Executives walk a fine line. They must be careful not to become bogged down in the details of the business, at the same time that they don’t miss so many details that they become disconnected from what’s really going on. Micromanagers and Out-of-Touchers both hurt companies.
Today I was arguing with my business partner. Don’t worry, it happens all the time. If we agreed all the time there wouldn’t be a point in the partnership, and all that.
I was trying to make a point that was true. However, there were some other things I was saying that weren’t true. They weren’t lies, they were just things that didn’t make good sense.
No matter how hard I tried to get the point across that made sense, he kept getting hung up on the things that didn’t, and understandably so. As a result, the truth got lost in my ridiculousness.
This happens in more ways than one. You can lump something good in with something bad. If your restaurant has 5 extraordinary menu items and 5 average ones, I think you’re better off with a 5 item menu. Or maybe you’re negotiating an ad contract. You want a full page ad for the half page price plus you want your ad next to an article about your service. You’ll never get the ad placement because you lumped it in with an impossible price break. Let’s say I was trying to illustrate this point in this post, and I gave two great examples, but the third example didn’t make sense. You may reject the whole principle based on a bad example.
In everything you do, make sure the weak is not hindering the strong. Make sure truth is not getting lost in ridiculousness.
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When business is going well, we tend to settle in. After a long hard start-up, profits start rolling in, and it’s easy to get lazy. It’s easy to justify taking a break and just running the shop. Don’t fall into this trap. Use the time when things are good to prepare for change. Use the time to examine your core business and see how you can make it better. Use the time to innovate and cause change. If you don’t, you’ll end up reacting to change instead of making change.
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