It doesn’t matter. As an entrepreneur you don’t need to worry about the level of the liquid in the glass, you just need to make sure you’re the one doing the pouring.

Defeat is optional

Companies, brands and regions are overnight successes, preferably. But more often than not they are overnight failures.

Essentially life happens gradually, then suddenly.

Last week I shared the difference between goal setting and setting sound strategy. But I’ve seen many business owners struggle even with a sound strategy that effectively solves a worthy problem, because they missed something incredibly important.

In my experience entrepreneurs are usually optimistic; they see opportunity where others see obstacles. They are also aspirational.

And as a result many entrepreneurs confuse goal setting with creating strategy.

Last weekend I was skiing with my four-year-old daughter Zara and we rode on the T-bar for the first time for her. On the way back to the car Zara was pumped. “This morning I didn’t even know what a T-bar was” she exclaimed, “And this afternoon I rode on one!”