by Carolyn Leighton-Tal (carolyn@witi.com)
Founder and Chairwoman
WITI
Although people rarely attribute creativity as a characteristic of business people, many of us experience the world of business as a fascinating, dynamic environment with constantly changing variables - a living organism which challenges and satisfies our creative process.
Yet, from the time I started my first company back in 1978, I found that family, friends, new business contacts and books on starting a business all told me that I could not build a successful business without a good business plan.
I tried several times to write a business plan and I spent thousands of dollars paying consultants to write a business planm but the impressive looking reports had little value for me and the way I intuitively knew I had to build my companies. I finally accepted the fact that my reality had to be a reflection of my intention and my intuition. The companies I started had to be a reflection of my creative drive, my intuition; a place where I could combine my understanding of the market needs and my need to make the world a better place.
I believe all of us have this drive somewhere within us, but, unfortunately, we are pushed into the "normal" ways of doing things from the time we hit the first grade. Many of us are victims of educational and work systems which stamp out, confine, restrict and squash the very drive and creative process that will produce the product, the solution, the painting, the cure. They can only be produced by listening to and expressing the special intuitive, creative process that creates extraordinary results.
As I reflected back to my earlier years, I realized that my mother had, in fact, provided the model of building a business through passion of loving to help people. She had done exactly that as I sat by her side, watching her build a business she started with my father in the 20's in Providence, Rhode Island.
My mother was truly my mentor. She combined such unusual qualities and as her youngest daughter and the youngest of eleven children, she and I shared a special bond.
She was so brilliant and spiritual. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Michigan around 1919, where she met my father who really wanted to be an attorney (like his father). However, my mother convinced him to go back with her to New England and open up a retail shoe business, where her family lived and her father was a shoemaker.
I watched her build a successful retail shoe business, while at the same time combining her love of teaching, writing and her passion for helping others. All the teachers from the local schools came into the store, seeking my mother's advice and perspective on everything (better teaching techniques, politics) and while they were there, they always bought shoes, handbags and merchandise. I was fortunate enough to be present during so many of those discussions, since she put all of us to work at a very young age (I was 11 years old).
I watched my father refuse to sell shoes that would hurt women and children's feet, even when it would have meant more profit. They were so honest in everything they did that was a value embedded in everything I saw and experienced. Ironically, as business people, neither of them cared about material things. My mother did not wear makeup or jewelry and cared very little about money. Her philosphy was whatever you needed would be available.
So, like many children of small business owners who built a business to make a living, I learned early that business and helping people went hand in hand, that making decisions driven by money was not the road to health, happiness and prosperity.
As I developed my own companies, I also learned the only way I could create anything that would provide me and my family with health, prosperity and deep, long-lasting career satisfaction was to pursue those opportunities driven by my passion and my vision, and to never compromise my integrity and values.
I wanted to write about this for a long time because I want to support those of you who feel torn about these issues whether it's writing a business plan or wondering if you have to compromise your integrity to be successful.
What are our experiences? What choices have worked for you? Please share them!
