The business world is a large, lonely place for many small entrepreneurs. Competition is fierce, access to sufficient capital is difficult and making every Rand count becomes harder and harder. Add to that a culture of non-payment by many small businesses today and the seemingly mercenary attitude of most of the large banks, and it becomes easy to ask the question, “Why did I ever decide to get into my own business?”

Most of us who are entrepreneurs have asked that question from time to time. Even though it’s a struggle, we probably wouldn’t ever trade the hassles for the freedom and the sense of being in charge of our own destiny.

Yet, – it can be very lonely, not having anyone on tap to discuss things with. Owning and managing a small business can be very lonely. Sure, you’re surrounded by people – employees, customers, suppliers – yet its in those quiet moments before a storm; those times when big decisions need to be made; when all seems against you – its then you can feel at your loneliest.

Of course, we can make appointments to see our Accountant, or our Attorney – rather like we make appointments to see the doctor. And like the doctor, our accountant generally is pretty far removed from the day-to-day action of the business. He will look at a few figures and make a few suggestions. If they could, they’d write out a prescription that would read something like, “go back to the office, sell all your slow moving stock, collect your outstanding debts and you’ll be fine.” That’s true! Most of us know this instinctively – the problem is we usually don’t know where to start and even if we did, how do we fit this in an already hectic day? Trying to keep the production line humming, customers satisfied, supplier’s accounts paid – sometimes all at once – and still find time to go out there and find new business – its no wonder so many small businesses fold.

Once the cycle begins, it becomes harder and harder to break out of it. The cycle becomes a vicious one. Initial problems lead to greater ones. It becomes easier and easier to find someone or something to blame. The more time you spend managing your cash flow the less time you have to go out and find new business. The more time you spend blaming your employees for their lack of commitment, the less time you have for praising them for work well done. The more work you try to do yourself, the less you seem to be able to achieve. Defeat stares you in the face!

Enough of this doom and gloom!

Let me say this to you: It’s in the midst of this kind of tribulation that we very often are able to turn the tables on defeat – if we are sensitive to the early warning signals.

The very first thing we must determine is that we will not be beaten. In the words of the Apostle Paul: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed.” Paul wasn’t walking around with his head in the clouds, heavenly-minded but no earthly good; no, he acknowledged that life is full of challenges but each one can be overcome.
Read the biographies and autobiographies of great people in history, and again you discover that each of these people could have surrendered to setbacks many times. It is not possible to win high-level success without meeting opposition, hardship and setback. In fact, if you’ve never failed, you’ve probably never experienced real success. It is possible to use setbacks to propel you forward.

The Civil Aeronautics Administration in America is responsible for investigating every air disaster. We have a similar organisation here in South Africa. They do so in minute detail and every investigation goes on for weeks. They do this to try and prevent similar disasters from taking place again. Doctors use setbacks to pave the way for better health. Post-mortems teach them more about the human body. Rugby coaches analyse each and every game, especially the lost ones, to try and prevent the same mistakes from happening again. The principle they all adopt is this: salvage something from every setback. But we human beings are strange creatures. We’re quick to accept the plaudits in victory, and equally quick to blame someone else for each setback.

If you find yourself in this situation, here are a few suggestions you need to consider:

• Study your setbacks. When you lose, learn, and then go on to win next time. Ask yourself the question: “what can I learn from this situation?” If you can’t answer it yourself, ask someone else to help you. Then write the answer down next to a statement of the setback you’ve just been through, and then frame it and hang it on the wall where you can see it every day!
• Be Objective. Put yourself in a glass tube and look at yourself as a disinterested third party would look at the situation. Another way to consider the issue, is to zoom out and study the scene from afar. If you’ve ever used Google Earth on the internet, you’ll know what I mean. Zoomed-in you’re faced with a brown/green screen and not much else. Zoomed-out on the same spot and you notice that it’s a small town on the southern part of Africa. Same spot, different view! See if you have a weakness you’ve never noticed before. If you have, take action to correct it. Being constructively self-critical will help you to build personal strength and efficiency. Don’t get too introspective though and just look for faults so you can say to yourself “Here’s another reason why I’m a loser.”
• Stop blaming luck. It never got anyone where he wanted to go. Also – stop giving luck all the plaudits for the victory of others. Rather examine how they accomplished the victory and you will learn something new. When Gary Player was asked what the secret of his success was, he replied with: “I guess the more I practice, the luckier I get!”
• Be persistent (but not stubbornly so.). Persistence on its own is only one of the ingredients for victory – we also need to experiment. Many ambitious people go through life with admirable persistence and show of ambition, but they fail to succeed because they don’t experiment with new approaches. Stay with your goal but don’t beat your head against a wall. If you do, you may well end up breaking through the wall, but be brain-damaged for life as a result! If you aren’t getting results, try a new approach. Consider these two suggestions:

1. Tell yourself, “There IS a way.” This year, thousands of new businesses are being formed. Five years from now only a small portion will still be in operation. Most of them who fail will say, “Competition was too much. We had to quit.” The real problem is that when most people hit the TAR (Things Are Rough) barrier, they think only defeat and so they are defeated. The Proverb says that “as you think in your heart, you are!”
2. Back off and start afresh. Often we stay so close to the problem for so long we can’t see new solutions or new approaches. President Eisenhower of America once was asked at a news conference why he took so many weekend vacations. His answer is good advice for everybody who wants to maximise his creative ability. He said, “I do not believe that any individual, whether he is running General Motors or the United States of America, can do the best job just by sitting at a desk and putting his face in a bunch of papers. Actually the President ought to be trying to keep his mind free of inconsequential details and doing his own thinking on the basic principles and factors…so that he can make clear and better judgements.”

• See a GOOD side in every situation. Have you ever noticed how dark everything becomes just before a storm breaks? Have you also noticed how bright and clean and fresh everything is when the storm has passed? Well, life is pretty much like that. “In many ways, what we see in our past and visualise in our future determines how we view ourselves today – the present! When we look back, one thing is clear – life is short. When we look ahead, another thing is clear – life is uncertain. Most importantly, however, is that when we look to the present we discover that life is challenging! Because it is short, every moment presents challenging possibilities. Because it is uncertain, it’s filled with challenging adjustments.” (Charles Swindoll)

Success is possible against even the greatest odds. Charles Swindoll tells a wonderful story about the effects of determination on overwhelming odds. It tells of a man who moved into a new neighbourhood with his three Red Setter dogs. Early the next morning, he noticed through the back window that a small, scarred bulldog had crawled under the fence and was making its way towards his house. Before he could do anything, his dogs had attacked the bulldog and gave it a fearful beating – chasing it back under the fence, torn and bleeding. The very next day, to his amazement, the bulldog once again crawled under the fence only to receive a more substantial beating. Eventually, after a week of this happening, each day, he was alarmed to hear a terrified scratching sound and whimpering at his back door. He opened it to find his three Setters trying to get in! The bulldog had won!

People who have bull-dog persistence, who can grab something and not let go, have an essential success quality.

(If you, or someone you know, has hit the TAR barrier and would like someone to talk to, someone to guide them through the process of recovery to success, please ask them to contact me by e-mail at gary@finserv.co.za

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 at 9:31 am and is filed under Coaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.