Have you ever been lucky enough to observe a 12 month old up close? Have you seen them take their first few steps. I know that at some stage we have all gone through the same process, but have you ever really considered the tenacity, mistakes, slip ups and potential embarrassments that you went through to do something that you can now do without ever thinking about it? Lets consider the process. They usually spend some time, crawling along whilst watching and observing the older people in their life run around everywhere. Through that observation, they now consider that they are capable of modelling those actions themselves. They spend a month or so preparing, starting to pull themselves upright on anything that comes to hand, table/chair leg, your leg, sofa and even the dog. Eventually, they get to the point where they can stand up, but those first, tentative steps normally ended up with them falling. Undeterred, and surrounded by a chorus of encouragement from their cheer leaders (family), they get up and have another go, each and every time learning from their previous experience. By making micro adjustments to their movements and balance they get to take those first few steps and now they are a walker; truly a miracle to behold. What might have happened had they started out on there quest with adult thinking? The thinking we learn from, our peers, the media, the education system etc. The learning that teaches us that to fail is bad. Upon falling they might have thought to themselves “Maybe I’m not cut out for this walking lark” they may have also been embarrassed to attempt to walk in front of others in case they made a mistake and others were able to witness there ‘failure’. They may have thought, “the time might not be right for me to walk” and made a decision to put it off and wait for the perfect conditions. They might have thought, “maybe I haven’t got the right abilities to take on this challenge so why bother?” Fortunately, they don't have adult thinking or, as some call it, stinking thinking, so encouraged by those around them, they pick themselves up dust themselves off and go again until they reached their final objective. What has this got to do with business? Unfortunately, for most of us, we have had the experience of being conditioned to think that to fail is bad and to ask for help is a sign of weakness. So, when we start off in business, we muddle along working really hard for little or no reward and suffer a great deal of stress in our attempts to get our new business off the ground. After a period of time, our new lifestyle becomes all too familiar and we are in a rut. I have heard a rut described as a grave with the ends kicked out! A sad statistic that is banded about these days is that as few as 4 out of every 100 businesses that open their doors will not see their 10th birthday. What would happen if instead we applied the innocent thinking of a baby to some of life’s and business’ obstacles? What might we be able to achieve? What if we were to accept the fact that if others’ can do it, then so can we? What if we were to learn from those who have gone before us? What if we were to learn from the mistakes those people made, so that we didn’t have to go through them ourselves? How might our outcomes be different? The challenge is that our ego sometimes gets in the way and, instead of searching out sound advice, we think that letting others see our vulnerability is a sign of weakness when, in fact, it is a sign of strength. We stay in our ‘rut,’ when life could be so different. If you ever find yourself thinking “there must be another way” or “how can I do this differently?” you might be interested in our FREE seminar 'Take Control of Your Business' where we will looking at simple, yet effective strategies to build a better, far more profitable business, whilst generating a better lifestyle. Come along and hear for yourself it will be great to meet you. Click here to book Your FREE place/s

Have you ever been lucky enough to observe a 12 month old up close? Have you seen them take their first few steps. I know that at some stage we have all gone through the same process, but have you ever really considered the tenacity, mistakes, slip ups and potential embarrassments that you went through to do something that you can now do without ever thinking about it?

Lets consider the process. They usually spend some time, crawling along whilst watching and observing the older people in their life run around everywhere. Through that observation, they now consider that they are capable of modelling those actions themselves. They spend a month or so preparing, starting to pull themselves upright on anything that comes to hand, table/chair leg, your leg, sofa and even the dog.

Eventually, they get to the point where they can stand up, but those first, tentative steps normally ended up with them falling. Undeterred, and surrounded by a chorus of encouragement from their cheer leaders (family), they get up and have another go, each and every time learning from their previous experience. By making micro adjustments to their movements and balance they get to take those first few steps and now they are a walker; truly a miracle to behold.

What might have happened had  they started out on there quest with adult thinking? The thinking we learn from, our peers, the media, the education system etc. The learning that teaches us that to fail is bad. Upon falling they might have thought to themselves “Maybe I’m not cut out for this walking lark” they may have also been embarrassed to attempt to walk in front of others in case they made a mistake and others were able to witness there ‘failure’.  They may have thought, “the time might not be right for me to walk” and made a decision to put it off and wait for the perfect conditions. They might have thought, “maybe I haven’t got the right abilities to take on this challenge so why bother?” Fortunately, they don't have adult thinking or, as some call it, stinking thinking, so encouraged by those around them, they pick themselves up dust themselves off and go again until they reached their final objective.

What has this got to do with business?

Unfortunately, for most of us, we have had the experience of being conditioned to think that to fail is bad and to ask for help is a sign of weakness. So, when we start off in business, we muddle along working really hard for little or no reward and suffer a great deal of stress in our attempts to get our new business off the ground. After a period of time, our new lifestyle becomes all too familiar and we are in a rut. I have heard a rut described as a grave with the ends kicked out! A sad statistic that is banded about these days is that as few as 4 out of every 100 businesses that open their doors will not see their 10^th birthday.

What would happen if instead we applied the innocent thinking of a baby to some of life’s and business’ obstacles? What might we be able to achieve? What if we were to accept the fact that if others’ can do it, then so can we? What if we were to learn from those who have gone before us? What if we were to learn from the mistakes those people made, so that we didn’t have to go through them ourselves? How might our outcomes be different?

The challenge is that our ego sometimes gets in the way and, instead of searching out sound advice, we think that letting others see our vulnerability is a sign of weakness when, in fact, it is a sign of strength. We stay in our ‘rut,’ when life could be so different.

If you ever find yourself thinking “there must be another way” or “how can I do this differently?” you might be interested in our FREE seminar 'Take Control of Your Business' where we will looking at simple, yet effective strategies to build a better, far more profitable business, whilst generating a better lifestyle. Come along and hear for yourself it will be great to meet you. 

Click here to book Your FREE place/s