3% of all business owners make 84% of all private biz income. Why? They’re not covering for unknown weaknesseses.
Successful business owners respond quite differently.
He who makes the rules wins.
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This article was published on June 08, 2010. So far, 3 people have left their thoughts. Share your own thoughts.
On the way from the Charleston airport to speak at a conference last Thursday evening. I engaged our cabbie in conversation, which of course always gets around to food. I asked what seafood he liked since he lived on the coast, and his first response was “I don’t eat shrimp.”
I found his response in the negative to be interesting so I pursued it. He told me his cousin worked on a shrimp boat in the early 60’s and had drowned, and that he had never been able to get over it. So now he doesn’t eat shrimp because it reminds him of his cousin drowning over 40 years ago.
I empathize with his loss but I don’t understand letting that circumstance rule his entire life even in one small aspect like eating shrimp. I lost a cousin at the age of 41 from a massive heart attack as he went out the door for a run, but I would never think to stop running or exercising because of my loss.
The moral of this story?
Circumstances don’t make me who I am. How I respond to them does.
I met a woman once who was a quadriplegic from birth who always introduces herself by saying, “I have the gift of cerebral palsy.” As someone who has every right to claim true victim status, she is a bright light in a world full of self-made victims.
How are you responding to the circumstances in your business? If you decide you’re not a victim and respond accordingly you’ll enjoy life and business a whole lot more.
Add Your Own
Thoughts
Kris S.
06/11/10
Great post Chuck,
It’s a simple truth I think many people in general tend to forget with time as we become so used to “reacting.”
I find the business application to this theory interesting, and the fact that so many business decisions are inhibited by past experience. It seems the longer one is in an industry, and the more one learns what works and doesn’t work – the less willing one is to try something new, innovative or risky.
I’ve always thought there was a place in the world for a forum where businesses can brainstorm with students, or minds yet to be influenced by real-world results. Until then – I’ve got you’re blog to keep me going!
Rich
06/12/10
A great reminder Chuck…thanks!
Chuck
06/12/10
Kris,
It’s so important to stay in the battle. When we have something to protect, we almost always stop taking risks, and that keeps us from ever climbing the big mountain. I think your idea of a forum for business interacting with students is a great one! We’ll have to have the biz folks pass a test that they are still taking risks, though. Otherwise, all they will do is teach the students how not move forward.
It’s one of the many reasons I don’t like having government agencies like the US’s SBA pretending they are a “resource” for business owners. Bureaucracies are not great places to give birth to ingenuity, creativity or risk of any kind. Academic institutions don’t offer much different – most of the biz profs have never started a business.
So let’s get that forum going so business owners taking risks can rub shoulders with students! Great idea. :)