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March 9, 2011

Face It, Success Is Very Fickle.

Business owners should take note of the comedian who is a situation comedy television star and literally crashing his life right in front of all of us to see.  First of all, pray for him.  He truly needs more help than what any of us can offer.  Currently, our best effort to offer is to do what we should be doing, correctly.  Pray for him.

Regarding how and what to learn from this terrible human episode is our next step.  We should try to learn something worthwhile from others mistakes.  We are standing at the crossroads with a lesson unfolding in front of us.  Are we paying close attention to the lessons?  Or are we getting wrapped up with the sensationalism?

Humans are some of the best operators who continue to fail at learning good lessons from mistakes others make.  Humans tend to have the need to repeat what others have done, only to find the same failing results others experienced.  Somehow, we need to make the same mistakes.  We are so persistent at making the same mistakes others have done before us.  With regards to the one the comedian is destined to perform, I think this one should be avoided, what about you?  It looks ugly.

The comedian is making some serious mistakes.  We can learn a lot from his crash decisions.  Learning well from these mistakes is what every business owner can do next.  This comedians crash is a prime example of how humans mismanage success in the field of business.  It is also an example of how humans mismanage failure in the field of business.  I am more interested in the aspect of looking to see how we manage failure.

There are plenty of great lessons exposing themselves right in front of our eyes with the crash this comedian is bent on producing.  He is truly destroying himself, on his own.  I have watched business operators do this very same thing.  The only difference, most business owners are not famous enough to become "fodder bucks" for the reporting networks.  Most business operators who fail in business are leaders who do not reach the evening news.  They usually fail more quietly.  That does not mean the failing business operator is not ranting and raving much the same as the comedian is, however.  It only says they do not receive the same media and exposure attention.  Most businesses fail in a more subtle fashion.  I suspect some of you know a little about how "quietly" failure can win.

Business owners can crash.  Business owners do crash.  A lot.  Business owners feel pressured.  Business owners feel cheated.  Business owners feel that nobody understands how they feel.  Business owners blame many other sources for the reasons why they act out in wrong ways.  Business owners blame markets for the way their business model is suffering.  Business owners believe if they had the right opportunities and proper market respect, they could be very big in the business world.  Business owners believe "big brother" is the reason why they cannot produce better results.  Business owners do not blame themselves for the poor decisions they "must" make.  Business owners become much more stubborn when their business begins to expose its failing head.  Business owners deny how they produced this failing model.  Pick one.  They all work.

All of these excuses work well.  They are all the same, whether or not it is a comedian crashing or a business owner struggling...they are all the same.  A struggling business model is no different than a struggling comedian.  It is exactly the same.  The toys, exposure levels and lifestyle may be different, but the model of activity is identical.  It is exactly the same.  Tiger Woods destroyed his golf.  Face it.  Charlie Sheen will destroy his comedy.  In fact, he is already no longer funny.  Face it.  You will destroy your business.  Face it.  They failed to get a grip on what was wrong, and they will continue to pay heavy prices for that failure.  Every business owner has the same chance to get a grip on what is wrong.  Face it, before the price to pay becomes permanent.  There is a fine line between greatness and failure.  We can easily walk that line forever.

What should we do about this challenge?  How do we step over that fine line without losing it all?  First of all, let's be better for it and face it.  Let us not walk in the same destructive patterns these other great leaders failed to perform.  We can avoid how they treated failure.  Let us face it straight up and begin with a couple of simple steps.  How do we avoid what they refused to accept?  Where do we begin to build more success, instead of producing more destructive results?


Our first step is to stop denying our careless performances and start to open the doors that build up our special skills.  Every business owner has special skills.  We need to be doing those special skills a lot.  We need to recognize what they are and get them rolling on becoming our true force of driven activities.  We need to accept what areas we are not doing well and delegate them to others who may be better at doing them.  Owners have a very tough time making this step.  Quit failing here.  This is where we start to build a more successful business model.  Accept what you do not do well, admit it, and delegate what you are not good at doing.  Begin this process immediately.  Quit thinking about it.  Decide and get on with it.

If you continue to fail here, you will not be able to build a successful business model.  Face it.  Quit blaming all of the other circumstances for the poor outcomes your business has produced.  It is not the government, not the marketplace, not the recession, not the customers, not the suppliers, not your location, not your employees, not your lack of finances, not your whatever you are using to excuse your poor performing business.  This world has a lot of businesses producing excellent results, right now, under all of those same circumstances you are using as excuses to hide what needs to be accepted.  Quit failing here.  Do not deny yourself like the comedian is doing.  It is exactly the same and we already know what his outcome will produce.  We are watching it live, with him.  We are performing it quietly, in us.  It is exactly the same.  The toys and the exposure are the only differences.

Our first step is to let go of the attributes we do not do well.  Delegate them to someone who will do better work with them.  Do it now, not next year.

The second step is to begin expanding what you do best.  You have special skills and do them very well.  The problem is that you may not be able to consider them as being special skills.  People with special skills do not see them as being special.  Those skills seem normal.  They are not.  They are special and what makes them more special to you is that you can do them without thinking.  They happen to you naturally.  This is likely why you do not believe they are special.

Ask others what special skills you have and listen to what they describe.  You will be surprised at what they describe.  Take those special skills and begin building your other skills around them.  Focus on how you will make your business model perform better with all that you do in building those special skills.  Stop trying to protect who your are and what you need.  Your business is the reason, not yourself.  Focus on this difference.  Your business deserves this distinction.  Your personal recognition will need to play second fiddle to your primary business goals.  Second fiddle is the most difficult instrument to play!  Learn to play it well.

Let's review for now.  First, accept you as the single problem.  Second, find what you do that is very special, as well as discover what skills are not your best attributes.  Third, delegate the skills that you do not perform well and allow other people to become good at what they contribute to the betterment of your business model.  Next, begin to build upon the special skills you possess and work all of your leadership from that perspective.  And finally, do for the business well beyond what you will do for yourself.  Keep your business model well above your personal needs...stay in balance, but reduce your need to be the headliner.       

There are some great parallels happening right now between this comedians crash behavior and the failure activities some business owners persist to protect.  Denial becomes the enemy of choice and both the comedian and the business owner will suffer its nasty results.  There is no difference between the two.  The patterns are the same, the motivations are the same, the corrections are ignored, the routine attention is similarly deflected and the results will land on the same spot of demise.  

The public is fickle enough to demote all of us to the routine of watching the "wow" stuff about someone and their famous life, spinning out.  The public will soon forget we had a business.  They will soon forget Tiger was a great golfer and it is becoming clearer that the comedian is no longer funny.

Your business model deserves your corrections.

Until next time...

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