Why we fail in Business

What makes this 3% special? Do they have special powers? Maybe more brains than you and I put together? Maybe they are just lucky…

Here’s my list of reasons why people fail in business:

1. You picked the wrong thing to do

As a human being you have a certain set of skills and talents. These can be emphasized, cultured and honed to the point where it can make you an expert in that field that require these certain skills and talents. If for instance you are very passionate about travelling around the world that doesn’t mean necessarily that you can become a travel agent.

You might lack those certain skills (even inter-personal ones) that give you the advantage over other travel agents; unless you want to become a mediocre travel agent and that’s another story all together. I am talking here about being the best you can be not some hobby you just want to transform into a business and you think you might be able to pull it off.

Conclusion: Make an inventory of the talents you have, the skills you can acquire and forcefully direct them towards a business that require having these elements in order to be successful.

Example:
Albert Einstein played a mean violin but he knew early on that he will never be the best at it so he focused on something else and we all know how that turned out for him.

Michael Jordan has a short career in baseball between 1993 and 1994 but the majority of the public know him for “…the greatest basketball player of all time”. Michael understood that basketball is the field where he is and will be the best of the best.

2. You Focus On Now and Immediate Instead of the Long Term

ADD is something a lot of us have. Few even acknowledge it, but we all want the rewards for our work to be immediate and plentiful. Who wouldn’t? But remember that great things take time and almost never happen over night otherwise we would probably have had cars and electricity, computer and iPods, cheese in a can and walks on the Moon within the first months of the 20th century.

Didn’t happen. You know why? Because (thank God!) we had inventors who had visions of tomorrow and saw many years in the future. Because we have entrepreneurs who catch glimpses of the future and do not balk at the troubles of today; because you have to forget about now and focus on the tomorrow.

“What’s in it for me?” – You hear this a lot. Well – a lot is in for you. The question is: “Will you have the necessary patience to see it?” Whatever it is that you are doing – picture yourself with the end result at hand. Imagine yourself in that position of being victorious with the prize you wanted. Nothing happens immediate. God created the world in 7 days. Are you seeing at least that much into the future of your business?

3. You Are Not Serious About Your Business

So you found something you are qualified to do, you start your business and you see a bright future for yourself…but you don’t quite believe in it. You start treating your business as an “I’ll try this for a while and see what happens.”

If you already start thinking like that – forget it. Quit now and save money and time. Mostly – save your sanity.
If you decided this is your thing then make it – YOUR THING. Live and breathe what you do. Give it 100% without thinking this is a hobby; without thinking “whatever happens”.

Think of it as jumping in the water without a raft. All you have is your swimming skills. What would you do then? Give it a shot? I don’t think so – you would fight to stay afloat, fight for your life and do whatever you can to head for solid ground.

Do the same for your business. Become your business and I promise you: The solid land you are seeking – is the Promise Land you never thought existed.

4. You Lose Interest

Some time has passed and you still feel very strongly about your business but not much has happened. “Clients are hard to come by, the mortgage is due and the kids got the flu. The mother-in-law just moved in. Maybe this business thing is just not for me.”

Did you know that Microsoft failed 2 when launching Windows, 4 times to complete Word and 3 times Excel?

Imagine a world without these software packages we learned to love (some more than others). Imagine the team in charge with the completion of these projects at their 3rd try with Microsoft Word. Do you think they said “Well – third time’s a charm!”? You probably have the answer to this question installed on the PC you are currently reading this stuff on.

For some reason – things start happening exactly after you lost interest. Would you like to go down in history as the one who tried and quit just before it all happened? Would you like to have that regret your whole life that if you would have just hanged in there several more days you could have had it all?

That’s a heavy feeling. I certainly don’t want that on my conscience. Why would you?

5. You Run out of Time

That’s a legitimate concern. Sure. And in some instances there is nothing you can do about it. You cannot decide or control time but maybe you can control the time you put into your business. Maybe your schedule is so hectic you forgot to do the important things for your business.

Do you have a daily schedule and stick with it throughout the day?

If not – here’s a little trick:

• Before you wrap up for the day, make a list of the things you need to take care the next business day.
• When you start your new day, revise the list and change it with all the other things you have pushed to the back of your mind but yesterday forgot about them.
• Prioritize the list.
• Write down the approximate time you are willing to spend on each item to have them completed.
• If you have “time at the dentist with the little one” – mark that. That’s nothing more important than your family. Not even your business so it can wait.
• Cross the things you complete.

Keep a record of all the things you have accomplished on a daily basis and every weekend, during the morning coffee while everyone else is still asleep – revisit and read what you have done. You will be surprised how many things will jump at you. You will get ideas on how to follow up with some of your clients, ways to improve something within your business, etc.

6. You run out of money

This is really a tough one. Sometimes you might have to borrow, or even cut back on your expenses. Sometimes you plainly cannot do anything else short of robbing a bank or praying for a winning lottery ticket.

If that’s the case – the only advice I can give is this:

• Make a budget
• Follow it to the letter
• Cut whatever you can
• Make realistic estimates of business expenses (you should have done that before you went into that business anyway)
• Take on a partner, maybe a family member that can contribute financially and even professionally to the business

7. You Lack Perseverance

This kinda goes hand in hand with number 6 – Lost interest but not quite. It’s one thing to get bored or even annoyed with your business and another to love it but lose the will to continue it.

I believe this is the most important point in this whole article. I know I failed 100% of the time in all my businesses because I didn’t keep going. The first bad thing that would happen with my business I would immediately retire into 1000 reasons why this is not working and most importantly – it was never my fault. It always was someone or something else (i.e. marketing people lied to me, the bank tricked me with the loan, there are no clients left, I have the flue – what do you want me to do? I need a new suit – I cannot show up like this in front of clients, etc. etc.)

You can have all the other traits but without perseverance – you got nothing.

Let’s do a little exercise:Say you were given a rock and an infinite supply of water. You are required to break the rock by using the water one drop at a time. Your life depends on breaking that rock just by employing a stream of dripping water. How many people do you think will do it?

If you answered “less than 1%” you are right. And now you understand why 1% owns most wealth in this world and why the rest will struggle and keep on struggling to the end of their lives, when their children will continue on the same path their parents have taken.

Folks – the system wants you to fail. Will you make your own destiny or let others make it for you?

 Claudiu Geanta is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Design by Satori Inc. & Satori CG Inc.. He helps businesses promote their presence on and off line. He is also an accomplished web designer, book writer and photographer. You can follow him on Twitter.
Read more from this author