Think big, start small and grow big

Welcome to this inspirational column – INSPIRED TO EXCELL. Through this column I shall be sharing various success principles that will make a difference in your life, work, career or business. I feel honoured to begin by inspiring you to start on your dream NOW. There are many reasons why some people do not start on their dreams. One is fear. The fear of the unknown; the fear of what other people might say; the fear of the embarrassment that will arise in case the idea doesn’t work; or the fear of the cost of implementation in terms of time, skills and efforts. There are also others who don’t start because their vision is not yet clear. They haven’t figured out what they want to do. They are not sure whether to look for a better job, whether to register a company, whether to go back to school, whether to borrow money and so on. They are in a state where they cannot act.The category of people I am speaking to today are those who know what they want, but never start on it. Someone dreams of becoming a successful farmer, but has never even bothered to find out the prices of land or read a magazine on farming, for instance. You find someone busy saving money to invest in a restaurant, but he hasn’t even started on market research to come up with a proper business plan. The reason many of such people delay to start on their dreams is because they want to start big – with big offices, big machines, many employees, good branding, e.t.c. They are waiting for that golden opportunity when they will majestically launch their dreams. Unfortunately, that moment rarely comes. So they keep waiting and waiting only to realize retirement age is knocking at the door.If we want to succeed in life and leave a legacy behind, we have to start right where we are, with whatever we have, however little it may look. It’s those little acts that add up to make something big. No one will ever make big achievements unless they started from small achievements. If you cannot invest Rwf25,000 and it produces profit, then you might surely not make profit even from Rwf100 million. Some people always wait for capital to start, not knowing that actually it’s starting that makes one get capital! What have you been postponing? Is it because you are not yet ready or you are just waiting to start big?Forget about starting big; only those already big can start big. Instead of waiting to do big things next year, start by doing small things today and by next year they will be totaling to something big – to your utter surprise. Many people have tried to start big – with big offices, big profits, big premises, big cars, e.t.c. and they have fallen flat. The success formula is THINK BIG, START SMALL AND GROW BIG. Robert Bake Tumuhaise is the MD World of Inspiration & founder of the Authors’ Forum in Uganda. Email: bakerobert@yahoo.com. Tel: +256-704666851.