Insanity: doing the same things over and over but expecting a different result!

Sit back for a moment, and ponder a few questions. How long have you been working for yourself? How much have you earned thus far? How much is left - honestly?

For most of us it's a pretty sobering thought to translate all the hours into the pretty sad balance we now have. Yet the reason why most of us are not prospering has nothing to do with how hard we're working. It's because our focus is not where the results are. It's a little like riding an exercise bike. No matter how hard you pedal, you're still going nowhere. All that you do is build up a sweat and maybe lose a little weight. Sounds like our entrepreneurial lives, doesn't it?

So if the past years' worth of effort have yielded such skimpy gains - what makes us think that the next few years will be any different? Surely, if we keep doing what we have been doing, the results must be the same? Or are you, like most of us, waiting for some outside event to save you?

I have lost count of the folk who have told me "I just have to work at this pace for the next 2 years and I will be out of it!" And they struggle for 20 hours a day, getting divorced; having heart attacks; alienating their families; and when the 2 years is over and they're no closer to being any better it is "I just have to work at this pace for the next 2 years and I will be out of it!" And it simply goes on. Isn't there something wrong with this picture?

The entrepreneurial recipe we have been sold simply isn't working! Far too many of us are going out of business. Far too many of us are struggling for years without any proportionate return. We're making our staff rich, our banks rich, our suppliers' rich - but we're not making our families rich.

You would come to these same conclusions if you had as much time to think about it as I do. Or if you met as many struggling business owners as I do. Of course, the question is "Is there a better way?" and there seems to be no shortage of folk with ideas on how you can get rich. But each idea seems to involve you in selling their products, or making them rich first, or doing something different to generate your income.

I am not asking you to do something completely different - merely that you put on a different set of spectacles when you look at your business. How much money is it generating for YOU each month? How much more should it be generating? What are you doing with that money to ensure that you get off the razor's edge? What are you doing with that money to ensure that you have a future with less stress, rather than running in survival mode each month?

My definition of a business is: How do I better add value to more people more profitably. Each of these issues is important - but the last word is critical. That word is profitably. There is absolutely no challenge in helping others and not getting paid enough for it. The challenge is to help others so that you make a profit - not just covering your costs - but making enough of a profit to make it a fulfilling activity for you to be investing your life into.

So my challenge to you is simple: What will you be doing differently in the next few years to break out of the unprofitable rut that you're in? [If you're currently making more money than Croesus - then please accept my apologies, but enjoy the fact that you make up less than 4% of the total business ownership in this country.] In the words of Sun Tzu [if you don't know who he was then may I humbly you're not reading enough, or browsing enough bookstores] "To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands."

© Peter Carruthers, www.petesweekly.co.za

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