Are you gambling on your own success?

I spent 3 days recently in Las Vegas with my parents visiting the USA for the first time from England. We had a fabulous time, taking in all the glitz and watching a phenomenal Cirque du Soleil show. If you want to see up close what peak performance and teamwork looks like then I highly recommend that you to to see Le Rêve at The Wynn in Las Vegas. We finished our trip with a spectacular flight over the Grand Canyon, one of the natural wonders of our world.

Despite the fun had by all, my lasting impression of Vegas is thousands of people spending day and night filling slot machines in the hope of a lucky payout that will change their lives. Yet the sad truth is almost all of them will end up much poorer then when they started, if not broke. The plain truth is that quick fixes and silver bullets don't exist in the real world. Yet it's human nature to dream of getting a lucky break. We rationalize to ourselves: it has to happen to somebody!

Similarly, gambling with your business hardly ever pays off. Here are 3 key areas where entrepreneurs gamble on their success:

• Not having a strategic plan that will help you achieve your financial results. Simply putting coins into a slot machine is purely tactical and devoid of critical thinking. The odds just don't add up. Quite frankly, when was the last time you made a huge win with just a handful of coins?
• Being distracted by the next bright shiny object instead of sticking with core business building principles. Flashing colored lights are enticing but you need to really ask if they bring you closer to or farther from your business goals. It's all too tempting to focus on the ‘flashing lights’ in our lives which are often just distractions. And they're a great excuse to avoid activities in your business where you could generate immediate income. Some examples include websites that need updating, social media posts that don't bring you new clients, an e-book that needs finishing or another course you think you need to take before you can get ‘started’.
• Trying to reinvent the wheel of fortune. There's no sense in this when you can accelerate your progress through tried and proven business growth strategies with the guidance and support of an experienced coach and mentor who can rapidly break through your current blind spots and expand your mindset to one that can easily achieve greater success.

It takes guts and persistance to go for what you truly want in life. You have to be willing to grow personally. The average small business owner is content with playing small and staying well within their comfort zone. But playing small in your business will never generate big results. You're going to have to be bold to create 6-figures and beyond. And successful entrepreneurs know that going it alone rarely works and they need to invest in themselves to ensure the future viability of their business. This means saying no to gambling on success and taking a leap of faith to invest in yourself and the future of your business.

© 2013 Vanessa Shaw