Start Here Before There
We are conditioned to shoot for the stars at a very young age. “You can be anything you want to be!” our parents tell us. This tends to push us towards expectations that though are not out of reach, they take time to get there. And therein lies the rub, no one tells us how long it takes to be successful. Yes, success is a subjective term, but in the time it takes to watch a short video on social media, it documents the ascension quickly, getting the beautiful house, beautiful partner, beautiful vacations and in no time at all. This skewed expectation starts as a slow cancer and rots from the inside, slowly undermining how we thought things would turn out. This constant disappointment inevitably leads to doubt, instability and even self-sabotage. Right as we seem to be on our way to the top, we slowly start sliding backwards. Why does this happen?
Faking it leads to shaking it
I have a saying, “In your 20’s you act like you have money, in your 30’s you actually have money and in your 40’s you are trying to hold on to what you have.” We have to be careful what we commit to, because it can all come crashing down when we make bad decisions. Just like a house needs a good foundation to build on, so does a business. I see businesses making the outside of their house look good, while the inside is a disaster. Doors not opening, plumbing not working, things in the wrong places and it’s cluttered. This means the business is just getting by. A lot of businesses do this and it happens because they are trying to become profitable as fast as they can, while taking every shortcut possible along the way. Business owners do this because this is what they think people want to see. Customers want to see a successful business, employees want to work for a successful business and investors want to invest in a successful business. They think they can go back and fix all the problems later. Unfortunately, someday never comes and when the foundation is narrow and the load gets stacked too high, it doesn’t take much to make it collapse. What seemed like a natural course of action, was a massive mistake that lacked foresight and self-discipline. There is probably some ego mixed in there too, i.e. I’m different, it won’t happen to me, but now it’s too late. The downward spiral begins and you are in freefall. Descending with minimal braking and your only form of control is steering away from daily hazards hopefully making the correct decision as each one comes.
The tortoise always wins
The Tortoise and the Hare fable has been around orally since the fourth century and first appeared in print in the 16th century. Moral of the story, slow and steady wins the race. This message transcends business, life, sports and just about any category you want to apply it to. So, with this story around for so long, why do we continually make the same mistakes? The simple answer is humans always want the shortcut. Snake Oil Salesmen have been trying to sell us magic elixirs for years. We want the quick fix, the skinny pill, the smart pill, the muscular pill and the get rich quick pill. Even though we intellectually know it won’t work, a tiny bit of us really wants to believe. The only way out of this trap is to have self-discipline. Just like a diet where you stop eating sugar and then you see results, business is the same. It’s cause and effect. How do you keep yourself and the team on track so you don’t fall into the trap? You guessed it, you have a plan.
At a high level, the plan for every business is the same:
Create goals for where you want your business to be in 3, 5 and 10 years.
For each one of those yearly increments describe what your business would have to look like to achieve those goals.
Pair your business goals with revenue goals so that you can afford to make the necessary changes to your business, when the time comes.
Create contingency plans if there are unforeseen economic or business related events.
Execute the plan every day.
Fall in love with process, not optics
You will be tested daily. There will be trends, fads, people and salesmen that will tell you that you are doing everything wrong. They will have the magic pill and sound very convincing that it has worked for everyone else, so why not you? You will have good months and good years that give you a false sense of security. You will think you have made it, but you haven’t. You will be tempted to spend some of that surplus money on things you don’t need, because you think you deserve it. You don’t, not yet. The reason you feel confident is because the plan is working. What you should be celebrating is that you have stayed the course. You have stuck to the plan, said no a lot and said yes very selectively. We’ve all heard the saying, “It always gets worse, before it gets better,” well in this instance the saying is, “It always gets boring, before it gets better.” Many CEOs and executive management teams make bad decisions, simply out of boredom. They think they always have to shake things up and keep things moving forward. Simply changing something, even if it’s working well, just for the sake of change. That is a very bad idea. Again, this is another trap, don’t do that.
You may not have the fancy offices, the cool snacks or the free lunches, but you will have a sustainable business that is cash flow positive with money in the bank. The ROI on that is company-wide, where everyone in the company has a front row seat to be a part of a profitable and growing business. That is not only something that everyone should be proud of, it’s something that very few employees get to be a part of. That lesson right there, is career changing. Every employee in the business now knows what it takes to achieve success. They didn’t read about it in a book or listen to it on a podcast, they were there experiencing it every day. You gave them something money can’t buy and whether they realize it or not, it will change their lives forever.
Business truly is a marathon and not everyone will stay in shape during the journey. I have another saying, “Those that start it are not the people that finish it.” There will be people that come and go and feel like the boredom is stagnating their career. That’s okay, just let them go. They are on their own journey. One thing I do know for sure is that if you start small, stay small and grow when it makes sense, you will have an incredible business for as long as you want it. The tortoise always wins! Always.