This morning, while grabbing my morning coffee at Starbucks, I ran into a client I had done a bit of mentoring with a while back but had lost touch with over time.
I asked how his business was going, and he said he never ended up starting it.
Never one to dodge the hard questions, I asked, “Why not?”
What a mistake that was. I opened up a can of worms.
He went off on a 5 minute dictation of every reason his idea wouldn’t work and why he was making the smart move by not going forward with it.
Right after he said he was “making the smart move,” I had heard enough and I cut him off and said, “Any moron can make that decision.”
A bit shocked, he asked what I meant…
I said, “Making a list of reasons why you can’t do something—and basing your decision off that list—is low paid work. It doesn’t take much effort or brains to make a big long list of reasons why you’ll fail.”
Still confused, he said, “But don’t you agree? My idea wouldn’t have worked because […]”
“Yep. I agree completely, those reasons ARE accurate and you’d fail with your idea based on those reasons.”
Now I really had him confused!
I said, “Listen, your list is accurate and precise, and your idea, as it was, would fail based on the exact reasons you put in that list. But that’s not what makes a true entrepreneur.
A business owner would have started that business, flown through that list, and closed up shop.
But an entrepreneur does the real hard work. They look at the list of all the reasons it wouldn’t work, and get to work building ways it CAN work despite those reasons.
It’s looking at the reasons and finding ways to make them irrelevant.
The list is easy work. The solution is hard work.”
Let’s just say his jaw was hanging low for a few minutes of awkward silence…and I’m pretty sure everyone around was listening to our conversation.
Entrepreneurs don’t run from problems. But they also don’t pretend they don’t exist.
You have to identify the problem, and come up with ways to make it go away or not matter at all.
That’s the smart work. That’s the hard work.
It’s easy to blame…
- competition
- regulations
- payroll
- suppliers
- government
- bylaws
- low income prospects
- high prices
And it’s incredibly hard to find ways to make all that irrelevant.
And creating those solutions is the HARDEST thing you’ll ever have to do in your business.
But you, you’ve got what it takes.
So go ahead, make that list of things in your way, and then make the even more important list of things you can do to crush that list.
Put in the work, and reap the rewards.
And remember… you’re only one marketing strategy away from your dreams.
Al
PS – Just do be clear… IGNORING that list is not smart! That will lead you down a troubling road. Make the list, acknowledge the list, and find viable solutions to crush it.
Alain Blais
CEO RYS Group
alain@rys.group
The Blais family enjoying the views at Lake Tahoe.
RYS Group Inc.
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