About the time I left the corporate world, I had to make some big decisions. How to run my business. What my core principles would be. I decided to use the same principles I use for my personal life. When you own the business, it looks a lot like you anyway.
Some of the values were easy to choose: Be honest. Be fair. Ask before you spend the client’s money. Don’t jump to conclusions. Listen.
Then came the giant one: no fear. Do not make business decisions out of fear. Don’t make any decision out of fear.
It’s hard to keep that one. I had made business decisions based in fear for a long time–fear of my boss, fear of not meeting the team goals, fear of the competition, fear of getting fired. And it was that fear that made me a lousy corporate employee. So, on my own, I decided–no fear.
There are plenty of things to be afraid of when you own your business–not making a profit, getting underbid, outperformed and over cautious. But fear was the big “Aha!” in my business life.
A decision based on fear is frequently loaded with other weak motives. Revenge, neediness, lack of control. If you take fear off the table, you get a different picture.
“What if my competition underbids me?” Became “How much do I need to earn to make a fair profit and do the job well?” If it costs me $10,000 to do the job, and I underbid on purpose and then get the job for $8,000, I am not getting an $8,000 job, I’m losing $2,000. That’s fear.
“I hate Client X, she’s always blaming me for her own mistakes.” I can choose
to work with Client X and be clear on responsibilities or I can pass on the job. But if I continue to let her blame me for her own mistakes, I’m letting fear make my decisions. At the end of the job, she’ll either blame me anyway or I won’t respect myself for taking on blame that isn’t mine.
Fear undermines us. It justifies bad behavior. It is the road to the collapse of self-respect. I can’t live my life without fear, but there are a million great reasons to make decisions and always one lousy one–I did it because I was scared.
–Quinn McDonald is a writer, life- and creativity coach. (c) 2009 All rights reserved. Image:fantom.xp.com
Hey Q: You said it, sis-tah. My father, a labor negotiator during the 60s, taught his kids something very important: “Never be afraid to walk away.” And every time I have walked away from a business deal that feels bad, a business opportunity even bigger has always appeared to take the bad deal’s place. – Mare
Excellent. Much of what you say is common sense, but common sense is so rare in our world that restating it as you have is just beautiful.
Benjamen Franklin said, “common sense is not so common.” He knew it then, and it’s still true now.