Fear of failure: If your year hasn’t quite gone to plan, read this!

by | Jul 3, 2020

The first six months of this year have been a bit strange, to say the least!

You had grand plans and New Year resolutions. By the end of March, first quarter down, and when you looked at the results, you PANICKED. What will happen next?

The difference between successful long-term companies and the ones that start well and then die slowly is that the successful ones prepare for next week, next month, next year. Their big idea, their just cause, is often far bigger than just hitting their annual financial targets.

Did you reach your sales targets? Did you make enough sales calls? Did you send out enough proposals? Did you hit your profit targets?

Time to STOP, PAUSE, BREATHE and then CONTINUE.

The thing is not to panic. It is imperative to be accurate with the data though, even if it is not the news you expected. It was Helmuth von Moltke’s words from the mid 18th century, “no plan of operation extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force”, that sets the scene for what comes next!

As business owners, we are not at war. I don’t subscribe to that metaphor. I do agree though that we are building our businesses in a hostile environment and we want to build businesses that will survive for a long time. 

Competition, changing legislation, changing customer behaviour, Brexit and now COVID-19, all planned and unplanned incidents contribute to that environment.

So any plan we create will not survive contact with that hostile environment. Therefore we need to be able to adapt our strategies quickly. And that might seem a lot harder working from home, disconnected from our usual way of working.

“A talent for following the ways of yesterday is not sufficient to improve the ways of today”
King Wu Ling 307BC

To do that, we cannot stay addicted to the ways that we used to do things, we have to have a growth mindset and a willingness to adapt. 

To do that well requires preparation and most of us don’t prepare enough. Our plans are just short-term tactics. Because we don’t have a clear plan for the next few months or year, when something goes wrong, we end up floundering around trying to fix the problem and that disrupts what we are trying to achieve.

We have to be willing to adapt and change in an ever-changing world. To stay the same, do the same and think the same is a sure-fire way to fail.

You are never going to leave the world a better place without stress or discomfort.

But human beings are programmed to always head towards their comfort zone. What’s yours?

It may be that you hate planning, hate preparing for the future. You prefer the excitement of being on edge, living by the seat of your pants, making it up as you go along. You use up so much energy doing this you don’t have the energy, time or inclination to do the necessary work to prepare your business for the change, to be able to adapt, to future proof it.

The difference between successful long-term companies and the ones that start well and then die slowly is that the successful ones prepare for next week, next month, next year. Their big idea, their just cause, is often far bigger than just hitting their annual financial targets.

The “necessary work” for building a successful business that works for you,  fulfil your lifestyle desires, pays you enough money and allows you to spend the time you want with loved ones is not the exciting, nerve-jangling, high energy dancing with life work. The “necessary work” is the preparation of your business so that you can be the “high-wire” act because you have built the systems and processes behind you that enable your business to flourish and grow.

So if at the end of June things have not entirely gone to plan, take a moment to set your path for the next half of the year. 

  • STOP. Actually stop rushing and take time out.
  • PAUSE. Consider.
    What has worked well this last month?
    What has not worked well this last month?
  • BREATHE in new ideas.
    What is missing that will make the next month more successful?
  • Then, CONTINUE.

One thing we can do to help other businesses is to share the stuff that worked well and warn others about the stuff that no longer works. So please comment below.