Recently I read a great book “The Return of the Prodigal Son” by Henri J.M. Nouwen.  Most people are familiar with the story of The Prodigal Son in the Bible.  In the story, a Father gives his estate equally to his two sons.  The younger sons goes off and burns through his half of the money and eventually comes back home to ask for forgiveness.  The older son stays at home, follows all the rules, helps out his father, and maintains all of his estate.  The father forgives and loves his younger son unconditionally even after all his mistakes, throwing him a lavish party because he proclaims that “my son was once lost and now he is found.”  All of the afore mentioned does not sit very well with the older son, because he feels like he has done everything right in his life and he doesn’t get any kind of party, thus making him envious and jealous of his younger brother.

The challenge that the author puts in place is that each of us are both sons.  At certain stages in our life through our choices and actions, we are the wild younger son, and at certain stages of our lives we are also the obedient older son.  The author points out that there are both good and bad about being either son or each stage of our lives, but eventually we are called to another stage in our lives which is to become the forgiving and loving Father.

This story illustrates that we all have stages in our lives, some good and some bad, but just like our lives have stages, so do our businesses.  To truly lead better lives, it is important to know and learn from the stages to better understand ourselves, to not make the same mistakes, and to eventually help someone in their life with what you have learned.  Understanding your business stages is just as important for the very same reasons.  Just as the author challenged my thinking, I challenge you with the following questions:

• Do you know what the different stages in the growth of your business are?

• What led to success in each stage?  What were the biggest frustrations in each stage?

• Who can you help with what you have learned?

If you and your team need help going through the stages of your business, give our expert guides a call at 800-786-4332 or email us at JSabatini@AppliedVisionWorks.com.  Your success is in plain sight, it just takes action!