Picture this. We get into our car, close the door, and buckle our seatbelt. We turn on the ignition, hearing the engine come to life after sleeping all night long. Next we check our mirrors, turn on the radio, and open our garage door. We are ready to go to our destination. After pausing for a second, we consider that while we know where we are doing, we are unsure how to get there. So we type in the address into our navigation, and we begin to hear the guiding voice, directing we to our location. As we travel to our destination, we think little of the directions or the journey. We simply hope to get there in a timely manner, and do not consider the path we will take. In fact, we just listen to the technologically created voice, guiding we along our way. We are focused on the destination, caring little for the journey to get there.
Many people run their businesses in the same manner. They take the time to prepare for the destination, planning ahead and strategically checking their mirrors, their seatbelts, and confirming the address. But once they get going, they pay little attention to the journey, the pathway to the final destination. But through my experience as a negotiator and businesswoman, I have found that the journey can be more important than where we are actually trying to go. The learning, the education, and the experience occur during the journey, not when we arrive at the destination.
The old saying is the end justifies the mean, but so many times, the mean is really where the opportunity falls. Some of the greatest learning experiences have come through the voyage to the target. Think about how many times we have set a goal and have failed to reach it. It happens to all of us. With life comes great success and great failure, fantastic highs and sometimes lows. But even in failure, there is an opportunity to learn. If we consider the journey and focus on what happens along the way, we may learn the most valuable lessons of them all. Rarely do we learn life-changing lessons in success. But in failure comes teaching moments. And how we implement this education into our own business practices can be the difference between hitting a home run or striking out the next time around.
Through negotiating hundred of millions of dollars in contracts for professional athletes, there are times when my players got the contract of their dreams, and other times when we are left wanting more because of the nature of the business (ie injuries, age, challenging season). But in those times, even though we did not reach our desired destination, I studied why we fell short and focused on the journey as a learning experience.
In the realm of business, a journey will come in many different shapes and sizes. It could be in the form of launching a new product, or attempting to reposition an existing product, or pitching to a new client, or marketing for an old one. Regardless of the journey it is vital to spend time evaluating the path we or our company took to reach any destination. Because this is what the best businessmen and woman do. To be the best, we have to evaluate like the best do. Whether I succeed or fail, after each journey, I spend time reflecting and ask myself the following vital questions:
1. Was there a quicker and more efficient way to reach the same result?
2. Did I exhaust all of the resources I have in order to effectuate my goal in a positive manner?
3. Did my company or business benefit from this experience? If not, why and what could I do different the next time?
4. What lessons have I learned from the journey?
By answering each of these four questions after every business opportunity and experience, we will obtain a more insightful understanding of how we get where we are today. This reflection is something many people do not take the time to do, but the best businesses, companies, and leaders spend just as much time studying their journey as they do their destination. Through evaluating our path, we will learn from our mistakes, and find better ways to implement a more efficient and effective manner of reaching our destination the next time. So take time and consider not only where we are going, but also how we will get there—because we never know, sometimes the mean justifies the end.
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