As I travel around the country, today is day 198, and work with and speak to small business owners, by in large, I’m hearing the same thing.
Entrepreneur after entrepreneur is sharing with me their struggles. Most are even panicked and filled with uncertainty. Many are hanging on as best they can.
Here’s the reality…the ways in which we do business today are accelerating at a pace few can keep up with.
Here’s the other reality…adapt or die! The decision is yours.
“In times of change, the learners inherit the earth. While the learned find themselves beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists.” ~Eric Hoffer
Since early 2008 I’ve been saying this very same thing. I must sound like a broken record. It’s not that I”m trying to scare people. It’s not that I’m panicked. It’s just what American business owners need to hear.
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Most employees suck. Yes, it needs to be said. Mediocre, uninspired and incompetent employees are leeches of your valuable time & resources.
However, most businesses can finally manage without W2′s. Technology and a changing business atmosphere has allowed smart entrepreneurs to create systems and partnerships to eliminate the need to hire full-time employees.
Unfortunately for some folks though, staffing full-time employees implies quality.
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During my one and only job interview in the corporate world, I was asked the go-to question:
“What is your biggest flaw?”
And while I’m not sure how others respond when asked this, I replied:
“I have a crippling problem with perfectionism.”
But looking back at that answer, is this really a problem?
I once thought it was my flaw. A sort of OCD I developed over time. I re-read everything I write over and over. I am compulsive about how & where I keep my possessions. And anything I do or buy needs to be Googled to ensure I’m making the right choice.
This all takes an excessive amount of time… But is it a problem?
The Perfectionist Entrepreneur
So let’s explore this. Does striving for that little extra create a problem within your life, relationships and business building efforts?
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I despise most networking events.
Of the countless networking opportunities I’ve been invited to, I oftentimes decline. Mostly because they are at the crack of dawn and require me to use a handful of alarm clocks to successfully wake up… Only to meet a bunch of self-serving business people.
But when I do take the plunge and attend networking events, it’s for one main reason:
Experimenting with Interactions
Where else can you go into a room filled with dozens of business people, all wanting something from you?
Whether it be to give you their business card or sell you something, most people’s intentions at networking events are egocentric. And this makes them perfect guinea pigs for testing business interactions, communication techniques and a multitude of other people skills.
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In recent decades the world changed radically. But capitalism didn’t.
Well, that is until September 15, 2008.
Capitalism was forever changed on that day when Lehman Brothers, a 158-year American institution, collapsed. For what collapsed on that day was not just a bank or a financial industry. What fell apart that day was an entire philosophical economic system.
Don’t agree? Look no further than 18-year Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan’s testimony before Congress on October 23, 2008.
Most people are severely underestimating the EPIC disruption that occurred in the months following Lehman Brothers collapse. In fact, I believe history will prove it to be far more significant than the Great Depression.
As we speak, I think the world is resetting itself economically, socially and spiritually. While the 30’s may have been the Great Depression, I believe right now we are in the Great Reset, but this reset isn’t just happening in America. We’re in a global economy now. (See the rise of China and India, the complete country collapse of Greece and Ireland, the uprising in Middle East, then look at the record number of unemployed and poverty stricken Americans.)
A Crisis or Catalyst
Now let me be clear, capitalism was not destroyed by the most recent crisis, it was just irrevocably changed. Capitalism by its very definition is an adaptive social system that mutates and evolves in response to a changing environment. We know the traumatic events of 2008-09 will neither destroy nor diminish the fundamental human urges that have always powered the capitalist system—ambition, initiative, the competitive spirit. These natural human qualities will instead be redirected and re-energized to create a new version of capitalism that will ultimately be even more successful and sustainable than the system it is replacing.
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