Not Everybody Has Been To Business Boot-Camp

Teaches Well, Very Expensive!

When you begin building your first small business model you enter the school of hard knocks.  It is a very expensive school, however.  The lessons taught by that school can be much higher than college tuition.  Any person who has tried to build a small business will easily admit to that fact.  Hard knocks are expensive but boy do they teach an owner well.  Some of the most effective lessons I have ever learned came from some very expensive mistakes.  Once those become part of your path they rarely re-appear!  You get the drift of those lessons real solid.  The next time one of those lessons flirts again with your decision making responsibilities you are not at all flimsy about what to decide.  The school of hard knocks is expensive but effective.

Boot-camp is different. 


If the owner stays in business long enough they will learn how the cost of learning your lessons will easily run up a toll above the cost of college tuition.  The school of hard knocks will be one of the largest hidden costs a small business will confront.  Unfortunately, the school of hard knocks does not enjoy its own line item placement on an income statement and certainly does not show up on a separate line of the balance sheet.

Stupidity Is Not A Disability

I think it is unfortunate that we have not developed a recognizable format to measure how effective this line item could be.  Could you imagine what a balance sheet would look like on the liability side, "STUPIDITY".  Maybe we could soften it a little bit and call it "UNKNOWNS".  I think we could have a lot of fun when we review balance sheets in the future..."OOPS", "WHO KNOWS", "I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS", "HOW WOULD I KNOW", or "WHAT THE .......?"  All of these lessons and mistakes carry a real cost.  They show up hidden in equipment costs, principle and interest, lower retained earnings, or somewhere else you place them when they occur.  Your ego gets a reprieve of protection.    

In my case, I can certainly define where my tough lessons lay and almost to the penny I can show you what they cost.  This is true only because I have been making a variety of mistakes for 38 years now.  I recognize when I created the loss.  Plus I have been at it too long now to waste any energy on trying to hide my mistakes.  I admit them, fix them and get on with it.  This approach is a lot less troubling.  I recommend it.

(I meet owners all the time who have not yet reached that point in their business career.  If only they knew how much better they would feel about their work, how much better their businesses could perform and how much more profit they would realize if they would get to the truth about errors much quicker.  In due time they will get it.  I was in my late 40's when I went to boot-camp on this subject.)

Boot-camp is different than the school of hard knocks.  Boot-camp comes as a great discovery.  The school of hard knocks is the most expensive school ever designed.  I believe we can establish this fact.  However, boot-camp is different.  Boot-camp is when the owner actually reaches out for help!  When a business owner decides to search for help from others who have experienced what they are doing, boot-camp begins.  Boot-camp is tough on the sole but not quite as expensive to the pocket book.  There is a fascinating difference between the two approaches of learning.  Both will get the job done and both will injure something in the process.  One injures your monetary gains, the other will injure your pride.

You would be amazed at what price owners will pay to protect their pride.  Maybe we should have developed the line item on the balance sheet as "PRIDE."

Not everybody has been to boot-camp.  Some owners have refused to go for many years.  Yet every owner has been to the school of hard knocks.  The difference is that one comes with or without your admission, the other one is a choice you actually need to make.  Boot-camp requires the owner to apply themselves.  Boot-camp is a decision.  The school of hard knocks does not need the owners decision to apply, the owner is automatically entered onto the school roster. 

I am so thankful for all the variety of boot-camps I have chosen to enter in my business career.  They have become some of my best lessons, cheapest experiences, and most valuable discoveries.  I meet owners here and there in my travels and I can easily spot those who remain privately attached to the school of hard knocks.  Their sole, conversations, vocabulary, concepts and whole business being reflects their absenteeism from any form of boot-camp.  I am saddened when I discover that fact.  I know their business suffers from the lack.  I know their families suffer from the lack.  I know their sole will never grow until they enter some healthy form of boot-camp.

Damn The Torpedoes, Full Steam Ahead!

I have come to some resolve when I meet these owners.  I accept their effort to remain "independent business owners."  They find their independence so much more valuable to protect than listening to advice from others.  It is a good refrain from giving up their independence.  Silly in the end, but true.



Until next time....