I surrender to Thee, the blissful infinite One, by whose grace the dumb become eloquent, and the lame scale mountains..
It’s very clear to me that the business is now entering a new phase. We have successfully completed several types of projects and secured multiple anchor clients. A dear old friend (and former boss) has now joined my team with a strong ambition to quickly scale the business further so that it is lucrative for him to stay.
Being an Instrument
It’s time for me to let go of these foolish notions of I and mine. It’s tempting to claim that Bayes is mine and it should behave & grow as I wish it to. However, it’s a separate entity from me, just like a child is a separate individual from the parents.
As such, my role is to be a shepherd, a steward, to steer Bayes towards its destiny, whatever it may be. Now, what does it mean to be a shepherd, a steward, an instrument?
The Fence - Values, Behaviours, Energy
What values do I believe is most important for Bayes to embody? What type of behaviours do I encourage from its people (including myself), and what type of behaviours do I discourage?
What is the nature of the energy Bayes should emanate?
The Direction - Vision, Strategy, Tactics
What is the vision towards which Bayes should move towards? What long-term strategies should we employ for this purpose, and what short-term tactics should we use?
The Wolves, Coyotes & Eagles - Dangers & Defences
What are the external dangers that could disrupt the business? What defence mechanisms should we employ?
Okay, seems like I've given myself some homework, great. The difficulty with determining (1) The Fence and (2) The Direction is that I find it difficult to separate Bayes from myself. The instinct is to use the same values, behaviours & energy that I believe in for myself personally and to merge my personal direction with the direction for Bayes. This is with merit & justifications of course, but I feel now that separating my personal self from Bayes will be healthier and lead to more growth for Bayes and for myself personally. I shall seek for inspiration for this - perhaps a retreat in nature will do some good.
After setting (1) and (2), only then (3) will be clear. Having operated in a survival mode thus far (at the lower rungs of the Maslow's hierarchy of needs), I need to now reframe the thinking on what the dangers & defences are.
Connectedness & Serendipity
Every time I review our path so far & discuss growth strategies, the mystical nature of the business becomes more and more apparent. At first glance it appears as if business growth happens on its own and purposeful efforts on business development have little value. Every client we have so far came to us on their own, when I was not actively looking, asking me for a service I wasn’t actively pitching.
Then why bother? Read a book, go on a vacation, live in a forest & let it be! Hmm yes that may help too actually..
Reflecting carefully, there were a few crucial behaviours that helped me land these serendipitous opportunities:
Talking about my business
Being comfortable and happy talking about what I do is key. The passion emanates easily when I’m in the “ikigai” zone.
It’s important to maintain my consciousness in this zone of joy and openness when talking about my business. Sometimes this gets difficult when deadlines loom heavy and dealing with various personalities and challenges. Anchoring myself in my daily practices and gratefulness is very important.
2. Knowing which leads are worth pursuing
This is an area I should pay more attention to. I have spent a disproportionately large amount of effort on various efforts (eg being an insurance agent, some insurtech ventures, travelling to other countries on a whim and meeting random actuaries - well actually this last one was fun & worth doing) which I discontinued a bit too late after several months of effort.
Most likely I would have gotten quicker results if I had focused the efforts spent on some of these elsewhere, or at least discontinued them sooner.
That being said, I should also give credit to myself for having pursued the key leads that have led to the growth of Bayes thus far.
How do I identify red flags and green flags early on?
3. Execute, execute, execute
Following up with warm leads, meeting clients in person, finding key opportunities to pitch, and then actually doing the work well and on time. This leads to repeat business.
What’s next?
Expansion geographically & across domains is going to be a focus area.
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