Down But Not Out

“This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
— Winston Churchill

Have you ever given your all to something only to have someone else come in and crush the results of all that work? Do you get frustrated because the outcomes you want aren’t coming to you as quickly as you’d like, despite the fact that you bust your butt day in and day out? Do you start to doubt yourself, your skills and talent, and your ability to succeed? YOU ARE NOT ALONE. As small business owners, we have all been there.

There are a number of ways for us as business owners to handle these types of devastating set-backs. Here are three of the most common:

1. Do nothing and just keep absorbing the abuse;
2. Quit;
3. Make a change.

Option Number One – Do nothing.
If this tactic appeals to you, you probably shouldn’t be an entrepreneur. Most of us started down this road because we weren’t willing to slog along in mediocre jobs just taking indiscriminate abuse meted out by others. If we wanted to suck it up and slide along the path of apathy, we could have stayed in our corporate positions and let circumstances and other people dictate the direction of our lives.

Option Number Two – Quit.
This choice is a bit more problematic. Throughout our lives, we are reminded that you should never quit something you started. Cliches like, “quitters never win and winners never quit” (Vince Lombardi) or “success is 99% failure” (Thomas Edison) are pointed to as evidence of the viability of this notion. I think that point-of-view is far too over-broad, though.

If an objective is worthwhile, I urge you to stay on course, even though you may have to endure a significant amount of pain. But, if you start down a path and find that the result at the end of the road is either 1) not what you thought it was or 2) not obtainable, then it’s time to re-evaluate whether you should continue with the endeavor. In The Dip, Seth Godin, proposes that Americans have been brainwashed by Vince Lombardi. “Winners quit all the time,” says Godin. “They just quit the right stuff at the right time.” The million-dollar question, though, is when to walk away from something. The key is to step back, gain some perspective on the situation, and try to objectively determine whether you should continue.

Option Number Three – Make a change.
If you’re unwilling to keep your mouth shut and are convinced the goal is worth pursuing, it’s time to do things differently. Einstein is credited with defining insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If you keep running into roadblocks in your business, maybe it is time to stop the insanity and make a change. The only way to produce different results with the same set of circumstances is to do things differently than before.

Instead of reacting to circumstances, take a step back and assess what you need to change to obtain a different result. Be proactive by taking the first step and being the person who gets the ball rolling towards change. Successful small business owners embrace change and make it happen. Change usually starts with disruptive innovation, so you must also be willing to break a few paradigms to create any real transformation.

So, my question for you is:

If you are not happy with what you’ve got, what changes are you willing to make to get something different?