Together is Better

Every year I take some time over the Christmas break to pause and ponder. What will define the year ahead for Illumin8?

I’d written a neat little piece about what I believed the year ahead would hold for us, and then the fires came and tore through our beautiful country.

Destroying our wildlife, peoples livelihoods and creating widespread havoc.

AND THEN

I saw people rise to the challenge. Cutting their holidays short to help. Packing their cars and trailers full of hay, water, bedding & food. Grabbing their tools. Taking a couple of weeks off work to donate their time. Flying in from around the country, and even the world to put their lives in danger so that these fires could be put under some level of control.

You see at a time like this there are two types of people.

Those who need help and those who can help.

And I realised that this year was going to be the same for many people in our country.

2020, for me, for Illumin8 and I believe for many others, will be about Together is Better.

Lending ourselves to this great saying.

If you want to go quickly, go alone,

If you want to go far, go together

I’m often asked what one of the defining attributes of a successful business is. And amidst all the businesses we have worked with and seen come to success it’s easy to see a common denominator.

It’s people – their ability to work as a team, to support one another and to celebrate together.

Having led a team that has now grown to 12 for close to eight years now I can wholeheartedly say, that when I do things on my own they get done... and that's about it. Progress doesn't happen, improvement rarely occurs, responsibility still lies with me and growth is absent.

However, when our team is involved in something, when we band together to solve a problem, when we allow everyone to not just have a voice, but to listen and learn from what they are saying, we grow - big time.

Illumin8 has close to tripled our ability to impact small businesses in the last 4-5 years, and a big reason for that has been the way we have been able to work together.

Whilst it took a national crisis for me to pause and reflect a bit more on the year ahead, I'd love to encourage you to look in the mirror.

Are you finding opportunities to connect with your people more? Be it your team, clients, suppliers or general community? And when you do, are you coming with an agenda that fits your purpose, or one that fits theirs?

In 2020:

Be the business that rallies together and fights as a team.

Be the leader that removes the lense of qualification, experience or background and finds the opportunity to be more united.

Be the team member that buys into the vision, and works to support those around you.

Be the spouse that recognises the importance of a healthy relationship in creating a life for each other.

Be the parent that understand that playing barbies for 2 hours on your hands and knees creates bonds that will never be broken.

Be the person that chooses to go far, rather than fast.

You might have heard us talk about how Illumin8 hopes to help those impacted by the fires this year.

Having been moved by what has happened, and recognising that tragedies strike all the time, yet perhaps not to the magnitude that we have seen this year, we have decided to extend our offer indefinitely to assist business impacted by tragedy. If you, or someone you know has had their business impacted by tragedy we would love to help. Please get in touch.

Let’s be better together.