Read The story of the 'poor' family on Wake Up Tiger.
In a recent set of conversations about the future strategy for a company, I realised that most of such discussions are centred around lack. We are not big enough. We don't turnover enough. We are not growing fast enough. We don't have... etc.
When we changed our perspective to listing "what we have", we quickly realised that the company in question actually has much that others would envy and desire. It is actually very successful doing what it does for its unique set of clients.
I am not saying a business should ignore avenues for improvement, by looking at what it has yet to do. But rather a more balanced approach to evaluation. The perceived improvements may not be necessary, and certainly in this particular case, trying to "improve" the company to overcome the perceived lacks would have destroyed it.
It is also interesting to note that much of the perceived lacks are derived by generic assumptions and common misconceptions about what ALL businesses SHOULD do. The same goes for our individual self improvement.
