In Business, Things Always Pair Up.

Owning a small business can be become a cruel path to walk.  There are times when the path is so unfriendly that we wonder sometimes what the heck we are doing.  Nothing seems to be unfolding favorably.  The checkbook is always overdrawn, the bank is always calling for more deposits and the creditors are appearing on the caller ID more frequently.  Owning this small business becomes a pressure of sleepless worry and endless challenges.  Every day seems to start off with two steps behind.  The fun has completely disappeared.

Every small business owner recognizes this mental position.  The ones who have not witnessed this pattern of worry are either very new at business ownership or very good at what they do.  In reality, very few miss this pattern of feelings because they are very good at what they do.  Most miss it because they have not owned their small business long enough to produce this position of ownership.  The later is usually the truth in how it really works.

Unfortunately, nobody told the new business owner that this would eventually become some of the stuff they would need to learn how to manage and endure.  New business owners are not privy to these kinds of terrible patterns about how tough owning your own business can become.  Furthermore, even if someone with a lot of knowledge and credibility about this pattern was able to share how this works with new business owners, most new owners would not have listened anyway.  That is how stubbornness works.  I have found very few owners able to escape this pattern.

Things happen in patterns and fall along the lines of a series.  We seem to pair up what goes badly.  If the checkbook is out of line, so are the credit cards.  If the promises in business relationships are staging unreal stories, so are the relationships at home.  If the slippage of productivity drops its patterns into the employee ranks, it also begins to erode the accounting responsibilities.  Prevarication drives the flow of information while equivocation dominates the patterns of sales.  Bad stuff happens in pairs.

A driver delivers some products to the wrong house.  On the same trip, they forget some important tools on another installation delivery.  Stuff happens wrong in a series of events.  They seem to happen in pairs.  A bid for auto repair was offered too short to make a profit and due to some parts delays gets completed late with an unhappy customer who expected it done sooner than what was delivered.  This unhappy and lost profit repair job then discovers some of the work failed two weeks later and the repaired auto was returned for customer service adjustments, adding injury to insult.  Things happen in pairs.

Every business owner recognizes this unfortunate pattern of business control.  Unfriendly stuff comes in pairs.  The old saying goes, "When it rains, it pours."

The true leadership of the owner gets qualified when bad stuff comes in pairs.  The true colors of leadership show up when the feathers are ruffled.  We can see what color lies behind the outer coat.  It is at these times a small business owner paves the path to better success.  This is exactly the time when the true qualities of the best leaders comes to the surface.  The best business leaders show up when the pairs of events do not match up as they had hoped to be.  The business owners who manage the worst events well are the ones who profit most when the dust settles to the ground.

Here's why.

Page two.

Every business model will find its worst challenges arrive when they are least prepared to deal with the requirements that help it survive.  When the checkbook is in its worst shape the top payment demands push for their most unfriendly efforts.  The worst stuff comes at the most inopportune times.  A delay in delivery comes to the most demanding customers.  A wrong part ordered happens to the re-do repair job that came back for its second attempt to correct.  An insurance policy lapses just before a small fire took place.  Leadership finds its way down the path of tests that go well beyond what was once expected.  This is the time when a good business owner shines.

Anyone can manage the stuff that happens well.  Anyone can mange the stuff that comes with normal expectations.  Anyone can manage a business that runs next to the patterns of its routine design.  However, not everyone can manage a business that is faced with some unexpected misfortunes that come in some unwanted pairs.  These are the points of the business trail that make or break how well that owner survives.  These are the places where the owner discovers what a true test can become.  Great leadership arrives when these unfortunate pairs occur.  The qualities practiced when rotten pairs catch on fire become the most important pieces this business owner develops in their walk to leadership success.  It is what they learn to do when things go wrong that separate the best from the worst.  Great business leaders manage their rotten pairs better.

If you own a small business you have felt how bad things come in pairs.  They always seem to pair up.  Long term success came in how you managed those bad things.  Your business success was determined by your response when pairs of wrongs come knocking at your business doors.  The way you answered those unfriendly arrivals became the future outcome of your business production.  Your future developed from the wrongs you managed.  It never comes from the 'rights' that arrived.  Everyone knows how to manage the 'rights' when they arrive.  Very few business leaders fashion the best from the 'wrongs' that occur.  These are the competitors that become the toughest to beat.  They are the ones who get knocked down but never knocked out.  They get back up a bit smarter and a bit tougher to beat.  If you have a competitor who has learned how to lead with this kind of class, look out.  You better lock up your lunch, they are coming to get it.

Become a better business leader.  Keep your cool when the wrong pairs arrive.  They happen to everyone.  Even the best business owners find wrong strings of things to occur.  It is in how they respond to those wrong pairs that produces how they grow up their future success.  Become one of those maturing leaders.  Work out the best responses when bad things decide to pair up your day.  Stay level-headed when bad pairs arrive and think your way through some better reactions.  Cooler heads have more room to think.  It is in that better space that healthier thoughts dominate what should be done.  The best business leaders find this skill.  Very few are born with it.  Most teach it to themselves.

Things always pair up, make sure your responses carry the same kind of load.  Respond in good pairs when the bad ones arrive.  Keep a cool head and think it through.

Until next time...