Why Do Things Become More Valuable When They Are Suddenly Taken Away?

Some Of The Values We Lose Are The Important Ones We Need

Why do things become more valuable when they are suddenly taken away?

This is a subject worth deeper investigation.  The human condition seems to hold this pattern true to its heart more often than not.  We tend to place higher value on many things we own but only notice this value after they have suddenly disappeared.  When we still own them we do not seem to respect them near as much as when they have suddenly disappeared.  We tend to take many valuable things we own for granted.  It is a common occurrence as well as becoming a very natural thing that humans practice.  The value of many things becomes diminished with familiarity and routine.  They get quietly lost in the pile of existence.

Business leaders fall prey to this effect on a daily basis.  The practice of doing what needs to be done while these business leaders work to produce patterns of success becomes the dominant focus of each day.  Little things of value can become lost in the menagerie of this kind of daily work.  Routine, although critically important to success, can grow up to hide some tremendously valuable quiet components.  A sharp business operator will not miss the responsibility to search this effect out.  They will actually guard against losing values that mean quite a lot.  It is one of those hidden features that separate the good business leaders from the 'also rans'.

What types of values easily fall into this kind of lost category?  What becomes lessened with time?  Which values go unnoticed as daily stuff takes over the mind?  Where do good leaders look to protect the quality values they need to protect?  Which values, when protected properly, prove to become the ones that help the business model grow away from the competition and to become one of the great models in its region of play?  What are those values that when they disappear they become recognized for the magnitude of their loss?

If you are a business leader and you have trouble describing what those values may be, you are not consistently winning at what you do.  This much is true.  Regardless of what you may perceive to be the things you control, winning is one of those things that remains just far enough out of the reach of what you do.  You have a desire to produce more wins, more often.  You recognize the need to change things up a little bit so more wins will come home, more often.  Likely the most motivation you found to recognize this truth is the loss of something very valuable to you.  That is exactly how improvement patterns work.  We seem to need a loss to get us going.  We have to drop or lose a thing of value before we recognize how much we need to change up what we are regularly doing.  It is the loss that provides the source of the motivation to move up, to move better.  Welcome to leadership.

Why do things become more valuable when they are suddenly taken away?

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"Restaurant Impossible" And "Undercover Boss", What?

I like these programs.  They are fun to watch.  I am a pleased part of their captured audience.  "Restaurant Impossible" and "Undercover Boss" are entertaining stuff.  These kinds of reality shows offer some captivating exchanges between people and ideas. Just keep in mind the focus of these programs is to sell advertising to a larger audience.  These programs are owned by a network that is going to work, itself, each day to make a profit.  The Food Network and CBS are working their creative stuff to capture your attention so they can sell more advertising to larger clients who will need to pay more for that exposure than the advertisers want to pay.  That is the heart of their gig.  These networks are a solid business model.  The 'news' is not just reporting news.  Reporting the news is a part of a larger marketing machine that has a goal to make more money for its shareholders.  Entertainment is a business.  News is classified in that same category.  Reality shows are certainly part of that category.  They are all part of a business model.  End of seminar.

My father was a self-made business entrepreneur.  He practiced his business ownership successfully for over 40 years before he passed away.  One of his favorite comments when he was able to share it with other people was to remind them that the news was a business.  He would say, "Be careful with watching the news...it is only a business...they are telling you exactly what you want to hear just enough to keep them away from getting sued.  It sells advertising.  They have a neat knack for pushing your limits to draw you in.  The ones who draw more in can earn more advertising dollars.  Get used to it.  News is just a business."

He was correct.  They sell what you want to hear.  That is their primary goal.  They are in the business of selling their stuff to attract more readership, a larger audience.  Ratings become their primary goal.

When I operated my retail store front the television, newspaper and radio representatives would always come by to sell advertising programs for me to consider.  They would pull out of their bags some data sheets to prove how large their audience had become.  They would point out the measurable demographics to make a case for me to use their advertising potential.  They would sell time and space to increase revenues for the programing they produced.  It was clearly a serious business model.

They would make deals that centered around the Cosby Show, the NFL, the NBA or the evening news.  They tried to get your top dollars to plant your exposure near their most watched programming.  This is where they made the most money.  This is where they could convince you to speak to the largest audiences about what your business had to offer.  Business to business, this is how it works behind the scenes of "Restaurant Impossible" and the "Undercover Boss."  They sell advertising.  They make money doing this kind of thing.

Now that we have cleared the way for the message behind this post, let's see why this understanding is so important to see.  First of all, fixing up a broken eatery that is destined to fail does not and cannot happen in just one week.  Only for television will that impression come to life.  It sells well.  The programming experts behind the business model of "Restaurant Impossible" know this to be true.  However, they must capture your complete attention in that thirty minute segment to make you want to come back while telling others how much you enjoy seeing them fight through the resistance and immediately help others to win.  It sells well to a lot of hearts.  It works well to increase the audience support.  Unfortunately, it is not the truth in how it really works.  No business, headed for failure, can be repaired in just one week.  That is simply fairy tale stuff.  It is only good for TV.

The same holds true for "Undercover Boss."  No boss can go behind the scenes, see a lot of ill-fated things going on, and return two weeks later to have them all fixed up and gone for good.  This only happens cleanly on TV.  It sells well.  Oh, I know, they give little snippets in written captions that report how each problem is doing months later.  They run those captions across the bottom of the screens for the viewer to read near the end of the current series.  That sells well, too.  Did you know that?  It does.  Many times, it is not made up of completely true stuff.  Did you know that?  I am sorry if I have burst anyone's bubble on this piece of news.  Be reminded, these programs know what you want to hear, how you want it delivered and why you will come back to honor what they need you to honor.  It is their business to do this stuff very well...and they do.

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Candid, Sincere Views About Small Business.

One of the most committed people you will ever meet are the ones who own a small business.  This is especially true if you meet one who has been managing their way through a small business for more than ten years.  These are truly some of the most dedicated, seriously-sewn-into-the-fabric-of-how-they-perform-their-daily-life, people.  They are routinely buried into the business they manage.  The two things, their life and their business, are one of the same.  They have become what their business has become.  Small business owners are deeply engaged into doing what they do for a living.  Their small business model defines who they are, what they do and how they think.  Small business owners have made their life become what their business is.  Rarely an exception can be found.  End of seminar.

When these small business owners work their way into this kind of groove, they become so emotionally buried into the depths of their being that they cannot see, think, imagine or do anything outside of the way they see their business performing.  Small business owners are completely consumed by the circumstances they face in their small business activities.  Their business has grown up in their life and has taken all of it by the tail.  It is very much like watching the tail wag the dog.  The dog no longer has control of how the tail wags.  The tail becomes the boss.  The tail defines the owner.  The only thing that appears normal when this stage of life is reached by the small business owner, is that the tail is still attached to the body.  Seeing the tail attached to the body is the only normal thing remaining to be seen.  Everything else becomes a blur of wrongful reactions...tolerated for the sake of supporting the business struggles.  The small business owner is finally captured by the net of owning that small business model.  End of second seminar.

Coming this October first will be the completion of my fortieth year of being a part of managing some kind of small business.  Forty years doing stuff that a small business owner does.  That is an amazing process to describe.  It has become a long history of ups and downs.  Good times were had and awful things have occurred.  Family damages run common.  Trust has been built and trust has been broken.  Shame has been avoided on most fronts and public surfaces but lurks heavily under the top of the skin where it bubbles on fire with threatening reminders.  Every small business owner completely understands what I just described.  The public eye sees a lot of what is not really going on, inside.  Inside the soul of the ones in charge is a long list of serious challenges being managed away from everyone they can afford to avoid.  This is how the heart of a small business owner behaves.  They work diligently to avoid showing the bruises they acquire.  They spend "over-time" energy cleaning up the face after it has been damaged with loss.  The small business owner has the real view of how bad circumstances burn hard behind closed doors.  They spin this view out of the sight of anyone who could judge them wrongly.  End of third seminar.

How much pressure can one person endure?  How much secrecy can one small business owner protect?  How much strength will it take to admit lacking the skills to win more often?  These are some of the quiet questions a small business owner ponders.  They wrestle inside their minds about revealing bad stuff that reflects the truth about the weakness they own.  Remember, their small business has grown up to define who they are.  If that small business has developed some serious problems, it will not reflect well on the character and knowledge of the owners skills.  Bad things happen to every small business.  Everyone gets behind on their payment obligations.  It happens to everyone, some time or another.  Unfortunately, each small business owner does not understand this simple truth.  Hence, the spin to protect this truth begins its motions.  The small business owner starts to work more on hiding these rotten truths long before any one of them can become comfortably resolved.  They spend countless hours and too much energy on protecting the wrongs they have come to protect.  The messes they grow to protect and manage become suppressed beneath the sight of others.  It becomes some of the most serious work these owners have ever performed.  In addition to becoming consumed by this "personal protection" game, they avoid the help that others can share.  Pride takes over.  Pride expands to cover every surface it can find.  Pride wins this war.  End of seminar number four.

Small business leadership is not the work for a weakened heart.  It will weaken a heart, but it cannot be managed by a weakened heart.  This is where the collision occurs.  When the challenges grow too big for the owner to manage the suppression gets set on fire.  No fire will burn under control when the suppression is fueled by the wrong prevention techniques.  No man is an island.  No island is a part of a larger country.  And no connections to a larger country becomes the first break of some needed help.  Most small business owners wait too long before they ask for help.  They allow the gusty winds of the small business world to blow down their house and destroy their properties of protection well before the real hurricane comes to shore.  It is when that real hurricane hits and everything begins to fly away into the sea that this small business owner cries for help on this tiny island.  They send out messages that describe the winds that have taken them down.  The storm they define becomes the reasons why they admit their loss.  A really bad storm becomes an acceptable excuse for they way their business never performed.  This becomes the best time to begin the work on repairing the loss.  Hopefully, the helpers arrive and do not investigate how the home and the properties where not initially built to survive these winds.  No blame may be found and the repairs can come about without injuring or bruising the ego at hand.  This is how the small business owner will spin what has been going on wrong, all along.  End of the fifth seminar.

What seminar is left?

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What's The Next Step? I Need Help.

Find The Source Of Your Business Fire

Did you ever wonder what goes on in the mind of a business owner who is struggling with the business they own?  I do.  Sometimes I feel like a first responder at an accident scene.  I see some wreckage and I move to find where to help.  My instincts immediately move closer to find the business leadership when I see signs of business trouble.  I quietly examine their scene to see if they recognize the fires are burning out of control.  You see, every business manages small fires.  Challenges lurk around every corner in all business models.  Nobody escapes this truth.  Smoke flows from one office to the next as each leader works to find ways to put them out.  That is exactly what good businesses do for a living.  They put out fires.  I look for the smoke that looks like it is out of control.  I look for something brewing in that business that can damage its long term future.  I look to see if and where the fire is burning out of control?

When some serious smoke finds its way out of the hidden halls of the shops, showrooms and back office spaces of a business model I tend to walk closer to it.  I go looking for hidden trouble.  I search for the source of the fire.  I was always told that where's there's smoke, there's fire.  Guess what?  It is true.

Most business owners would just as soon hide their business fires.  They even hide the ones that require more help to put out.  Sometimes their water bucket is not large enough to arrest the size of the flames.  It is so hard for a business leader to admit their fire is burning out of control.  They have always managed these small fires in the past...just fine.  Then it begins.  The fire gets out of control.  It consumes and damages some of the very crucial stuff the business needs to protect.  The business begins to spiral out of control.  It happens.

When the business gets out of control, the leader usually panics and hides the fire.  They try to salvage what is not yet burned.  Unfortunately, managing the wreckage a big fire produces tends to consume the time of the best staff, suppliers and institutional support.  The energy of the business begins to sour.  The stingy fire becomes a permanent smell.  The business finds itself operating in pain, long term.  It is now pushing behind the eight ball.  It is trying to keep from losing its ground.  The process becomes exhausting.  The spirit runs tired and becomes easily consumed with the other ashes.  Everything looks like trouble.  The leader tries hard to cover it all up.  Nobody wants to wear this kind of business blame.  Nobody.

Big fires are hard to get under control.  The leaders try extra hard to push away the first responders.  It takes a while for the rescue crew to find how to get in.  In the meantime, damage is continuing on.  The source of the fire is running out of control.  Most business owners disguise the source of the fires that burn this damage into their business models.  It is a common thing to witness.

Very few serious business problems come from the bottom up.  The more serious business problems come top down. The business leadership usually causes the worst fires.  This is also the main reason why the leaders disguise the source of their most serious business fires.  They do not want to become caught holding the match that struck the flammable stuff.  What's more, they are likely the reason why fire prevention was ignored.  This keeps the first responders outside the core of the business model guessing where the source really remains.  It protects the image of the business leaders.  This image usually runs higher than the need to arrest the fire.

The first step to business repair is to weave about the halls and find where the most deception is taking place.  This is usually where the first responder, the repair specialist, will likely find the source of the fire.  The business leaders tend to give out the best clues by funneling the path of the needed repairs with deceptive finger pointing.  The leaders holding the matches usually move the repair work in the direction away from where the source began.  They tend to protect who holds the match.  In my three decades of  business experiences, this is a very normal pattern to see.  If you plan to repair the broken work of a business model, keep this truth close to your side.  The leaders will deceive you in their efforts to protect how much they were involved.  It will aid you in getting to the source of the problems much sooner.  When a business is in great need for repair, sooner is always better.  Find the source quickly, before the whole house burns down.

For those of you who are leaders of business that are experiencing some out of control fires, listen up.  Get past the hiding of the truth.  It is a very damaging game to play.  The sooner you get some corrective actions put in place the sooner your business will deliver what you have always expected it to deliver.  Sooner is always better.  This is true even if it needs to crush your ego a little bit.  A bruised ego does not feel good but it pays well.  I think good pay is one of the reasons why you elected to go into business for yourself.  Is it not?  Fess up, reveal the source problems and allow the repair guys to do what they do best.  Then begin to receive what you always believed your business should return.  This is how you find the fruits of what it can deliver.

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