01/03/2021
When our businesses are in a state of collapse, entrepreneurs go through three stages. First, we deny that we’re struggling. You know what I am talking about. Someone asks how your business is going and you say, “Great! Just landed a big client!” But inside you can feel your lungs compress as the stress builds. Things aren’t great. Money is draining away, fast. But you’re afraid to admit you’re struggling because what if people think you’re not capable? What if future prospects ignore you? What if your team begins to doubt you?
In Stage One of the collapse, entrepreneurs deny the truth because our egos can’t handle it. Only when the business is knocking on death’s door do we admit that we’re struggling.
TEnter Stage Two. For many, the stress at this point has become a fact of life. Wake up stressed. Go to bed stressed. Have stressful dreams. Stress about being stressed. Re-peat over and over. In some perverted way, you start to be proud of how stressed you are. “You think you have it bad?” you say. “Well, let me just tell you how crappy my life is.” Even at this stage, no corrective action happens because people get temporary relief by blowing off steam and reciting their sob stories. It looks a little different, but it’s still ego.
In Stage Three we just throw our hands in the air (there’s that defeatism again) and say, “Life sucks,” as if fate had anything to do it (it doesn’t) and our success or failure is completely out of our hands (it isn’t). You know this stage— it’s the one where you shake your fist at the sky and shout, “Why me? Why am I being punished? Why can’t I catch a break?” (with maybe a few colorful ex-pletives thrown in). This is the point at which most people give in. They stop making an effort but continue working— strike that, slaving—and accept that it will never get better. All the fight is gone!!!
At what stage are you in your business, are u in denial, stressed or the life sucks stage.
