Things don't always happen as fast as you want them to. Decisions are delayed, projects take longer than expected, products miss their launch dates, expected new sales miss their close date.

Things don't always happen the way you want them to either. Business plans, marketing plans, product plans are great until you start executing - then a variety of factors start to wreak havoc on your original, ideal scenario.

This happens all the time, and will continue to happen. But none of these things are an excuse for missing your number, missing a delivery date, or not achieving the same success you expect for yourself and your business.

You simply need to focus on what you can control. Letting things slip, or accepting lesser results, because something out of your control happened is the easy way out. It's easy to blame something or someone else, and accept the lesser results for what they are.

The more difficult but more successful path is to be creative, think outside of the box, and still achieve the results you've envisioned by doing things differently.

Define success by the outcome, not the path to get there. Empower and inspire those around you (both inside and outside of your organization) to think the same way.