Hello, I Live on Entrepreneurial Island

We entrepreneurs are a stubborn bunch… I am sure you are shaking your head in agreement.  Yes, we entrepreneurs suffer from a lot of things… one of those things is stubbornness.  We enter the business world because we want to do our own thing, be our own boss, have our own way and revert back to that semi-selfish behavior we had as children and particularly as teenagers.

It works for the most part… When we are an island on our own, trudging through the to-dos, the management, the accounting, etc., we are a one-person show – a solitary organization that wants to make a difference.  Then, our island needs support and we bring in team members and joint venture partners and we realize that other people are entering our business who also have an opinion and sometimes, a damn good one!

They are now a part of this little island we kept so solitary before and they notice things like the thousands of coconuts that were knocked from the tree only to rot away unused and they notice that our systems for finding food and proper shelter are all wrong… and since we invited them in to share this sacred space, they comment on it.  Trying to help us improve our space.  Telling us things that we may not see having been here so long.  And, more often than not, we don’t want to hear it, accept it or listen to it.

We, as entrepreneurs, tolerate a lot in our own businesses.  Our inefficiencies, our trouble spots, our hardships… We internalize it all and “deal with it” because that’s who we are – big, strong, proud entrepreneurs.  Little do we know, we are actually causing ourselves a great injustice.  Instead of allowing these people to shape our world and make it better, we dismiss their opinion and more often than not, make them the issue…

We also get ourselves into sticky situations sometimes.  Taking on more than we can handle, allowing our expenses to far exceed our income and all the while saying, “If only Jill stepped up to play a bigger role” or “If only Jack cared about my company as much as I did.”  What we don’t realize is that these problems stem from ourselves.  We were the ones who led the ship… we carved the path… and since we didn’t want outside advice, we are the only ones to blame.  We got ourselves into our current situation.

Last year, I brought on an amazing team.  Although we’ve experienced a lot in the past year (both good and bad), the one thing I did was listen to my team.  I saw our trouble spots and I worked damn hard to change them.  I saw our inefficiencies and I didn’t allow my pride and my stubbornness to get in the way.  I said, “Yep, that part of the business is awful and needs to be changed” and I invited in their ideas on how we could fix it.

So, the lesson here is to not be an island. Don’t think that you can go it alone, don’t try to do it alone and for the love of Earl… throw your pride in the closet.  If a team member, coach or colleague is shouting out to you about an issue or problem, listen and take it in.  There’s a good chance if you choose to ignore it or lash out that really, deep down inside you know it’s true.  Sometimes the truth hurts but you can’t have the sweet without the bitter.

[tags]Entrepreneurial, entrepreneur, pride, stubborn, stubbornness, BSETC, internet marketing, internet marketing strategy, internet marketing support, Erin Blaskie[/tags]

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