Never let your persistence and passion turn into stubbornness and ignorance. ~ Anthony J. D'Angelo
I see this a lot with business owners. They can be so stubborn, and focused on one way of doing things, that they're unwilling or unable to change...to the point of stupidity. Now, I know stupid isn't a nice word and I don't allow my kids to say it, but I'm trying to make a point. I looked up stubborn and stupid in the dictionary. Here's what I found:
Stubborn: Unreasonably obstinate; obstinately unmoving. Obstinately maintained as a course of action. Stupid: Lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind; dull.
Obviously persistence and passion are vital to making your business succeed! You have to have drive and focus and you can't give up easily. But when does persistence turn to obstinance to the point where you are lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind?
A few months ago, I met with a business associate of mine, Adrienne Zoble. Adrienne is a marketing expert here in Fort Collins. She moved here about 10 years ago from New Jersey. She told me that the thing that still blows her away, after 10 years is that people out here have this "I can do it" mentality. It's true! It seems that people around here have a "git r done", "pull yourself up by your boot straps" mentality. If you've read my previous blogs, you know that I grew up with that Git R Done mentality, so I get it. Adrienne noted that where she's from, people pay people to do everything for them.
Now, I don't think that either way is all wrong or all right. It's good to be persistent and determined to work hard to get what you want. It's also good to realize when you'd be better off letting someone else do the work for you.
An example: Adrienne has a client who makes a large hourly wage. This guy needed his house painted. He got several bids, but finally decided that he and his wife would just paint the house themselves. Later, he told Adrienne that he and his wife finished and did a fine job, but after figuring supplies and his hourly wage, the project cost them 4 TIMES their highest bid. Another example: I know a guy who owns a shop. Sometimes his employees make deliveries across town. The guy notices his employees taking about 2.5 hours to do a delivery that would take him about 2 hours to do. So, he decides he should just do the deliveries himself. WHOAH!! This guy can bill $100/hour for his services. He pays his employees about $10/hour. Sure, you don't want your employees out joy riding in the company truck on company time, but come on... WHO CARES if it takes them TWICE as long to make deliveries!! He's still ahead!
Do you get what I'm saying? What things are you doing in your business that just don't make sense? Are there things you do just because that's how it's always been done? Are you stubbornly plugging away, trying to make the same activities produce different results this time? Are there activities that you could delegate or even eliminate? Do you even see anything wrong with the way things are going?
Sometimes it's hard to know where the problem areas are because you're too close to the situation. But it's really important to think about it. Try to look at it from an outsider's perspective or ask a friend or business associate to go through your processes with you and help you see your inefficiencies. Or better yet, get a business coach! Turns out that's exactly what we do!! Hmm...
