Are You Derailing Your Business with Details?
Friday, April 16th, 2010Details can kill your web business. And I’m not talking about details killing your business from the standpoint of being careless about them. While it’s true that being careless can hurt your business, everybody knows that (even if they don’t always put it into practice).
The way I’m talking about that details can kill your business is if you focus too much on them.
Say what?
How on earth can focusing too much on details hurt your business?
Ever tried to walk on a railroad track?
When I was a kid, my aunt and uncle had a house right next to a railroad track. My uncle once challenged me to walk on the track without falling off.
Hey, it’s not like walking a tightrope. That track was as wide as my feet. Should be no problem. So I started walking it, carefully watching my feet with each step to make sure I stayed on the track. But I couldn’t get more than a couple of steps before I’d lose my balance and fall off.
My uncle taught me that the only way to walk that track successfully was to look at a point a ways down the track – not down at my feet. By setting a goal and focusing on it, I could walk on that track as easily as if I was walking right on the ground. It was only when I focused on my feet that I tripped up.
It works that way with business, too. Our natural reaction is to put all our attention into “watching our feet” as we deal with this short-term detail and that. But when we do that, we “fall off the track” of where we wanted to go.
Now, I’m not saying that we should ignore the details of our business as we gaze wistfully toward our vision of the knock-out business we dream of building. You never get anywhere without taking step after step after step to reach your goal. But you never get anywhere, either, if all you look at is the present step.
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