A couple of years ago, I wrote an article entitled “Seek nothing outside of yourself”.

In it, I was writing about The Book of Five Rings by Japanese Ronin Miyamoto Musashi.

There was a quote: “There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists inside. Seek nothing outside of yourself.”

In the original article, I was stating that we needed to make changes on the inside to move forward, not on the outside.

So: the obvious follow-up question is – if we are concentrating only on our inner selves, then what is on the outside?

And the answer is that the outside becomes the mirror of the inside we have built up.

The same is true for us in our daily lives and in our businesses, and that is in layman’s terms, be the change you want to see in the world.

Honour yourself and what you are creating and stay true to it, and eventually, the outside will reflect the values on the inside. It is an inevitable outcome.

As we deal with our suppliers and other businesses, we all know what elements we would like to see working better to support us, but how often do we stop and ask the question “Am I doing those things for my own customers?”

So, here’s the question: what are we doing on the inside that can be better reflected on the outside to help drive us to greater successes?