Wealth generation is a process, not a single event. It is not something that you will achieve overnight, unless you play the lottery, that is. Even if you are lucky with the lottery, though, you will probably need to buy tickets overtime, which shows that even this requires some planning.
Real wealth requires that you commit to a plan, and perform it to the desired goal. The planning process is of great importance. Even more important, however, is to determine if you are on track on your plan.
The reason why measuring success is so important is that plan cannot be fixed. Reality changes, and sometimes a plan that looked good enough may prove a big no-no after some time. However, in the middle of such changes, how can you determine if a plan works or not?
This is when you need to apply specific techniques to measure your success. Are you achieving your goals? If yes, then what can be done to get even more successful? In the other hand, if things are not going according to the script, what is wrong: the plan or the implementation? How can you know what to improve?
Separate the Plan from the Implementation
Sometimes, you may notice that the results of your work are not going according to what you expected. This is the situation when you need to determine exactly what is going wrong. The first step, though, is to determine what is really going wrong.
Without a clear indication of what might be wrong, you may just be taking the wrong steps and getting even further from your destination. And without directions, there is no way to see where you’re going.
There are two things that might be wrong. First, your plan may at fault. This may occur for several reasons, including lack of information on your part when you started the business; the appearance of new competitors, or even the fact that your product sucks! All of these are valid reasons for lack or success, but you need to know if the plan is the cause for your situation.
Check Your Performance Level
The second reason for you problem may be a deficiency in implementation. For example, you may have planned for a product to be finished in 3 months, but you were not able to complete it in the established time. When this happens, there is a failure in implementation: something that you or your collaborators should have done was not concluded.
Solving implementation issues usually requires a reality check. You may be overestimating your capacity of finishing something, when in fact you are not capable to perform the function at that level. You probably need people that have the right capabilities working for you. Sometimes you just need to hire someone else to perform the job correctly.
What all of this means is that you need a good plan for the job, but above all you need to track how the plan is developing. As a business owner, you are the person that needs to do this monitoring. Therefore, checking your milestones can make the big difference between wealth and failure.