Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? It is a terrible visual. However, when you know the truth, all things clear up nicely. Have you ever seen two eggs rub themselves together, exchanging some fertile solution over each other and a couple of months later squirt out a chicken? It doesn't happen that way. That is why you have never witnessed two eggs making a chicken. The chicken comes first, then the eggs. That is what you witness. That is how it works. When you know the truth, everything else no longer remains fuzzy.
Life is exactly the same way. When you know the truth, everything else gets a little bit less fuzzy. There is a slight exception. If you are a business owner, the egg comes first. For centuries this cliche' has been a staple question, which comes first...the chicken or the egg? Over the years many people have become confused about how to correctly answer this question. The truth is, the chicken comes first. Chickens do some rubbing together process to make some eggs begin to grow, then lay them. Eventually the eggs hatch and a new chicken is born. That is exactly how it works. The chicken comes first, then the egg. It is simple.
This simple concept, the truth, can be applied to everything in the world. Once the truth is discovered everything else about that truth becomes very clear. If a person becomes confused about how a process has become so messed up, search out the truth and the method for failure will reveal itself. Solutions are much easier to provide when the truth has been revealed. The truth helps the solutions find their way more efficiently to the surface. The truth helps the solutions become more effective. Once we discover how the chickens do it, the egg is the easy part. We quit trying to place two eggs together in the dark waiting for a new chicken to appear. The truth helps us to solve business problems efficiently and effectively.
To every business owner who is finding their business ownership a very large challenge to produce some healthy incomes, the truth is, the egg comes first. To all of you owners of a business model, the egg comes first...not the chicken. Business ownership has a set of completely different rules. The main reason why you are not able to produce nice incomes from your business model is due to the fact that you are approaching the model like everyone else would approach it. You are treating your business model like the chicken came first. It does not. The egg is the one who comes first. You need to approach your business with a completely separate set of truths. The egg comes first, not the chicken.
For example, when you hire an employee you need to design why you want to hire someone. In most cases, you will believe that you know who you want, who you can help by employing them and why you want them to be a part of your business model. You know in your heart why you want to hire the one you hired. The truth is, did you hire the one who will produce the best? Likely, you did not. We have so many more reasons we need to satisfy that we get confused about how we hire who we hire. I watched a retail manager hire a part time worker recently and as he introduced her to the rest of the staff, he bumped into one of his best patrons who was wandering about in the business he was managing. As the new hire left the premises to go home after that series of introductions, the patron asked the manager if she was going to be working full time. The manager answered by saying, "No. Just part time. Two days a week, but she is really cute." The patron responded, "No kidding." The manager said, "That is one of the reasons why I like this job. I get to pick the best looking ones." Which do you think came first, here? The chicken or the egg? The chicken did. Apparently, the factors that contribute to improved profitability were not as high on the priority list. The egg was second. The egg is the one that represents the profitability of the business model. The egg is the key. In business, the egg must and always come first. It should never be about good looks. Good looks do not always ensure and create better profits. Choosing good looks over 'profitability factors' will likely guarantee a set of outcomes that may produce less than what the business model will require. The problem with this kind of thinking is that the chicken is believed to come first. In this case, it is the egg that needs to come first. If you want your model to produce a better level of personal income, do not miss this point. The egg must always come first.
To begin with, business ownership is already a slippery ground to walk. It is slippery because we get easily confused about how we should be doing all of the needed responsibilities in such a short allowance of time. When we get confused about what we are supposed to be producing, we make choices that will not properly support how we are going to achieve what we need to achieve. Our motives get bent, our ideas become skewed, our theories get warped and our outcomes refuse to improve. We allow the 'chickens-come-first' beliefs drive our choices in life which become the methods we use to govern how we think, say and do things. Then when our results become less than what we desire we wonder why they are not generating better outcomes than what we had originally hoped to produce. The egg, the productivity, the efficiency, the profits, the growth, the volume or the success outcomes do not seem to appear as often when the health of the chicken becomes the reason for the motives behind our decision-making. It is a funny kind of thing. The chicken, us, needs to become less important.
When the chicken comes first, us, it prevents the egg, the profitability of the business model, to become second on the list of importance. When the egg becomes second, the business model will always lose its ground of gain. It is only a matter of time before this outcome of less than expected results becomes clear to the owners view. The motives that helped to feed the chicken eventually destroy how well the egg will grow to produce. In the business world, the egg must come first.
If a CEO decides to hire a production manager for his growing firm, and he has a friend who is a great candidate for that position, he may believe his choices may seem rather easy to make. He might begin to entertain that friend with the idea that he has a desire to hire him for the production manager position. Since his mind is 'already' bent towards this idea to hire this qualified friend, his process for searching to fill that position will become likewise bent. The CEO will hear what he wants to hear, say what leads his mind to become satisfied and do what the original desire wanted him to do. He will work to believe that the chicken came first. His desires will become the most important part of the hiring process. He will quietly ignore how much this decision means to the egg. The profitability of the business model will become second in line. The egg will not come first. In every business model, this kind of thinking will destroy future growth and profitability. Rarely does it turn out well. The chicken had too much priority. The egg was placed lower on the ladder of importance. It did not come first.
This kind of rationalization occurs in every phase of business importance. It occurs in marketing. It occurs in personnel. It occurs in purchasing. It occurs in accounting. It occurs in every phase of importance that determine the success of how a business model will respond. The egg must take up the number one position in your decision-making efforts if the outcomes you desire are higher than what you have been producing. The egg must always come first.
When you allow the chicken to come first, you risk the fact that you will not likely produce the best outcomes your business can produce. You will need to adjust your management process to work around the less than desirable outcomes. The egg will make sure it does not produce as well as it can produce. The chicken will demand all of the attention and monopolize your time, energy and limited results. Those who measure the results of the egg will be disappointed at how much the chicken runs the roost. If she is really cute and has some very strong organizational skills as well, you win. However, if she is really cute and does not possess excellent organizational skills, your reasons for solving your frustrations with this new hire will only become worse for the effort. Good luck going backwards. Going backwards in one area will prove how linked it is with all of the other areas your business model respects and performs. Some of the other areas will suffer as well.
Begin working on violating the chicken and the egg concept. With regard to successfully managing your business model, begin placing the egg first. In all other matters of life, the chicken came first. I hope the readers do not link the chicken and egg concept of this post only to personnel issues. I only used the hiring process as the example. The area most offended in your business model with regard to this concept is accounting. In accounting, the egg gets completely left out of the decision making process too often.
How is the money flow really doing? Is it flowing with sour results? Pay closer attention to the egg, and begin shifting your attention away from the chicken. I know it is uncomfortable, but your business model deserves to perform better. Quit protecting the chicken, you. Start respecting the egg, profits. You will see a noticeable improvement in your business model when this occurs.
Begin doing the 'right' things for the 'right' reasons.
Until next time...
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