What makes a company good? What characteristics are common to businesses that inspire you? What could you do with your company to make it even more successful? These three ingredients are vital if you want to create a recipe for success.

Vision
What is the frickin’ point? Many businesses start with no clear idea of what constitutes success.

A lot of effort is spent but not much progress happens. Why?

A compelling vision for what success is for the business is the point of reference for every action the company takes. Without that it is all about activity, not results.

Keep the vision simple. Keep it visible. Refer to it constantly.

Precision
Most of what a business deals with daily, weekly and monthly is simply repetition. Yes, there are surprises, both good and bad, that occur. But the business is generally doing the same things, over and over.

In order to be successful, those repeating actions need to be done precisely and more or less the same, no matter which employee does them. How can that be done?

Systematize everything and train to those resulting written processes. Engage all in the company in this effort so that all “own” what is created. Celebrate publicly those who do something well and be specific about what they did right.

By documenting everything the company does, it can now become a lean, mean, precision machine instead of a group of nice people all trying hard but not doing a given task the same way.

Persistence
When things go well, life is good. Getting up every morning is wonderful. When things don’t go great, life is hard. Staying in bed can seem like a good way to spend the day.

This is why persistence is so important.

A good business persists no matter what reality throws at it. Mistakes are opportunities for improvement, not the end of the world.

Nothing in life is always easy. People and businesses are all defined by what they do when many of us would consider hanging it up.

So there it is: a simple recipe that packs a lot of power.

  • Craft and keep present a clear vision.
  • Do the work right the first time.
  • Keep on going when the going gets tough.

That is how to achieve success.