How to Be a Great Hockey Player and a Great Small Business Owner

Wayne Gretzky, one of the all-time great professional hockey players, once commented that a good hockey player plays where the puck is, very well. A truly great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. It's a very wise comment and one that deserves to be looked at in terms of what you need to be doing to be a great small business leader. Get out of the office. Go away, take a vacation, even just a weekend off. The point is to give yourself an opportunity to dream, think, contemplate, imagine and project, without the distraction of day-to-day work which consumes your every hour managing the force, focusing on perfecting your daily business success. Of course, that is what we do.

To play were the puck is going to be takes just as much as an effort as playing where the puck is, but we frequently do not get to do it because we're trapped in our daily schedule. However, if you as the small business owner does not perform this exercise, who will? If you don't, how will your business be prepared for tomorrow? How will you get ready? If you do not know where you are going, how are you going to get there? All good questions.

Gretzky made an accurate observation: a great hockey player knows how to play where the puck is going to be. A great business person takes the time to contemplate the future and determine where he is headed so he, too, can play where the puck is going to be.

Try it. Time away from the office does not mean you are not working, just performing different skills.