection of who you are essentially prior to your social affiliations. Most successful business entrepreneurs or anyone who has accomplished greatness in life, attribute their success to what is essentially intrinsic to them by doing what they love and loving what they do. Highly successful people regard their deepest career aspirations as unconditionally sacrosanct and feel entitled to earn their worth.
You must love your work to have a fighting chance at winning.
Business are the usual activities that occupies a person's time. What makes up a thriving business consists of three elements: Knowledge of the particular field, passion and vision. You have to check what you're doing along these baselines before you can successfully build a brand around your business. Customers and clients have to feel the experience they have with the product or service you're offering before a relationship can be built with it.
KNOWLEDGE: Having a rich foundational knowledge base in a chosen field from an intrinsic standpoint coupled with the appropriate education and training would always provide that edge that separate experts from mediocres.
A person rich in knowledge is aware of the principles upon which a body of knowledge and work is established and is better suited to suspend the laws that don't apply to a particular problem solving process.
Knowledge confers ownership status on it's beholder because no one can take what you know from you it is yours to do what you would like to do with it.
Therefore investing in knowledge is important to your personal growth and development.
The skill with which you input and give out knowledge however is what contributes to your brilliance. The brain is able to acquire everything that we encounter. The ability to tie significant bits of information to information of relative importance so that they are readily retrievable when required empowers us to make better decisions, fight new obstacles and be able to change our own situation.
According to Benjamin Carson, M.D, "we want to make our lives count for the betterment of the human family, we must acquire every bit of knowledge available to us".
Another wonderful thing about learning is that knowledge not only translates from one area to another but is also an avenue that leads to understanding and insights.
PASSION: Those who love what they do naturally develop an unbelievable energy to keep going and even when the going gets tough, they grow tougher and bigger than the situation until they obtain favorable results. Passion breeds tenacity, persistence, staying power and ultimately success.
In a book I authored titled INTENTIONAL TRANSFORMATION, I discussed how to find your passion and the role it plays in transforming your life. You can order the ebook by sending an e-mail to shadev3@gmail.com or gelmotivationals@gmail.com.
Passion was what kept Thomas Edison motivated to invent the light bulb even after thousands of attempts. When you decide to do something of significance to make the world a better place, the fuel that keeps you going must have to do with passion because there would be those trying to tell you that you don't have to do it or that it is impossible and they would try to place obstacles on your way which you must overcome to deliver results.
A product or service is acknowledged as a brand based on it's purpose, relevance and usefulness. Brand is the bridge between intention and identity. The depth of consideration of the intention is what constitutes the brilliance. The quality of solutions it provides as well as the problem it solves is what makes it accepted and recognized as a brand.
Passion is a function of love. The passion of Christ for instance; For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son; whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
The willingness to undergo the herculean task of bringing the benefits of a cause, product or service to the awareness of people can only be sustained through passion.
The story is often told of two shoe merchants who travelled down to a community in Africa to sell shoes. Upon arriving, they discovered no one wore shoes in that community and so the first merchant decided to travel back. He said "no one here wears shoes, therefore we can't sell here". However, the other merchant said "This is our golden opportunity for massive sales. We'll first teach them how to wear shoes and then sell shoes to them".
Where the interplay of passion and vision are at work, the resultant effect is always phenomenal.
VISION: The ability to see possibilities of what you can make happen with what is in your hands is what keeps you in the game. That's why it is important to have the right things in your hand, the right knowledge base and the right intent in your heart. This is what is stretched into future projections. By setting the sail right from the onset, the chances for success are increased. It is often said proverbially that "it is what the bird eats that he flies with".
Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraints. Vision gives discipline and direction to passion. It confers a purpose to the acquisition of knowledge. With vision, we can set goals and create a more desirable future. When you have a vivid vision that you are pursuing, it rejuvenates you and that energy flows to everyone around you. Vision empowers you to be self motivated and confident about having what it takes to meet life as a winner.
In Summary:
Become brilliant by acquiring as much knowledge as you can in your chosen field;
Be known for the problems you solve for humanity with your knowledge base;
Be proactive at anticipating your customers needs by creating solution providing products and services with passion;
Build an organization around your core competence and it would take on a character of its own to which the relevant social institutions would find solace.
