In Business, if You’re Comfortable, You’re Losing
Everyone wants to be successful when the start a business, or so they say. But every day businesses are failing across the United States. Is it because they’ve got a bad plan? Is it because they aren’t working hard? Is it because of something that they don’t even know about? Although every business is different in some respects, I think the answer lies in the title of the article – people are just afraid to get uncomfortable.
What does that mean exactly, getting uncomfortable? It means, for the most part, doing things that you know you should be doing but aren’t because of some innate fear, some extraneous fear, or some other excuse. We all have those things we don’t want to do, for whatever reason, that we know would lead to more success.
For example, I’m a Seattle criminal attorney. For me to be successful I need to be constantly finding new clients. There are easy ways to do this – advertise on busses, advertise on the radio, advertise on television. But we all know that when most people need a Seattle criminal lawyer they do one thing before they do anything else – they ask a friend. It would make sense, then, that for me to reach my business goals, I need to get out there and press the flesh a little and let people know I’m out there.
But that doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m afraid of people thinking I’m being too salesy or too pushy. I’m embarassed to hand out business cards like they are candy because I think people will feel uncomfortable with that. It makes me uncomfortable.
I know that if any of you are in sales and are reading this you’re saying the same thing – “that’s just how the game is played – if you don’t let people know about you how else are they going to find out?” And, honestly, I know this too deep inside. But it’s very easy for me to make excuses for not getting out there today to let people know that I’m the best Seattle criminal lawyer out there and if they need help they should call.
Being comfortable should make you uncomfortable. If you are comfortable you are opening yourself up to being taken over by the competition. Every day you make a vow to do something the next day is a day you are losing to your competitors.