Setting the Criteria for Business Success

Do you have a crystal clear idea of what kinds of business undertakings will align with your gifts, talents, passions, and strengths? If so, you are in an excellent position to choose the ventures that can give you the greatest satisfaction and results.

Developing a set of "business success criteria" can help you select a worthwhile endeavor with much deeper insight, and thus establish the conditions for successfully pursuing it.

Why is this critical? Many people wander into businesses, projects, and professions opportunistically, meaning that they grab something that comes along because it's available and convenient. At times, this may be necessary for financial reasons. But unless we understand our underlying success criteria, we might not recognize the options that truly fuel and inspire us -- those that are best suited to our passions and strengths.

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From "Corporate Passenger" to "Entrepreneurial Driver"
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Identifying business success criteria can be easier for some people than for others. For example, those who leave corporate life to pursue an entrepreneurial endeavor might experience a more roundabout discovery process. For that reason, I'll use the following story to illustrate how this process might occur.

Roger and Roberta have grown weary of the tedium and the tiring political atmosphere of corporate life. When their kids leave home, they conclude that it's time to switch to something more rewarding. But what? After a great deal of thought, they decide to start by contracting out their services to their former employers, which seems like the safest way to begin their transition. Later, they believe they will tackle some kind venture together, such as starting or buying a business.

After many years in the corporate world, however, their thinking patterns are still "stuck" in an employee mode. Because their outlooks revolve primarily around meeting the expectations of others, Roger and Roberta simply haven't developed their own sets of values, visions, and goals.

In some ways, they feel as if they've been passengers in the back seat of a moving car, unable to steer. To pursue starting or buying their own business, they'll need to find a way to move from the "passenger's seat" to the "driver's seat" where they'll have better visibility and more control over their destinies.

And although they're not aware of it yet, heading in this direction will mean reconstructing their mindsets. They'll first need to shift from thinking like employees to thinking like contractors. Then they'll need to start thinking like consultants. Ultimately, they'll need to think like entrepreneurs. During their journey, they will develop their own criteria for business success that will enable them to identify ideal business ventures, clients, collaborators, and employees.

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How to Derive Your Own Success Criteria
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I work with clients to meticulously identify their life passions, purpose, strengths, gifts, life themes, and core values. When finished, they have produced a list of the specific ways in which they can weigh future business opportunities, collaborators, clients, and partners. Some of the criteria are more practical and others more lofty. But each selected criterion seems essential to achieving balance, fulfillment, financial return, and higher contribution in their lives.

For example, your success criteria can include everything from maintaining a healthy mix of work and recreation to seeking only what you believe you could be the best in the world at doing. Your criteria also can include many practical considerations, such as the qualities you would desire in potential collaborators. To spark your imagination, consider using categories such as these, each of which can hold more specific criteria:

* Alignment with passions and strengths
* Startup or acquisition requirements
* Potential for return on investment
* Control over working parameters
* Traits of potential collaborators
* Quality-of-life considerations
* Exit options or alternatives

Did you notice that the criteria are fairly neutral? That's because only you (or your team) can decide just how important each criterion is. You can then assign numerical priorities, rankings, or weights to your criteria. In this way, you'll create a powerful checklist for comparing, scoring, evaluating, and ultimately selecting future business ventures and related conditions, which will thereby set the conditions for success.

To summarize, aligning your life passions with your business purpose can help you define your business success criteria. Especially when you shift into an entrepreneurial mode after many years of corporate employment, those criteria illuminate how to choose the right situations, and establish the conditions for successfully pursuing them.