HOW AMBITIOUS ARE YOU?

SEE IF YOU’RE A DREAMER, DOER, BOTH OR NEITHER

COMMITMENT TO SUCCESS

1. As a business owner, what’s your ultimate goal? 

___ A. A large chain of eyecare locations — 45 or 50 would do me fine.

___ B. I’m hoping to open a second location, possibly a third.

___ C. A profitable business that doesn’t take up every second of my spare time.

___ D. To retire!

2. How many hours do you put in at work per week?

___ A. Less than 40

___ B. 40 or so

___ C. 50 to 60

___ D. 60 to 70

3. How far do you plan ahead, generally?  

___ A. What am I, a psychic?

___ B. I’m pretty firm on what I’ll be ordering for the coming season.

___ C. I’ve got spreadsheets of sales and revenue projections for the fiscal year.

___ D. I know what college my unborn child will be attending.

 4. What’s typical bedtime reading for you?

___ A. The latest from A Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin.

___ B. US Magazine.

___ C. The Harvard Business Review.

___ D. Tomorrow’s targets and schedule on my iPad.

TRACK RECORD

5. Your entrepreneurial efforts as a kid consisted of:

___ A. A lawn-mowing/baby-sitting business.

___ B. Building the comic collection that’ll make me rich one of these days 

___ C. Registering my first limited liability company.

___ D. Mainly blue chippers, but Xerox made me.

6. When you were younger, which of the following might you have said on a first date?

___ A. “I’m going to be very famous someday.” 

___ B. “So, your dad’s on the membership review committee at the country club, isn’t he?”

___ C. “Man! McDonald’s makes you wear shoes now!?!”

___ D. “So, how did you do on the SATs?”

7. In the past five years, your inventory/floorspace has increased by:  

___ A. -50%

___ B. 0%

___ C. 100%

___ D. 1,000%

8. Have you accomplished what you set out to do at this point in your life?

___ A. Not 100 percent, but close enough to make me want to try harder.

___ B. Absolutely, and there are still more heights to climb!

___ C. I just take it as it comes, baby … take it as it comes.

___ D. I’ve had my share of ups and downs.

INSTINCTS

9. You’ve just heard that your competitor has expanded her business. What are the first words out of your mouth?  

___ A. “Good for her!”

___ B. “(expletive deleted)”

___ C. “Maybe that’s something we should consider …”

___ D. “What a sucker! Now she’s going to have to work twice as hard!”

10. In which setting would you feel hesitant or shy about handing out your business card? 

___ A. An eyecare trade event.

___ B. On the golf course — I keep my work and personal life strictly separate.

___ C. A child’s birthday party, to other parents.

___ D. I’d hand them out if I was stranded with two other people on a desert island.

BONUS QUESTION

11. How old was Bill Gates when he founded Microsoft? 

___ A. 12

___ B. 20

___ C. 29

___ D. 35

YOUR SCORE

0-8. Wow, hey, you finished the quiz! You even added up all those boring numbers! Maybe you should reward yourself with a nice, long nap! Now seriously, don’t you have any goals you want to accomplish?

9-15. Sure, life’s too short to work all the time. And there are other ways to be successful than just monetarily. But success in what you do, whether it’s selling bespoke eyewear or evangelizing Ortho-K, can in many ways be measured by the growth of your business over time in terms of size and profitability. Your commitment to these things might not be all it could be. It may be time to reassess what you really want in life.

16-23. You may have set the bar a little high for yourself, but hey, better shoot for something big than to settle for mediocrity, right? And even if you often get pre-occupied with work at the expense of other parts of your life, you’re no Type-A personality. Keep that work-life balance working for you!

24-30. While probably successful, or on your way there, you might be spending too much time obsessing over your five-year plan and not enough about the five seconds right in front of you. It’s called the present, and it’s a pretty good place to be. Be careful you don’t end up regretting the time you missed with people you care about because you were working so much.