The sixth in a series of articles entitled Know Your Business which explores how to identify the perfect business to run and is written by entrepreneur and multi business owner James Keightley who runs his own ecommerce business and business coaching consultancy and explains how to succeed in running your own company.



In this series of ‘Know Your Business' we have explored the ideal environment, behaviour and skills and capabilities that you are suited to when running your own business. However, the next important part in our sequence of Logical Levels is our beliefs and particularly those concerning what we see ourselves doing with the skills and capabilities we have identified as preferring to use in the way we enjoy and in the environment we like.

Beliefs are a very powerful influencer and can determine the outcome of our actions and the extent to which the outcome is as we would like it to be.

Up until 1954 many athletes believed that it was not possible to run a mile in 4 minutes until they witnessed it being achieved by Roger Bannister and following which several athletes went on to achieve the same results in a very short space of time. It was as if they were able to access natural resources and abilities that had been there all along. It is stories like this that remind us of the unbelievable fetes of endurance and strength when we hear of people who somehow find the strength to lift cars to free victims who are trapped.

What was it that was different, what suddenly changed for individual athletes to enable them to achieve what previously seemed to be the unachievable? Many might argue that the difference is the degree of self belief about how far they can stretch and the capabilities they actually have. These people take themselves closer than others to the threshold of panic without actually experiencing panic. It is about recognising how far to stretch and believing we can stretch that far.

Beliefs seem to be the corner pin of much of what we achieve or don't achieve and are arguably the most influential phenomenon that direct not only who we are, (our identity), but also the extent to which we exploit our resources (capabilities) to their full potential.

Our belief system is constructed from past experiences, which influence our present beliefs about ‘who' we are, what we are capable of and consequently what we might achieve in the future.

Beliefs play such an important role in determining what we do and the extent to which we achieve what we set out to achieve. However, it is the level of self belief that sets high achievers apart from others and the fact that they constantly step outside of their comfort zones in order to move closer towards the goals they identify as being important for their career success.

It is not only that they do not allow limiting beliefs to hold them prisoner within their comfort zones; they also believe that there is more to what meets the eye. This enables them to see opportunities that others may miss. They are the opposite of those who set about seeing only what they think they should see.

Therefore, it is clearly important to make sure that you truly believe in what you want to do when running your own business and to be certain that you believe in the capabilities you have identified for yourself when deciding what exactly it is you want to apply your preferred environments, behaviours and capabilities to when running your own business.

This takes us nicely on to our next step in the sequence of Logical Levels, which is your identity as a business person and getting down to the specifics of what you want to be. This will be covered in the next article entitled, ‘Know Your Business Know Your Identity'