Own Worst Enemy # 1: Wanting ‘A’ When You’re Needing ‘B.’
ByA while back someone we’ll call Evan called and asked me to become involved in his new business as the CEO. It wasn’t Evan’s first company. His last one did very nicely for a number of years. Proximity and reliance on a piece of the crippled financial markets forced him to move on.
As I listened to Evan talk about his new company and all he had accomplished in just the last few months, I was struck by his passion and by the tremendous amount he had achieved in such a short time – and by his touch of naivety. His projections and the speed by which he planned to hit them would place his new company comfortably on the list of the fastest growing companies of all time
But his product wasn’t a breakthrough. Questionable if it was even distinct, although it was clearly high quality. I did see how it could be built into a business, but probably no more than several million dollars for the foreseeable future. And it wouldn’t be half as easy as he thought.
Evan listened but didn’t allow my words to dampen his excitement. That’s good, because he showed a clear willingness to learn and adjust.
The figures on a spreadsheet he sent me would make any newbie drool. A quick look revealed a simple error, overstating projected sales by at least three times. Good I caught that because he was about to send it off to some potential partners.
We met. I wasn’t looking for a position, but I’m open to ideas. He shared his plans and his passion. I asked questions. I pointed out how he was putting the cart before the horse over here and spending on what isn’t needed over there and how he was spreading himself too thin everywhere and how he should test this and that before committing irreversibly to agreements he may not be able to keep.
To Evan’s credit, he listened and adapted his plans significantly. In a thank you email he wrote “You’ll be happy to know that I’ve toned it down and am not rushing and not even looking at XYZ right now. The first few months will no doubt be slower because of that but I feel it’s the right decision…” He also saved a significant chunk of money by cutting out some major planned expenses that simply weren’t needed.
He acknowledged that he was the hare, running way too fast; more than a little bit rash and impulsive. “I need a tortoise like you to balance me out,” he said.
The only catch was Evan’s claim to have no money. I should do it because one day this will be big, he explained to me.
Well, under the circumstances that didn’t really make sense for me, so I proposed a limited involvement with a limited fee. “My problem is capital,” Evan insisted.
In a final effort to help him, I suggested he simply enroll in my coaching program. He had already made dramatic changes based on a few simple coaching conversations. The program is easily affordable to any small company and he had already seen what a tremendous and speedy ROI he could expect.
After thinking about it for a day, he turned this down as well. “…The thing I would want isn’t coaching, it’s help running the business to take some of the burden off me. Right now all I’m doing is focusing on production… We already have a plan and it’s quite easy…
“…What I would want isn’t just advice. I have plenty of solid people I can get great advice from, Dov, I actually have a cousin who does the same thing you do. He goes all over the country training CEOs. I email him all the time… The value I see in you is having someone on staff who can take some of the load off of me…”
If only Evan could hear his own words as an outsider hears them he would instantly understand that his real problem isn’t capital; it’s that he knows what he WANTS, but not what he NEEDS.
He originally called looking for someone to work with him hands on, to reduce his workload. I quickly helped him see holes in his thinking, assumptions and plans. To Evan’s enduring credit, he turned his plans upside down.
He wanted to offload work. What he needed and received was a dose of perspective. Umm, valuable advice.
Even worse, he failed to see that perspective is a vitamin, not an immunization. It needs to be taken regularly. As I write this, he’s no doubt due for another dose, but there’s no one there to dispense it.
———
We are all our own worst enemies. We all have blind spots and we all need to look to others for perspective, for help, for ideas, skills and support. Let’s face it, though: it requires courage, and usually a little money.
For the past eight years I’ve been fortunate to work with many courageous business owners and CEOs. They’ve led one-person businesses and companies with hundreds of employees and tens of millions of dollars in sales. No two were the same.
Yet, something critical they did all shared: The understanding that it is vital to have someone they trust, an objective outsider, to whom they can turn for perspective.
Perspective makes you better, stronger, faster, more influential, more profitable and more fulfilled.
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