Building on a Dream, Stage by Stage
Craig Goldblatt, Reg Athwal and Rich Russakoff
South African native, Craig Goldblatt has developed and implemented innovative sales processes and dramatically increased sales performance for some of the world’s most recognized organizations. He has one goal: To help business owners improve sales performance and increase profit.
Recognized as a leading authority in human capital management and human potential development, Reg Athwal combines these two areas to maximize the potential of individuals and companies throughout the world. He is a serial entrepreneur and is the Founder and Chairman of the RAW Group of Companies based in London and Dubai.
Rich Russakoff is President and Founder of Bottom Line Consultants and has 10 years experience as a former senior consultant for strategic and financial planning with Inc. magazine’s consulting division. He has been a featured speaker at the Fortune Small Business Go for Growth conference series, Inc. conferences as well as EO events.
STAGE ONE — CRAIG GOLDBLATT
There is a dynamic built within all of us that says that we have to be industrious. It is not the goals that we set that drive us, but the reasons we want to achieve the goals that drive us! We need to understand why we want the Ferrari, why we want the praise, why we want the house by the ocean.
All any of us want in our lives is a feeling. Feelings make us buy, sell, laugh, cry, fail, start again and succeed. If we understand our purpose and why are we doing what we are doing, then we can live the dream. That begins in Stage One.
Our purpose and our reasons are what make us succeed, and people succeed for their own reasons, not for those of others. We need to set our own goals, and so do our teams. They will succeed for their own reasons, so help them to find out what they want but, more importantly, why they want it. Only by knowing our purpose can we ever reach the next stage in business and true fulfillment.
STAGE TWO — REG ATHWAL
Once we have clarified the dream, we can begin to live it. And to make our dream a reality, we need a winning dream team. No entrepreneur has ever been successful alone. Success is a byproduct of having a superior team of people who agree on the dream and have the collective energy and talent to turn it into reality.
To live the dream in Stage Two, we need to express the dream, to voice it to as many people as possible. World-class companies attract talent consistently as a result of being visible in the marketplace through articles, speaking engagements and charity events. Only by becoming visible can we attract top talent and find someone who says, "I would love to work for you because your dream is inspiring. I believe in you!"
The ultimate prize for any entrepreneur is to see their idea in motion, and that’s only possible with a winning team. But once that motion begins, we inevitably set our sights on the next prize and are off again to live a new dream.
STAGE THREE — RICH RUSSAKOFF
This is the "transforming" stage. Specifically, this means determining whether you want to build a company that can stand the test of time or sell your profitable company so that you can move on into the sunset. To do this effectively, you need to recognize the challenges you face and work through them.
Ideally this means reaching a point where the company can run on a day-to-day basis without the CEO; everyone in the company is aligned with the CEO’s vision; effective, user-friendly systems are in place; the company is focused outwardly toward clients and changes in the marketplace; the right management team is in place; the company has revenue and financing in place to meet its day-to-day cash flow needs; the company is poised for future and sustainable growth; and the CEO plays to his or her strengths and focuses on the business, not in the business.
Those companies that can emerge from Stage Three and master the above are in a rare air. The ultimate dream has been created, built to last or strategically built to sell.
