Make your own Map.

I was speaking with a business owner last week and like many these days he was discouraged by the state of the economy. In the course of conversation he made a statement that baffled me " I just think gas prices need to come down so that my business can take off again" - Gas Prices? Now I admit that some business people have been harder hit by the increase in fuel than others but be assured that this gentleman's company is not in that category. Even if it were in that category the great business leader, rather than blame some intangible, finds a way to work around or even turns that into an advantage if possible.
When a President or CEO, Business Owner or Entrepreneur directs his company based on an idea that is not accurate, just a false premise or figment of his imagination where will he end up. If the road map is wrong how can anyone follow it successfully?
In the heydays of Exploration when the "new world" had been discovered - there were hundreds of maps floating around based quite often purely on someone else's imagination. Many explorers went off in search of these fictional locations, countries and riches only to perish. Others realized that they couldn't be trusted and decided to make their own maps that they could trust and felt safer relying on their instincts than on some unverifiable map. Francis Drake circled the globe successfully using this principle. Often as a business leader you are better off making your own map and relying on your instincts as well!