“….After being forced down after being hit by an RPG.” With this exaggeration, just a few simple words, the career of well-respected newsman, Brian Williams, was in jeopardy.
I call it, “the perils of exaggeration.” And, it can be found on TV, and in every method of social media. From politicians to celebrities and from reality TV stars to business executives. It is so tempting to sort of spice up a routine story, a flat sales quarter, how much your product will be improved, and when it’s expected off the assembly line.
The cause? Well, we are human, and get carried away in the moment. Maybe it’s some kind of delusion we start to believe, sometimes it’s from hearsay that’s come to our attention and is awfully hard not to repeat, and frankly, some of us lie.
But whatever the cause, don’t even worry about the embarrassment because the majority of us can bounce back from that, but in business, it can mark the end of a successful enterprise. Who will want to trust you with anything that involves their livelihood?
There are a few areas that can be frequently challenging:
Bias
Expertise
Focus
Hockey stick
- There are lots written about “bias,” or the tendency to lean a certain way when it comes to something as important as our business. Sometimes we don’t want to really see the truth, preferring to keep our head “in the sand,” so to speak, and repeat what makes us feel comfortable. It’s so nice to believe that our market consists of 300 million people, or roughly the amount of people in the USA. However, when you narrow down those who would be your customer, maybe it’s just women (that cuts the number in half); the income they bring in (cuts it down more); their age (cuts it down all the more.) And so on. Please see this link.
- Exaggerating, or maybe we can call it “wishful thinking” has no place in a business. Say a customer comes to you with a problem and wants to know if your product can be tweaked to fix his problem. You want so much to make it work, that you say, “Sure., we can do that.” Maybe your fingers are crossed behind you. But, deep down, you know there’s no way that your business can get the “widget” rewired. Or that you can even double an order and have it delivered by Monday. You can’t promise magic. Once you’ve disappointed your customer, they never forget, and you’ve lost the valuable trust that has taken years to build.
There is this desire to keep building, keep expanding, as it is seen as business success. Wrong. One only expands when it’s right, when you’ve exhausted every effort to keep up production with your present operation. Then, when it’s time, expand smart. Remember that expansion just doesn’t mean cutting a red ribbon on a new building, it means hiring more staff, buying more equipment, paying more bills. So, when your brain says, in its exaggerated way, that you need to expand because of some flaky reasons, resist.- There’s something called a “hockey stick forecasts.” This is an incorrect assumption that “every idea we have must be terrific.” Challenge every new idea, pick it apart, play the proverbial “Devil’s Advocate,” because not every idea, no matter how wonderful it seems in your mind, will not play out in the real world. And it may cost you millions. Remember that any new business endeavor will take longer than you think, will cost more than you figure, and may not always turn out exactly as you forecasted. So, build some bumps in your program even if you can’t specifically identify them.
We all know positive thinking and passion are vital to business success. But the challenge is to balance our hope and dreams with a hefty dose of realism. Take a step back, research, test, and accept answers that come naturally even if they go against your most inspired prediction. It’s not a game you’re playing here; it’s your bread and butter, and your employees’ bread and butter. There is a great phrase in business, and one that should go down in history as one of the best pieces of advice: “Be that business owner that under promises, but over delivers.” And you’ll never go wrong. Please watch this video for more specific suggestions.
Dr. Bert Shlensky, president of www.startupconnection.net, offers experience and skills, and a team devoted to developing and executing winning strategies for businesses of all kinds. This combination has been key to client success.
