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We Don’t Have to be Perfect to Accomplish Great Things

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Just ask Sarah, She’ll Tell You

Perfection is a word that I used to aspire to. Growing up my dad was a perfectionist, and I wanted to be just like him.

I also saw him be hard on himself for not being perfect.

I thought perfection was…well, perfect. Isn’t this what I’m supposed to be?

It was my wife that opened my eyes to the negative aspect of perfection. She pointed out that perfection was impossible to attain. Afterall, God was the only one who was perfect. Excellence is a much better goal.

Striving for perfection can lead to a lot of issues. These include the feeling of falling short of the goal. This often leads to depression. The notion that we aren’t good enough is encouraged when we see other people who “seem to have a perfect life” on social media.

Too often, we feel that we don’t have what it takes to succeed.

As we start our journey through the Old Testament this year, we read through the first sixteen chapters of Genesis. In Genesis 16:1-6, we read about Abram’s wife Sarai taking matters into her own hands when she felt imperfect.

She had not been able to have any children up to this point, and not having a male child to carry on the family linage was a big deal.

As we humans too often do, she decided to take control of the situation herself.

Sarai told her husband to sleep with Hagar, her slave, so that “if she has a child, it will be mine”. After Hagar realized she was pregnant, she began to treat Sarai hatefully.

Then, Sarai blamed the situation on Abram. So, Abram told Sarai, “All right! She’s your slave, do whatever you want with her.” In turn, Sarai began treating Hagar so harshly that Hagar ran away.

Well, that plan didn’t go so well.

Looking forward to next week’s reading we learn that even though Sarai and Abram are beyond the normal age to have children, God gives them an heir, Isaac.

With God’s promise to Abram, He tells him that He will be the father of many nations and changes his name to Abraham which means “the father of many”. God also changes Sarai’s name to Sarah which means “princess of many”.

In last month’s Advent study, we discussed Jesus’ linage and Abraham and Sarah were part of that linage.

Even though Sarai and Abram were less than perfect when they took matters into their own hands…God used them to accomplish great things.

The same is true for us.

We don’t have to be perfect to accomplish great things if we will trust in God’s plans.

But the sooner we trust God, the less mistakes He’ll have to fix.

Why is it so Hard for Construction Companies to Stay in Business?

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It’s Really Not That Hard…It Just Requires a Change of Perspective

It’s crazy the number of business that start and fail. Millions of businesses get started each year, but only a small portion survive. Why is it that 90% of all businesses fail? An article by Luisa Zhou is full of research-backed business failure statistics.

  • 18.4% fail within the first year
  • 49.7% fail within the first 5 years
  • 65.6% fail within the first 10 years
  • Only 25% make it beyond 15 years

There are countless reasons that businesses fail, but just because other businesses fail, doesn’t mean yours will too. Being aware of and understanding these statistics increases your chance of survival.

You can’t succeed if you don’t try.

If your dream is to own a successful construction business, you need to do your homework and then commit to it. Construction businesses do have a high failure rate, but that’s not to say you should avoid the construction business.

It just means you need to be aware and get prepared.

Listed below are five small business types with notoriously high failure rates.

  1. Restaurants – Independent restaurants have a failure rate of over 60% at the 10-year mark. The key to success is the ability to raise capital when needed. If a business owner cannot do that, there’s not much left but to close the doors.
  • Retail stores – Another business with intense competition is retail stores. Not only do you have to contend with other brick-and-mortar stores, but you also have online businesses undercutting your prices. Like independently owned restaurants, retail stores have a failure rate of over 60% at the 10-year mark.
  • Direct sales – Yes, it’s your own business, but if a friend asks you to become part of a multi-level marketing (MLM) business, say no. What you’ll hear are success stories. You won’t hear that, like a pyramid scheme, 99% of direct sales reps suffer significant financial loss. It’s the people at the top and the person who recruits you who makes money. 
  • Construction – Starting your own construction business is a tough gig. Construction businesses also have a failure rate north of 60% at the 10-year mark.

Not only do you have to be good at your craft, but you have to become a full-time salesperson, accountant, administrator, bookkeeper, and part-time counselor.

If you have a passion for building and offering unique touches that buyers can’t get from another builder, you’re off to a good start. The thing that’s usually missing is a business plan and the right business tools.

  • Insurance sales – Insurance agents face the same challenges of construction…wearing too many hats. They must be a master of administrative work, sales, and an ever-changing insurance scene.

If you’ve been in construction for any length of time, or know someone who has, you’ve become aware of how hard it can be to operate a successful construction company. Understanding the things that are needed to achieve this is one of the BUILDing blocks in a solid business foundation.

NOW WHAT? Now you need to change your perspective.

Perspective is a particular way of looking at something. This doesn’t mean it’s right or the only way. It just means that it’s our perspective.

Rather than assuming you’re the only one in construction dealing with issues you need to understand that this is not the case. These struggles are common across the construction industry. But changing your perspective is just the beginning.

Real change requires action. You’re going to have to do something.

So, what is the something that you need to do?

You need to lay the next block to BUILD the foundation of your business. This block is INFORMATION, INSTRUCTION, and IMPLEMENTATION. This is the third block in our 5-step Business BUILDing Process. Check back next week, and we’ll take a hammer to this building block to see what it’s made of.

It can be really frustrating trying to figure out how to build a successful construction business. But you don’t have to do it by yourself.

After owning and operating a construction business for more than forty years, I’ve developed business tools and systems that we are now making available to construction companies to give you an advantage over the competition.

If you would like to learn more about BUILDing a successful construction business, you can schedule a free 30-minute consultation here.

What Does It Mean to Be Successful?

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It’s Not What People Normally Think

Success, true success is anything but normal. Dave Ramsey says, “If You want to succeed, you’ve got to be weird.” It is hard to be different. Standing out and being different opens us up to criticism and ridicule. It’s much easier and safer to blend in and go with the flow. To just be normal.

God doesn’t want us to be normal. He made each of us different and unique (Psalm 139:14) and put each of us here for a specific purpose (Romans 8:28). It is up to us to search out and learn what our individual purpose is.

Discovering our true purpose is success.

Normally success is seen as fortune and fame. Even the definition of success includes, “The attainment of fame, wealth, or social status.” If we see these things as success and don’t accomplish them, we see ourselves as failures. We are only failures when we stop seeking our true purpose. So, we’ve got to hang in there.

The world’s idea of success is short sighted and selfish. It’s about what’s in it for me. God’s idea of success is different. It’s about using the skills and abilities I’ve been given to help others. Specifically, in my case, to help others build their dreams.

So, how do we figure out what our purpose is? First, ask that very question. What is my purpose? And then we ask it again and again… Asking the question is the first step to success. The question is more important than the answer. Asking this question is necessary to start. Then we can dig deeper with more questions. If we don’t ask questions we will stay stuck in the mundane routine of doing the same thing over and over hoping for a different outcome.

These questions start with the most common question asked by kids…WHY.

Why am I here?

Somewhere along the way, in an effort to be normal, we quit asking why. As children we are naturally curious. If we want to be successful, we need to get back to that childlike curiosity.

The why question is where we dig down deep to find the solid foundation that our success will be built on.

After asking why, comes what, how, when, who, where. Asking these questions is hard. Almost as hard as reading the 5Ws out of their normal order. But then we are trying to be successful, not normal. The order I have them in is more appropriate when it has to do with success. The most important thing is to be intentional about asking questions in whatever order works. Asking questions opens our mind up to new ideas.

The answers to these questions won’t magically appear once they’ve been asked. Being successful and finding our purpose is not an end unto itself. Both are a process of seeking answers and should continue as long as we’re alive. There is not some point in life when we arrive at our final destination (like retirement). Success is the process of seeking our purpose and as long as we’re breathing, we should be asking questions.

DON’T BE NORMAL – BE SUCCESSFUL!