First Principles in Business

I persevere in business and in my life because I feel the sheer joy of doing what I do. This seems to me to be an essential ingredient in creating and running a successful business.

Sometimes I am desperate. Sometimes I am elated. Sometimes I win. Sometimes I lose.

In business, we experience the full range of emotions.

How do we ensure that we stay centered, keep energized and remain inspired by what we are achieving, even in the midst of our storming emotions?

The way to maintain the experience of joy in business comes from being clear about our first principles.

Only when I am clear about my purpose and my vision and when I am living up to the standards that I set for myself, am I able to organize all of my activities around these elements.

High performance in business can only be achieved by knowing and living the first principles that we have adopted.

When you feel yourself lagging, take the time to re-establish your focus on your first principles.

Create the Mind that Creates the Business

I have just read Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography. I am now halfway through another book on Franklin called, Ben Franklin – America’s Original Entrepreneur, adapted by Blaine McCormick.

For those of you who want to get to the heart of what it means to be in business, I highly recommend that you read both these books. I found the original a delight because of the words and turns of phrase. I found McCormick’s book very helpful because it analyzes the original and brings its meaning into sharper focus and a modern context.

This leads me to what I wanted to talk about today.

To be successful in business requires us to be dedicated and committed to our own professional development and ongoing learning. Reading good books is essential to building our own capability as leaders and becoming who we yearn to be.

As I often read two to three books a week, I found it inspiring that Franklin was a voracious reader.

And to complete the thought, I was talking to a young person yesterday who uttered a great one-liner that is in keeping with what I have just said.

She said,

"Peter, I can see that what you have set up in your brain is set up in your business."

This is the key. In business and in life, you have to build first in your own mind that which you would like to build in the world.