Lately, I’ve asked business founders on my podcast to share with our listeners their definition of a “successful business”. And I am really grateful to each of them for showing us that success could be defined in so many differentways.
The main commonality in the answers from my guests is that success is coming from a place of love and benevolence, with a scope based on the sense of legacy and commitment, that transcends time and space.
So in order to get a visual representation, I did a quick search on Google with the words “successful business” and here are the images of the top search results:
While I agree that growth is an essential pursuit paved with many challenges (as pictured by the 1st image) and that systems and smooth operations are required (3rd image), I think that the first search results on the keywords “successful business” are disappointing.
These pictures tell us the story that:
- the pursuit of a successful business is a lonely endeavor,
- you need to be a man and wear a suit to create a successful business,
- it is unclear if a successful business brings any joy or happiness or any sorts of fulfillment,
- but for sure, the focus of a successful business is growth (sales growth?)
- and financial outcomes.
A very big part of the story is missing as I did not see any of the wonderful insights shared by my change-makers guests.
There is a disconnect.
How can we change the narrative of a successful business?
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