AIM SMALL, MISS SMALL

For movie lovers, the phrase “Aim Small, Miss Small” is a familiar one. In the movie produced by Mel Gibson “The Patriot” his family was faced with a life-threatening situation, his first son was captured to be hanged to death, his second son was shot in an attempt to rescue his elder brother, there was only one option left, to accept fate or attempt to save his first son from an army of fifty (50) soldiers. In life, we are often faced with life-threatening situations. For you, what do you do when faced with a life-threatening situation? Do you go back to your closet, blame the situation or yourself for your challenges or do you take the bull by the horn?

Mel Gibson assembled his own army in an attempt to save his first son. He had a three-man army; himself, his ten year old son and his eight-year old son. As a soldier or civilian, it is impossible to face a trained army of fifty (50) soldiers with a father and two untrained children, it’s suicidal. Before this day, Mel Gibson has taught his children how to aim small and miss small. With little strategy, his sons positioned themselves to aim small, aim for a soldier or any enemy at a time and also pray to be fast and accurate. In this movie, they were able to successfully defeat fifty trained soldiers.

  

In life, we are faced with family, career, economic and social challenges. We are faced with people who choose to be our enemies because they envy us or don’t like our faces. We are faced with decisions that can either move us forward or backward permanently. We are faced with options that determines or sharpen our destinies.

For about six years, I have been in active business, taking decisions and I have learnt to take a step at a time, to aim small in order to miss small. Three years ago, I was introduced to some business opportunities that were “ sugar coated” everything looked 100% perfect but I still cautioned myself to aim small, despite my trying to aim small, I still had some  misses , still lost some money but it was better than if I had aim big and lost my business.

I have read and met businessmen that were successful and those that also failed. One of the secrets of the successful ones is to Aim Small in order to miss small.

I know a businessman that started a cleaning business, in about a year he advanced his business to general cleaning, waste management and fumigation. After 2years, he must have felt he was a “guru” because he was able to grow the business, so he decided to add other businesses within a short-time; he wanted to “AIM BIG”.

He saw that Real estate market was booming, construction was profitable and transportation was a good business in Lagos, so he formed a group of company and started all the businesses together. As at the time he was running the cleaning business, he was able to employ over Seventy (70) staff, used a two storey building apartment to store cleaning materials, detergents and also for office space. By the time he added the other businesses, it was demanding for him to get more space, more staff but with the same income he was generating before. After three years of adding new businesses to his cleaning business, all the lorry’s he bought with his profit and part of the capital from his cleaning business were all sold as scraps, he lost his cleaning customers because he was no longer focused and so his customers were not getting his attention, the landed properties he ignorantly purchased for real estate were in the state government committed acquisition area, other locations he bought landed properties were undeveloped locations that had no immediate value, he got a construction contract but because of lack of professionalism and experience he couldn’t complete the project because the client cancelled the contract.

As Christians, it is not wrong or bad to THINK BIG, to exercise our faith that we can get things done but we should also not neglect the place of mentorship, experience and professionalism. Before you go into any business, ensure you have the right information, know the trade secrets and get adequate education about the business. Before you diversify or add a new business line, have a testing period; don’t put all your eggs in one basket, aim small in order not to miss much.

This businessman that failed has only taken a risk but at a wrong time, he should have done the same thing but at different times and possibly after a few more years. His risk wasn’t calculated, he didn’t conduct a sensitivity test on his cash flow and his present business, and he was only seeing the proposed profit and overlooking the potential risk in his decision.

  

We Christians, sometimes confuse RISK with FAITH. Faith and risk are two different things. Faith is what we hope for, what we cannot see, what is not calculative (once you make your faith calculative, then there is an element of doubt, hence it is no longer faith) unlike Risk which is calculative and has probability factors. As Christians in business, risk and faith are two different useful tools we utilize daily but any attempt to confuse them for each other always leads to a major setback. As long as we apply faith, there must be no element of doubt, there must be no failure or negative probability unlike Risk in business, we should never transact blindly based on faith, and we should never start a business on faith without considering the risk involved, the success and failure factors.

One major practice that has helped me over the years is that I learn from other peoples' mistakes, I ask questions and educate myself about my business and I am not in a hurry to make it BIG (I am not greedy, this is a major factor that brings businessmen down). It makes you prone to fraudsters; it does not make you think through a business plan or proposal. It creates an anxiety that makes you see failure as success.

  

As much as I want to Aim Small in order to Miss Small, I also work to be fast and accurate in order not to do what am supposed to do in a week in a month because I don’t want to miss big. The aim small, miss small principle is not a lazy principle; it is a principle that is designed to reduce business failure and errors.

My prayer for us is to Aim Small and Miss Small and that God should make us fast and accurate.