The Importance of Following Through

How’s your golf game? How do you do at the batting cages? Tennis? Ping pong? The company softball game, etc.? Are you like me and don’t “do” athletics? Whether you are into a sport or not, one of the most important things is following through. Let’s take a look at what that means for us in our business, and even in our personal lives.

Even though I am not into being much of a sports participant, I do enjoy playing golf. I’m not really any good, but to me there are not any activities more enjoyable than getting my feet soaked by dewy fairway grass as the sun starts to peek over the horizon. The course is quiet, and the only other people you are likely to see is that foursome of old boys that have been coming here three times a week since they retired 25 years ago.

The problem with this is the slice. I wish I were talking about pizza. When I tee off, I slice something terrible. I watched videos on how to correct it. I read golf magazines. I watched pros on television. Nothing helped. One day several years ago, I was golfing with my pastor and trying really hard to keep all my golf vocabulary to myself when he said to me, “Jake, why don’t you try keeping your head down and following through all the way?” “What are you talking about?”, I asked him. He went on to mimic my swing, and it was far from graceful. It looked like that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine is awkwardly dancing. By the end of that round, with his coaching, my game made a noticeable improvement.

The difference? Following through. When the driver goes through its arc, instead of just striking the ball and seeing how it bounces off the club face, we continue to drive the club through the ball and push it off the tee, and it’s on its way – hopefully right down the middle of the fairway. It should be noted that with that little bit of success, my pastor has taken the initiative to try and improve me in other ways. I won’t say it’s hopeless, but he has his work cut out for him. He reminds me of the scripture that says, “with god, all things are possible.”

It’s the same in our business. Instead of awkwardly whacking away at an idea or a plan, we need to be totally committed and power through the task. Instead of putting off that text, email, or phone call, just do it. How many times have you had a potentially great idea or plan, but just never got around to actually doing it? Unfortunately, most of us can think of a time where we just didn’t follow through. Even worse, there are instances we can look back on and recognize what could have been, had we just made ourselves do it.

There is nothing we can do about the past, but what each of us can do is our very best in the future. Thinking about that, are you working on your future? Not only in your business, but your personal life as well? We are all in different seasons of life. You may be just starting out, in the process of a business exit, or grinding through the middle years. You may be older and have seen it all. You may be dealing with illness. No matter where in life you find yourself, the truth of the follow through still applies.

My bride and I find ourselves to be newly minted empty nesters. Both of our kids have moved out and are beginning the next stage of their adult lives. Mind you, I said next stage. We did our best to have them prepared for and functional as adults by age 16. This took a lot of intentionality on our part, and by “our,” I mostly mean my wife. She has done a phenomenal job with their education – both academically and in the practical things of life. This required a whole lot of hard work, which probably would have come up short if it hadn’t been for follow through. I feel very strongly that our world would be a better place if more people would hold their children to a higher standard. For most of us, it is in our nature to want to please. If we expect a lot from people and provide them with the tools to succeed, most times the results will be positive. A lot of that seems to be going away, and I hope we can turn that around. It starts at home, but we can also put this into practice in our business.

Our businesses are very important to us, but make sure and remember to keep it in the proper perspective. Family has to come before business, and I believe God should come before both of them. So, get your priorities right, and whatever you do – whatever you are working on – give it your very best. Follow through. Have you been working on future improvement plans? Put them on paper. Follow up on ideas. Run them by your managers or trusted friends. Do you have a dream that feels a little too far out there, maybe a little unrealistic? Follow through with some sort of feasibility study before you write it off as a pipe dream. Right now may not be the time, but don’t let yourself come to the end with regrets. There is no failure in finding your dream is unattainable. There is only failure in not finding out if it is possible – in not even trying. I would love to hear feedback on some of your success stories, the things you have tried, and how they have turned out. Keep going. I believe in you.

Jake