The major network television stations have all announced their lineup for the fall season. Some surprises, but mostly the shows that have been successful continue and the new ones proposed are some copy cat version of what has worked before.

Have you ever noticed that? Look back in time and you'll see we went through our Western phase and our phases of family situation comedies, our period of law shows, a time of variety shows and now it is a time for reality...shows that is. Wife swapping, vocal warbling, tap dancing, worm eating reality shows.

Do you think the networks sit in their ivory tower and envision what the future of their network will be like and then plan from there, or do they look at what viewers are watching and advertisers financially support and then just continue the same ol', same ol'?

In Michael Gerber's E Myth Revisited he quotes Tom Watson the founder of IBM as saying, in part, the following:

IBM is what it is today for three special reasons:

The first reason is that, at the very beginning, I had a very clear picture of what the company would look like when it was finally done.

The second reason was that once I had that picture, I then asked myself how a company which looked like that would have to act.

The third reason IBM has been so successful was that once I had a picture of how IBM would look when the dream was in place and how such a company would have to act, I then realized that, unless we began to act that way from the very beginning, we would never get there.

So what's your vision? I suffer from Michael Gerber's description of a Technician in that I look at what I have (similar to the television stations) and envision how to grow from there rather than the Entrepreneurial stance of envisioning the big picture first.

You may argue that IBM isn't the giant it once was because of new competitors in the market place, but the fact remains that it grew to be a giant primarily because of a vision Watson had initially.

So - step outside your current world. What would a new and different world look like with you at the helm?

What services/products would you offer?
How many employees would you have?
What would you be known for?

What will it take to get you there? As Watson asked, how would your company have to act?

What steps do you need to start taking to act that way?

What's stopping you?

So I started doing this exercise and realized that my thinking wasn't big enough. There comes a time in a small business person's business where they have to sh*t or get off the pot - they have to make the big jump of growing - getting a bigger location, adding staff, adding services, OR stepping back into their comfort zone.

I'm afraid.

Anyone out there with me? Who has made that big jump to the next step in their business? What did you find helped overcome the fears of failure?

Deborah Chaddock Brown
Professional Writer, Entrepreneurial Technician
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