Capacity Building - Building A Foundation For Success

The entrepreneurial process can be demanding and sometimes make you question whether you can get it all done.  The journey to establishing a successful enterprise presents many entrepreneurs with the following question, "How do I create a blueprint for business and personal growth?"  Answering this question can sometimes feel daunting.  One way to ease the pressures of creating a successful enterprise is to lay a foundation for pursuing your dream or vision by focusing on capacity building.  Capacity building refers to those activities that improve either an organization's ability to achieve its mission or an individual’s ability to define and realize goals and do a job more effectively.  For organizations, capacity building can relate to almost any aspect of their work: improved governance, leadership, mission and strategy, administration (including human resources, financial management, and legal matters), program development, fundraising, marketing, income generation, etc.  For individuals, capacity building can relate to leadership development, advocacy skills, training/speaking abilities, technical skills, organizational skills, and other areas of personal and professional development.  Motivational guru, Anthony Robbins, has stated that "Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all our resources on mastering a single area of our lives." 

While tenacity and fortitude are key ingredients for most entrepreneurial success stories, the extent to which an aspiring entrepreneur  develops personal capacity, as well as the capacity of his or her enterprise, can make the difference between success and failure.  To overcome the obstacles you will inevitably face in building your enterprise, you have to have a plan in place for pushing your enterprise past the tough spots and taking your vision to the next level.  The likelihood of your success depends on having the necessary support systems in place to make your vision a reality.  There is no question that capacity building is an essential step in achieving success as entrepreneur in order to create wealth and build an institution.  Whatever your idea, remember great ideas need great people and organizations behind them.  

Morning Clarity

I want to share a couple of simple ideas that have come to mind because of the activities over the last couple of weeks.  Each could later serve as an extended blog post.

• Implement Daily.  I was at a realtor association's banquet on Friday and had a great conversation with a realtor from Scottsdale, AZ.  While we shared a ton of ideas, this is what I will remember from her.  Those of us who lean towards being overly reflective, need to remind ourselves to put all of the great ideas we have in our head into action.
• Face Your Fears/Challenges Head On.  Name the issues and confront them 
• Get Organized. You might see some opportunity once you clear away the clutter
• Be a Guinea Pig.  I recently attended a Social media Bootcamp and out of that, two things happened that I couldn't have planned for. First, I received an interview on the spot that served as a blog post for one of the sponsors and I also struck up a relationship with another participant in which I am serving as a Guinea Pig for the early stages of an application he is building.
• Never too late to do the right thing.  If you know you should do something, DO IT!
• Be Thankful. Because bad can get worse.

Work to Create Your Own Opportunity - the Path to Being an Entrepreneur

                                                                                                                           Picture by Flckr JAM343

To be a successful entrepreneur may require you to put forth extra effort.  Opportunities for change and success do not come by chance.  To gain them requires constant, persistent effort.   It has been said that “luck” occurs when preparation meets opportunity.  If this is true, then there is no such thing as luck.  Opportunities come as a result of preparation.

While Washington, D.C.-based real estate developer, Adrian Washington, didn't start his career with a well-defined plan (he let his interest lead him), success came to him through opportunities he worked to create.  Mr. Washington did his homework.  He worked diligently to build his knowledge base and learn his trade.  He worked to develop his network, with the understanding that business opportunities are really about connecting with people.  He also built his reputation by completing a series of successful projects that spoke to his capabilities and increased his presence in his profession.  With these accomplishments, opportunities came.

Having done his homework and put in the time, Mr. Washington was prepared.  As a result, he was able to take advantage of the opportunities that came his way.  According to Mr. Washington, preparation is key.  It requires investing time and effort, while constantly seeking ways to increase your knowledge and understanding of your chosen field.  To achieve success as an entrepreneur requires that you focus not solely on immediate gains, but also on future success.  A successful entrepreneur understands the benefits of delayed gratification.   As a developer, Mr. Washington enjoys a unique and gratifying position.  He has built a company that yields monetary gains for its employees and shareholders.  At the same time, however, he does not do it by tearing down communities or displacing its residents.  Rather, he builds communities and in many ways re-vitalizes them by hiring people in the neighborhoods he seeks to build.  By doing so, Mr. Washington helps to fundamentally improve the communities around him.  He has enjoyed this rewarding challenge and is excited that he has been presented with such an extraordinary opportunity.  However, it wasn’t chance or luck that brought this opportunity to him, it was his preparation that enabled him to capitalize on the opportunity and make it a reality.

What do you first do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes, do you not? And what happens? You make other mistakes, and when you have made all the mistakes you possibly can without drowning - and some of them many times over - what do you find? That you can swim? Well - life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live! –Alfred Adler