How to Grow Your Business Amidst Challenges

“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you; they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” ~ Bernice Johnson Reagan

Yes you have challenges in your business, so what? You may not be aware that everyone else is facing their own challenges one way or another. If you run a business, facing challenges is a given. You must face challenges in order to grow. When such challenges come as they must do, facing them squarely and conquering them is much better than getting confused and allowing the challenges to paralyze and overwhelm you. Facing challenges is one sure way to nurture and grow your business.

As Robert H. Schuller likes to say, “Tough times never last but, tough people do.” It is the toughness of these people that enables them to squarely face the inevitable challenges and obstacles everyone gets to face in the normal course of everyday business. That is what gives them the staying power to stay the course and to keep their businesses going. Most times, business challenges are a true test of who you really are. They enable you to understand yourself and your abilities better. When you know yourself, at all times, you get to know your capabilities as well. Knowing your capabilities is what gives you the impetus and the zeal to face challenges. It helps you to solve your business problems as they crop up. Being able to solve problems in your business is one sure way to guarantee its growth. Business growth is not without challenges, it is inspite of challenges.

Get busy right now because…. “No pains, no gains. To get the prize, you must pay the price.”

Why Success is Gradual

“To succeed… You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.” ~ Tony Dorsett

That something must also be worthwhile and challenging enough to set you in positive motion for results. Many people are not lazy. They are simply not finding anything worthwhile that challenges them enough to achieve something. That is why they may appear lazy. The moment they identify things which challenge them, their talents and zeal to get things done simply get ignited. That is exactly when success beckons.

Once you decide to do something, you will discover that every big accomplishment is a series of little accomplishments. As you achieve little accomplishments, growth begins. These little accomplishments add up to big accomplishments as you continue to make progress. The reason is because, the person determined to achieve maximum success learns the principle that progress is made one step at a time. A house is built a brick at a time. Football games are won a play at a time. A department store grows bigger one customer at a time. Growth, progress and success take gradual pace with incremental progress made from little accomplishments along the way. Once you identify something that holds your attention, motivates and inspires you, you are on your own way to success.

Get busy right now because…. “No pains, no gains. To get the prize, you must pay the price.”

Why You Must Always Challenge Yourself

“Tough times never last, but tough people do.”---Robert H. Schuller

Helen Keller found herself deaf, dumb and blind shortly after birth. These handicaps would have rendered many people completely useless for life but not Helen Keller. Today her story features prominently in human motivational seminars all over the world. Even with all her misfortunes, she still managed to leave her foot-prints in the sands of time. She learned to and became a successful writer. She wrote so well as to inscribe her name indelibly in the pages of history. Her life serves as evidence that “men and women are never defeated until they accept defeat in their own minds.” It is further proof that “there are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.”  Ms Keller accepted her fate, challenged herself and became rich and famous. Our God is a just God. There is nothing he does without a purpose. He never makes mistakes as we humans do. If God takes anything away from you, He almost always replaces it with something better. Get close to blind people. Their senses of smell and touch are by far better than those with sight. If God takes away your legs, don’t despair. He will strengthen your hands as compensation. If he takes away your hands, he will strengthen your legs as compensation.

Ever heard of John Foppe? At some stage, he traveled to many cities of the world making motivational speeches. He became one of the highest-paid Motivational Speakers in the United States. Yet, he was born without arms. He shaved his beard, drove his car, cooked, wrote and did nearly everything you and I can do all with his legs. Amazing you’ll say but pause and reflect a while. Do you know that there are many people with arms and legs who still can’t make a living? These are people who have refused or neglected to challenge themselves.

Life is full of challenges. Everyone faces his or her own lot according to his or her own portion. The way you face your own challenges is what determines your success or failure. Life favors only those who are able to stay focused and determined even when the going gets tough. And, it sure gets tough sooner than later. Problems are not peculiar to you alone. All of us have our own share of problems. All my life, I have not come across anyone who is free from problems. At any point in time in your life, you are either thinking of a problem or solving a problem. Confronting and overcoming problems therefore is what life is all about. From this type of scenario, it appears that our problems are destined to come to an end only when we die. But, and this is a big “but”, no one has absolute proof about that. Even the dead may have their own problems. Who knows? However, the good news is, since you are reading this article, you are not yet dead. You can therefore face your own challenges squarely as many others have done and are still doing.

Why You Must Face Your Own Challenges

“Tough times never last, but tough people do.”---Robert H. Schuller

Life is full of challenges. Everyone faces his or her own lot according to his or her own portion. The way you face your own challenges is what determines your success or failure. Life favors only those who are able to stay focused and determined even when the going gets tough.

It may interest you to know that:

John Bunyan was confined to a prison cell and sorely punished for his religious beliefs yet he was able to write one of the finest pieces of English literature “The Pilgrim’s Progress” while in prison.

Professor Wole Soyinka wrote “The Man Died” while in solitary confinement in Nigerian prisons during the civil war, punished for his views on the war.

Robert Burns was illiterate, abysmally poor and a drunkard to the bargain. The world benefited immensely from his thoughts which he clothed in fine poetry.

John Milton wrote “Paradise Lost” when he was already blind.

Abraham Lincoln The 16^th president of the United States after failing many times in business and politics was so poor that he had to borrow money to pay the train fare to attend his own inauguration as president.

Beethoven one of the greatest music composers of all time lost his hearing before composing some of the master-pieces for which he is best remembered.

Thomas Edison was a partially-deaf school drop-out who became one of the greatest inventors of all time.

Florence Nightingale very weak, very ill and in her hospital bed managed to reorganize the hospitals in England.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32^nd president of the United States, suffering from infantile paralysis and in a wheel-chair managed to become one of the greatest presidents the United States has ever had.

Demosthenes stammered badly but he managed to become a renowned orator and the greatest orator in ancient Greece.

Napoleon Bonaparte overcame his lowly beginnings as a diminutive Private in the French Army to become a conquering General annexing a very large chunk of Europe.

Most people who managed to overcome big challenges in life somehow ended up great. There must therefore be some beneficial relationship between obstacles and success in life. This must have been the reason why Booker T. Washington argued that “you measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals.”

Why You Must not Believe in Defeat

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” –Thomas Edison

Chief Obafemi Awolowo a foremost Nigerian politician of blessed memory is widely quoted to have believed that “whatever happens to a man in this world whether good or bad is for his own good.” There is no experience in life no matter how unpleasant that does not teach us something. We profit by learning from such experiences and moving on. So it is with failures. If you have never failed at doing something in life, it is a pointer that you have never really made progress.

 

The lives of the greatest achievers in human civilization have been strewn with piles of failures. They learned from their failures and moved on to greatness. Mr. Abraham Lincoln who became the 16^th President of the United States in 1860 failed in Business at age 22, was defeated in Legislative Election at 23, failed in Business again at 24, lost a Sweetheart at 26, had a Nervous break-down at 27, was defeated for Speaker at 29, was defeated for Elector at 31, was defeated for Congress at 34, was defeated again for Congress at 39, was defeated for Senate at 46, was defeated for Vice President at 47, was defeated for Senate again at 49, and was finally elected President at 51. History records him as one of the greatest Presidents the United States has ever had.

You are not defeated when you get knocked down. You are defeated when you accept defeat by staying down. Boxers who get counted out are those who stay down when knocked down. This principle holds true in real life. Those who fail are those who accept failure as their lot. These are the ones who do not realize that “you do not drown by falling into water, you drown by staying there.” Do not accept “No” for an answer. Accept “No” for a question believing that the person telling you “No” wants to hear more from you before they make up their minds on the matter. Success always follows a series of failures and it usually comes when it is least expected. It is better to do some things and fail than to do nothing and succeed. Every failure teaches a lesson on the way to do things better. You progress and challenge yourself harder and farther when you are yet to succeed in doing what you have chosen to do. This is why you should never believe in defeat.