Time to Face Facts

It is time to face reality! You and your business have some problems that require some solutions. Very simply, you can’t change what you do not openly acknowledge. Identifying and admitting a problem goes a long way towards solving it.

To begin the transformation and healing process, you need to do some serious reflection. Be brutally honest when you answer these questions:

• Do I often question, “Why do I have to do every darn thing myself”?
• Am I still working too much and making too little?
• Am I trapped working “in” my business instead of “on” my business?
• Do I ever wonder if business ownership is truly worth the time, effort, headaches, hassles, and sacrifices?
• Do I feel trapped on a treadmill, moving faster and faster, but going nowhere?
• Do I constantly face frequent interruptions and repetitive questions from my staff?
• Do I go home many nights feeling mentally and physically drained?
• Do I confuse busyness with accomplishment?
• Do I dread the drudgery of facing and solving the same issues and problems each and every day – the burden of re-creating the wheel time and time again?
• Do I daydream about regaining my sense of freedom, joy, passion, and peace-of-mind?
• Do I have anxiety about drowning in projects, problems, deadlines, crises, meetings, employee issues, unanswered voicemails/emails, customer complaints, administrative trivia, and on and on?
• Do I feel like a master juggler with too many balls up in the air and dreading they will soon begin hitting the floor?
• Am I forever chained to a phone, computer, email, or pager?
• Am I tired of having customers rely on me personally for services, solutions and satisfaction?
• Am I fed up with missing family time, family events, and making other personal sacrifices on a semi-regular basis?
• Do I crave more free time to do the things that matter most to me?
  
  Admit to the Problem
  
  If you answered yes to most of these questions, don’t feel guilty, ashamed or embarrassed. You are not alone. Most owners have never learned to be strategic. Role models are scarce. As such, dysfunctional businesses and owners are the rule, not the exception.
  
  Like you, most owners feel that they have been sentenced to a life of servitude and some even suffer from the blues. Unfortunately, because of pride, shame or ignorance, this sad condition has been kept hidden in the corner office for too long. Starting now, you should not have to endure this much discomfort and frustration associated with your business. You do not have to live this way! You should not be consumed by your business and frustrated with your life. Stop and think, why in the world, as the owner, should you have to touch every transaction, be involved with every decision, help solve every problem, or handle everybody’s job in some fashion? You shouldn’t! It doesn’t make sense. Something is broken! You cannot succeed alone. You don’t have enough hours in a day or enough energy or bandwidth to go it alone. Pain is a good indication that something is wrong and needs to be healed!
  
  Realize that you aren’t the only one suffering. Think about how your stress and blues are negatively impacting your employees, customers, vendors/suppliers, friends and if applicable, your spouse and kids. Hear this wake-up call! It is time to shift radically your business beliefs and behavior. It is time to expand your view of new possibilities for managing your business and life. The better your business functions, the better your life will function.
  
  You deserve to be free from the daily grind; after all, you own a business, not a job. You should actually enjoy the journey of developing and running a business and not defer your personal life and happiness until you retire or sell. Live life now! Do not get so caught up in making a living that you forget to make a life. If your personal life is suffering because of your company, either your leadership approach is misguided or your business design is broken, maybe both!
  
  At this point, simply admit that your business centers on you and is totally dependent upon you. Admit that you are buried up to your eyeballs in details of the business. Admit that you are a slave to your business. Admit that instead of your business giving you greater life, it continues to drain more of your personal time and peace-of-mind. Admit that while your headaches and hassles grow, your freedom shrinks.