The Optimist’s Perspective
I started my consulting firm last year, though I’ve provided consulting services for years as a result of independent contracting and working for consulting firms. Nevertheless, this is a new experience for me. I have to learn many things that were otherwise handled by others, even in a small company, including working on branding, financials, marketing, and sales.
I won’t lie and write that it’s easy. It’s not, but it’s also not overwhelming, especially if you consider that how you react to circumstances is completely under your control. I spend time weekly taking the proverbial “business temperature” to see how well we’re progressing. This is especially important since we need to quickly assess whether a tactic is paying off. Often, the marketing approach or message we’re delivering doesn’t seem to stick, but that’s OK. With every failed attempt, we learn something new and adjust our approach.
The question is never if we’ll succeed, but what path will get us to that inevitable success. Notice that phrase “inevitable success.” It’s never a question of whether we can do it or how difficult everyone else tells us it will be to get to our end goal. We don’t much care what the pessimists tell us. What we care about is trying or doing something, anything (within ethical and moral bounds), that gets us closer to our goal. We know doing something is better than doing nothing, AKA, hypothesizing about doing something. Certainly there’s a need to plan, but as a start up we also have the advantage of being very flexible and having short trial cycles that help us quickly adjust to the market needs and demands.
The market has too many project managers and not enough developers? Fine, we’ll find the right people and offer web application, private portal or MS Office development services.
The market can’t bear consulting fees of two years ago? No problem, let’s come up with more efficient management and delivery process and offer our services at lower fees.
This should be important to you whether you’re an entrepreneur, a seasoned executive out of work, or any level employee seeking new opportunities. Your mindset should be that your success is inevitable. You have no option BUT to succeed! Once you’ve gained this perspective, then you begin to think creatively of ways to get to your end goal, to meet the needs of your customers or meet your next employer. It’s then that you begin to experiment, fail, take note of lessons learned, and repeat. With time, the failures will become less and you’ll see how much closer you are to your goal by way of the results and feedback you get on your efforts. The results are your guideposts, be they the number of people that contact you asking about your services, the press coverage you receive, or how many employers call you back after you send them an impromptu 30-day plan.
Take heed then and face your inevitable success by taking the first step: do something.
What Do You Think?
Feel free to share your optimist’s perspectives below.
Photo Credit: State Library of Queensland, Australia