Starting a business is like going to war. It isn’t for the faint-hearted, nor can it be conducted without strategizing. And as the king of your business, you must deploy your combative instincts to create a winning strategy. As the poster boy of a rags-to-riches story, Manny Garcia is every bit that commander that a business requires to succeed. His secret approach to entrepreneurial success is simple – assess, adapt and advance.

Assess

Garcia’s childhood gave him ample time for self-assessment. He says, “My childhood had two prominent things – time and my ideas to fill it with. I saw my mother struggling to put food on the table. It broke my heart as a child, but I chose to assess my willpower and my inner strength to see if I could pull us out of those dire straits. To assess myself, I started doing all kinds of small jobs in my neighborhood and earned a name for my hard work and dedication. My self-assessment empowered me to start my first business in the Auto collision industry without any prior knowledge. Since then, I’ve always ensured that I assess every opportunity and obstacle, first from a distance and then up close.”

Adapt

For me, adaptation was a follow-up to assessment. Once I understood a circumstance or a crisis thoroughly and realized that there was nothing that I could do to change the situation, I chose to change myself instead. I conceded to the nature of the problem, learned to adapt to its demands, and often found that it helped me ease my way through all kinds of situations. Adaptation gave me a sense of control over myself and my fate.”

Advance

If an assessment is like surveying the battle terrain for loopholes and advantages, and adaption is to align with the assessment results, then advancement is all about taking action. Manny says, “The first big move in business is made up of many small moves first. For me, to advance is to give all you’ve got, to take the plunge – whether starting your business from scratch or buying out another business.”  

The simplest truths are often self-evident. Therefore, it might be easy for some to call Garcia’s strategy a bit obvious, even expected. But for him, “they are the foundation on which I have built my businesses.”