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You know that old saying...?
The grandpa on his front porch, lecturing his teenage grandson, "Listen kid, back in my day, I used to have to walk to work every day. 15 miles there. 15 miles back. Uphill in both directions."
"Grandpa, it's called innovation. We have cars now." the young boy says, as he gets behind the wheel of his new Tesla.
In the past, we had to struggle with things that many of our customers no longer have to deal with. Everything from preventative medicine, vaccines, camera tripods, all the way to reaching in your pocket and grabbing a cell phone so you don't have to send a telegraph across the Atlantic.
But what about us as business owners?
One of the most common things that holds a lot of the newer guys and gals back is Shiny Object Syndrome. Most of us on the boards here know that we should commit to something and follow through all the way until the end, there are countless posts about it here, books on the topic, articles on outlets like Forever Jobless, FoundR, etc.
When my earlier mentors gave me that piece of advice to focus on one thing: I didn't listen.
I had to struggle, learn things the hard way; and ultimately learn my lesson from my failures.
Now, after navigating that problem for many years, I fully understand the reasoning for that lesson and I still see people making the same mistake.
The reason why I'm typing this right now is because I'm putting together a guide to help people take control of their emotional state. I decided to do this after an email came in for my business and someone told me that they saw the information I posted about the topic before, and they kind of brushed it off not really thinking twice about it.
And then something happened in their lives where they ran out of all other options and said, "I guess it's time to give this a try."
Before I faced some serious stress in my business life, I remember watching a video by Julien from RSD talk about emotional balance/spiritual stuff on his YouTube channel and I laughed at it.
In both instances, we are walking down a path, and many people point at the obstacle up ahead and say it's there.
Yet we continue to walk and walk and walk, until we fall down into the deep dark pit, and face the ultimate pain by not navigating around that obstacle.
If I only listened to my mentor's advice about actually avoiding the shiny object syndrome, walking around the path through a route, or learned the techniques in that YouTube video, I would have avoided that problem all together. Instead, I spent many months in doctors offices from stress, and I spent many years bouncing around between different ideas.
In the same instance, I know the person I referenced above could avoid certain emotional problems with the preventative medicine.
I was thinking this because I notice most people reach out to me for this after they fall into the pit, the same way you don't call up and schedule a visit with your doctor until you're sick.
But then something interesting happened...
I was at a craft brewery the other day on a date with a woman who is a real estate developer, and she asked about what I do.
During the conversation, I realized that the core of my business and the services I offer were based off of my stupidity by not avoiding the obstacles.
I fell into that deep dark pit, and I had to fight and claw my way out of it, leaving me more equipped to handle any emotional struggles that come up...because I faced that rough experience. If it wasn't for falling face-first into the struggle, I wouldn't be where I am today.
Naturally, like most of us, I find problems and I want to help others avoid them and get through them.
That's the basis for your business as well.
Do we have to face the struggle?
On one hand, some might say it's part of our soul's evolution and our personal transformation as business owners...that it's just a required evolutionary step that we must go through in life.
But on the other hand, the story with the grandpa and the teenage boy comes to mind...
Just because the older generations struggled in the past (and had some kind of weird thing where they had uphill walks in both directions), doesn't innovation remove the struggles so others don't have to face the same pain we did?
This is a philosophical question more than anything.
The grandpa on his front porch, lecturing his teenage grandson, "Listen kid, back in my day, I used to have to walk to work every day. 15 miles there. 15 miles back. Uphill in both directions."
"Grandpa, it's called innovation. We have cars now." the young boy says, as he gets behind the wheel of his new Tesla.
In the past, we had to struggle with things that many of our customers no longer have to deal with. Everything from preventative medicine, vaccines, camera tripods, all the way to reaching in your pocket and grabbing a cell phone so you don't have to send a telegraph across the Atlantic.
But what about us as business owners?
One of the most common things that holds a lot of the newer guys and gals back is Shiny Object Syndrome. Most of us on the boards here know that we should commit to something and follow through all the way until the end, there are countless posts about it here, books on the topic, articles on outlets like Forever Jobless, FoundR, etc.
When my earlier mentors gave me that piece of advice to focus on one thing: I didn't listen.
I had to struggle, learn things the hard way; and ultimately learn my lesson from my failures.
Now, after navigating that problem for many years, I fully understand the reasoning for that lesson and I still see people making the same mistake.
The reason why I'm typing this right now is because I'm putting together a guide to help people take control of their emotional state. I decided to do this after an email came in for my business and someone told me that they saw the information I posted about the topic before, and they kind of brushed it off not really thinking twice about it.
And then something happened in their lives where they ran out of all other options and said, "I guess it's time to give this a try."
Before I faced some serious stress in my business life, I remember watching a video by Julien from RSD talk about emotional balance/spiritual stuff on his YouTube channel and I laughed at it.
In both instances, we are walking down a path, and many people point at the obstacle up ahead and say it's there.
Yet we continue to walk and walk and walk, until we fall down into the deep dark pit, and face the ultimate pain by not navigating around that obstacle.
If I only listened to my mentor's advice about actually avoiding the shiny object syndrome, walking around the path through a route, or learned the techniques in that YouTube video, I would have avoided that problem all together. Instead, I spent many months in doctors offices from stress, and I spent many years bouncing around between different ideas.
In the same instance, I know the person I referenced above could avoid certain emotional problems with the preventative medicine.
I was thinking this because I notice most people reach out to me for this after they fall into the pit, the same way you don't call up and schedule a visit with your doctor until you're sick.
But then something interesting happened...
I was at a craft brewery the other day on a date with a woman who is a real estate developer, and she asked about what I do.
During the conversation, I realized that the core of my business and the services I offer were based off of my stupidity by not avoiding the obstacles.
I fell into that deep dark pit, and I had to fight and claw my way out of it, leaving me more equipped to handle any emotional struggles that come up...because I faced that rough experience. If it wasn't for falling face-first into the struggle, I wouldn't be where I am today.
Naturally, like most of us, I find problems and I want to help others avoid them and get through them.
That's the basis for your business as well.
Do we have to face the struggle?
On one hand, some might say it's part of our soul's evolution and our personal transformation as business owners...that it's just a required evolutionary step that we must go through in life.
But on the other hand, the story with the grandpa and the teenage boy comes to mind...
Just because the older generations struggled in the past (and had some kind of weird thing where they had uphill walks in both directions), doesn't innovation remove the struggles so others don't have to face the same pain we did?
This is a philosophical question more than anything.
- Do we have to struggle and face the pain to make us stronger? or
- Can the struggles be removed so we can flow much easier?
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