Success is Built on Struggling Well

In life and business, when we face setbacks, we have to adjust our perspective and look at it as an opportunity to move forward. At EPM, we consistently share our mission and vision with others to learn and apply valuable takeaways to their leadership. 

Suppose we're going to be transparent about our successes. In that case, we also have the responsibility to include our conflicts and our mistakes and respond to them. There is no magical formula for success. But if we can course correct and be transparent with others, there are important lessons to be learned and improved upon.

Our culture at EPM is constantly evolving. While it generally evolves toward the positive, change can be challenging, and we've come to expect growing pains. But if we face our shortcomings and take steps forward, we can fail forward and maintain our trajectory. Success is achieved through facing your struggles and taking the next steps to learn and improve. When we strive for excellence, we are simply struggling well.

Good is not Good Enough if it can be Great

We recently had a setback in our organization that resulted in an unexpected financial hit. Still, it also taught us an important lesson about how far we have come and helped us make immediate adjustments to stay the course.

As much as we talk about our vision and mission and encourage our team members to buy into it, it's a culture, not a cult- and we can't force people to embrace our culture. It can take time to build that buy-in, and leadership has to stay on top of it, making sure the trust and authenticity factor is there.

The mistake that happened came from employees that honestly didn't buy into our culture plan. They didn't, which led to careless and financially significant errors because they just weren't invested. That's not all on them. Leadership has to take a look in the mirror and accept our part in it too.

We knew some people weren't following the culture, and the responsibility to address that falls directly on the shoulders of our leadership. I knew I was letting things go that should have been addressed as far as what I expected and asked of others. It's always on us to lead from the bottom up and recognize the changes we can make to impact our team as we advance. 

This was something that could have been avoided. I knew these employees weren't invested, and instead of addressing it, I waited. It was a mistake.

Finding Strength Through Struggle

The issue that happened here goes directly against our fundamentals. We were all staying quiet instead of speaking up. There wasn't unity through collaboration, and there were cracks that we didn't address. 

From now on, we will celebrate the small wins. Nothing is accomplished without achieving the small wins. We also have to address the small things before they become big things. Our success is built on the little things compounding. Leadership's responsibility is to recognize the small things and take the opportunity to let them drive us.

We are moving forward by embracing conflict. And when we make human mistakes, we'll continue to look at it as an opportunity- we received a chink in our armor that helps us grow. When reflecting on the struggle, I think back to my family legacy and my past and recall what it means to thrive and what the steps are to get better even in dark moments. 

Having honor means things will work out even if it's not the way you expect and not at that moment. We are grateful for what we have, and we never forget that we have been given a gift to create homeownership. Our mission is to empower people. Our evolution -struggling well- allows us to do that a little bit better every day.