The phrase is Latin and means “pluck the day” and it originated by the Roman poet Horace, to express that one should enjoy his/her life while they can.  The Merriam-Webster definition of Carpe diem is “the enjoyment of the pleasures of the moment without concern for the future”. 

In business, this could go 2 ways:  one interpretation would be seizing opportunities and taking risk in your life and your business endeavors or another interpretation could be to carelessly spend and make decisions on the moments of right now, without thinking about the future consequences, like the definition implies. 

Honestly, these 2 different mindsets should be combined and be demonstrated both in our personal and professional life’s.  We must take risk but also know the timing of doing that – jumping off the cliff now before I have plan or later when I have a safety net below me.  In business, there will be times when we must close our eyes and make tough decisions, right at that second but with practice, our quick decision making will get easier and fool-proof.  However, with taking risk or “seize the day” business issues, we will make mistakes sometimes and fall flat on our faces. 

We have no crystal ball, but we can carpe diem and enjoy our life and our businesses, knowing we are seizing the open doors in front of us and closing the ones that are hindering us.  We can still live for the now but do it with consideration for the future.