I just got off the phone with my business coach and I must say that I feel like a complete and total failure of a human right now. Today I was reviewed in front of “my peers” during a live consulting session with the rest of the mastermind group that I belong to. I shared something that I had recently done in business and talked about why I wanted to do it, how I went about it, and the results. On this particular goal I had failed TERRIBLY and I was honest about it with the group. And my consulting coach calmly and patiently went through the steps (again – live and in front of everyone!) that I had taken to determine what had gone wrong. As it turns out, I didn’t exactly follow all of the steps that he had laid out for me. Why – what was my excuse? Because I wanted FAST results, and I’m really busy right now, of course!
Side Note – My history teacher in high school always told us, “if you can’t find the time to do it right, how will you ever find the time to do it again”? Damn, he was so smart, even though I didn’t see it at the time. But here I am, over 20 years later, telling you what he told me!
Soooo, I could be a bitch about it and let it take me down for the next day, or week, or even month…..but then that wouldn’t solve a damn thing! I took my lumps (with that audience and now this one) and I’m moving forward, vowing to do my damn homework next time. And follow the advice of the people that know what the hell they’re talking about!
Side Note number 2 (yes, there are a lot of side notes today) – You would think that paying someone $500+ a month to mentor you would be enough incentive to follow their specific directions – but in my case I happen to be a seriously stubborn individual and don’t always do what I’m told. I’m sure none of you would ever make this same mistake, right? Right?
The bottom line is that business is very much a process – and sometimes processes can’t be rushed. There are steps, procedures, proven strategies, and a whole host of other really boring shit that goes along with running a successful business. And if you get caught up in the day to day of being busy in your business and not actually operating your business correctly, you might fall on your ass and embarrass yourself, like I did today. The thing is, we all know there are things that we should be doing, but you often end up doing just the things that we WANT to do instead. And that’s a recipe for disaster!
You know, when they show Vera Wang on tv she’s always looking at beautiful fabrics and working with models. But they don’t show the 14 hours a day that she spends in meetings, conferring with vendors, negotiating prices, and pouring over spreadsheets. Because all that stuff’s not glamorous! And for the past few weeks I’ve been “enjoying the glamour” and now I’m stuck with reality! I failed. But now I will start again – as I have learned from my mistake!
Have you ever totally failed at something that you know you shouldn’t have? How did you recover?
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