The Struggle Was (& Is) Very Real

I have started opportunities that failed miserably, and I have worked other opportunities and businesses that have done surprisingly well. I remember the first time that I was left with nearly $800,000 in bad debt (that means people owed me money). I had a stack of contracts that were absolutely worthless. There is nothing more miserable (in business) then spending two years building something only to discover that you either had a bad partner, a bad vendor, a weak opportunity or a product that just doesn’t sell. What’s guy or gal to do?

My primary motivation in getting my Masters in Business Administration (MBA) was because I experienced such a catastrophic failure in that early stage opportunity that it absolutely rocked my world. In fact, it was so bad that my wife and I, with our (at the time) four very young children had to move in with parents.

I do not know if you can possibly grasp my immense shame at being so desperate that I had to live in my parents unfinished basement for nearly a year. It took a lot of time, energy, peace and confidence out of me as I dealt with the consequences of a massive failure on the part of an external business partner. That primary vendor left me with clients that I could not serve properly, as well as prospective clients with no options.  It was literally the worst thing that has ever happened to me either professionally or relationally.

My willingness to “risk it all” in order to provide better life and future for my family actually endangered it for a period of time. In my lowest moments I struggled with thoughts of suicide – never seriously mind you. But the emotion was there in all its raw and seemingly unending fury; it is an assault at every level. Physically. Emotinally. Relationally. Spiritually. If you understand the depths of sorrow and loss I was experiencing, then I feel deeply for you my friend.

It was like running full speed into a brick wall. I damaged the wall – sort of – but did more damage to myself. As a result of that experience, I spent a lot of time soul searching and making the strong quiet commitment to myself to not allow that to happen again.

But unfortunately as evidenced by the first story in the prior article, I am not immune to distraction of mistakes regardless how committed I was to not repeating them. I am telling you these stories because I want you to understand and know that you are not alone. That I feel your frustration, and I hear the heart beat of your desire to provide more for yourself and your family.

For me, that cry to create impact and make the world a better place just absolutely drives me. I am here to share my hard fought & grittily won battles so that you don’t have to fight so hard. I truly hope that you can avoid my mistakes and achieve more success and faster than I did, simply because you were able to learn from me.

To that end, you should consider the following question(s).

How do you know if what you’re doing (want to do) will work? Can you be sure that it will be successful?

First and foremost, if something is going to work – it is up to you. You have probably heard the quote, I don’t recall who said it “if it is to be, then it is up to me.” But, setting that obvious and insanely important point aside, I have determined that there are 5 Must Answer specific questions that you need to answer before you launch:

1.      What do you love/what are you passionate about?

2.      Can you monetize it?

3.      Why do you want to do “your own thing” or something else than what you do now?

4.      What is your comfort level with risk?

5.      Can you carry the business, or effort, until it makes you money?

These are the basic questions that MUST be answered before you start. But, then these questions beg the question. Why is it that many people do not start?

After all, sometimes if we need or want something to change, then we have to change something. Like Einstein has been oft quoted “if you do the same thing over and over again, you cannot expect a different result.” But, WHY do people not start?

Taking a page from the DiSC© profile system, here are the primary reasons people fail to start:

·        D[ominant] personalities – Lack the confidence to start

·        i[nfluencer] personalities – Lack the motivation

·        S[teadiness] personalities – Fear/lack of stability

·        C[onscientious] personalities – Lack the knowledge

While the reasons that people fail to get started are as varied as the folks you talk to, I find that every reason someone fails to start generally falls into one of those personality related categories. Now it does not mean that the reason is equivalent to their dominant personality type – it is simply how they are expressing either to themselves, or others as to why they are not moving forward.

A great tool that can be used on a limited basis for free is Crystal, which can be downloaded as a Chrome Extension. This can help you in assessing your communication strategies with prospects. It can also help you assess your own personality and tendencies. If you have never taken a personality test, they have a free assessment which is easy to take and can get you started in less than 15-20 minutes.  We provide an assessment here through Genius Spark.

In the words of Rex Miller:

“The Genius Process is a powerful methodology developed to help individuals visualize their best selves. At the heart of this process lies the Genius Paragraph – a personalized statement built on your strengths that paint a compelling picture of your optimal self. This is not just about fantasizing; it’s a scientifically-backed technique for creating a mental image of your best self and setting your brain’s servo mechanism into motion.”

Whether you want to grow your team and hit big goals, or just smash your personal goals, the three part process that we provide here at Creek & Paddle is ground breaking in its innovation and mind blowing in its insights.

Continuing on, let’s consider how Robert Kiyosaki’s Cash Flow Quadrant relates to whether or not you should consider starting something up.

First, you need to determine where you currently are generating your income prior to beginning something new. The US Small Business Administration regularly measures and puts out information on business in the USA. Data for this article was pulled from the April 2019 report (https://cdn.advocacy.sba.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/23142719/2019-Small-Business-Profiles-US.pdf).

An incredible ninety-nine point nine percent (99.9%) of US businesses qualify as a small business. The gross number of small business in the US at that time was more than 30.7 million businesses. They employ 47.3% of the private workforce, out of a total of 59.9 million people.

So how does this apply to you?

You need to decide where you want to be in that cash flow quadrant because of what it means for you in terms of your financial reward versus your time invested in conjunction with your tolerance for risk. Separate from that, you need to consider how your current status on the quadrant impacts your ability to move on into a new opportunity or business.

If you need help evaluating where you are, and what you want to be doing, please reach out to me. The entire genesis behind Creek & Paddle was to create a place where you as a busy professional, sales, leader, executive, small business owner or whomever – can get assessments at a reasonable cost to create actionable information for you to improve and then soar!

In the meantime, thanks for reading! Please “like” this article/post and “follow” me here and on LinkedIn. We are really working hard to provide value and be of service to the Business community writ-large.