At a recent conference where I gave a speech on "The Art of Business" I was approached by an entrepreneur who wanted to discuss how she could organize the massive structure she had developed to support her big dream. I could tell that she was incredibly passionate about her vision and had the will and courage to achieve it, but that the sheer size of her dream was overwhelming her. I suggested she break her plan into smaller steps, start with the steps that felt most intuitively "right" and see what happened. I felt that each series of steps would open the door to the next series of steps. She felt so relieved, as if a huge burden had been lifted from her shoulders.

The moral of this story is that if you are an entrepreneur with a big vision, you need to take small steps to prevent yourself from being overwhelmed by your vision. Consider Medtronic, the world's leading biomedical engineering company, which brings in nearly $8 billion a year in revenue. Medtronic's vision is to restore people to full life using electronic medical devices – clearly a big dream. Yet when Earl Bakken co-founded the company with his brother-in-law back in 1949, the company earned a meager $8 of revenue during its first month. It took thousands of tiny steps to transform that big dream into a reality.

Grameen Bank also has a huge dream, a dream that is almost too big to contemplate – to rid the world of poverty. And yet each of Grameen Bank's workers takes thousands of small steps each day to make that dream a reality. Some tramp miles to outlying villages in remote Bangladesh to speak with women about starting their own businesses, often facing the wrath of angry priests and husbands who do not want their women to become empowered. Other workers restructure loans again and again so that their borrowers can pay them back even when times are tough (some loans are paid back at the rate of half a penny a week). Still other workers travel around the world spreading the concept of microlending, a practice of lending small amounts of money to the very poor. Grameen Bank's success rests on its worldwide dream and uncounted tiny steps.

At heart, every truly great company is pursuing a big dream with small steps, which breaks down into this simple formula:

"Do the right thing, do things right, and prepare to change!"

Let's investigate that formula further:

1. Big Vision: Doing the right thing means doing something worth doing.
Does your company have a vision that inspires you each day? Are you and your employees willing to make sacrifices to bring the vision into reality? Is the vision worth more than your personal comfort? Does the vision improve the world in some way?

2. Small Steps: Doing things right means taking lots of small steps in the right direction.
Are you willing to take the thousands of small and sometimes highly repetitive steps necessary to move your company toward manifesting its vision? Are you patient enough to wait for the results of those small steps? Do you have a roadmap that will guide the direction of those steps toward your vision?

3. Prepare to Change
Nothing happens in business, or life, without change. Are you willing to change? Are you willing to see the world and your business in new ways? Are you willing to listen to other business "giants" who have gone before you?

Regardless of whether you just want to improve your corner of the world or you want to take the world by storm, you first need to do the right thing, then do things right, then prepare to change!