If there is one single principle I’ve learned since starting and successfully running my own business, it’s that you can actually drive away results by trying too hard.
MY STRUGGLING OTTAWA SENATORS
For those of you who follow hockey, you may recognize the Ottawa Senators (my hometown team) as one of the more successful regular season teams.
They have immense talent, amazing ownership, a system that can defend and create offence better than any team in the league – at least in the regular season.
Problem is when we hit the playoffs – they have never made it past the second round even though they are often touted as a top prospect for Lord Stanley’s Cup.
So what happens?
In a word, they want it so much, they actually drive away the success that comes so easy to them all season.
The same thing can happen in business.
When you try too hard, want something too much, this comes across to your customers, your market, your partners – and drives them away.
You’ve seen it happen, you follow all the rules, learn all the techniques, spend months – even years – building the foundation, then some runt comes in with an attitude and makes incredible success within your market right out of the blue!!
The reason is that they have a swagger, a confidence, an assuredness that reaches well beyond desparation.
You come across as desparate, conservative, cautious, and contrived – they come across as new, refreshing, innovative, with legitimate purpose of helping their market because seemingly, they don’t HAVE to have your customer’s sale.
Think about it, the real secret to getting better results and building your business to the next level could very well be to back off the gas.
Start having fun, enjoying your business, focus on something other than the short-term sales. Build something that feels “right” rather than something that makes logical sense.
Hopefully all this rambling makes some sense to you – it is a very powerful concept that never fails to act as a guiding principle – at least in my experience.
Jeff
