The Small Business Money Machine

by Jody C. Rookstool

Three Pillars of Success – Part 1

You have poured your blood, sweat, and tears (and don’t forget your hard-earned money) into your business.  You have this passion for paving your financial path and creating a better future for yourself and your family.  The unfortunate reality is that there are specific reasons why over 85% of small business fail and we will focus on three things you can do to overcome those odds and create your own small business money machine.

Unfortunately, most small business owners work for longer hours, have more stress and have more problems in their life running a small business than they did working for someone else. The 3 Pillars of Success focus more on who you are and how you make decisions each day than any specific marketing strategy. 

Pillar 1 – Attitude

If there is one absolute guaranteed truth as a small business owner, you will face serious challenges and obstacles along your journey.  You will deal with people that will make you question your sanity.  You will confront the stresses and challenges that will test your grit and determination to keep pushing on.  There are just too many challenges to list them all. You know what they are, and either you are facing many of them right now or have recently encountered them or will soon be facing them.  The challenges, problems, and obstacles will never stop, they only change.

What can’t change is this one fact:  You can truly only control 3 things in your life, and the first one is your attitude.  You get to decide how you react to these challenges.  You choose how you deal with the stress of frustrating people.  You get to determine if you will want to be positive and stay focused on your goal or allow your challenges to drag you into a negative landslide of complaining and frustration that are like chains that will bind you and never let you go. 

 When a problem or difficult situation confronts you, then, how you react is your choice.  You can rarely control what lead to the situation, but you have 100% control of your attitude.  Negative attracts Negative.  Positive attracts Positive.   This is not some type of Pollyanna, stick-your-head-in-the-sand, kind of optimism, but rather a conscious choice to choose positive progress and being a leader within your company.

It’s easy to turn into a negative, bitter, complainer when there seems to be no end of things to complain about as a business owner.  You likely will have 15 – 20 things every week that will give you an opportunity to either become negative and bitter or choose to instead focus your energy on staying positive and look at the ways to overcome these challenges.

People want to be led by someone who exudes positive energy and whether you like it or not you are the leader of your company.  The way you choose to interact with your team will create your company culture.  Your culture will determine how people make choices.  Staying positive and focused on results rather than actual problems involves creating your path forward instead of allowing circumstances to dictate what that future will be.

Your attitude each day and how you deal with adversity depends on who you are inside and the type of person you want to become.  It requires more effort and discipline to choose to be positive and full of faith. Then, you can overcome these challenges and reach your goal of creating a great business rather than giving into negativity and becoming a complainer.

Negative attracts negative, and positive attracts positive.  Positive results require a continued focus on your attitude being full of energy and optimism that you can overcome the difficulties in front of you and keep moving forward.  Learning to interact with others in a positive, uplifting way will produce 10times the results as constantly harping on people and grinding on them every time they make a mistake.  If your goal is to create the type of business that can keep running and producing a profit even when you are not there, then choose to empower your people with creating a culture of positive energy and optimism, even in the face of great challenges. 

One of the few things you can truly control in your life is your attitude.  It’s your choice how you react to challenges.  Choose optimism and positivity, and you will be amazed at the improved financial results and a better running company will follow. 

About the Author 

Jody Rookstool has started over 20 different businesses throughout his career.  Some have succeeded wildly, and others have failed miserably.  Jody Rookstool has found that the common thread of all truly successful small business ventures is having the leaders that focus on creating a consistent, positive attitude in how they deal with daily challenges.  Jody Rookstool currently lives in Utah with his growing family of 7.  Jody Rookstool has a passion for horses and a love of the land that came from his childhood farm in Eastern Washington.  Jody Rookstool attributes a significant portion of his success to his wife of over 26 years; Stephanie Rookstool.