Edition 520 – Defeat vs. Decision
In small and family business, what seems, in the moment, to be a defeat, is nothing but a decision that needs to be reframed.
You take on a highly paid manager. They’re introduced to you, well credentialled and seemingly perfect for the role. It’s a big salary, the highest you’ve ever paid. It’s what you need, to take your business forward. However, the early warning signs are not great. They’re not firing. Some others in the team are put offside. They’re missing opportunities with potential clients.
You wring your hands for a while, before eventually deciding 11 months in, they’re not right for your business. You knew this at the 3 month mark, but persevered anyway. You calculate the dollar cost of the 8 months of indecision, and turn angry on yourself. Rather than see this as the opportunity to move forward, your mindset is that you’ve waved the white flag. Except, it’s tinged with the multiple colours of our polymer currency.
Meanwhile, someone you know buys a block of land, thinking it’ll be their forever home. They sit on it for a while, but there’s delays. Council won’t hurry up with the DA. You can’t quite get your head around the tile selections for the bathrooms. One of you wants a pool, and the cost of that is starting to blow out enormously. All of this, whilst it is a bare patch of ground, and you’re trying to find time on the weekends to keep the block maintained.
Eventually, it all gets too hard, and whilst searching realestate.com.au you find a place pretty much like the one you’re looking to build. So, you buy it. However, offloading the vacant block of land proves problematic. It takes time. The market has moved down since you purchased. In time, a sale comes off, but the capital loss, combined with the interest bill on the debt and the costs of gets plans drawn up, have mounted. You’re behind the eight ball, by early six figures. You’re annoyed with yourself, for wasting precious funds.
Two case studies. Two situations. Both of which I’ve experienced myself. Both of which I’ve observed with business clients over the years.
Those observations have also drawn out something else. Too many people see this as a defeat. They think they’ve made poor decisions. They’re hard on themselves for employing the wrong person, or committing family funds to what might be termed a folly. If that’s your approach, you might need some counselling in terms of resilience.
Both of these situations, when they happened to me, I didn’t see as a defeat, but as a decision. It was an opportunity to draw a line in the sand, and move forward. Sure, there was angst through the process of arriving at the decision, but once it was done, it was time to move forward.
The irony of this – in the first case study, for a number of years afterwards, I was the top choice for that individual when it came to reference checking on their resume. I made a tough call, but the individual held me in high enough regard afterwards to quote me to potential future employers.
In the second case study, the house we bought, is the home we still live in today. It’s our forever home. Sure, I don’t like the tiles through the family room, but you come to live with that. We’ve built, and eventually demolished, a swimming pool, as our life in this home has changed over the years. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.
Sometimes we make wrong calls. They’re rarely fatal, though I accept they can be costly. If you continually lament the cost of the wrong decision, you’re admitting defeat. You’re not moving forward. You’re identifying as a failure.
A reframe to it being merely a decision, and a determination to learn from the experience, will always hold you in good stead in the future.
This Week’s Tip
“If you hold onto the past, you can never move forward into the future.”