Product Showcases

Passionate Planning

"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will themselves not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die."
  --- Daniel Burnham

Running a sign shop, providing sign supplies, selling ice cream, giving dance lessons, or any other business requires planning. If the plans are small, that is the limit that will be reached and no more. If the plans are really big, they might not always be reached, but they will at least serve as a guidepost to aim for. It is those big plans that keep businesses productive.

But big plans might not be enough. There are plenty of enterprises that went out of business last year though they had big plans. The leaders of those businesses probably took a lot of time jotting down those big plans and some probably even communicated the plans to their team members. The issue may not have been in the effort that went into planning, but may have been due to the lack of passion behind the planning.

"Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them."
  --- Napoleon Bonaparte

Good planning plus passion fuels success. Having great passion behind the plans drives people to reaching their goals. When a business leader sets company goals and communicates them to his or her team members, it must be done with conviction and passion.

"Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion."
  --- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Think back to the great companies of yesteryear. Standard Oil, General Electric, IBM, Sears, and more built success on the foundation of passionate plans. The leaders of those companies as well as recent successes such as Facebook, Google, Chic-Fil-A, and Home Depot were all successful because the founders and leadership team exude with passion.

"Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care."
  --- Blaise Pascal

Those businesses lacking plans as well as passion are easy to spot. You can actually smell them before you enter their establishment or begin to order on the phone from them. It is these businesses that can give particular industries a bad name. If you feel your business begin to slip into the pattern of planning and working without passion, stop. Quit the direction you are heading and reexamine your plans for the business. You may need to change course altogether and select one that is in line with your passion.

"It is obvious that we can no more explain a passion to a person who has never experienced it than we can explain light to the blind."
  --- T.S. Eliot

It is difficult to explain or communicate verbally, passion to others. If your team members sense or see your passion, that is great! It should be recognized by others rather than spelled out for them. Passion is contagious and will take hold of others if it is seen in the planning stages.