I’ve just sent off another job application. I have a good feeling about this one. I had to write a comprehensive response to the Selection Criteria outlined in the Job Description and it was really quite easy to provide examples of relevant previous experience. It made me think about the value of experiencing business failure and the practical “real world” knowledge I’ve gained from going through the process of bankruptcy. I obviously couldn’t include my new-found business intelligence as part of my application but it really is highly under-rated.
Actually running a business, no matter the outcome, is a unique experience that cannot truly be related to another person. A great mentor of mine once told me that I was successful in business because I was in business and that is the hardest part – getting started. It sounds like a riddle but I believe that the opposite is also true. I believe the best business decision I ever made was to end my involvement on my terms when I could see that the business simply was no longer viable. It doesn’t really matter what took place before that moment because I took the correct action, I’m sure of it.
Being able to recognise a fantastic business opportunity is a valuable skill and can prove lucrative for many people. However, I believe it is far more valuable to be able to identify risk and be realistic about the future of a business idea and then have the nouse to reject it or fold it based on evidence rather than emotion.
If I ever return to business again, I know I will be successful next time. All the lessons I’ve learnt have been tangible and have made an indelible imprint on my business brain. It all makes sense from the other side. Approaching a business from a theoretical viewpoint, which is all you can do in the planning stages of your first business, is fraught with danger. You are actually stumbling blindly along a path dimly lit by “projections” and strategies. It is impossible to measure anything until you have completed at least one business cycle, whatever that cycle may be, and then you need to have enough cash to keep going to see if you can either replicate or improve that cycle. No matter how thorough your preparation there is no avoiding this fact.
This appears to confirm my mentor’s theory that just getting started is the key. However, I would append that with: after starting, creating a sustained cash-flow is the real challenge. Pretty obvious you’d think but you’d be surprised how many people keep flogging that dead horse hoping for a miracle. Investing good money after bad; trying to overcome the oversights of start-up blindness. That’s not to say it can’t be done, surviving the first year is a major feat for any business, surviving the second is even harder, but you need to have plenty of cash ballast to punch through the swell or you can get lost at sea pretty quickly, I know I did.
2 comments:
I wonder if this is the reason why so many millionaires have gone bankrupt a few times on their way to becoming million/billion-aires? They're the ones who took the lessons they'd learned as experience rather than failure, and were brave enough to try again.
I think there is definitely something in that, Melinda. It's ironic to think that bankruptcy could actually be an indicator of future success! I'll be happy to learn my lesson just the once, though :-)
Post a Comment