10 business lessons I learned in 2009

Goodbye 2009! The great memories and moments you have contributed to my life are just remarkable. Although 2010 is now the year that I will be seeing in calendars everywhere, the lessons I’ve learned in 2009 will always remain in my mind, in my heart and in my blood. Most of those wisdoms were production of my business activities directed by my never-ending spiritual conquest. This year, I’ll be a full-time entrepreneur, considering my release from employment last December 2009. The following business lessons I learned in 2009 will be my greatest tools to achieve entrepreneurial success in 2010.

1. Stick to your game plan
This is a lesson I learned from Manny Pacquiao and Freddie Roach, the world’s best boxer and trainer of the decade. Many people are asking what is the secret behind the great victories of the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world, the Pacman. The key is simple, stick to the game plan. In the world of entrepreneurship, we always have that game plan. That plan is directed to our main goals. However, there are several opportunities that come in our ways. Some of these opportunities are so attractive enough to drive us away from our original plans. The worst is… it’s already too late before we realize that we are already heading to the wrong direction, direction that will lead us to failure. Pacquiao, although he sees an opportunity to knockout his opponent during fight time, he maintains prudence and avoid carelessness to take the bait of his opponent. He sticks to the game plan and eventually become a winner. Simply in business, we should create the best plan, and then stand for it.

2. Stay fit
For men, I thought a great body is only beneficial for attracting women. But I was wrong because it goes beyond just being a sexy person. Aside from having a strong and enduring body to help us in doing the tiring works of businessmen, it also saves us from short to lasting interruption caused by illness and over fatigue. But of course I know all of those facts prior to 2009. But the best lesson I’ve learned with regard to fitness this year is that it puts us the sense of discipline – a discipline that we can use not only for our health but also for everything that we do including our daily business activities. The essence of hard work in the gym, the patience of waiting, and the resistance to unhealthy foods are virtues that will also shape us into a hardworking, patient and resistant business person.

3. Be faithful and verifiable
In my spiritual journey, I thought that faith is enough to save our lives and save our souls. But during 2009, God gave me a great lesson. He taught me how to become not just faithful but also verifiable. God is great and though He can’t be seen by our physical eyes … He is believable. However, even before the beginning of time, God proved to the human kind how powerful, loving and caring He is. He did miracles, send messengers, commanded prophets, and given His only Son to show His great love to us. He does those things so that we might not just believe in Him but also verify Him as our true God. By applying this divine lesson to our business undertakings, we should not just believe in our goals, but most importantly make actions to achieve them. In a more spiritual words, we should not just give our minds or our hearts to our business, but also give our hands, our lives and our souls to it.

4. Bury seeds not money
If you’re a wise business person who wants to be productive, you won’t let your money sleep or be buried under the ground without profiting. Entrepreneurs are just like farmers, they use money to buy seeds. Then they plant those seeds to grow and harvest. They take the risks that may be brought by typhoons and other calamities just to roll those pennies and get their reward of a good harvest. Besides, typhoons can be avoided by forecasting, and pests can be prevented by pest-controls. So wakeup that money, invest it, and enjoy doing business.

5. Review first before you forecast
Sweet dreams are sweet, but too much sweetness may lead us to disasters. Before we become too excited with our new plans and ideas, let us first have a review on our resources. Resources may be tangibles like money, machines and properties. It can also be intangibles like time, human skills, existing polices and business condition. After assessing our current resources, conditions and their potentials, we can now use a strike of an eye to succeed in our business endeavors if our assessments permit us to do it.

6. You cannot serve God and money at the same time
Do you believe that? In my case, I believe it because that’s what God says and He never lies. Let us verify His statement by throwing the following questions. Can you evade tax to grasp money and stay truthful? Can you deceive your customers to gain excessive profit and still become a kind and generous person? Can you become a slave of money and still serve God at the same time? That’s no to all those questions. What I learned is that God wants us to serve and follow Him by becoming righteous, patient and a disciplined person. Those virtues will help us attract wealth and money for He will add them to our lives. One thing is clear, He don’t want us to become slaves of money, rather, He wants us to serve Him and become masters of money. God teaches His people how to become patient, how to become hardworking, how to become honest and how to become kind to others. All of these things are significant for us to avoid penalties, financial losses, and loss of integrity so that eventually we may have the ultimate business success.

7. Reflect
Take a short break and practice reflection. This is helpful for always keeping ourselves in the right track to our great goals in life. There are many people who are oozing with diplomas and certificates of education and have read hundreds of books but still act immature and unrighteous. What’s wrong with them? The problem with them is that they just acquire knowledge and wisdom through reading books and copying from their mentors. They don’t practice what they know because they don’t accept and follow them. Reflection has taught me how to discover my innermost being and uncover deeper things that the world’s greatest books and teachers will not teach me. It has also given me enlightenment to do business for God, for my country, for people and for my soul. Isn’t that amazing?

8. Honor the king
And honor the law of the land. Simply, whoever your countrymen choose as a king, a president or a prime minister… the laws remain to preserve your well-being. Okay, you hate your president, but for God’s sake, obey his laws. Pay your taxes, obey the orders, and follow the ordinances. Kings are not just chosen by people they are chosen by God for a good reason. Instead of wasting time finding for the faults of your king or leader, why not do your jobs as a good citizen?

9. Laughter is a medicine, joy is a vitamin
The glory of joy is one of my greatest realizations in 2009. I know that laughter is a good medicine. I know that happiness brings good life. But I have not yet realize how good it is until I mixed it with thankfulness. In doing business, we always face hardships, insecurities, stress and desperations. If we let these things push us into sadness, the consequence is a big disaster. Good thing I’ve chosen a business where I found my joy and my passion. No matter how difficult it is, as long as the enthusiasm, happiness and thankfulness are there, our momentum to reach success will remain.

10. Wisdom is not enough
The last but not the least and the most intriguing of all – wisdom is not enough. For all of my life I thought that wisdom is enough. But based on my observations and reflections on these observations, I found out that many people who are wise still sin even though they know what is right and what is wrong. Remember King Solomon of the Bible, who is a symbol of human wisdom? He’s a very wise king, yet he still committed sins like idolatry at the end and God punished him. So why is wisdom not enough? It is not enough unless we mixed it with understanding.  Wisdom is knowing while understanding is accepting. In the business world, we know how to achieve our goals. We have the wisdom and the step-by-step knowledge to succeed. But the problem is we don’t understand them – we don’t accept and follow them. Wisdom is for the mind, but understanding is for the heart and soul. We can only practice and do all our great business ideas by accepting them with all our minds, with all our hearts and all our souls. How can you say that you’re giving your heart to your business if you can’t even keep your eyes on it? How can you say that you are giving you soul to your business if you can’t even give you hands to it?

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