Having worked in the business for over 20 years, it’s always great to get some rewards. I’d like to share with you a reward my family and I received recently which is an offshoot of building a great business and I’d like to share how I see this reflecting how we operate our businesses.

So here is the story….

My wife and I have had a long term goal to have our home featured in a national home magazine, Home Beautiful. We had plans to contact them once we felt that our home was ready, once everything was perfect, and we felt it was worthy of such an accolade.

Recently, a chance sighting of our home on a website for a homewares company Beachwood (www.beachwood.com.au) had an editor contact us to do a feature on crochet items for Better Homes and Gardens. Turns out the bedroom they saw was not actually ours (the other rooms were from our home), and the master bedroom was going to be the main part of the story, so they decided our home was not quite right for this particular feature. 

The lady however, also did work for Home Beautiful and asked if she could take a few shots on her phone and she’ll chat with the decision makers at Home Beautiful. A few weeks later we get a phone call saying that they’d love to do a Summer feature on our home and we arranged a photo shoot date. 

The photo shoot date came, and a long day with 3 people, the camera person, a director, and an assistant was a lot of fun to see how things are done. They took LOTS of photos. Our kids were involved and loved it too.

The outcome was a 10 page spread in this months issue of the magazine (February – in store January)
and we could not be happier with the outcome.

The lessons …..

Lesson 1

Our downstairs bathroom is an old style bathroom, that functions well, however does not look fantastic and we have plans to refurbish. There are also a couple of other things that we would like to do with the home. 

We had planned on approaching the magazine once we achieved perfection.

Obviously, perfection was not required. I reckon this happens all the time in business too. We aim for perfection, when the old saying “Progress not perfection” should be adhered to. 

How many times have you said something like “Once I get this, this and this done, then I’ll be able to do this….”

Well, this is a lesson which proves that you don’t need perfection, and progress is often a better outcome.

Lesson 2

Most people work real hard without really knowing what they want to get out of things, believe me, I’ve been there in the past.

For me, it’s family. Providing a great environment for my family to live in as well as investing as much time into the family is why I’ve worked hard to develop a business, which offers me the freedom to achieve this. I am in a position where I go to most school events, get home at a reasonable hour, and genuinely get involved in what the family is doing.

Providing a great family home is just one of the benefits of creating a great business.

What’s your vision & goals for what you want out of your business? And when will you realise your goals? 

It’s all about the journey, not the destination.

Lesson 3 

This event happened out of the blue, completely unexpected. 

Your next big deal, or next big personal achievement may be just around the corner, and show up when you least expect it. You’ve got to be in the game in order to win, quitting ruins ALL your chances of success.

To your success….

James Mitchell