Back in the day of the lemonade stand it was mostly fun, especially if you made some money that day. There wasn’t a great deal riding on the outcome of your venture so you didn’t think of it as a business or ask yourself if your business had a right to win – after all you only had to make it thru the day – lemonade stands rarely last more than a few hours.

But - What if the CEO had to understand and prove why his or her company had a right to win -what if they had to prove it every day - to their shareholders, to their employees and most importantly to themselves that their company has a right to win, a right to become and remain successful. Is it the CEO’s job to keep their company alive or is it there job to prove that their company has the right to win. We at helpUwin have proven that there are 6 fundamentals a company has to have to have a right to win – a good idea, a market that you understand, good timing, a product or service that works or tastes great, an aligned and experienced team, and a long enough run way ($$$) to make it successful - The bigger the lemonade stand, the more critical the focus on these 6 fundamentals.

The first thing that happened is that you or one of your friends had an idea that went something like this – hey it’s pretty hot outside and I’m thirsty which means people in the neighborhood or folks passing through the neighborhood, other kids, the mailman, workman, and parents will be thirsty too so let’s set up a lemonade stand. Depending on the weather, your location, time of the day, competition with other kids with the same idea and whether Mom would provide the ingredients this would turn out to be a bad idea, a good idea, or a great idea.

You weren’t doing a lot of research back then so you set up the stand, a card table and a hand written sign, got Mom to help mix the lemonade and launched your new venture as its CEO. It was your idea and your timing (bad, good or great), Mom bought the lemons (so you had funding) and she likely helped make the lemonade (so you had manufacturing and a product) it was probably on the sweet side but that’s what kids prefer. Now that you had a product you likely had a younger sibling try and stop passerby cars so you even had your team in place – you were a full-fledged CEO running a business, a real entrepreneur.

True or false - Nearly everyone has been a ceo in his or her lifetime

(It's true)

It was summertime and you were likely between 6 and 12 years old, most likely it was a hot day when you first decided to become a CEO. You, your brother or sister or a few friends decided you could make some money by setting up a lemonade stand. It’s also likely that up until now you had never thought of that as your first CEO experience.