Often its hard to tell. When you’re thick in the fog of creation – creating that new marketing strategy, creating that new process, creating that new product – distinguishing between going nowhere and going somewhere is almost impossible. What feels like stagnation may in fact be progress.
Ultimately, as Ashton Kutcher eloquently put it, success looks a lot like hard work. Persistence, perseverance, not quiting what you love and pushing the boundaries of excellence is a good place to start.
Of course, there comes a point where persistence and perseverance become tired ideals without progress. Remember, we connect the dots of our life backwards, not forwards. You start anything new not knowing if it is going to work. Perseverance and persistence get you on the path, but progress keeps you going.
I believe the saying ‘start with the end in mind’ can be misleading. Study any of the great empire-building entrepreneurs of our time and none of them started with the end in mind. They started with the next step, which led to the next step and the next step after that.
Your next step is the most expansive world view you have. Your next step in your startup might simply be to get to $1M in revenue. Only once you get there, does it open the door to a new world view and a completely new set of possibilities. When you’re just starting out, planning to go to $10M or $20M or $100M is too esoteric a concept – especially if you haven’t been there before. Merely surviving is any startups ‘first step’. Yet only once $2M or $10M or $20M becomes ‘the next step’ does it move from the fuzzy, theoretical realm of possibility to an actual, achievable reality.
Source:
http://mikejamesreid.com/2013/09/04/on-or-off-track/