“You should …”

Perhaps, it is someone who relates well with everyone, a cook with a fantastic family recipe handed down over generations, a creative problem solver who is always coming up with innovations, and on and on.

They say that naively as if the product they experienced was all that was needed to start a business—the boulangerie, gallery owner, broker/agent, restaurateur, entrepreneur, respectively. It seems to send a message that all we need to do is to find our passion—and that will into a money-maker. It’s a compliment, but it is wrong.

And growing up, we are filled with “you should” messages from parents, friends, coaches, teachers, pasters and others. Being human, and knowing they care about us, sometimes we work to fulfill expectations others have of us. Many times, that behavior can evolve to place where messages begin to change. They evolve into “you should do what you want to do.” We hear “follow your passion” or “follow your heart” messages given people they want to have happiness. It is almost as if to say that “all will be well” in time. Almost magically!

If we were to reject that well intended blessing, let go of our dreams, and do something else, it might risk our place and sense of belonging in our group—and that would mean real failure, right?

Sometimes it works. And that inspires. Our culture values those who never give up, and people write stories and make movies about the underdog that never gave up, and in spite of all odds, found success. Toughen up!  Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Never give up! When you know you’re right, it doesn’t matter what everyone else says.

So many start a business as an uninformed newcomer because of belief, hope, desire and the love and encouragement of others—mostly with terrible results.

We take our time, money and energy and invest it in ourselves!  Hoorah!  Or is it?

It is highly likely something won’t be quite right. And we shift our attention and fix it. And then something else goes wrong. We fix it. Then another, and another, and soon we are forced to build upon patchwork, quick fixes and repairs. That urgency takes time away from the important things, like making sales. Money runs short. We borrow from Peter to pay Paul. In time, we’re juggling bills. But, somehow, after digging into our wallets, purses, and credit cards—we seemingly hold things together. We hope for the next sale, the next customer, the next opportunity will get us past the hurdle and save the day, today, and give us another day tomorrow.

Then fear shows up …

How do I make payroll (if you have employees)? How do I pay my own living expenses? When people say, “This product/service is so good!” it becomes a lifeline that we interpret as, “Someone understands me” and we row the boat another 100 yards. We worry, about all the “what if’s …” into a modality that makes us work harder, because it distracts us from the fear of failing. That fear leads us to coaches, mentors, friends ‘who know.’  Some might be there just in time to help turn things around. Others might say you should do this or that based on their experience, but not your experience, and the truth-tellers might say, “Get out while you can.”

Sometimes, in desperation, we convince others to invest, borrow more money, or even ask others to borrow money and invest with you. By then, the financial death spiral has been in effect for a while, like crossing the event horizon of a black hole, or crossing the equator at sea, there is no sign that says, “Things are different from this point forward.” But the spiral has us borrowing more to pay for what was borrowed. We work more hours until there are no more hours. Family gets upset. Investors might follow form; from A) concerned, to B) frustrated, to C) anger, to finally D) cutting you off. And then the realization hits–the business cannot work as the dream said it would.  We are forced to let go. 

Accordingly, there is sadness. Sometimes there is shame, depression, loss of energy, and those close to you are angry and reject you.  But to add insult to injury, the world says, “That’s how it goes sometimes. You’ll do better next time.”  “What?!?,” you might think, “I just lost everything.”  Fair Warning – this is not an unusual story!

I watched that happen within my family when I was young, but old enough to learn vicariously. Everyone in the family who invested lost all of their money on the ‘sure thing.’ It is deep sadness and empathy that one set of relatives lost their home, their social circle, at their age could do nothing but move into a small apartment and lived small, until they died.  Witnessing that scared me to death about ever starting a business. And today, the national business failure rate is still a dismal 9 in 10, in 10 years.

Business became to be defined as something awful to me, something to be feared.

But hope remains eternal, the naiveite of the thought ‘that won’t happen to me’, and the attraction of gold somewhere in that creek—pulls us forward

I remained afraid of owning business for two decades until I witnessed what business CAN do when done right. I realized that nothing lifts communities better than a healthy small-business ecosystem.

So, what is the right way?  The answer cannot be the status quo—given that failure rate—something has to change. Unless you are the one to find that ‘unicorn’ idea, succeeding in business is not unlike raising your children to be adults. It is a ton of hard work, it takes time, money, discipline, knowledge, information, and most importantly—help. No one can know it all! No one can do it all!  Children don’t just suddenly appear fully formed, they were built, over time, here a bit, there a bit, with lessons learned (often painful) all along the way.

What do you do with the “You should …” messages?

It’s actually a pretty simple answer and easy to write or say than it is to do. The solution is to turn the “You should …” into an “I know.”

Our desire at Vector Reports is to reduce the number of those awful business failures. We won’t get them all, and some will occur too late to prevent failure, but we will attempt to help you create the “I know” in yourself.

There are countless ways to build a business … so, it comes down to HOW:

• HOW the business gets built
• HOW you test your premise
• HOW you listen to the customer
• HOW processes mature
• HOW you grow, listen, pivot, change, and create new paths forward
• HOW you prove the dream into reality so that others want some too, and
• HOW WELL you do all of that and so much more

Vector Reports invites your own self-evidence of your current state to facilitate you to think differently. That is what Vector Reports diagnostics do. It helps the business owner see what they already know, in a new light, almost as new information, that helps the business owner find their own way!

No one can see around every corner. But when some (hopefully kind) person offers a “You should ...”, turn it into an “I know … ” that clarifies, that helps you see options, opens insight … all so you can make an informed choice as to the pathway to your dream. 

After all, it’s not a ‘should’, it’s your choice.

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