“If you want to be wealthy and happy, learn this lesson well: Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job.” These wise words were shared with Jim Rohn by his mentor and are also applicable to those running their own businesses.
Business development
Most entrepreneurs start their businesses with the end goal in mind – finding success and making mony. Therefore, we seek out assistance in growing and expending our businesses. We seek business development expertise. Or we apply to an incubator or accelerator, with the hope that we will be empowered, get new business skills; strategies and mentorship which will help us shift our business to the next level.
Investing in business development is important in helping us grow the business. But what is business development, exactly? According to Investopedia.com ‘business development can be summarised as the ideas, initiatives and activities aimed towards making a business better. This includes increasing revenues, growth in terms of business expansion, increasing profitability y building strategic partnerships, and making strategic business decisions’.
Find the true focus
The reason Jim Rohn’s mentor shared those words, was that we as business owners invest more in business development practices and sometimes forget that there is a person behind these ideas, initiatives and activities who also needs development. That person is you, the entrepreneur or business leader. How your business performs, largely depends on you. Jules White from Last Hurdle, a business development company, says there is a clear link between business performance and personal performance. Hence, when they develop a business, they also develop the business leaders, through personal development practices.
Building human capital
This makes a whole lot of sense, since personal development, according to Wikipedia, “covers activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitate employability, enhance the quality of life and contribute to the realisation of dreams and aspirations”. As someone who works in the entrepreneurial business development space, I have noticed that many individuals put little focus on their personal development. And this begs the question: Why are we surprised when we don’t see a shift in the business despite the work; strategies put in place, when we haven’t developed the individual? Where business development focuses on growing the actual business enterprise, personal development focuses on growing and empowering the business leader.
Personal development— an investment
Hence why the lines are blurred because the growth and sustainability of the business depends largely on what you the business leader can or cannot do. Your ability to execute; to commit during trying times; to build authentic business relationships; to present yourself in a credible way; to take risks and to tap into your inner strength, when all else fails. This is the reason CEOs and successful business people focus on personal development, by having life coaches and looking after their spiritual, mental and physical well-being. And why large organisa-tions invest in coaching and mentorship for their top performing staff members.
Nokwazi Mzobe
Nokwazi Mzobe has more than eight years’ experience working with two fortune 500 multinationals in the FMCG and Telecoms industries in markets across the Middle East and Africa in the areas of logistics, market planning and corporate finance.