Every day turns out to be an incredible learning experience when it comes to managing this new business venture.
I never expected it to be easy, and anyone who tries to tell you that it is – is straight up lying. But I’m actually fascinated by the process, so I’m enjoying that.
We’re moving forward, though I could have never imagined the path I’d be taking. That’s the fun part.
New lessons all the time.
And somewhat changes my perspective on things. Little and big.
You come up with a solution to a problem. You test it out, hoping it will work. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. When it doesn’t work out the way you thought it would, you try another solution. And you keep going, until everything performs the way you want.
Maybe that’s why the learning curve in a business is so expensive. Because you spend a lot of money trying out things that DON’T work. But is there really any other way to do it?
Suppose you hire somebody to do some work for you. You give them a chance and see if they provide value to you. You approach it optimistically, but until you give it a fair chance, you have no idea what direction it’s going to go.
And it really is one of those things that is pretty much out of your control. You can only respond once you get results.
I had one of those situations this past month. And once I realized that this wasn’t going to be the most cost effective solution, I had to accept it didn’t work out the way I hoped, and it was time to work up another solution to the problem.
But it’s one of those things you just can’t get upset about. You try another path.
We learned a few things. And now have another solution in place. And we’ll test it out again this month.
I read somewhere that only 20% of business ideas are actually successful.
20% – think about that!
Ask a marketing guy, and you’ll find that often only 1 in 3 advertisements are actually winners.
Why would you ever take those odds?
Because – each time, you’re testing it. You’re not putting it ALL on black. You’re testing an idea with a small investment – for a limited time. One fails, you try another one. And you keep moving forward.
And the payoff from one of those winning ideas will be worth a lot more than all the ones that didn’t work.
When you consider personal relationships, when they don’t work out, we often feel disappointed. For a good portion of my life, if someone betrayed me or failed me, I would become very upset, especially if they were someone I was really close to me.
“How could you do this to me?!”
I would take it very personally, because I viewed it as a sign of disrespect, and I’d hold onto it a lot longer than I should have.
That’s because I came at it from the perspective of expectation. I expected every relationship to work out, and I was attached to that outcome, so if it failed, I would become very disappointed.
But now that I look at my life as a timespan, I see that very few relationships actually stand the test of time.
Most people don’t align with you. Most relationships are temporary to some degree.
But the ones that you’ve kept – the ones who help you grow, the ones who make you a better person, they’re worth far more than the ones who didn’t work out.
So, that’s some food for thought.
Approach each friendship, each romantic partner, each business contact with cautious optimism at first. You don’t know how things are going to work, but if you’ve done your due diligence, you give it a fair chance, you create your plan, and be prepared to stomp on the gas should everything go the way you intend, but be prepared to eject if it isn’t going the direction you expect.
And then learn from it, and try, try again.