What a time to be in business, hey? Isn't it exciting? It's not? I read the paper every day, and I try my best to follow the latest developments in the global economy. What I read and what I learn tend to be very disturbing. It seems that the global economy has been precariously balanced on the habits of China (producing goods at artificially-suppressed cost at the expense of their workers and their environment) and the United States (purchasing much more than it can afford on credit from China). Does it bring any comfort to know that your business is just 'collateral damage' from the collapse of this mutual exploitation system?
You know the facts: your business consists of a lot more than your livelihood. If you're like most entrepreneurs, your business represents your lifeblood, your soul, your dream. Even more so, it represents a direct route to your self-esteem. There are many committed women and men entrepreneurs out there who now feel cornered — not only entrepreneurially, but personally as well. Many people who have poured their 'blood, sweat and tears' into their business are currently standing back, drained of resources, wondering whether or not it's time to throw in the towel and get an 'RJ' [real job]. The critical questions keep coming: 'How did I get buried in the mess?' and 'How can I ever get out of it?'
No one but you can really gauge whether or not you're at the turning point for that 'RJ' just yet. Before you decide, I'd like to chat for a few minutes about the role that the critical life strategy 'Anticipation' plays in preventing — and coping with — adverse economic conditions. The temptation to maximize profits can be one of the greatest pitfalls waiting for any entrepreneur. By running a business 'from hand to mouth' and failing to take into consideration its essential needs in contrast to what our dreams suggest that we might want for our business, we set ourselves up on the knife edge. This situation becomes grossly aggravated when we're tempted to see ourselves as somehow 'underprivileged' in comparison with the 'RJ' world, and become increasingly determined to 'get ours.' Most often the 'ours' that we get (or, rather, take) comes out of reserve resources. As a result, the knife-edge is honed that much more finely.
Anticipation demands that you push your awareness beyond the status quo. It comes to you as a constant reminder that, "This, too, shall pass." Our human natures want to believe in stability: that everything will always remain as it has been forever. Of course, our rational minds know from experience that this cannot be the case, but that won't stop our emotions from believing in it. We don't want to think that good times will come to an end, just as we tend to imagine that, just because things are difficult today, they're going to remain that way always. Anticipation looks at your current situation and yells loudly in your ears: "This will change any minute now: what are you going to do about it?"
I remember a time many years ago, when I was first hired on at the manufacturing company as an IT specialist (as well as manager of all the data processed by the firm). They had received an enormous contract that demanded that they increase production about 3-fold. Therefore, they did what they had to do (recognizing that the contract hadn't started paying off yet): they bought cheap used machinery (that they repaired and refurbished) and hired lots of labor. Before long, the production was way up and the cash was rolling in. What did they do? Enjoyed the benefits of the boosted income while maintaining the status quo. When, a couple of years later, the contract suddenly went away (they decided to make the components out of ceramic rather than stainless steel), the business crashed.
Anticipation would have demanded that, after the initial boost to sales, the company would have concentrated its resources on becoming 'lean and mean': more organized, more structured, more streamlined, and more technologically advanced. Instead, they did none of those things, and found themselves, at the end of the contract, the exact same company it was before hand, only with a lot more used machinery sitting around on its floor. The planning, risk management and bold decisive steps (including the technological advancements) that the company took to stay in business were all the procedures that should have been in place from the moment that the contract began paying off.
Is your business in trouble right now? Which of your predefined plans have already kicked in to help you through these difficult times? How accurate was your risk management assessment? When it all started to go south, how prepared were you to act? How well have your preparations paid off? You see, digging yourself out of the whole becomes a whole lot easier when you've deliberately left a shovel and ladder at the bottom of the hole. Looking at your business right now — today — can you see where your failure to plan has left you open to failure. It's just another case of that tired old saw: 'when you fail to plan, you plan to fail.'
Once you've actually fallen in the pit, getting yourself out turns out to be a great deal more difficult than getting yourself in. Here again, the answer lies totally in your planning. It's all a matter of controlling your tailspin. During flight training, my instructor allowed me to get my aircraft into a tailspin once (it was a no-no, and he could have gotten in trouble for it; as it was, he scared me silly). The one thing I know about tailspins is that making the obvious corrective moves will almost certainly make things worse. In fact, often, the best thing you can do is nothing at all. When your business drops into a tailspin, your best move would probably be to get your attention off what seems most critically urgent and back on planning. Allowing yourself to be overwhelmed by frazzled focus only limits your capacity to make good decisions. When it all hits the fan, it's time to step back and take a broader perspective. Think of Lucy and Ethel in the candy factory, trying to keep up with an ever-faster conveyor belt.
To adopt the perspective of anticipation, you need, first of all, to kick yourself out of the rut of routine. Your routine itself can fool you into thinking that many of your tasks and duties are far more important than they really are. Focus on what's important coming up in the future: things that will have heavy consequences to them. You do have to face the facts: when serious consequences are urgently coming down on you, you're not going to avoid them; you might as well let the consequences come and clean up the mess the best you can when you have the chance. What's important must be to catch the next serious consequence before it arrives. That's anticipation. Get it done, get it out of the way, and get on with it. You may not achieve all your goals (at leat not in the way you'd wish), but at least you'll be able to salvage your dream, and, who knows? Both you and the dream may be better off for the experience!
H. Les Brown, MA, FCC
Copyright © 2009 H. Les Brown
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