"When you look in the mirror, you see the biggest troublemaker in your life" - Chinese Proverb
I was walking down the street when I saw a mirror that had this taped to it in a store window. I don't know why it was there, it just was. We all know this to be a very true statement and one that we completely ignore. It is so much easier to say that the car troubles you are having is because the car is poorly made or you need a new car. And it is easier to blame the traffic for being late to a meeting isn't it?
One of the things that most business owners do wrong is love their business. The day I realized I was doing this in the home technology business, I knew I had a problem that would only be fixed by closing the doors. When you love your business, you are building a wall and forcing customers to do the work and climb over it. I am as guilty as the next owner. When I finished my first book, I designed the cover, picked the title, ran them both by a couple of "yes" people and published it. Two years later I met Imal. She laughed and sent this text one day:
u r in luv w your idea.
It took a while for what she was saying to sink in. Eventually I realized the reason I wasn't selling more books was pretty simple. People do judge a book by its cover and I designed a cover and picked a title that I liked. I never bothered to ask the people I wrote the book for what they thought. Since the book was publushed, they have told me loud and clear and yet I still didn't listen. I blamed other things. The obvious problem here is I am not going to buy a copy of my book. At least not enough to get it on to any kind of best seller list.
My new friend Imal was 100% right, I built a roadblock in front of my potential customers. My publisher didn't do it, I did it. There was no one else to blame. A few people that picked up the book out of curiosity really liked it. All of the sales during the first year were word of mouth. I couldn't give them away on the street corner with the cover I picked. The cover hasn't yet changed and the only reason it is selling is a great review from Jim Pawlak and a few favorable blog postings by readers. I won't be doing any more autograph sessions at Borders until it gets a new cover and maybe even a new title.
The truth is if we want to improve our outlook and position in life, we can only talk to one person about fixing it, and that is the person in the mirror. I talk with people every day who are clearly their own road block. I am not going to ask you if you are one of those people I am going to tell you you are one of those people just as the Chinese proverb is. Admit it, and you can help fix it.
There are many different kinds of people in the world, and even the super successful get in their own way once in a while. Sometimes we can talk to the person in the mirror, other times we need to talk out loud to someone else. It doesn't matter if you sit in a confessional, a counselors office or just sit and talk to the mirror, you are both the problem and the answer. The trick is having the humility and the awareness to see the problem.
It took several attempts to get me to understand the problem with my book cover and title. Recognizing I was the problem was only step one. I still had to fix it. In business this step is usually much easier. If you take a walk in your customers shoes, you can usually find the answer. If that doesn't work, ask your customer.
More recently, I had a website that had a free giveaway. The idea was to promote our new DIY training program for smaller businesses. It is relatively inexpensive, easy to follow and the first months information is free. The problem was no one even took the free information, they just called to become a client. While this is good for business, it means I missed the mark in a huge way.
Once again Imal pointed out that my entire business and teaching is about focus, service and growth. Even the way the DIY website was written said pretty clearly "We can do this better than anyone else for you". Why would anyone want to get free information on mowing their lawn with a push mower in just 4 hours a week when they could get a guy with the new hi-speed zero turn, supercharged mower-trimmer-vacuum combination to do it and make it look like a baseball diamond?
Every day without fail, I meet a business owner who is the only person standing in the way of their true happiness and success. Most of the time it is because they are trying to do to many things. I wrote the book "So, Now What?" I should have had a cover designer make the cover. I didn't then, I am now.
There are too many business owners or CEO's that are trying to be the COO, visionary and venture capital developer. Pick one and hire out the others. If you can't afford to pay the other two positions, you definitely can't afford to be them.
All of this comes down to the person in the mirror. Did they pick the right job or business? What is the one thing they could do all day and make themselves happy? What customers could they love more than their business? Figure these out and you will take down a big chunk of that wall that separates your business from both your customers and your success.
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