Welcome back to the second post in the`Sassy Sunday’ series where I’ll focus on why you need to be an Evolutionary Entrepreneur and how you’re going to change the world.
I’m not going to lie. Last week was tough.
It was more like a slap in the face actually. Taking a cold harsh reality check is never easy, especially when someone else gives it to you and you’d seen it coming.
Like many other start-ups, our situation is that money is tight, investments are imminent but far enough off to cause stress. Customer traction is not what it should be, revenues are not what we forecast and we need to be delivering more in less time. So we need to take some serious action and some of it’s not pretty.
What made this `talk’ hard is that this time it was personal. Even though 2009 saw some huge achievements for me and invaluable learning experiences that money just can’t buy, I’d failed on some major fronts.
The thing is, after the fun-filled excitement and adrenalin rush of helping turn an idea into reality, building a team and launching a product, I stopped focusing on the real priorities – building the business.
I’ve asked myself a lot of questions over the last 5 days to figure out why that was:
Am I still passionate about our product?
Do I believe in the business model and if so why isn’t my plan in place to hit targets?
Am I truly committed to making this business succeed?
Am I not doing all I can because I fear failure or I fear success?
As you can imagine, it’s not been a light-hearted conversation with myself. I purposefully decided to wallow in the multitude of emotions and feelings I experienced so that I could really take a reality check and find the root cause.
Late last year I started reading Guy Kawasaki’s super useful book `Reality Check’. I’m unsure why I stopped reading it as it would have come in very handy. To be fair I picked up Guy’s `Rules for Revolutionaries’ instead, which I highly recommend. But even this simple act of not finishing a book was unusual for me.
It showed a lack of focus, discipline and follow through -something that I usually pride myself on and had lost somewhere along the line. Life will do that to you, especially when you’re constantly putting pressure on yourself to be the best you can. I’d inadvertently sabotaged myself by having unrealistic expectations. I hadn’t taken my own advice on falling in love with your business!
I can’t say I have all the answers to how I’ve dealt with this and the position I’m now faced with, but if I can provide any Sassy Sunday advice it’s this:
Reflect, ask the big questions, give honest answers, cry if you need, call your closest friends and mentors and lean on them, reflect some more, write it down, make a choice and then act on it.
When the going gets tough, the tough get going. When you’re slapped with reality – deal with it and learn the lesson.
And one of my friends suggestions which I loved and made me laugh: When you’re thrown a lemon, make lemonade.
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I continue to admire how transparent you are in sharing all of the ups and downs that go with the emotional roller coaster of starting and running a business. I too have found that launching an idea from the starting line is an incredible high, but then finding the stamina to keep running the marathon when you’re not exactly sure what the route is or even how much further the next checkpoint is something I also struggle with.
Personally I’ve found that the only way I can stay focused on growing one of my business ideas is to start wielding more “no’s” – when other ideas/opportunities/bright shiny objects come into my path that look really cool, I now realize that I need to stop and reflect whether they line up with my business (and even personal) goals. If not, I need to say no or even just “not right now” or else I risk losing my focus on my dreams. I think that’s probably a tough one for most entrepreneurs, since we are naturally very open to ideas and opportunities by default.
Natalie – You are a gem and I’m a big fan. A couple quick points:
1) Guy Kawasaki is amazing. Years ago, back in 1990, I was working on a project and read his first book and thought to ask for his advice. When he was still relatively unknown to mainstream audiences (outside of techies), he agreed to a meeting and we ended up spending a full day together brainstorming on several great ideas. A couple of which are still up and running. I haven’t spoken to him since then, but I still appreciate the time he spent with me and his passion for helping others. All he asked in return for his time was that I do the same for others.
2) If you veer off path, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you no longer love your business or your idea. Just like a relationship, you need to constantly spice it up. Keep it spicy.
3) When life gives you limes, make a margarita.
If I can ever be of assistance, please feel free to reach out. Have a wonderful and fabulous new decade.
Natalie, I really liked your entry and I totally understand what you went through!
Although some might say I’m one of those who make up 80% of the statistics since I sold my business after 2 years and 3 months, I personally don’t see myself there. I think an important fact in building up a business is, as you have also stated, to have fun. Reflection and a reality check is good, gets you back on the main tracks, gets you focused again. But don’t forget to let it all sit when you don’t get anywhere with thoughts. When I hit a wall on my road, I would just ignore it and push the “problem” out of my sight and felt like a 1/2 failure. At least, that’s what I thought I was doing. Retrospectively, I think it was the best way to deal with the issue at the moment it was ready to be dealt with. And the outcome was mostly great and was not a real problem anymore.
Never forget: You’re perfect every single day. It’s the level of perfectess that varies.