“Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.” ~ Thomas Szasz
The idea you’ve carefully nurtured, the business you’ve grown, the staff member you’ve trialed, the game changing plan you’ve implemented – what do you do when it’s not going well?
Do you let it all go, pack up and go home? Or do you persist, injecting every ounce of energy you have left? It’s a hard decision and one that business leaders are faced with often.
The hardest thing about a failing situation is the emotional attachment to it. Our ego plays a huge role in determining what we do as does the constant concern about what other people will think. Of course if someone else was in this position you’d be more than likely able to offer some sound advice and see clearly what they have to do.
When you are ‘in it’ it’s certainly much harder to know what to do. You mind fights the heart strings, the logic struggles with intuition.
Sometimes you need to step away and assess a situation in black and white, removing all the emotion, the colour and the dramatics to enable you to make an educated decision. Elevate yourself to the balcony, give yourself the helicopter view of what’s going on. Assess things in real time, not in dream time. Wishing things were different isn’t a success strategy. Nor is the hope it will get better.
Maybe the answer is to let it go. Close the business, let go of the idea, set the staff member free and start the next chapter. It’s ok. It’s not a sign of failure. Not a sign of giving up. It’s about making a sound business decision that is right for you and that you have made it for the right reasons. Only you are the one who knows that.
One of the biggest mistakes we can make are those driven by ego and the fear of what others think rather than tapping into our values, drivers, purpose and the honest results to know what we should do.
And that takes courage.