Greetings Friends,

I like to begin this article by asking you what is the hardest thing in life? If you ask a 1001 persons this question, you’ll get a 1001 different answers. Some will say getting a job, accommodation, finding a true friend, getting money finding the right partner, knowing who to hire among great candidates, and the list continues. For me, the hardest thing in life is knowing yourself. When I say knowing yourself, I mean mastering and understanding oneself. This is because, when you know yourself you can easily solve any navigate any challenge that comes to you. According to Socrates, “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.”

During the course of this article we shall be discussing how you can know yourself and your business. When I published my first book, Design Your Destiny- Actualizing Your Birthright to Success, one message that has resonated with a lot of people including schools, corporate organization and religious organizations is how the book gave them an insight on how to discover their inner beings. When you know yourself and your business, you will know what’s your purpose; what you represent; your uniqueness; you will know how to make the right choice and how you to unleash your potentials. You’ll also know how you’ll know how to prioritize your time and finally you will know to network with the right people and associations.  Regrettably, many people don’t know themselves and what the companies or organizations they work for represent.

Even the book of life stated in Hosea 4:6: “My people perish for lack of knowledge”. This is a universal principle which when applied will generate so much opportunities, resources in addition to making you an expert both for yourself and your business. Regrettably, many people don’t know themselves and their business and this makes it hard for them to truly succeed in life. We live in a complex world that is ever changing and therefore navigating life can sometimes be challenging.  I will be share some guidelines on how w can know yourself and business in order to truly succeed in life.

How to know yourself and business.

1. Identifying your strongest asset:  What’s your greatest strength? What are you truly good at when it comes to your personal and professional career? Are you great at bringing positive energy to a team? Are you good at influencing people?

• Identifying your biggest weakness: This is one of the best ways to know a rational being. A rational person should be able to know his/her weakness and how to maximize them. Being able to master your weakness can set you apart because your can turn your failure to your strength if used judiciously.

• Knowing how to learn from your mistakes: One of the rare quality of a great business and informed person is being able to admit you made a mistake. No one is perfect, even though we all try to attain perfection. One of the most admirable qualities is the work place is self honesty. When you can admit you made a mistake, you’re more likely to analyze and learn from it, as well as prevent said mistake from occurring in the future.

• Being able to take constructive criticism: If you truly want to succeed in life both in your personal and professional life, you should be able to know that the people you work with simply want you to do your best, and as such when you are criticized objectively, look at the intent as opposed to the form. If it is justified, it is not a criticism, learn from it.

•  Mediating: Regardless of how positive an office environment may be, there will always be conflicts. And some conflicts can be resolved without heading to HR. Being able to mediate a conflict in the office is a beneficial skill for maintaining office camaraderie, as well as showing younger employees that they can mediate as well. In order to achieve this skill, you must be able to listen to your inner still voice.

• Be Yourself: You can do this by eliminating the impostor syndrome: The best thing you can do for yourself is be yourself because everyone else is taken. When you are yourself, you will attract the right kind of people, but when you fake your being, you stand the risk of attracting the wrong persons into your life. Life is too short to live some else life. One of the disservice you can do for yourself is to lie to yourself. You need confidence in order to believe in yourself.
• Saying No:  If you truly want to succeed in life especially in your business, you must have the gut to say no. Saying no helps to attract what you want and makes your life much easier. Be advised, it is more much better to say no and the say yes later, than saying yes and then say no. You should be able to identify which tasks you need to do

We shall use this acronym (VITAL) to know how you can know yourself and your business.

1.  Values: Value simple means what you attach so much importance to. To know about any rational being and corporate organization, look at their values. It will give you a better insight on what they cherish.

• Interests: These include your passions, hobbies, and anything that draws your attention over a sustained period of time. To figure out your interests, ask yourself these questions: What do you pay attention to? What are you curious about? What concerns you?

• Temperament: Your temperament sometimes defines how you handle situations and stress. It is said that life is 10% percent what happens to you and 90% how you react. To understand how your temperament works, ask yourself if you make decisions more on the basis of feelings or thoughts and facts. A good way to understand temperament is by figuring if you are an introvert or extrovert.

• The “around-the-clock” This refers to when you like to do things. Everyone works differently. Are you a morning person or a night person? At what time of day does your energy peak?

• Life Mission and Goals: What are your ultimate goals in life? To truly achieve this life mission and goals, you need strengths, skills, and talents, but also character strengths such as loyalty, respect for others, love of learning, and emotional intelligence.

Advantages of Knowing Yourself and Your Business

1. Happiness: When you know your product and yourself, you’ll have this inner sense of fulfillment and happiness in addition to being relaxed. If you’ll agree with me, true happiness is internal as opposed to being external, though external factors can influence your happiness. There’s always a sense of fulfillment when you express who you are. True happiness and peace of mind occurs hen your outside actions are in accordance with your inside feelings and values, you will experience less inner conflict.

• Better decision making: Great business leaders are known for their decisive way of making decisions. When you know your strength and weakness, you’ll be able to use your discerning mindset and understanding to decipher the right decisions. When you know yourself, you understand what motivates you to resist bad habits and develop good ones. You’ll also have the insight to know which values and goals your business or organization should be built upon.

• Resistance to social pressure. When you truly know yourself, you’ll know what you need and want. You’ll also know what your business or organization needs. Big corporations know which Corporate Social Responsibility their company focusses and engages in.

1. Tolerance and understanding of others. Knowing your business and yourself helps you to understand how to understand and relate with people. As mentioned above, human beings are the most difficult people to deal with both at workplace and the society at large.

In conclusion, knowing yourself and business is one of the best things that can happen to you and your business. I charge you to go into soul searching today and try to listen to your inner still voice. By so doing, you’ll know how you are wired and what kind of business you are likely to succeed in.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with New York City Department of Correction as the legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright to Success.