I work with contractor clients one-to-one, sitting side-by-side, during a presentation or workshop and through teleseminars and webinars. A common and dangerous flaw I see all to often is that too many contractors who profess they crave more success and less stress are delusional.
This means they are busy blaming anyone and everyone but themselves for what isn’t going right at their companies. The reason for this behavior? They choose to see things the way they want to see them and hope to change their distorted reality into something else by wishing and wanting it to be so.
Ah, but if only wishing and wanting could make it so.
They need tough love.
An objective look
The best thing those contractors can do is take off their rose-colored glasses and look at the way things really are. It’s only through seeing things as they really are rather than how we hope they should be that the valuable assessment needed for change can ever take place.Whether the current situation they’re in is not what they would want it to be or is downright bad, a written business plan is needed to move them in the direction they want to go.
Now turn the Mirror of Truth on yourself and determine if you suffer the same affliction. Is your company what you envisioned it would be when you started it? What will you be willing to do to change to get more of what you want and less of what you don’t want?
It all starts with the truth! How do I know? I know because I had the Mirror of Truth held up to me. Yes, I too used to blame everyone other than me for everything that wasn’t going right at my company. It made me feel better but it didn’t change anything.
Fortunately, I had great mentors to show me that the true enemy of success was staring at me every morning when I shaved. And until I was willing to change how I was looking at myself first, and be accountable to others and to myself, nothing was going to change for the better. A bitter pill to swallow but one I’m glad I did.
Can you see the truth on your own? Yes, but it’s a tougher job than seeking outside impartial professionals with experience and perspective. If you do the budgeting for your company, you can begin to see the truth on your own because the numbers don’t lie. If you measure things such as call count, that doesn’t lie. If you’re tracking how much per call you’re making, that doesn’t lie. If you have a high callback ratio, that doesn’t lie. Are you getting the picture yet?
The first step is to take an objective look at the way things are at your own business and the business environment around you. But if you can’t see it because you're blocked by emotional viewing (you see what you want to see), you need to hire someone to come in and give you an honest assessment about where your operation is weak, where it’s strong and what steps you’ll need to take to make things better.
Knowing the truth
Frankly, the assessment can be bleak. That’s still something you have to face. The longer you stay in denial, the less options you’ll have. Even if you learn you might be wise to consider closing the doors to your shop, that fact alone has a seed of hope upon which the surface appears hopeless.The power of knowing the truth is what sets you and your company free. Only from acting on what is real can you formulate a plan that you execute with a firm timeline. If the urgency and commitment isn’t enough to move you, then it is time to throw in the towel.
Remember: “When you put the car in the ditch, the first thing you need to do is stop spinning the wheels.”
You don’t have to own a business or do the work you’re doing today. And if you’re wishing for and wanting a certain result but nothing changes, you need to look in the mirror and see who is probably at the root of the problem. You!
It’s much easier to blame the bad economy, the malcontented staff, the complaining customers and just about everyone else but you. But no, the problem is still you. You’re at the wheel - you have the power to put the car in the ditch or to be out there motoring along the highway to success.
The toughest job I have is to hold up the Mirror of Truth to a client and show him that he is ultimately causing the obstacles to his success. It’s not fun and it’s not easy, but sometimes it’s necessary.
Most times clients are resistant to change - they defend the status quo, they don’t accept responsibility for their actions and they are wired to say they want success but they don’t do the things that will bring them success.
So, are you someone who is just hoping, wishing and wanting success? Or are you someone who is willing to do the uncomfortable, the unpopular and the toughest of things, which is to change yourself and your company to reach new levels of success?
Look in the Mirror of Truth and the answer will be revealed.
