7 Business Lessons To Learn From Ants 4 Turn The Lemon Into Lemonade

Let me start by asking, have you had a taste of lemon, and lemonade before now? I must confess, they are two different tastes, though

from the same source.

For the benefit of doubt, let's look at the dictionary definition of both of them. The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary defines lemon as, a yellow citrus fruit with a lot of sour taste. And it defines lemonade as, a sweet fizzy drink with a lemon flavour; a drink made from lemon juice, sugar and water.

Please pardon me; I know this is a business book, not another academic textbook. Hence, I must play by the rule, and make it as simple as possible.

Now the lesson. The person who produced lemonade (a sweet fizzy drink) from lemon (a yellow citrus fruit with a lot of sour taste) saw things from a different perspective. He didn't focus on the very sour taste of lemon; rather, he focused on the sweet juice that could

come out of the sour taste. In other words, he didn't dwell on what the lemon did not have, but what it has (i.e. the potential to become a lemonade). He worked on that discovery, or you can call it mindset, and today the whole world is paying him for that.

Let's compare this a.n.a.logy with the case of the Ants in the instruction my mentor gave me. Though they (i.e. Ants) have no king (or boss) to make them work, yet they labour hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.

First things first. They do not have a King or boss (I know there is a queen ant; I will explain that later). In this case, a boss is like one who employs you to work for him and pays you an agreed salary or wage at the end of a given period. It is synonymous to having a good job with juicy fringe benefits. In fact, it is good to have a good job. I can testify to it. However, the issue here is not about having a "boss" or a paid employment, but not having one.

And having no king or boss for you could mean not having enough capital to start that dream business; the right network to secure that juicy contract, or not having the requisite qualification to clinch that multinational job. However, like the Ants, you need not to dwell on what you don't have as this could lead you to living all your life celebrating 'pity-party'.

Life is full of challenges; at times it seems there are even more challenges than celebrations. Despite that, we must keep focusing on the possibilities amidst thosecchallenges; and the opportunities amidst the obstacles.
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n.o.body or business succeeds in life by focusing on what he doesn't have. The truth is, there is something unique that you have, and someone is willing to pay to have it. You need to discover what it is, refine it and sell it for profit.

To do this, you need to have a positive mindset. This is because opportunities usually come disguised as problems. And it is the discovery of this unique ability or potential that gives birth to great businesses. No wonder it is called your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) in Marketing parlance.

It is what gives you compet.i.tive advantage in the market place, and the reason people will want to do business with you.

Your unique ability may be the ability to write, which can give birth to a great publis.h.i.+ng business. It could also be the ability to impart knowledge or teach which could give birth to International schools or training inst.i.tutes; it could be your love for food that can evolve into a world cla.s.s catering outfit; your knack for cleanliness can metamorphose into laundry and dry- cleaning company with state-of –the- art equipments. It may be your voice; your pa.s.sion for children; your eyes for details; your creative or vocational talents, and the rest. These are your products and services that you need to start that business or move it to the next level.

To discover and maximise these potentials, you need a paradigm s.h.i.+ft, or call it a re-programming of the mental model you have been working with. You need to stop seeing the cup as half empty, and start seeing it as being about to be full. Then, your lemon (sour taste fruit) will begin to turn into lemonade (a sweet fizzy drink with lemon flavour), and the world will start paying you for it.

You can Google the story of Colonel Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) to see the application of this principle in his multinational business. This is business lesson No.1: Turn the lemon into lemonade.

In case you don't know, the process of turning your lemon into lemonade all starts with seeing the great future ahead.