EXCELLENCE

Your greatest value as an entrepreneur/leader.

Introduction:
   Have you ever imagine what will make someone bypass a very similar venture to operate with another?
   Well, I got thinking about this recently and I got the answer within me from my spirit.
 
    Imagine this scenario, you just moved into a new environment and you decided to get yourself acquainted with your new environment. So you got strolling one bright afternoon and you saw a restaurant just down the street, then you decided to pop in to have lunch there. You walked in unnoticed while the attendants were chatting. You called their attention to ask what they have and one of them kept on rolling out the meals they have while the other ones kept talking. At last, you decided to settle down to one of the meals and another attendant with an unwelcoming face, walked up to you for the payment which was 2 dollars.
   Leaving there, you decided to continue with your walk and just about 20 metres from the first restaurant, you saw another and you decided to check this out too. On getting to the entrance, you met the doorkeeper who welcomed you warmly to the restaurant and as you entered you were ushered to a seat available by one of the attendants. She walked up to you beaming with a smile on her face and gave you the menu even before you asked for what they offered, she wait on you to choose what you want to have and you chose the same meal you had at the first restaurant. She went to place the order for you and came back with your order, she set the table nicely and told you to enjoy your meal still beaming with smile while she went to attend to other customers.
   After you finished your meal, she came over to get the dishes and came back bringing dessert of which you said you weren't interested in and she smiled telling you she could pack it for you that it is a free course meal. You paid for the meal which was 500%  over what you paid for the same meal at the first restaurant but, you weren't bothered because of the excellence in service rendered.
   That's what you call excellence. Excellence in service will cause people to bypass your competitors just to reach you.

Living an excellent  life
   For excellence to become a lifestyle, it must first be crystallize in your spirit, it must be in your person first, before it blossoms out.
 

   Culture has been defined to be the way of life of a particular individual/ group which is synonymous to lifestyle. People of influence are individuals whose personality has been built on excellent value which propels them to be people of great influence.

   Excellence in lifestyle is the quality of life led by an individual that causes others to model their life after the way of life of such individual. It's not about the tangibles like cars, investment in real estate and other tangible assets. It's more of the intangible assets a man has, that puts him at an edge over others. It's the way a man thinks; his mindset, his culture.
   Living a life that can be accounted to be excellent, the faculties of a man's mind must be trained by perseverance to feed/focus/ruminate and cultivate in the conscious mind value/habits/character that predisposes the subconscious mind to only be fed continuously dose of excellent values.             
   Men whose living is/was an epitome of excellence had to dig deep into their person to cultivate this intangible seed of great value.
   These have compel/subject their subconscious mind to only harness energy from sources accounted to be excellent.
   Your thoughts defines you much more than who you project yourself to be, if your value system, the things, people/character you surround yourself with does not speak excellence then you can never live it much less attract it tangible equivalent.

A man who led an excellent life

   "The greatest of all men is never one who had lots of tangible assets to his credit but it's one whose excellent value is used as a template and has been replicated in/by others; yielding the same result they see in his life".

1st Kings 10:1 And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord , she came to prove him with hard questions.
1st Kings 10:2 And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.
1st Kings 10:3 And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not.
1st Kings 10:4 And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built.
1st Kings 10:5 And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord ; there was no more spirit in her.
1st Kings 10:6 And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.
1st Kings 10:7 Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it : and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceeded the fame which I heard.

   The man; King Solomon was a man who lived in the Bible age, he was the seed of King David who also led an excellent life. King Solomon by wisdom built an empire that there hasn't been any like it. His excellence in living caused a queen to travel several miles just to verify the report she has heard of the man. That's what excellence does for a man. It causes him to be sought after by men.

Excellence In Business
   Never reduce your standard in quality, quantity and price of products and services offered because of your competitors, your excellence in service will compel men to come to you. Even nature is compel to respond to this virtue "Excellence".

   I have seen businesses go bankrupt due to the lack of this virtue; "Excellence." They have applied different marketing strategies, yet among their competitors, only one seems to be thriving. They tried everything they thought made the business to thrive, such as; branding, logo design, packaging. Some even increased the quantity and reduce the price of their product just to attract customers. But, what they fail to understand is that , "it's never entirely about the product, it is the excellence in service rendered that compels both existing and prospective customers to continue transacting business."
   

The sole aim/purpose of a business is not to make profit first, it's first about building your brand, investing into selling/giving value first.
   

Apple inc. as a brand today is where it is today because they have built an excellent brand, even those who can't afford the phone knows about them. They have registered their brand in every heart. But, it's never about the product, because there are several manufacturers of the same product; it's more of the value that they sell. If their customers aren't getting value for the cash that flows from their hand then they would have stopped buying the product. Get this right, as an entrepreneur, the value is the product.

   Rather than increasing quantity of products you produce, increase your excellent quality first.. Do you know that Toyota makes more car annually than Ferrari, yet Ferrari makes more profit than Toyota does. What do you think could have gotten Ferrari more result in profit that Toyota? Kindly comment. But, I am of the opinion that it is the excellence in quality of the cars that they make.

   While most businesses will keep at conventional methods of getting their businesses running. The ones that have set out to be excellent in what they do/services rendered keep on conceiving, adapting and implementing new ways of doing business, thereby satisfying their customers urge and need for improvement and development.

   Excellence in business could be attributed and not limited to these:
 
Let excellence be your brand and you will found out you spend less on advertising as your brand speaks much about you.
 
Profit in any venture is proportional to the excellent value you give.

When starting a business, think of adding value to your prospective customers first. You can never get value in profit if you don't give value in products/services rendered.
 
   The greatest mistake a man in business will make is to think of profiting first before adding value. The only woe such man/business will meet with, is that it will profit on a short term and crumble in the long run.
 

Conclusion
   Your profiting in life will only be proportional to the value you have built and can give to others. I have never know a man who had excellence as a virtue; except if he fails to identify with it and died without making an impact/influencing others.
   Excellence in lifestyle, business and all other human endeavours will cause you to lead an influential life but note this, before you can exhibit this virtue in all you do, it has to become a lifestyle first.