One day I was in my Sunday school class and the instructor said that our worldly accomplishments don’t mean anything compared to our eternal life with God. Now, I had heard that all my life, and I never questioned the truth of the statement until that very moment. For some incomprehensible reason, I blurted out, “I’m not going to discount what I have earned and created over the years.” A silence came over the class. They were shocked at what I said, even I was shocked.
Usually when an embarrassing moment like that happens, you try to explain what you meant, which usually results in being able to save face. For example I could imagine myself saying, “Now don’t get me wrong, God is the most important, and I would never compare my accomplishments to his love. All I’m saying is...”
But, at the time, and maybe for the first time in my life, I stood my ground and stuck with what I had said. I made no excuses. I didn’t look around insecurely to see if the members of the class were frowning at me. I just sat back. I didn’t even care when l was challenged. I simply stuck with what I had said. In the name of common sense, why?
I simply couldn’t bring myself to discount what I had worked so hard at and sacrificed so much for by putting anything above it. I loved what I had created.
Now this is an interesting position to be in. In business we remind each other that we shouldn’t fall in love with what we have created. The reason is that eventually you have to make changes to keep a business going. If you fall in love with the product you are less likely to be objective enough to make changes. Eventually, you may even have to sell the company you created to realize its full value. In other words, in business we keep reminding ourselves that “it’s just business, it’s not personal.”
Yes, that’s right, but it does not make it easy. Which means, business is not easy. And what makes it so hard is that it is always changing. Of all that I have been involved in, there is nothing that changes as much as a successful business. For example, price points are constantly adjusting, competitors require regular repositioning , technology always requires new investment, new websites get old fast, wages pressures have to be measured and accommodated, and of course profit pressures must be met. Have you ever noticed how business people tend to consume so conspicuously when times are good? That’s because they know better than anyone else, that the good times do not keep rolling on. They party while they can. They are the ultimate existentialists. The present is what matters, because the future will be different, no matter what.
What’s the lesson here? Things change. Get used to it and adapt. The more you try to keep things in place, the more they will build up pressure and force you to change. I don’t know if this realization has kept me young, but for sure it has kept me warily humble.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
In Starting a Business: Part 3 “Lessons Learned” From Creating My Own Businesses, Lesson 2
In life I’ve tried easy and I’ve tried hard. Hard is better.
In 1992 I sold my first business and went on a three year sabbatical to South America. When I came back, I had no intention of starting another business. Rather, I felt I had made enough money to kick back and work at a comfortable pace with some company. I did just that, but within a year two things happened. One, the company ran into financial and regulatory difficulty, and, two, being part of a corporate culture was sucking the life out of me.
So, I decided to create another consulting firm. Because this was the second time I had done this, I knew more or less what had to be done to make it succeed. Frankly, it sobered me. It would take an incredible amount of work. For example, if you are going to be a successful management consultant, you have to travel. I calculated that for at least five years I would have to travel about one million miles by air, and be on the road three weeks out of the month.
I concluded that it would be too hard. So I decided that the sacrifice was not worth it, and determined to make a go of it by building a “book of business” locally. It would take two to three years to make locally what I could make in one year on the road. That was OK I thought. I have enough money, and in my spare time, I can volunteer my time to church service.
My life was very easy the first year. I secured two to three contracts, fixed up a home we had purchased, and did some volunteer work. We vacationed in Hawaii and Florida. However, as the year came to an end, an unintended consequence arose. Easy had become tedious.
For me, when something becomes tedious, it turns into boredom, and when I am bored, I am not happy. That’s a weird situation to be in. I have everything I need and want, and yet I’m unhappy? Doesn’t really make sense. I thought about it for a while, and came up with a question that has been one of my better insights. Could it be that the act of working is tied to being happy in life?
It’s a funny question because for most of us happiness is reached when we no longer have to work. But come to find out, that’s not necessarily true. Research shows that working is an ingredient that contributes to human happiness. For example, when they compared millionaires who continue to work with those who retire, those who continue to work, even when they don’t need to, record being much more content than those who don’t.
Not only that, but the harder the work, the better. Who would have thought it: Hard work makes us happy. What does that do to the dream of leisurely living. Not much. It’s probably a myth.
So, what did I do? I chose to go back on the road and work hard. Did my boredom leave and did I feel happier? Yes, even though physically it wore me down, it had the desired effect. I was indeed happier.
As a result of having this experience, I’ve come to an important, if not convenient, truth about myself. If I had to make a choice, I would pick working hard with the risk of being worn down and sick, if it resulted in making me happier; than I would living a leisurely life with no physical stress, with the possibility of not feeling happy. Of course, if I had my way, I’d prefer health and happiness. But often life has its tradeoffs. I realize this and have accepted it for me. Indeed, a valuable lesson!!
To be continued…
In 1992 I sold my first business and went on a three year sabbatical to South America. When I came back, I had no intention of starting another business. Rather, I felt I had made enough money to kick back and work at a comfortable pace with some company. I did just that, but within a year two things happened. One, the company ran into financial and regulatory difficulty, and, two, being part of a corporate culture was sucking the life out of me.
So, I decided to create another consulting firm. Because this was the second time I had done this, I knew more or less what had to be done to make it succeed. Frankly, it sobered me. It would take an incredible amount of work. For example, if you are going to be a successful management consultant, you have to travel. I calculated that for at least five years I would have to travel about one million miles by air, and be on the road three weeks out of the month.
I concluded that it would be too hard. So I decided that the sacrifice was not worth it, and determined to make a go of it by building a “book of business” locally. It would take two to three years to make locally what I could make in one year on the road. That was OK I thought. I have enough money, and in my spare time, I can volunteer my time to church service.
My life was very easy the first year. I secured two to three contracts, fixed up a home we had purchased, and did some volunteer work. We vacationed in Hawaii and Florida. However, as the year came to an end, an unintended consequence arose. Easy had become tedious.
For me, when something becomes tedious, it turns into boredom, and when I am bored, I am not happy. That’s a weird situation to be in. I have everything I need and want, and yet I’m unhappy? Doesn’t really make sense. I thought about it for a while, and came up with a question that has been one of my better insights. Could it be that the act of working is tied to being happy in life?
It’s a funny question because for most of us happiness is reached when we no longer have to work. But come to find out, that’s not necessarily true. Research shows that working is an ingredient that contributes to human happiness. For example, when they compared millionaires who continue to work with those who retire, those who continue to work, even when they don’t need to, record being much more content than those who don’t.
Not only that, but the harder the work, the better. Who would have thought it: Hard work makes us happy. What does that do to the dream of leisurely living. Not much. It’s probably a myth.
So, what did I do? I chose to go back on the road and work hard. Did my boredom leave and did I feel happier? Yes, even though physically it wore me down, it had the desired effect. I was indeed happier.
As a result of having this experience, I’ve come to an important, if not convenient, truth about myself. If I had to make a choice, I would pick working hard with the risk of being worn down and sick, if it resulted in making me happier; than I would living a leisurely life with no physical stress, with the possibility of not feeling happy. Of course, if I had my way, I’d prefer health and happiness. But often life has its tradeoffs. I realize this and have accepted it for me. Indeed, a valuable lesson!!
To be continued…
In Starting a Business: Part 3 - Lessons Learned From Creating My Own Businesses, Lesson 1
Somewhere along the way, I made the decision that I would only write about what I had directly experienced, concluding that was the only thing at the end of the day I felt I really understood. In other words, “I know only what I experience.”
That doesn’t mean I no longer read. I do; in fact, I’ve made a profession out of reading and digesting facts. But, I do realize there is a material difference between reading about something and experiencing it directly. There is no substitute for experiencing events firsthand.
With that, here are three lessons I’ve learned from the firsthand experiences I’ve had from creating and owning businesses.
Lesson 1.
Creating something that has economic value is the closest thing anyone can participate in which results in better understanding how the everyday world works.
In my mind everything in this life has an economic value attached to it, whether that be something tangible like a car or abstract like religion. I did not fully understand this, until I was forced to be involved in each and every step of creating a new business. I realized that if the venture was to survive I had to become aware of the value of every component by understanding its cost and eventual return. As a result, two things happened to me. One, I became much more tuned into measuring and calculating the value of most things I was coming in contact with, personal as well as professional. As this occurred I sensed myself becoming more pragmatic. For me this was good news.
Indeed I have gone through a whole range of phases in my life: idealist, liberal, conservative, zealot, but never would I say pragmatist. But with the step by step creation and overseeing of my own business, a kind of no non-sense quality emerged in me. I more quickly narrowed in on key issues, I used fewer words to get to my point, and I became much more action oriented. I wasted less time on the trivial, and was much less inclined to judge people and events from an ideological point of view. As this has occurred, the relative value of most things, tangible or abstract, began to clarify in my mind.
And two, an unintended consequence of this newly developed pragmatism emerged. The whole process resulted in me becoming far more aware of what the needs of others were, especially their consumer and professional needs. By working to understand the cost and economic return of every component of a business, I was forced to ask a profound question. “Is all this work going to meet a need someone has?” I had never quite thought in those terms before. I was more aware of meeting my own needs than working at understanding and meeting someone else’s. (And, even more sinister, I had spent much of life telling people what their needs should be.) Turning outward and asking people what they needed and wanted was not something I was used to doing. But as I did a remarkable thing happened: my business grew. Experiencing this was like finding the hidden Ark of the Covenant. “So, this is what it’s all about”, I would say to myself. Soon enough my motto became, “find a need, meet it, and don’t go broke doing it.”
From my view this is all good. A mixture of pragmatism and learning how to meet a need has resulted in better understanding how the everyday world works and how I best fit into it.
To be continued…
That doesn’t mean I no longer read. I do; in fact, I’ve made a profession out of reading and digesting facts. But, I do realize there is a material difference between reading about something and experiencing it directly. There is no substitute for experiencing events firsthand.
With that, here are three lessons I’ve learned from the firsthand experiences I’ve had from creating and owning businesses.
Lesson 1.
Creating something that has economic value is the closest thing anyone can participate in which results in better understanding how the everyday world works.
In my mind everything in this life has an economic value attached to it, whether that be something tangible like a car or abstract like religion. I did not fully understand this, until I was forced to be involved in each and every step of creating a new business. I realized that if the venture was to survive I had to become aware of the value of every component by understanding its cost and eventual return. As a result, two things happened to me. One, I became much more tuned into measuring and calculating the value of most things I was coming in contact with, personal as well as professional. As this occurred I sensed myself becoming more pragmatic. For me this was good news.
Indeed I have gone through a whole range of phases in my life: idealist, liberal, conservative, zealot, but never would I say pragmatist. But with the step by step creation and overseeing of my own business, a kind of no non-sense quality emerged in me. I more quickly narrowed in on key issues, I used fewer words to get to my point, and I became much more action oriented. I wasted less time on the trivial, and was much less inclined to judge people and events from an ideological point of view. As this has occurred, the relative value of most things, tangible or abstract, began to clarify in my mind.
And two, an unintended consequence of this newly developed pragmatism emerged. The whole process resulted in me becoming far more aware of what the needs of others were, especially their consumer and professional needs. By working to understand the cost and economic return of every component of a business, I was forced to ask a profound question. “Is all this work going to meet a need someone has?” I had never quite thought in those terms before. I was more aware of meeting my own needs than working at understanding and meeting someone else’s. (And, even more sinister, I had spent much of life telling people what their needs should be.) Turning outward and asking people what they needed and wanted was not something I was used to doing. But as I did a remarkable thing happened: my business grew. Experiencing this was like finding the hidden Ark of the Covenant. “So, this is what it’s all about”, I would say to myself. Soon enough my motto became, “find a need, meet it, and don’t go broke doing it.”
From my view this is all good. A mixture of pragmatism and learning how to meet a need has resulted in better understanding how the everyday world works and how I best fit into it.
To be continued…
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