If you’re a business owner, you have problems.
Being in business means you’re on the hook for something. You have promises to keep.
(To your customers, your stockholders, your employees, your vendors, your banker.)
PROBLEMS come right along with making valuable PROMISES.
Promises considered most valuable are promises which produce some result, some outcome, something that doesn’t “just happen,” under ordinary circumstances. A valuable promise requires that new ground be taken, that people cause something BEYOND the status quo, that people stretch.
Making something valuable happen requires getting uncomfortable. It requires overcoming inertia. It requires intruding into the existing “how-it-is” and “how-we’ve-always-done-it.”
Making this type of promise usually brings a problem or two into existence. By force or by choice, the problems must be dealt with, to fulfill what’s intended.
If it’s a problem for you to deal with problems, you have a problem!
Some people are pretty child-like when they encounter even the SMALLEST of problems. They resist problems. They resent problems. They take problems personally. They get irritated that things don’t go faster. They get angry at obstacles.
Watch this little guy I found on YouTube: (He’s so cute! And his frustration in dealing with his problems cracks me up!)
Do you notice that many of us have similar reactions when something doesn’t go as planned?
(Hopefully, we’re not as vocal about it.) (Some people make more noise than others.)
What’s great: He gets frustrated when he gets thwarted…AND, he keeps going! He keeps practicing!
One of my favorite Zen sayings is: Fall down seven times, get up eight.
Here’s Denzel Washington talking about this on YouTube:
Building resilience
Being excellent, being valuable, being well-known and well-thought-of in business means that a person, company or organization WANTS and is committed to being excellent in dealing with problems. Excellence requires toughness, it takes resilience, it takes a willingness to HAVE a problem to be able to ADDRESS a problem. (Have you noticed that some people seem to think that they shouldn’t have problems? That problems are wrong?)
You want to always learn, always grow, always bounce back–no matter what.
This clip from the movie, Men in Black, illustrates resilience. Watch:
Learn to grow a new head. Don’t let anything take you out.
How quickly can you bounce back?
I leave you with the profundity of Chumbawumba…
