As a group, by far most entrepreneurs are generally optimistic folks. Sure, they get down from time to time like most of us. However, periodic disappointment is usually supplanted by the hope of possibility due to one main reason -- perseverance. Successful entrepreneurs, when faced with a challenge, understand deeply that fortitude often brings success.
I've found in my life, as a corporate leader and now entrepreneur / small business owner for the past six years, that a bad day at work is rarely followed by extended string of them. The secret is to continually look for ways -- even ones that may not initially look too appealing -- to overcome, not be overwhelmed. Literally, it pays to be solution oriented to discover your pathway to success. "Hope is but one good implemented idea away ..."
In other words, not only am I hopeful but I look for places to be hopeful ("full of hope"). If something is going poorly -- I quit doing it. In his book The Dip, Seth Godin talks about "strategic quitting". Seth very re-freshingly makes the lofty goal of "becoming the best in the world" an achievable proposition-all you need is to "start doing some quitting." Some of the best things to stop doing are the things that aren't working for you.
Amazingly, they are often the things that bring us down. So, as entrepreneurs, we need to choose well. Every year, I make some tough decisions about this time of year about what I'm going to stop that I'm doing now -- and the better action I will replace it with in 2009.
"Some things matter. Some things matter more. What matters most is to be able to tell the difference."
~ Stephen Covey
I chalk up a HUGE part of our success each year to deciding what we'll stop. And, it's not only things that aren't delivering results I stop -- it's often things that are going pretty well, just not well enough.
I discovered years ago that none of us have the bandwidth to do it all. If you think you do, then you're giving up the possibility that you could take the bottom 15% of your results and replace them with something you could do much better. More efficiently. More value-adding to your customer. And, more satisfying ... to You!
Try on a little strategic quitting. Isn't it time you embrace Godin's truth that "we fail when we get distracted by tasks we don't have the guts to quit"?
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