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Progress evaluation for entrepreneurs

By Tito Philips, Jnr.
10 February 2017   |   3:55 am
Being an entrepreneur, I’m sure this question has crossed your mind lately. At the start of a new year like this, a lot of progress related questions like these goes through our mind;

How well are you progressing as an entrepreneur?
Being an entrepreneur, I’m sure this question has crossed your mind lately. At the start of a new year like this, a lot of progress related questions like these goes through our mind;
How well did I do last year?

Did I make any significant progress?
Was year 2010 any better than the previous year?

Progress does not come as a result of merely ‘doing something’; it comes as a result of ‘doing only the right thing’. Doing ‘something’ is simply being occupied or engaged. Doing ‘something’ is what it means to be ‘busy’. For the most part, a lot of people would have been ‘busy’ all through the year. Now don’t get me wrong, doing ‘something’ is good but doing the ‘right thing’ is best. Doing the ‘right thing’ is what it means to make progress. Real progress is not found in being ‘busy’ (doing something); real progress is found in being ‘effective’ (doing the right thing). This is important because quite a number of people are just about ‘anything’ and on the long run they expect to accomplish the ‘right thing’.

Some Misconceptions about Progress
What in your own opinion is progress? Do you often find yourself caught up in the continuous trap of activity without productivity? Do you often get anxious and worried with each passing day or hour wondering how far behind you are in life? We all go through this phase in life, when you wonder what exactly are you getting at in life? Most of the time, what we consider as progress or lack of progress is often misinterpreted. So, I am going to start by debunking every misconception you might have about progress.

Motion as Progress – A lot of people confuse motion as progress simply because they think progress is measured in relation to what we do or have done only. What we fail to understand is that motion is simply the act of moving. It is one of the elements of progress but not what progress completely means. Meaning, progress truly does involve movement, but it doesn’t end at that, it entails much more than merely moving. Progress is concerned about the direction of your movement and not the mere act of simply moving. “Where exactly are you moving to?” Or put another way, “where is your movement leading you?” For progress to really happen, your motion [movement] must have a direction [focus].

Volume as Progress – Viewing progress in terms of the volume or number or amount of work done is incomplete and absolutely wrong. Progress is much more than the mere quantity of task or work completed. For God’s sake, you could be doing all the wrong work or performing the right task in a wrong way! That you have written 5000 words length of article doesn’t make the article valuable. It is not the quantity of the words written that counts as progress, but the quality of the information presented in the article. Progress is more interested in the ‘value’ of work done rather than the ‘volume’ of work done. The value of the work done is what determines if you are making progress or not. For instance, “what good is in the number of trees cut if all you were supposed to do was count the trees?” or “what good is in the number of trees cut if all you did was cut the wrong trees?”

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.
Tito Philips Jnr. is a young Nigerian that is M.A.D – Making A difference

 

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