The internet is flooded with self-help guides. Most of the ones I see are divided into 2 categories, either for personal growth or for business growth.

I have a theory that personal growth precedes business growth.

When you actively commit to growing yourself as a person, business growth will automatically follow. Logic dictates that it has to!

It’s dismal when a business person feels they have “arrived”. This arrival of sorts stops them from continuing to grow in their life and business.

The school of life teaches you many things. I learned this lesson in my first business. And surprise, it had significant issues until my mentor gave me this advice.

When I followed this approach, we recovered to generate stupendous growth. The results speak for themselves.

Personal growth will lead to growth in your business with one stipulation. You must be committed to doing the hard work it takes to achieve success.

I get that you might not be sold on the idea that personal growth equates to business growth at this point. So here is some food for thought to prove the point.

9 Personal growth tips that lead to Business Success

1. You see the bigger picture

There is a phrase, “The closer you look; the less you see”.

We keep ourselves confined in our own little bubble. Seeing things from one perspective, our own. It is difficult to see outside of our own bubble.

“Those who improve with age embrace the power of personal growth and personal achievement and begin to replace youth with wisdom, innocence with understanding, and lack of purpose with self-actualization.” – Bo Bennett

Personal growth bursts that little bubble and provides a helicopter perspective to view things from. We can get above our own perspective the same as a helicopter rises above the ground.

From this helicopter view, you can see the maze of problems being created. It enables you to break free from the confining perspective of someone trapped within that maze.

And the beautiful thing is, the higher the helicopter rises, the greater the perspective.
This more comprehensive view and the ability to see the bigger picture that your helicopter view provides gives outstanding clarity.

You refuse to remain stuck with a tiny detail and instead see the bigger picture that’s starting to form.

You can distribute your efforts in the most efficient manner instead of wasting them on a tiny and probably insignificant detail.

An integral concept in personal growth and development is that you are supposed to have clarity of the ‘why’ behind everything you do including business.

The reason you started this business and lifestyle is your greater why. Those who are only in it for the money do not tend to last very long.

When your greater why is to solve a problem, your focus on solving that problem helps you grow. When your business is built from a position of service, you grow.

Only when you have that clarity, can you channel your focus in the right direction. Instead of dividing your attention in ten different places you become a professional at doing the right thing at the right time.

2. You accept responsibility

To experience true personal growth, you need to accept responsibility and stop blaming others for the lack of progress in your own life. In personal development, you are encouraged to accept responsibility for every action you take.

I recall shortly after starting my first business, sales began to dry up and then they nose-dived. I was naïve and immature and immediately began pointing fingers at everyone and anyone.

It helped distract me from the real issue, but it failed to provide a solution. Though I was the person in charge, I failed to accept responsibility for the lack of sales growth.

Only when I did begin to accept responsibility and stop blaming others was I able to see more clearly. That was the key to me steering the company in the right direction.

3. You dream bigger

How big is too big when harnessing a personal growth mindset? There is a strong argument that there is no such thing as too big.

“You’ve got to have a dream… if you don’t have any big dreams, nothing happens.” – Ian Rush

Look at Elon Musk for example. He is involved in many companies including Google, SpaceX, and Tesla. Those are three multi-billion dollar companies, all with huge aspirations.

I think the key to his success is not that he dreamed of creating billion-dollar companies. But that he focused on his personality growth goals of solving issues that affected the world.

So Elon might be an extreme example, but he shows that there is no such thing as dreaming too big.

4. You focus on future progress

Most people spend a lot of their time dwelling on past mistakes. This becomes a massive roadblock in them achieving personal growth.

You see this over and over again, especially from those who are new to business.
Dwelling on past mistakes puts you in a non-resourceful state. How can you progress if you aren’t in a resourceful state?

There is an alternative. Devote time to analysing your mistakes without negative judgment. And then learn from them.

We must accept that mistakes are inevitable. But the people who learn from their mistakes and move on are the successful ones.

I learned this lesson early in my business career, and it has helped shape my success. Learn from past mistakes and chose to focus on future progress.

5. You become a better leader

Business leaders from differing industries and from all over the globe are coming to the realisation that business is not just about bossing people around. It is about leading effectively.

And, a leader is someone who lifts people up; not pushes them down. They are someone who empowers; not reduces their effectiveness.

The standard approach dictates using any means possible to get the desired result. A case of the ends justifying the means.

However, as someone who is working on improving themselves, you accept that it’s not just about getting stuff done by any means possible.

Your enlightened approach is to invest time and effort in nurturing and building relationships with the people you work with.

You radiate energy and positivity. As a result, others start looking up to you.
They choose to follow you because of your positive attributes. Instead of seeing you as someone who is to be supported because they fear you.

Loyalty and respect are attributes that are earned. People might follow orders due to your position and the power you hold, but you will not have their loyalty or respect.

6. You stay hungry

When that warm and fuzzy notion that you are a success hits you, a lot of people become happy. Very Happy! But beware of the complacency trap.

A lot of people become happy with the status quo. We get complacent. And complacency quickly kills growth.

Personal growth teaches us to look to continually develop, to improve. By all means, be grateful for all that you have in life and business. However, it is a mistake to confuse gratefulness and complacency.

Regardless of the level of success you achieve, never let complacency stop you from setting bigger goals.

7. You develop greater resilience

Business is about as from playing it ‘safe’ as you can possibly get. Basking in the glory of today, you never know when the next crisis will hit you. It could even be looming just around the corner tomorrow.

The ability to acknowledge and live with this awareness without it disturbing your peace of mind requires a massive amount of resilience.

When you are in the sphere of personal growth and practice positive thinking, you begin to adapt to the changing situations naturally.

Resilience gets deeply embedded within your core. You accept hardships instead of fighting them. Also, you embrace the challenges that each day brings.

You develop enough flexibility to see things from a different perspective. Something which would typically be hard to do.

You focus on creative solutions instead of sticking with the tried and tested approach that created the problems in the first place.

8. You develop people skills

Business is always about people. The people for whom you are working and those working for you.

“Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack, it’s almost always due to personal growth.” – John C. Maxwell

It is crucial to know what drives your customers. Likewise, it is vital also to understand how to keep your employees motivated and what inspires them.

Personal growth helps you become a natural at assessing these things.

You develop the ability to read people. And more importantly, you can read between the lines instead of taking things at their face value.

When you start to grasp and understand the ‘unsaid’ you take cues from little things around you. Then everything becomes much clearer, and you can simplify your business.

9. You become solution-oriented

The harsh reality is that life is a collection of both happy moments and those full of hardships. It’s a bittersweet symphony.

I need to credit The Verve here:

“Cause it’s a bittersweet symphony this life
Trying to make ends meet, you’re a slave to the money then you die.
I’ll take you down the only road I’ve ever been down
You know the one that takes you to the places where all the veins meet, yeah.
No change, I can’t change, I can’t change, I can’t change,
but I’m here in my mold, I am here in my mold.
But I’m a million different people from one day to the next
I can’t change my mold, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
Well I never pray,
But tonight I’m on my knees, yeah.
I need to hear some sounds that recognize the pain in me, yeah.
I let the melody shine, let it cleanse my mind, I feel free now.
But the airwaves are clean and there’s nobody singing to me now.”

Songwriters: Keith Richards / Mick Jagger / Richard Ashcroft
Bitter Sweet Symphony lyrics © Abkco Music, Inc

This bittersweet symphony takes on a brand new form when you run or manage a business.

A guarantee

The only guarantee businesspeople get is that every business is guaranteed to face unforeseen challenges.

You are sure to run into challenges and problems. But, it’s the approach with which you take that separates the successful from the average.

Whenever faced with a tough situation, most people only whine and complain. I sometimes call it having a BMW (bitch, moan, whine).

With personal growth, you see things under a different light. A more positive one. One that is solution-oriented.

READ: Easy Ways To Make A Big Change In Your Life

You start shifting from thinking about the problem and start working out ways to tackle it instead.

Whether you agree with me that personal growth precedes business growth, you would have to admit that personal growth accelerates business growth.

I make a conscious choice to see it this way, the greater I grow, the more I can give and the more I can enrich the quality of life for others. From there, it’s all a matter of discipline, dedication and execution.

Sounds like the perfect reason to grow yourself as a person.