An MBA in 3 lessons and 1 article

Lesson 1:
Tenacity
What this experience has taught me is that things that are worth it are worth working and fighting for. An MBA with the Open University is not a degree in business, its a degree in tenacity. Focus... Head down and work.. no distractions, just work. Now that's a lesson for business is it not?

The thing which kept me going was the final goal, everything lead to the final result and this provided the motivation. Without that final goal and 'reason to be' I would have given up many times.

So where is your business going? What is your 'reason to be'?

What are you trying to achieve?

Your business is a work in progress right, so what will it look like when its finished?

Answer those questions and now you have a reason for your business. Now focus... head down and work.. no distractions, just work to achieve that goal. Things will get tough, but don't stop, just keep going.

The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.

Andrew Carnegie

Lesson 2:
Just do it

I used to come up with lots of reasons why I couldn't do something. "I can't start this new project because I haven't quite got enough money" or "I've got this brilliant idea that I know will be a success but I just can't get it going".

Enough, no more - now I just get on with it. 4 1/2 years ago I decided I wanted to do an MBA, there were loads of reasons why I shouldn't... I have 4 kids, I have a business to run, it's going to cost >£10,000, plus loads more reasons NOT to do it.

I could easily have procrastinated for the last 4 1/2 years and still be no further on. But I didn't, I just got on with it, and now it's done.

How many things have you put off in the past, that if you had just started you would be reaping the rewards by now?

Richard Branson has often been quoted as saying that 'it's not that only the priveledged few have great ideas, it's just that the succesful people do something about those great ideas' and in a recent interview with LBC, Deborah Meaden from Dragon's Den was promoting her new book and when asked for the single biggest tip she could give for a successful business she replied "Just get off your backside and do it!"

Lesson 3:
Treat success and failure as the same thing

How do you view failure? If you fail do you get down in the dumps and depressed? If someone in your company fails do you come down on them really hard and punish them?

A massive lesson I have learnt is to treat success and failure in the same way. They are both outcomes of an action and certain questions can be asked.

If a project fails ask the questions:

1. Was the project designed well?
2. Could the failure have been prevented by researching more before hand?
3. Did the project fail because some people didn't participate as much as they could?
4. Was the desired outcome realistic in the first place
5. Were the same mistake made repeatedly?

If a project succeeds ask the questions:

1. Was the success due to the project being designed well?
2. Was the success down to good research?
3. Was the success due to people working well together?
4. Was the desired outcome realistic or too easy?
5. Were the sucess due to fortunate circumstances outside of peoples control?

Similar questions huh? You see, by treating success and failure in similar ways we learn.. and that is the key. To develop a dental surgery where people learn, where people aren't afraid to fail for fear of what you will do, but are willing to take a calculated risk and try something new and different. Something new and different could give you that competitive advantage you crave, so the question is... do you foster an environment in you business for something 'different and new'?

And when you think about it failure is just an outcome you weren't expecting... so failure doesn't exist, failure is simply a word we use for feedback on how you should do it again differently next time.

Charles Kettering of General Motors (who lead the company to the height of its success) said

'I have been wrong 99.9% of the time. It's not a disgrace to fail... you must analyse each failure to find its cause... you must find how to fail intelligently. Failing is one of the greatest arts in the world. One fails towards success'

These are probably the 3 biggest lessons I learnt throughout my studies, sure there were loads of great business ideas too... but these 3 things stand out the most.