If you read Stop Playing In The Kiddie Pool the other day, you got a harsh introduction into running your business. You need to be SERIOUS, COMMITTED, & FEARLESS in yourself and your business. This is a 'Part Two' to that article. When people run a race or push themselves when they exercise, they tend to hit a physical and mental wall that tells them to stop running or exercising. They're too tired, they are over-taxing their body, or they might be close to passing out.
Physically, that might be true — there are many tell-tale signs (heart rate, breathing, etc.) that will tell you you're getting close. What's funny is that your brain usually takes over and tells you way before that you should stop. In fact, your body can go a lot longer than you think — check out this podcast — it opened my eyes!
When it comes to business and your mental state — many of us tend to give up when the going gets tough or when things get out of focus and we're afraid to make the next decision.
We are afraid to make a tough decision, spend money, hire a service — we get paralyzed. And we make no decision. We tell ourselves, "No decision is better than a bad decision." Unfortunately, that's not true.
Let's look at my simple decision matrix:
- Make the decision and it's good - Congratulations! Now make another. And another.
- Make the decision and it's totally wrong - Too bad! Now turn around and move in the other direction.
- Make the decision and it's partly wrong - You're going in the right direction, just recalibrate your angle.
In all three situations, you have to make a decision. In today's business world, no decision, no movement, and no action is bad for your business. Doing the same thing, the same way, with the same resources and moving nowhere is a prescription for failure. Someone else is going to come along and do it better, faster, and cheaper.
In the Welcome Packet I send to new clients, on the cover I have one of my quotes: “If you’re not continually reinventing yourself, your company, or your brand, it’s only a matter of time before you become obsolete, irrelevant, and end up in the bargain bin.”
So hire that new person, engage with that branding firm, move to a bigger office, or take out that needed business loan. Big businesses become big by taking chances and trusting their instincts.
As Walt Disney said so many years ago, “Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
Keep moving forward.
