The Desert of Arizona
Sunny 40 Degrees
One of the most valuable skills in business is to develop the ability to see things as they are, not as we wish them to be.
That’s not always the easiest thing to do, but it’s the smartest thing to do. It cuts out drama, it cuts out disappointment, it cuts out getting attached to things you don’t control.
It took me a while to see the reality of the business I wanted to build. One of the biggest errors I made over the years was NOT to understand what business I actually wanted to be in. That sounds crazy, but it’s exactly what the problem was. I didn’t know which “road” I was walking on, which made the journey just a little bit bumpy.
There are basically two roads to walk for service businesses. There’s a road where you get paid for doing things. Then there’s a road where you get paid for thinking things.
These are more than “roads.” They’re a bit like two different worlds. And they each have a different set of rules. Take the rules for one road and try them on the other one and they just don’t work as well.
Which road are you on? Which road do you want to be on?
And that leads me to something important:
Early on, I simply didn’t have the guts to believe my ADVICE could be inherently valuable. I always had to offer some blood, sweat and tears before I felt I was worth my fee.
If you’ve ever done this to yourself, you realize this is a dead end. You start resenting things. You start resenting your fees. You start resenting your clients. You start resenting the entire business.
Really, these are just symptoms of the real thing you resent: which is your inability to believe in your own self worth. Eek!
I was on the phone yesterday with a coaching client and I asked a question that pretty much summed up one of the biggest hurdles we face:
How sold are you on YOU? If you’re not sold, why would anyone else buy what you’re selling?