The grass is always greener or is it?

I get to meet many business owners who seem to have lost the passion for their business. They have the perception that every other business is better than theirs – by this I mean every other businesses is easier to run, more profitable, less time consuming, less stressful and generally far more appealing than the business they currently own and run.

Apart from being wrong, the “grass is greener” mentality can make a business implode simply because the business owner spends all of their time finding fault rather than fixing issues.

From my experience, there is no such thing as an easy business to run. I have seen so many people buy a restaurant or coffee shop because they think it will be a breeze whereas in fact, food really is tough. If you don’t think so watch one episode of “Hell’s Kitchen” with Gordon Ramsy and that should be enough to scare even the most sane person away from any thought of running a restaurant. 

There are times when we all forget about the things we really love about our business. The freedom it gives us, the satisfaction we get from a job well done, the people we work with, our relationships with our customers and the blood sweat and tears that have gone into doing something we are really proud of. It is nice to be reminded of the things we love about our business rather than the things that bug us. 

To do this we really need to take some time out and think about our business and what it really means to us. At the same time, think through the “dream” business that you think will be so wonderful. Be honest, be realistic. You may come to the conclusion that you really want is what you already have. 

I love keynote speaking and I am very active in generating more jobs of this nature. But one day I was thinking about what it would be like to do 2 or 3 keynote jobs a week. Sure the money would be good but what would my life be like? I can tell you it would be a blur of airports, taxis, hotels, big rooms filled with a never ending sea of people, bad coffee and not much time left for my family or friends. So I limit how much keynote work I do for this reason. 

Maybe all your business needs is a little tweaking to make it closer to being perfect for you. If after doing all of the above you still think the other business is what you want – well go for it. But be careful what you wish for. 

Cheers,

AG

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Archives, Better Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.