Here's How To Make Your Business A High Flyer.

There’s a Zen saying, you cannot step in the same river twice.?I wince at that.?What??After diving in to understand, the message essentially means the water is continually moving so the river is constantly changing, and you are too.?Summarily, the river and you change moment to moment.?Right, contemplate that.

There’s a business axiom saying you cannot copy another’s model. ?Doing so would be nothing more than emulating a snapshot of an action taken at one instant in time. ?You cannot copy another company’s business model any more than you can mimmic what someone is going to say next week.

What makes your business unique is your culture.?What you do is why you do it.?You can’t help it.?Your why is not to be created, it’s to be observed. ?The struggle is not to forge your why and then act on it, it’s to observe your actions then name the motivation. ??

In doing so you’ll also discover the purity of purpose.?Do you exist to serve the world or merely take a profit from it??The difference is evident on a macro and micro level.?Individually, great sales people seek to serve clients with solutions instead of selling a product.?Collectively, great companies open paths to improve lives through the products or services they sell.?Conversely, companies struggle greatest where product development is devoid of needs defined first.

You could copy Apple’s computers and do so brilliantly.?And there are other makers out there striving to do just that. ?They runs ads touting screen clarity, processor speed, delightful keyboards and memory capacity.?

But they totally miss the magic of why Apple’s computers are so brilliant.?Apple’s ecosystem meshes your iPhone, iPad, iWatch, iPod, HomePod, iTV and CarPlay seamlessly for a totally immersive experience that makes your life easier. ?Every other brand with their exhaustive features list totally misses the mark.?They have the physical guts to compete but there’s no soul.?Soul, like culture, is where the attraction lives.

That’s why people blindly buy Apple products.?You’re unlikely to say, “Wow, I can’t wait to buy more Dell stuff.”?To win, define your soul and sing about it.

The Colossus of Rhodes was erected in 280 BC.?Presiding over the port of the same name on the island’s breakwater, the 100 foot tall Greek statue of the sun god Helios welcomed maritime traffic.?The tallest statue in the ancient world, the Colossus of Rhodes is one of the World’s Seven Wonders.

Inspired by the Colossus of Rhodes, French sculptor Frédéric August Bartholdi approached Egyptian officials in the 1860s with a magnificent lighthouse concept consisting of an ancient Egyptian woman wearing a robe and holding a torch standing at the entrance of the new Suez Canal.?Bearing the title, Egypt Carrying The Light To Asia, the idea never gained traction in Egypt.

But it did in France.?Bartholdi’s idea won favor with the President of France’s Anti-Slavery Society, édouard René de Laboulaye.?Wanting to memorialize the defeat of slavery in the US Civil War, Laboulaye worked with the French government to approve a celebratory gift. ?A friend of Laboulaye, Bartholdi presented his robed woman with her skyward torch as a fitting commemoration.

Modeled with the face of the Greek goddess of freedom, Libertas, Bartholdi envisioned a peaceful appearance with the torch representing progress.?A welcome symbol after so much suffering on American battlefields. ?

Gustave Eiffel, yes, the tower guy, was hired to create an iron truss tower overlaid with copper skins hammered to shape.?The innovative design included measures to flex in the wind and withstand a tough marine environment.

Roughly 10 years after its conception, the French steamer Isére arrived in New York City on June 17, 1885 carrying the Statue of Liberty disassembled in crates.?About a year later, Liberty Enlightening The World was dedicated on October 28, 1886 by President Grover Cleveland in a global media event.

Erected on a perfect New York harbor location, Lady Liberty, aka the Mother of Exiles, welcomed millions of immigrants to nearby Ellis Island as America’s population exploded over the next 50 years.?Today, the Statue of Liberty welcomes over 3.2 million annual visitors to Liberty Island and her image has become a world-wide beacon of hope.

The spirit of the gift, the dedication of the artists and their resilience in the face of financial difficulty, engineering challenges and nay sayers was their catalyst for action. ?

You could copy the state of Liberty but it would always pale by comparison.?Thirsting to challenge the status quo breathes life into ideas.?Your originality is expressed in authentic actions.

If you want to make a unique contribution to the world, consider doing this:

• Look inward to leverage your authenticity.?Framing your culture externally only validates someone else’s ideas.
• Anticipate a challenge.?The rewards in climbing the tallest mountains are equal to the challenge.
• A mission of service builds a culture attracting crowds.

Blazing your own trail comes with myriad rewards as well as challenges. Making a mark in this world means engaging your purpose into your mission.?Are you working on your own Colossus? ?