Winning from the Beginning
"A winner is someone who sets goals, commits to those goals, and then pursues them with all available ability."
Setting a course toward entrepreneurial achievement is like commanding a ship. It may be the newest and mightiest in the fleet, but if it develops a faulty compass, even a seasoned commander will have difficulty getting it to the intended destination. IBM founder Tom Watson supported that belief. He pointed out IBM's success was no accident. Watson started IBM with a clear picture of what the company would look like when he was done.
Do your "compass check" early in your entrepreneurial journey. Imagine you're an Apollo astronaut racing to the moon. If you drift off course and make a correction during the first ten percent of the trip, your course adjustment is rather minor. If you wait until you are almost to the moon to make the adjustment, however, chances are you could not make the required correction before flying by and becoming another star in the galaxy.
The best sailors, pilots, and entrepreneurs have two things in common–they have a firm fix on their destination, and they make many small corrections early.